Nasca Valley Survey
1996-1998
The Rio Grande de Nasca drainage on the south coast
of Peru consists of ten distinct tributaries, all of which eventually
merge with the Rio Grande forming the largest and most complex river
system in this part of the country. This area of over 10,750 square
kilometers was the homeland of a series of ancient cultures which
excelled in their ability to adapt to the harsh desert conditions and
perennial lack of water confronting them in this desolate region. None
of these early Peruvian societies possessed a writing system, and
therefore only archaeology can provide the means of reconstructing
their lifeways and an understanding of their nature and complexity.
Scientific excavation in the drainage, however, has been infrequent and
of limited scope compared to the high volume of illegal looting that
continues to this day.
During the past two decades a number of systematic
archaeological surveys have been undertaken to record all the sites in
the valley prior to their further destruction and to use this data to
describe the function, size and dates for each site based on surface
architecture and artifacts. Once the location of the sites are plotted
on a topographic map, inferences can be made about the settlement
patterns for each culture and the most important sites can be selected
for future excavation or protection. Major surveys have been made of
the Palpa and Viscas tributaries by David Browne and his colleagues
(Browne and Baraybar 1988; Browne 1992); the Ingenio River by Helaine
Silverman (1993); the Aja, Tierras Blancas, Taruga and Trancas by
Katharina Schreiber (Schreiber and Lancho 1996); and the littoral zone
by Patrick Carmichael (1991). The last major portion of the drainage
that had not received systematic attention was a U-shaped area
consisting of the lower portion of the Rio Nasca from Usaca to its
confluence with the Rio Grande, and the lower Rio Grande from Cabildo
to Maijo Grande including the Coyungo area. After careful
consideration, I decided to explore this area because of its critical
geographical location and its potential for answering a number of
questions about the Nasca Culture of the Early Intermediate Period
(1-650 A.D.)
During the summers of 1996 and 1997, I made
preliminary trips into this region to determine the feasibility of
conducting a full scale survey. Although the terrain was rugged and
roads primitive to non-existent, I decided to move forward and apply
for funding for the project. My objectives for the research were
fourfold. First, I wanted to record all the sites in the survey area in
an attempt to complete the coverage of the major portions of the
drainage. I have visions of collaborating with the other scholars to
combine our data in order to put together a comprehensive report on all
the major sites in the drainage. Second, I hoped to find evidence of
Nasca habitation sites which could lead to a better interpretation of
the socio-political organization of Nasca society. Most research up to
this point has been on Nasca ceremonial sites or cemeteries; little is
known about the nature of Nasca habitations sites. Third, in
collaboration with my colleague David Johnson, I wanted to investigate
the correlation of the sites with water sources (springs or pukios) and
these with the "Nasca Lines" or geoglyphs. Finally, I hoped to
investigate the major routes connecting the agricultural area inland
with the coast to demonstrate the role of maritime resources in the
Nasca diet.
With the financial support of a grant from the H.
John Heinz III Charitable Fund, I spent the months of June, July and
August 1998 in Peru undertaking the survey described above. I was
fortunate in being able to rent a new four wheel drive jeep from a
friend in Lima at a very reasonable coast. My base of operation was the
town of Nasca where we had rooms in an inexpensive but comfortable
Hostal. I was assisted by a Peruvian graduate student, Ana Nieves, who
is currently studying at the University of Texas. She worked with me
for the majority of the field season and was of invaluable help. I also
sponsored two Peruvian undergraduate students from the Universidad
Nacional "San Luis Gonzaga" in Ica. Henry Falcón Amado and
Miriam Gavilán Roayza worked with me for one week apiece during
with time they learned the basic techniques of archaeological survey. I
was also assisted by other students and local guides including Tonya
Panion, a graduate student from the University of Massachusetts, Alonzo
Lancho, a Peruvian undergraduate student and Amy Groleau, a recent
Anthropology major at the University of Massachusetts.
I was able to purchase a set of aerial photographs
from the Peruvian National Aerial Photography Service at a scale
of 1:10,000. These sheets were attached to a wooden board and covered
with a transparent mylar overlay sheet on which sites were recorded as
they were found. A complete set of topographic maps at scales of
1:50,000 and 1:100,000 were used along with a GPS (Global Positioning
System) instrument which provided the exact latitude and longitude of
each site we recorded--information which can be transferred to the
topographic maps. I also had NASA satellite maps of the entire area at
a scale of 1:100,000 which provided wonderful detail on the geology and
hydrology of the region.
