La plaza central de Huánuco Pampa: espacio y transformación

Abstract

The Central Plaza of Huánuco Pampa: Space and Transformation

Inka urban planning provided the contexts in which social organization could be re-configured. The central plazas of Inka cities were spaces where various groups from the region could come together, celebrating their relationships of complementarity and opposition through dances, processions and ritual battles. The archaeological evidence suggests that the central plaza of Huanuco Pampa was a space used for feasting. Many of the buildings at the edge of the plaza were probably used by local peoples to prepare public events, while Inka administrators monitored the interactions between subject groups from the central platform (ushnu). The remains from a brief Spanish occupation of Huanuco Pampa reveal a different urban model. The Spaniards occupied the central plaza of the Inka city, utilizing the materials from nearby buildings to construct a new urban core based on European concepts. Studies demonstrate that the brief attempt to establish a Spanish Colonial city reformulated the previous Inka plan. Many factors contributed to the failure of the Colonial occupation. A major factor was the incompatibility of the Spanish urban plan with the Inka open plaza and the structures devoted to Andean patterns of interaction and reciprocity.