Arquitectura, estilo e identidad en el Horizonte Tardío: el sitio de Pueblo Viejo-Pucará, valle de Lurín

Abstract

Architecture, Style and Identity in the Late Horizon: Pueblo Viejo-Pucará Site, Lurín Valley

The ethnic identification of the inhabitants of a Late Horizon Settlement in the Lurin Valley meets a series of challenges generated by two factors: a) the feasibility of a forced relocation of specialized workforce, and b) the intensification of long-distance exchange. Facing the coexistence of diverse ceramic styles and technological traditions, domestic architecture and funerary treatment become the only evidence that can help us build a bridge between material culture and ethnohistoric information. Pueblo Viejo-Pucara, with its 10 hectares of build architecture, seems to have been one of the most important urban centers in the Lurin Valley, second only to Pachacamac. The site, located between 400 and 600 meters above sea level in a loma ecozone on the left bank of the river, could have been the main habitation center of the Caringa of Huarochiri, one of the Caringa moieties of the unu of Luren. Several lines of evidence suggest that the site was built and inhabited by highland dwellers relocated as mitmaquna: a) the characteristic distribution of architecture-groups a top intermediate-size hills, b) the location of the site within a zone of winter pastures still used by herders from Santo Domingo de los Olleros, c) the masonry style, alien to coastal patterns while close to the Huarochiri architectural tradition, d) the modular organization of domestic spaces, e) funerary treatment, and f) the presence of a strong highland component in the ceramic repertoire. Archaeological evidence indicates that tending of camelid herds and the military control of the valley were two of the main concerns of the inhabitants of Pueblo Viejo-Pucara. The discovery of prestige items —among them Spondylus princeps shells, copper, gold, silver and lead ornaments, and fine Inca polychrome and Chimu-Inca pottery (among other regional elite styles)— within domestic spaces and associated burials, indicates that the site residents enjoyed a privileged position within the political structure of the Tahuantinsuyu.