INCIHUSA   20883
INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS HUMANAS, SOCIALES Y AMBIENTALES
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
capítulos de libros
Título:
Andean Road System through the Collasuyu to the End of the Tawantinsuyu
Autor/es:
JOAQUÍN ROBERTO BÁRCENA
Libro:
The Great Inka Road
Editorial:
Smithsonian Book
Referencias:
Lugar: Washington; Año: 2015; p. 103 - 108
Resumen:
[Bárcena?InkaRoad?Collasuyu?NMAI edits 12/4/14 and 12/29/14]  J. Roberto BárcenaQhapaq Ñan:Andean Road System through the Collasuyu to the End of the Tawantinsuyu Colonialdocuments record that when Francisco Pizarro was exploring the Pacific coastsouth of Panama in order to reach Tumbes and areas farther south, heencountered a tall ship on the sea carrying indigenous people with rawmaterials and manufactured items for trade. These native seafarers apparentlyknew the routes to the north very well. Similarly, inthe coastal kingdom of Chincha at that time (fifteenth and early sixteenthcenturies), there were hundreds of seagoing vessels equipped for transport,trade, and fishing, and this enabled their people to conduct ocean voyages At that time,the Andean region was overpopulated. Its people began expanding and integratingtheir territory, at first mainly along the Andean axis, yet the empire theyestablished would inevitably encompass a vast area. This expansion wasundertaken with the aid of those upon whom they imposed their stateorganization, which was based on an economy complementing the diverseecological zones that they shared, zones that extended from the sea to themountains, and from there to the altiplano and, later, to a strip of jungle andtropical forest to the east.  The Inka, asthey were called generically, were continually subjugating kingdoms andpreexisting ethnic groups. They established a state organization that used mitimaes,mit?a and yanacona [politically relocated, labor-tax, and selectedservers of the elite] as a way of structuring state service in order to manageits population and vast possessions. The official religion was centered on Inti(the sun god) and extended to the provinces. At the end ofthe fifteenth century (AD 1470?80), the Pacific coast from Colombia to centralChile, in addition to the Andean parts of the present-day nations of Colombia,Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile, as well as the border of theAmazon from Ecuador to Bolivia, were all under Inka control. After securingcontrol of the sea routes of the period, at least those that extended from Peruto the northern sectors, the Inka needed a corresponding land route, since nosustainable social and economic organization and expansion would be possible,at least on a state scale, without intra-territorial communication. There werestate roads such as the Qhapaq Ñan and secondary roads for human traffic andllama caravans.  A similarmobilization, seemingly imperialistic (to use a more European concept of thesame period), involved peoples organized as chiefdoms or kingdoms, each withits own history and customs and many with advanced social, political, economicstructures. Two such groups under Inka control were the Chimú along the coastand the Colla in the altiplano. The Quechua made use of these peoples?accomplishments and, although their communication channels were less advanced,it is logical to think that they preceded those that eventually would structureInka organization. These foundations also aided the Inka in their technologicaldevelopment, specifically in developing sustainable road engineering that wassuited to the means, requirements, and characteristics of the surfaces to betraversed. Using this technology, Inka engineers wound up adapting or buildingforty thousand kilometers of state roads (the Qhapaq Ñan) and other roads thatfollowed the Andes and the coast along a north-south axis, with manyinterconnections from east to west. What, then, isthe significance of the Qhapaq Ñan, the main Andean road and cultural route ofthe Andean peoples? This road, and secondary ones, united the region andcontinue to unite its people, as though thesuperimposed layers of this traveling palimpsest had always prefigured an Andean America. This networksymbolizes integration, and with it, theconcept of a more united hemisphere, integrating both peoples and ecologies. Through thisessay we would like to explore the impressive reality of thousands ofkilometers of roadway as well as its corresponding architectural infrastructureand social structures?all