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Imperial Elites and the Symbols of Power

Krzysztof Makowski
Pontificia Universidad Catlica del Per

In the pre-Industrial Period, the elites-their coercive, economic, and religious

power, the way they related with the other strata, estates, castes or classes,
the roles they fulfilled as guarantors of peace and security, their acceptance by
their subject peoples and hence the stability of the systemthese all varied
remarkably from one cultural area and from one period to another. Comparative
history shows in detail that technological development and the ongoing globa
lisation provided ever-more sophisticated means and objects to the privileged
strata with which to delimit, legitimise and defend their status.
Elites in Pre-industrial Societies
In ancient times, in many parts of the world, with the exception of the Americas,
the development of certain given conditions allowed the rise of the private
property of land and of other means of production. The technification of agriculture thanks to the domestication of draught animals and the invention
of the plough are amongst the major causes behind this dramatic change in
social relations; the market economy rose some centuries later, fostered in
part by the efficient means of water transportation, and to a lesser extent by
ground transport. This process, which began in the fourth millennium B.C.,
had integrated by the second millennium B.C. a large part of Europe, Northern
Africa and Western Asia, whilst the Far East underwent the same process
independently.1 In the Andes, similar transformations took place only after
the Spanish conquest. The arguments stated above are obvious for anyone
familiar with the ancient history or the historical archaeology of Mesopotamia,
China, Greece, Rome, India, Mesoamerica, and Medieval Europe, or who has
instead carefully visited several museums. There is, for instance, an abysmal
difference in the way groups legitimised their power and distanced themselves from the masses (or tried to pretend they were not doing so) amongst
Mesoamerican noble warriors, the fathers of well-off families in the Mesopotamian city-States, Egyptian blood princes, Roman senators and landowners,
Chinese officials, or the noble knights, rich burghers and Church dignitaries
of Medieval Europe. A comparison of their portraits and attire (or the lack
of attire, as in the classical portraiture of heroes), or of their rural and eventually urban dwellings, is enough to show that the term elite describes
a wide range of dissimilar circumstances, which were as varied as the types
of social organisation, the technological knowhow, or the subsistence strategies followed in each area and region since the Neolithic Period.
Quite perceivable differences appear when comparing two kinds of societies:
the first ones in which the rights and the duties of a certain group are derived
from the rulers of kinship and from the place where they livedsuch was the
case of the pre-Hispanic Andeswith other ones which split into rival classes,
and where the mobility between social strata was limited. With respect to
this latter case, it is sufficient to cite examples set by slave and feudal societies
of Europe and Asia. The comparison proves extremely useful because the key
concepts and models used when discussing the pre-Hispanic Andean empires
originated within the history of the classical and medieval Mediterranean
world: empire (Latin, imperium), palace (Latin, palatium), monarchy, city-State
(Greek, polis). Many readers will probably recall that Marx and Engels
compared capitalist societies with slave and feudal societiestheir prede