We began the survey in the lower Rio Nasca, first
working our way down the valley to the confluence and then returning to
cover the basin up through the Quebrada of Usaca. A total of 13 sites
was recorded in the Usaca area and another 51 sites in the Rio Nasca
proper. Later we moved to the Rio Grande, gradually working our way
down valley though Mal Paso, Batanes, Coyungo and Las Brujas on the way
to Maijo Grande. We found 64 sites on this Rio Grande segment, making a
grand total of 128 sites recorded on the survey. We later discovered
that a short segment of the Rio Grande, from Changillo at the juncture
of the Rio Ingenio and the Rio Grande, down to Vincente near the mouth
of the Rio Nasca had never been completely surveyed. Although students
from the University in Ica had indicated that they had completely
surveyed this sector, only a few selected sites had been recorded by
them. Thus a little additional work needs to be done to make the survey
of the drainage complete.
Surface collections of artifacts were made at each
site, especially diagnostic ceramics, to be used for accurately dating
the remains. These artifacts were cleaned, numbered and then
photographed prior to storing them in cloth bags. Peruvian law
prohibits the export of cultural material, and therefore these
materials must either be analyzed in Peru or from the individual
photographs taken before leaving. We deposited our 9 cartons of
artifacts at the Museo Regional de Ica in their storage area on shelves
which I had to have constructed at my cost. As part of our obligation
under the permit granted by the Instituto Nacional de Cultura, a fee of
$50 per day was paid for each day we worked in the field as partial
support for a Peruvian archaeological supervisor to oversee our work.
This fee was paid by the National Geographic Society as part of the
grant awarded to David Johnson for his work with the Nasca Lines.
Work on analyzing the data from the survey is
continuing and will not be completed for about one year. Below is an
account of some of the preliminary findings and questions raised by the
research. The 128 sites recorded ranged in date from the Early Horizon
(900-200 B.C.) to the Late Horizon (1476-1532).
Period
|
Culture
|
Dates
|
Number of Sites
|
Early Horizon
|
Paracas/Tajo
|
900-200 BC
|
10*
|
Early Intermediate Period
|
Nasca
|
200 BC - AD 650
|
69 cemetery
22 habitation
|
Middle Horizon
|
N-9, Atarco
|
650 - 900 AD
SoisongoEpigonal
|
14 cemetery
23 habitation
|
Late Intermediate Period
|
Carrizal, Poroma
|
900 - 1476 AD
|
54 cemetery
23 habitation
|
Late Horizon
|
Inca
|
1476 - 1532 AD
|
1 habitation
|
* the numbers exceed 128 because many sites were multi-occupational
Early Horizon sherds in small quantities were found
in a total of 10 sites, mostly in the lower Rio Grande area. The
majority of these vessels were utilitarian with decoration consisting
of incised triangles with punctation, circles and dots, or braided
handles. Whether these ceramics should be called "Paracas" or Tajo is
based more on semantics than on major cultural differences. A beautiful
Ocucaje 8 or 9 interior decorated bowl, found in the Atarco Valley by
an agricultural worker, was covered with killer whales with incised
outlines and resin paints. This piece and others like it have been
found in various sites in the valley. Our survey did not reveal any
major Early Horizon ceremonial sites--only several small
multi-occupational habitation areas and cemeteries where Early Horizon
sherds were part of the assemblage.
Of the 128 sites recorded, a majority (91) had some
level of Nasca occupation. Most of these sites were cemeteries (69),
but several unexpected features were noted. Previously, Nasca graves
were described as unlined pits in the sand in which a seated mummy
bundle and funerary offerings were place, then covered with a roof of
huarango beams and/or adobes. We discovered a wide variety of Nasca
grave forms, including many with adobe walls, and some with thatch
roofing material. Judging from recent discoveries of very deep elite
Nasca tombs made at La Muña in the Palpa Valley, it appears that
there was more variation in Nasca graves than once thought. Hopefully
unlooted elite graves can be located and excavated in the future in
order to elucidate the nature of Nasca political organization.
Contrary to my expectation of finding cemeteries separate and isolated
from habitation sites, many of the cemeteries were adjacent to and an
integral part of Nasca settlements.
We had hoped to find several large Nasca urban
centers in the course of the survey. Surprisingly, most of the 22 sites
containing evidence of Nasca habitation could be described as small
hamlets. The only exception was the multi-occupational complex of sites
numbered RG-25, 56, 57 and 58 opposite the town of Coyungo which
appears to be one huge urban center. Judging from the nature of the
architecture and the prevalence of Late Intermediate Period pottery
over the site in addition to occasional groupings of Nasca pottery, the
majority of these structures are late (LIP), however, there appears to
have been a substantial Nasca occupation here as well. Many of the
smaller Nasca habitation sites were located near springs or "pukios"
where water seeped from geological faults providing a year-round source
of water. These sites were particularly prevalent in the lower Nasca
Valley in the area around Santa Clara, Agua Dulce and Los Colorados,
but there are also a number of pukios in the Coyungo basin. I need to
compare my findings with the survey results of my colleagues in the
other tributaries in order to ascertain whether we have an anomaly in
my survey area, perhaps with the larger urban centers being situated in
the more agriculturally productive portions of the drainage, or whether
small settlements are the rule in Nasca society.