built, maintained, and administered by provincialauthorities, eventually under the organization of the Inka of Collasuyu. TheQhapaq Ñan not only was a physical road but also was associated with otherstructures such as tampus. We have beenasked to accompany you through Collasuyu, specifically through that part of theroad system that is located, according to available historical andarchaeological information, within present-day Argentina. Many of the earlySpanish colonial chronicles and documents reveal the limitations faced by theirwriters and the conditions under which they were written. Subsequent historicalcriticism and anthropological examination, as well as other scholarship, haveenabled us to decode much of the documentation and thereby gain greaterscientific veracity.  Our narrativebegins with the accounts of a Spaniard named Cristóbal de Molina, from thearmies of Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro. Wounded as a result of adisciplinary measure, Molina traveled on his own and, between 1532 and 1536,reached what is now a central area of present-day Chile, where he encounteredAlmagro and his forces arriving from Cusco. Using logistics of scale, this armyof Spaniards, supported by local indigenous rebel groups such as the Cañar,first crossed the regional border into the present-day Bolivia, reachingnorthwest Argentina. From there, going through the high Andes, they reached theindigenous Copayapo (the present-day Copiapó), who were situated in what wouldbe the extreme north of the Chilean Norte Chico [Small North] at the edge ofthe Atacama Desert.1 This campaign,directed by Pizarro, highlights the dramatic excesses of Spanish domination,the strength of the position of the Native peoples, and the epic ways in whichthey resisted the foreigners? attacks. However, the most immediate point ofinterest in this campaign was the participation of the Inka Paullu, a member ofthe panaca (royal family)?the brother of Manco Inka Yupanki and thebearer of the mascaypacha (imperial ribbon). The Paullu Inkaand the villac umu (the high-status priest of the Inka church), alongwith other officials and indigenous peoples, accompanied the expedition,preceding it in its entire first part through the Kollao, together with threeSpaniards on horseback sent by Almagro. They advanced over the Inka Road,thereby facilitating the Spanish expedition, carrying the prestige ofhigh-ranking officials and the authority of the state organization. It was mostprobably in the territory of northern Argentina that they met the greatestopposition. Just at thepoint of entry into northern Argentina, something happened that highlights onecharacteristic of Inka domination: Almagro?s expedition intercepted andappropriated a shipment of gold ingots bearing the official Inka insignia,which was part of the payment to the state by the indigenous Chileans(Diaguita).2  Another crucialdocumented event concerns the villac umu, who apparently traveled with MancoInka Yupanki to return to Cusco and participate in the indigenous uprising in1536?37 against the Spaniards who held the city. The villac umu had justmanaged to escape a relentless pursuit by Almagro from the Chilean valley ofAconcagua, or Mapocho, in 1536, driven by news of the uprising in Cusco.Although this uprising was eventually quelled, it marked the beginning of aperiod of Inka resistance, first from Ollantaytambo and then from a newcapital, Vilcabamba, where the struggle against Spanish domination lasted until1572.3 Almagro?sjourney can be contrasted in part with another that took place some years laterunder the command of Diego de Rojas, which followed in Almagro?s steps alongthe Inka Road. This new expedition by Rojas into northern Argentina?and a laterone made by his companions Heredia and Gutiérrez?left Cusco in 1535 with an armyof one hundred men and, like Almagro, the expedition passed through Collasuyuon the Inka Road, skirting Lake Titicaca and continuing in the direction of thecity of La Plata, which had been founded a few years earlier. From there, theypassed through Tupiza and reached Chicoana in the present-day province ofSalta, in northern Argentina. Rojas then turned to the southeast toward the Ríode La Plata?whereas Amalgro probably went around Lake Poopó, reaching Uyuni andthe crossroads, where one road would have taken him toward Copiapó throughpresent-day Calama and the desert of Atacama. Amalgro opted, however, for theTupiza Road to Chicoana, which he entered at the beginning of 1536, and,according to some sources, he continued from there to Quire-Quire and the Andeson Inka paths and roads. This dramatic expedition is amply documented bychroniclers.  