Hybrid Funerary Landscapes : Preliminary Review of Mortuary Structures in the Cordillera Negra, Ancash, Peru (AD 1000-1532)

FLAMMANG, AMANDINE; LANE, KEVIN JOHN

Berkeley

Conferencia; Institute of Andean Studies 62nd Annual Meeting; 2022

Institute of Andean Studies

Open-sepulcher tombs (chullpas) are often omnipresent in the suni-puna (3,500-4,800 m) ecozones of the highlands. A recent survey in the Upper Nepeña drainage shows a close correlation between these chullpas and agropastoralist production areas during the Huaylas period (AD 1000-1400). Moreover, that region evidenced significant Inca presence (AD 1400-1532) in the shape of Intiaurán, a small imperial administrative site, set among this mortuary landscape. A close examination of this landscape seems to demonstrate that an increasing Inca footprint in the area might have led to a transformation of Huaylas ideological adscription, revealed through changing patterns in the orientation and architecture of these chullpas in relation to the surrounding sacred landscape.