Another surprise was the paucity of Middle Horizon
sites in the survey area. Perhaps continued analysis of the surface
pottery collections and a better refinement of the ceramic collections
will increase this number in the future, but sites with diagnostic
"Epigonal" designs were very sparse. Fourteen Middle Horizon cemeteries
were recorded, most displaying the characteristic cotton mummy
wrappings that are frequently found at this time period. Several
elaborate Middle Horizon tombs with plastered walls painted white and
having niches in the walls were found at RN-33. The Middle Horizon
sites seem to be concentrated in a small area on the west side of the
lower Nasca River just down river from the confluence of the Quebrada
Usaca with the Rio Nasca. Only two sites seemed to have Middle Horizon
habitational remains. More numerous Middle Horizon sites have been
found in other parts of the drainage, including the north side of the
Rio Grande Valley near Cabildo.
Other than Nasca period sites, the Late Intermediate
Period produced the second largest concentration of sites and the only
ruins that could truly be called urban centers. David Robinson divided
the Late Intermediate Period ceramics into two groups, Carrizal and
Poroma. In the Ica Valley, Menzel built on her earlier designations of
Chulpaca and Soniche, which were roughly comparable in time to Carrizal
and Poroma, to construct a 10 phase sequence which she called the Ica
style. Others, pointing to the similarity between these Late
Intermediate Period ceramics and those of the Chincha Valley to the
North, refer to the style as Chincha-Ica. Until the exact political
relationship between these various valleys is better known, and until I
can study and seriate the Late Intermediate Period pottery from the
survey area, I will simply lump the variations into the category "Late
Intermediate Period."
There are 54 Late Intermediate Period habitation
sites in the survey area, including several covering more than a square
kilometer. RN 15, RN-17, RG-9, and the complex RG-56 57 and 58
fall in this category. The huge settlements of RN-15, 17 and RG-9 are
were constructed on the slopes of hills, near springs or pukios,
overlooking the valley below. The Coyungo complex of RG-56, 57 and 58
was built on the pampa adjacent to the river. The distinguishing
feature of these late cities is the use of cobble stones as
construction material. Structures of varying size along with huge open
plazas are present. Obviously this was a time of population growth and
the concentration of people into large centers.
In addition to the habitation sites, 23 Late
Intermediate Period cemeteries were recorded, sometimes mixed with the
graves of earlier cultures. Tombs tended to be large, deep and
rectangular in shape, often with adobe lining. These tombs tended to
have the best preserved and most numerous organic remains such as
textiles, slings, and mummies. Perhaps due to the increase in
population, the size of Late Intermediate Period cemeteries was larger
than those of earlier periods, and often earlier cemeteries were reused
by LIP peoples.
Only one or two sites with Inca pottery were
recorded, RN-7 and the area at the base of Cerro Colorado near the
confluence of the Rio Nasca with the Rio Grande where a peasant showed
us a beautiful Inca Aryballoid jar found nearby. I suspect that there
are many more Late Horizon sites we visited, but that the local people
continued to make their characteristic LIP pottery even under Inca
subjugation as was the case in the Ica Valley (see Menzel 1976). The
Inca controlled this drainage from the site of Paradones on the
outskirts of the modern city of Nasca. Here one can see the Cuzco style
stone walls and niches and find more traces of Inca elite pottery. How
extensive control was over this region and how many sites they built
must be sorted out from the results of the various unpublished surveys.
In summery, the major objects of the research were
realized. Valuable new information on Nasca settlement patterns was
obtained along with similar data for the other periods of occupation.
This data will now be combined with the survey results from other parts
of the drainage in an attempt to reconstruct the political organization
of the Nasca society. One of my graduate students intends to build on
my survey results to investigate the nature of the Late Intermediate
Period occupation in the valley through a study of some of the large
Late Intermediate Period urban centers we recorded. My survey served as
the basis for the plotting of associated geoglyphs and water sources by
David Johnson, working on a separate research project. Finally, we were
able to demonstrate the important role of maritime resources and to
trace the logical routes to the sea used by the local inhabitants.
A detailed illustrated report on this research is located on this website: http://people.umass.edu/~proulx/online_pubs/1998_Nasca_Survey_Report.pdf
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