Theseexpeditions, especially the one carried out by Rojas, were described by Juan deMatienzo in January 1566, in his ?Carta A.S.M. del Oidor de los Charcas,Licenciado Juan de Matienzo? (?Letter to the King from the First Judge of theReal Audiencia de Charcas?), in which he provides details of the Spanishadvances along the Inka mountain road and the coastal road in Chile, anddescribes all the difficulties involved in crossing the Atacama Desert. He alsomentions the inns, or tampus, along the route from Cusco to Kollao,detailing how the expedition proceeded along the road that skirts the westernshore of Lake Titicaca and extends to Sucre/La Plata, avoiding some of thedifficult environmental conditions in the area of Lake Aullagas and Poopó,(although, strictly speaking, Almagro had used the route through this area),and continued on to Salar de Uyuni, crossing the Azanaque Cordillera to reachTupiza, as Rojas did through Potosí. Almagro?sjourney was not easy, because following the Inka Road?which took them toChicoana from Tupiza?involved traveling some two hundred leagues from Cuscothrough a land that was ?under Inka control,? continuing ?to a border town ofthe Inga, where they killed six Spaniards on horseback . . .? (Ibid. 85). Thisaccount places them, in all probability, at the edge of northern Argentina,which they had to enter through Calahoyo, near La Quiaca, where there is a roadwith a tampu. This tampu is shared by Bolivia and Argentina, so theconstruction is on both sides of the present-day border. 4 After Tolombón,in southern Salta, Almagro tried to follow the main Inka road toward thesouthwest, through the tampu of La Ciénaga, reaching the notable site of ElShincal de Quimivil, in Londres, without doubt a ?new Cusco,? in Catamarcaprovince. From there, he took a more easterly direction along Inka roads andpaths in search of the mountain pass that would allow him to descend from the Andestoward Copayapo, or Copiapó. The last partof that journey is the most difficult to retrace, and really pertains to thefinal stretch that reaches into the province of La Rioja, in the central andwestern expanses of which exist more than one thousand kilometers of known Inkaroad. Our research, therefore, has extended to roads and excavations of associated tampus tothe west of Laguna Brava, going over each possible step between La Ollita andPircas Negras, passing through Peñas Negras and Comecaballos, among otherareas. In all theseplaces we found traces of the Inka presence and, as was to be expected, wefound vestiges of coexisting local and regional populations as well as evidenceof settlements that preceded the Inka domination. We have not, however, beenable to record material evidence of Almagro?s expedition with his army,although at one of the archaeological sites of a pre-Inka culture withsubsequent Inka influence we have found ceramics that were made using atechnology introduced early in the colonial period. For thisreason, we do not agree with colleagues who are certain that the Paso deComecaballos was the one used by Almagro. We suggest that even if Almagro diduse it, our research in that ravine and pass has not yielded evidence of hispassage. This is why, based on documentary verifications and geographicalrealities, we consider it likely that the passage was between La Ollita andPircas Negras, with the expedition, given its magnitude, using some of thosepasses as well as what are called their ?side paths.?  La Riojaconstitutes a sort of cultural axis between northern and west-centralArgentina, where the chiefdoms of the Period of Regional Development?whichsupported Inka domination all the way up to the first Spanish incursions?giveway toward the south, in San Juan and Mendoza, to ethnic groups that probablydid not have the same social, political, or economic systems, but whononetheless were ruled by the Inka.  The road systemextends through the south of La Rioja and then through the western parts of thepresent-day provinces of San Juan and Mendoza, in Argentina, bringing roads andarchitecture linked to structures with distinct functions, where tampuspredominate, to the valley of Uspallata in Mendoza. This is where the Collao?snorth-south road reaches its southeastern-most point, and then extends to thewest, near the tampu of Ranchillos, toward the present-day mountain pass of LasCuevas. It then passes over the so-called Puente del Inca onto a variant of theInka route that continues to the Horcones River, as far as the small tampu ofConfluencia, and from there possibly ascending the southeastern slope of Mt.Aconcagua, known as La Pirámide [the Pyramid].  