cessorsin order to lay the foundations for historical materialism. Under

the influence of the Marxist postulates disseminated by Gordon Childe, who
inspired Patterson, Lumbreras and Rick, amongst others, it has often been
claimed that the Central Andes experienced the same stages in social and
political transformations as pre-industrial Europe and Asia: the rise
of a dominant class that oppresses the peasantry, and the development of
a theocratic State in the midst of an urban revolution process.2 I believe
the above-mentioned claims lack empirical support insofar as there are no
perceivable transformations within the Central Andean material culture
that are comparable to those that marked the technological and social deve
lopment of the Mediterranean basin between the sixth century B.C. and
the fifteenth century of our era.3 Consider, for instance, funerary behaviour.
Unlike the pre-Hispanic Andes, the distance between classes in the Mediterranean world during the classical and medieval periods was not articulated
through the number and quality of the objects placed in the tomb, or the
treatment given to the body (except for Egypt). Grave goods were almost
non-existent because the revealed religions (or mystery religions) which ruled
over the conscience at the time promoted the idea that we are all equal before
death and before the will of the Supreme Being; it was likewise believed
that all human beings have an immortal soul that does not require food inside
the tomb (though it sometimes required drinking), nor did it live inside its
grave. There was no returning from the journey to the other world.4 Burying
the dead tended to become a private family affair with a strong emotional
and ethical load, except in the case of the funeral pomp of kings and emperors.5
Sumptuary goods did not end inside the tomb, except for a few symbols of
devotion or of the power wielded: a cross, an amulet, the crown, a sword or
a ring. The elites used them in life and bequeathed them to their descendants.
The economic and social position of the deceased was conveyed through media
that were always visible, and which could be grasped by both their fellow
citizens and future generations. The representatives of the elite were buried
in a privileged place, for instance in a cemetery at the entrance to a city.
The architecture of the tomb or of a mausoleum, the headstone, a portrait or
a symbolic image were used to disseminate the image of the deceased as an
opulent person who was recognised as such by other full citizens.6
Unlike the Greco-Roman Mediterranean world or Medieval Europe, in the
Andes the social status and the political position of the deceased were not
conveyed through funerary architecture or sepulchral art. Although platforms
and roofed buildings of an exclusively funerary nature are known to have
existed in pre-Hispanic Peru, they were meant for the collective burial of
many families. Both the bodies of kings as well as those of other representatives
of the elite were always worshipped as members of a lineage and not as indivi
duals.7 This same lineage was in charge of its posthumous cult (e.g. the panaca
in the case of the Inca).8 In the pre-Hispanic Andes, the tomb was conceptualised as the dwelling of the dead, which was essential to be born again and
to begin the journey to the world beyond and to come back. It was believed that
the dead still accompanied the living after their passing, and great powers
were ascribed to them with which they ensured rainfall and the abundance of
both animals and the harvest. Survival in the parallel world of the ancestors
hinged upon the attention the survivors could provide to the dead.9 It was
because of these reasons that the production of offerings and clothes for the
dead10 greatly outstripped other productive activities as regards the amount of
social time invested. Grave goods are therefore always present in pre-Hispanic
mortuary contexts, except in unusual burials due to the young age or the low
social status of the deceased. For those visiting museums, as well as for many
scholars, it is both surprising and hard to understand why Andean societies
invested such a large amount of raw materials and of the time available, free
from other tasks, in massively producing grave goods. The number and quality
of the personal objects and the offerings, and sometimes also the type of
preparation applied to the body, were likewise closely related with the rank
and/or the political role the deceased had in life. It is worth emphasising that
the peoples of pre-Hispanic America, like most societies whose organisation
is essentially based on kinship and not on criteria of an economic nature,
believed that burying their deceased kin was the inescapable religious duty
of all members of a community.11 The rituals ensuring the survival of leaders
of varying rank in the other world thus formed the essential backbone, and
the support of, all ideologies and strategies of power.

