Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1987 - 28

Binghamton were informed of the discovery. Together with Abelardo Sandoval, of Peru's National Cultural
Institute, we carried out an emergency study of the ceramic cache, its
context and its significance. Screening the backdirt from the pipe trench
produced another 2,500 sherds from
the fine jars. We studied the stratigraphic profiles, recorded several burials also exposed by the workmen's
trench, made four archaeological excavations, and carefully scrutinized
the surrounding surface for ancient
architecture and other significant
remains.
Laboratory analysis showed that
all the cache pottery came from large
jars of the same size and shape- lifesized effigies of a man's head and
torso. Four kinds of faces occur, depending on the presence or absence
of moustache and beard and the
painted designs on the cheeks and
nose. The effigy vessels depict men
dressed in elaborate garments,
probably tapestry-weave shirts with
figurative decorations. On the front
shoulders are panels in which any one
of three designs might appear. Two
of the three designs were shared with
the earlier Nasca culture of Peru's
south coast, which survived into the
first part of the Middle Horizon
Epoch 1. Below the shoulder panels
are the body panels, the largest design areas, where one of two designs
was depicted. On three (or perhaps
only two) of the pots, the shirt was
decorated with geometricized representations of a ventrally extended
animal with triangular head and triangular tail between its legs- a
figure also related to the Nasca culture.
The body decoration of the remaining 20 to 23 effigy pots is almost identical to examples of religious
art from Tiwanaku, a major ceremonial center of the Middle Horizon and
earlier in what is now Bolivia. (See
Archaeology,
January/February
1987. ) All depict a human figure with
mythical attributes- called by archaeologists the Front Face Deity
because of the way it is representedwho stands on a stepped pyramid,
hands raised to grasp two staffs. To
the right and left of the Front Face
Deity are processions of smaller,
28

ARCHAEOLOGY

jars had been deliberately smashedprobably during the ceremony since
they show no sign of wear from continued use- and then the pieces were
placed in the pit. Almost certainly as
part of the same ritual, the bodies of
five young women were placed in an
adjacent pit- apparently victims of
ceremonial sacrifice.
The male effigy vessels and
the female sacrificial victims were interred under the floor of a building
that may have been constructed expressly for the offering ceremony. Previous occupation of the site is revealed by a thin layer of gray soil with
lenses of refuse. Two trenches were
dug into this surface, more or less parallel to one another and 15 meters
apart. Stone walls were constructed
in the trenches and in front of each
wall a low bench, 25-40 centimeters
wide, was constructed. We conclude
that the walls defined a rectangular or
trapezoidal courtyard the interior
of which was surrounded by a bench
where participants could be seated.
Two other excavations were for the
ceramic offering. One pit excavated
into the bedrock would receive the
thousands of sherds from the effigy
jars. A second, elongated excavation
tangential to the south side of this
Ihe
shape, size and elaborate deco- pit looks like a canal or vent opening
into the ceramic offering pit. Its funcrations on these jars imply that
tion is unknown, but similar subterintended
vessels
were
ceremonial
they
ranean chambers and pits have been
to contain liquids. Ritual consumpdiscovered at the neighboring site of
tion of corn beer accompanied many
in
Huari, all looted long ago. They were
religious and political activities
the later sixteenth-century Inca state usually sealed by a stone lid with a
hole about ten centimeters in diameter
-the coronation of a new king, the
observation of a calendrical ritual, or drilled through it, and the walls of
some of the chambers have a vertical
the completion of a corvée labor task.
of about the same size cut
channel
function
most
the
important
Perhaps
into one wall. Huari's pits and chamof such ceremonies was to give leaders
bers are probably associated with
the opportunity to insure the loyalty
of clients or followers by conspicuofferings in the religious tradition
whose origin we are documenting
wealth
own
their
ously demonstrating
at Conchapata.
and generosity. We believe that the
One more excavation cuts
Conchopata pottery was used in such
kinds
a ceremony, and the different
through the gray surface stratumof shirts and faces represent distinct so- another pit less than a meter north of
the pottery offering. It was filled with
cial groups- perhaps religious orders,
the tightly flexed bodies of five perage grades or ethnic divisions. We
sons. Each had been wrapped in texdiswere
the
that
also believe
pots
that had decomposed except
tiles
hierthat
the
in
a
such
way
played
where in contact with copper. The
archical relations among the groups
bones were in very poor condition
were obvious. Our investigations
but appear to be young women, 15 to
these
beautiful
that
showed
effigy

winged figures viewed in profile, each
grasping a single staff, that have been
named Profile Attendants. The Front
Face Deity and Profile Attendants,
and the arrangement of the figures
on the body panels of Conchopata's
effigy jars, are almost identical to
those on the Gate of the Sun at
Tiwanaku.
We believe that the offering jars
were mass-produced by specialists in
a workshop. Some of the modeled
faces were crafted by the hands of a
master artist, while others are of such
inferior quality that they might be
the work of apprentices. Similarly,
although many of the painted features are executed with precision,
others have decorative features that
are distorted, inverted, or even omitted. Faintly incised lines on a few of
the jars define rectangles within
which each figure was painted. These
lines may have been cut by the master craftsman to insure proper spacing or possibly to help inept
apprentices. A fine medium gloss
forms the surface finish of the pots
and the firing is perfect- with no
cracks, smudges, or incompletely fired
cores.

Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1987

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1987