During the Inkaperiod, this route reached a height of 5,300 meters above sea level, leaving asevidence the remnants of a qhapaq hucha, the funerary bundle of a youngboy, whose grave goods indicate that he was placed there as an offering, andwho probably hailed from Chinchaysuyu. The site was bounded by a simple wall,almost a wayrana, or three-walled structure, serving as a religioussymbol of water, giver of life to the fertile fields of the land oases below.-------------------NOTES1. Numerous chronicles recount this event, including thoseattributed to Molina (known as El Chileno or Almagrista [?the Chilean? or?follower of Almagro?]) or to Bartolomé de Segovia, both priests whoaccompanied Almagro on his journey of exploration and conquest.(Molina/Segovia, BAC 1968, which relates events that occurred before 1552 inthe ?Cosas acaescidas [sic] en el Perú [Events That Occurred in Peru]). 2. Testimoniesdemonstrate another noteworthy fact: the expedition members are estimated tohave numbered in the thousands, suggesting the massive supplies that such amobilization would require. At the start of the expedition, the Spaniards?removed a large number of sheep [primarily camelids such as llamas] fromCusco,? [as well as] clothing and materials, which they carried with them(Ibid. 84) and, during the course of the expedition, they secured additionalsupplies from the Native population. 3. Almagro had also sent Saavedra ahead, with the Spaniardswho wanted to follow him, with the ?assignment that . . . at one hundred thirtyleagues from Cusco to lay siege to a town . . . which he did and stopped in thetown of Paria one hundred thirty leagues from Cusco, and all the land of Collaowent there and from the Charcas.? (Ibid. 84). Almagro himself finally reachedSaavedra, in Paria, and continued ahead along the ?Camino Real?the main Inkaroad through the mountains?toward the province of the Chichas, whose capitalwas the town of Topiza?present-day Tupiza, capital of the province of SudChichas in Bolivia?where . . . Paulo Topa Inga and Vila Oma [the villac umu]were awaiting him.? (Ibid. 84).  WhenAlmagro arrived in Tupiza, ?by the royal road of the Inga which leads to theprovinces of the Chichas . . .? he asked Paullu and Vila Oma ?about the threeSpaniards on horseback . . . and he was told that they had gone ahead andfollowed the road of the Inga, that went straight to the provinces of Chile.?(Ibid. 85). 4. ?From there they left for the province of Chicoana, whichwas the home of the Diaguitas?a generic name for the indigenous people of thePeriod of Regional Development, or Chiefdoms of Northern Argentina and, byextension, similar areas of the Chilean Norte Chico?and since the Diaguitasknew about the things the Spaniards were doing, they indeed rose up and refusedto allow them to pass in peace . . . [later continuing toward the] provinces of Copiapó [sic] . . . [whichwere] almost one hundred fifty uninhabited leagues away, a distance whichAlmagro traveled with difficulty because of the lack of towns and, if any werefound, they were small and had nothing to eat. Nevertheless, Almagro and hispeople continued on to the valleys Copiapó, a three-day journey through adeserted mountain pass, where, in the winter season, the road is knee-deep withsnow, and when there is no snow, which was the case on Almagro?s expedition, itis so cold that one night in the pass, which is five days from Copiapó, seventyhorses and a large number of the service animals of the natives died from thecold.? (Ibid. 85) Themain road followed by the Spanish armies, as well as secondary routes innorthern Argentina, were verified by archaeologists, who compared documentarysources (primarily Matienzo?s letter) with the topography and archaeologicalremains. It was found that one could indeed repeat the journeys carried out onfoot with trains of llamas, horses, soldiers, and their paraphernalia, throughthe tampus linked by the Inka Road in the provinces of Jujuy, Salta, andCatamarca, from Calahoyo to El Moreno (tampus of Calahoyo, Moreta, Casavindo ElChico, del Llano, Rincón de las Salinas, and El Moreno), and from El Moreno toTolombón (tampus of Buena Yerba, Corralito?the mountain pass to the CalchaquíValley, de la Paloma, Pascoama, Chicuana, Guxuil, Angostaco, Cordova, orTalombones).