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The architectural forms that evidenced the power of the elites in pre-Hispanic
America never had a function comparable to that of the house of a Roman
landowner or of a feudal lord, who occupied their houses briefly along with
their entourage and their serfs before moving to another home, nor did they
have the fully secular and worldly nature of a Renaissance palace. Quite the
contrary, in the hypothetic pre-Hispanic palaces the residential sector is
often hard to find due to its marginal position vis--vis the ceremonial areas,
or because it simply did not exist. Patios, altars, mausoleums and walled
enclosures prevail in complexes that possibly were of a palatial nature, and
were meant to gather crowds during rituals and in various ceremonies.12
Starting in the Middle Horizon, the hypothetical palatial dwellings became
the place where, after his death, the ruler was buried and his funeral cult
was carried out (Fig.151). Contrary to the expectations of some archaeologists
attached to the fallacious idea that all States must be secular in order to
be considered as such, in the Andes the palace was not in fact organised as
a secular space.13
These and other differences lead one to believe that although Andean societies
were indeed stratified and marked by both inequality and institutionalised
violence, they cannot be really understood using comparative concepts derived
from Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, and Medieval Europe. Comparisons are
certainly necessary, but they are required so that we have the differences clear
before we begin developing interpretive models derived from generalisations.
How can we know about the Organisation of a Prehistoric Society?
The identity of the elites, their characteristics and the political strategies
they followed, which are clear for a historian of ancient society thanks to
the presence of written information, are not easy to unravel for an archaeo
logist studying prehistory because his sources are all of a material nature.
Students of the Wari phenomenon (ca. AD 700-1000) can certainly use the
data recorded in the second half of the sixteenth century by Spanish chroniclers and scribes, albeit with misunderstandings, intentional tergiversations
and errors. An archaeologist who proceeds in this way must be ready to
receive critiques, and should expect questions like the following: given the
distance in time, does Wari society really resemble Inca society? Are we
dealing in both cases with the same type of political organisation and the
same strategies of power? In fact, it is important to keep certain distances.
There are many apparent similitudes between these two empires, e.g. the
erection of large administrative centres and the use of the khipu,14 but there
are also some differences. Among the latter we must particularly emphasise
the absence, in the case of Wari, of one single style, similar to the Imperial
Inca style that can be recognised at a glance in architecture, textiles, pottery
and metal. Wari elites were on the contrary surrounded by a wide range
of styles and iconographies, most of them exotic ones, and the craftsmen did
not hesitate to combine forms and designs derived from different sources
in order to produce hybrid pieces.
Even so, despite the previous observations it is highly likely that Wari social
and political organisation had more affinity with Tawantinsuyu than with the
Roman, Persian or even the Aztec empire, with which it is usually compared
in the literature.15 In both cases the use of the same material resources to
legitimise power is remarkable: the kero and the aquilla (a kero made using a
precious metal), the decorated unku shirts, and the architectural areas used
in the funerary cult (the chullpas).16 We can therefore assume as a hypothesis
that the pinnacle of Wari social hierarchy was formed by large noble families,
which shared origin myths and believed they were related to one another, much
like the lineage of Manco Capac. We will see below that Wari elites made their
dress, headdress, and ceremonial areas resemble those in use at Tiahuanaco,
as if to convince their subjects that their ancestors were born on the shores
of Lake Titicaca, the same lake from whence the Ayar brothers of Inca myth
set out, including Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, the founders of the Cuzco
dynasty.17 We can reasonably suppose that the noble Wari families vied with
each other for power just like the panacas of Cuzco,18 and established alliances
with other, lesser lineages. There are, in fact, several images of Wari warriors
whose dress and attributes seem to have originated in Ayacucho and on the
South Coast.19 It is tempting to compare them with the Inca by privilege, i.e.

the populations that had settled in the Huatanay valley and which had
been subdued by the lords of Cuzco.20 We must likewise bear in mind that
in the territories under its control, Wari imperial administration had to
include members of allied noble families.21 It is possible that provincial lords
(the Inca huamani) were related to the ruling lineages of Ayacucho. The
heads of districts (the Inca hunu) and macro-ayllu-chieftainships were
instead recruited amongst the leaders of allied populations. Local authorities
of the ayllu-territorial communities were probably retained as long as they
had not resisted the conquest. The empires elite was thus formed in both
casesWari and Incaby representatives of the various cultural, linguistic22
and ethnic groups established in the highlands, the montane forest and
the coast, who allied themselves voluntarily with the lords of Ayacucho,
or who were instead subdued after being defeated. The power of each lineage
and territorial community depended, amongst other things, on the number
of families they had, the extent of their lands, the size of their herds, the
reputation of their warriors, and no doubt also the bravery and beauty of
their women. The latter was important because leaders crafted their networks
of power through marriage. To judge by the Inca parallel, paramount rulers
had several wives and concubines from each and every suyu and province
of the empire.23 The wives were chosen for the warrior leaders with greater
warrior luck (ataw in Quechua), and who had the highest acceptance amongst
those who led the lineages. In this way the new leader expanded his lineages
estate through conquest, and likewise gained booty and the right to be
served by new communities of skilled craftsmen.24 Both the booty as well as
the exotic items were offered to the dead parents of the ruler, as well as to
other deities.
Lacking written sources that are contemporary with the material evidence,
we have to support the validity of this interpretive scenario by drawing
a comparison, insofar as it is possible, with the study of the images of the
elite found in figurative objects, clothes, headdresses and other eventual
attributes of the role; architectural areas where power potentially manifests
itself, and is negotiated and legitimised; palaces and other elite residential
areas; funerary behaviour; and with bio-anthropological evidence (lifestyles,
diet, DNA). Due to reasons of space and the subject of this museographic
exhibit, we will focus here on the iconographic and mortuary evidence in order
to place the representatives of the Wari elite buried at Castillo de Huarmey
within a wider context.
The Wari as Portrayed by Themselves
Most Central Andean cultures, including the Inca, did not leave behind a single
trace of an official art bearing the effigies of kings and officials, which are
so common elsewhere. Fortunately enough this is not the case for Wari: monolithic statues of men and women, (Figs. 152 and 153) dressed in quite similar
fashion to their contemporaries in the Titicaca Altiplano, were found in the
capital city of this prehistoric kingdom and were taken to the local museums
without precisely recording their provenance.25 No supernatural details are
found on the bodies or on their attire that would suggest these are idols. It is
almost certain these are depictions of the ruling elite, given the monumental
nature of the statues and the large amount of social labour invested in carving
and moving the monoliths. The idea of portraying the idealised image of a
human being in volcanic tuff was not born in Ayacucho. There is no precedent
of this type in the Huarpa Period, immediately prior to the rise of the Wari
culture, but the origins of the tradition of sculpting portraits in the round can
be traced to the Formative Period in the Titicaca basin.26 In the sixth century
AD, the sculpted images of supernatural ancestors were replaced in Tiwanaku
with the statues of mortal men wearing clothes decorated with images of
supernatural beings. The largest of these statues is over three stories high
(7.30 metres) (Fig. 154 a -b), and the smallest one measures no more than
0.50 metres. The size of each statue is likewise directly related with the size
of the elevated patio in whose centre it rose.27 The comparison of the statues
and the statuettes leads to the conclusion that the heads of the ruling lineages
deserved a full-bodied portrait of supernatural size. Their attire, sculpted in
relief, stands out from that of all the rest because it is decorated with a full
pantheon of supernatural beings. The composition also changes from one statue
to another, both as regards to its pose and distribution, as well as to the

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nature of the personages.28 The gesture made by the hands of the rulers
portrayed evokes two ritual activities: the liquid offering made with a
beverage emptied from a kero cup, and the forecasting of the ancestors will
by ingesting snuff from a tablette (Figs. 155, 156 and 157). Lower-ranking
noble individuals instead lack both decorated clothes as well as ritual paraphernalia, and their image takes on the shape of a statuette or a tenon head.
Several lines of evidence indicate that the lords of Wari used Tiwanaku art
resources, beliefs, rituals and myths to convince their subjects in Ayacucho
that their rule was legitimate and was accepted by the gods. A sunken plaza
was found during the excavation of the architectural complex at Wari that
was lined with monolithic slabs, carved in the Tiwanaku style and using
Tiwanaku technology.29 This same type of carving was used to build burial
chambers made with monolithic plaques that were assembled using the characteristic Tiwanaku fastenings (Fig.158).30 Another type of burial chamber
was excavated at Conchopata, a secondary Wari centre in Ayacucho, located
on the opposite side from the capital city but within visual range of it. The
chambers, which were entered from the patio, are in the central section of
a building with planned layout which Isbell claims had the role of a palace.
Although no statues have been found at Conchopata, these were replaced in
a way with another type of idealised portrait: large, anthropomorphic jars.31
These face-neck jars show the image of a human face in high relief that
has often been individualised and pressed using a partial mould (Figs. 159).
The bodies of the jars are profusely decorated with polychrome designs
painted after firing imitating textile designs. The bodies of the vessels were
treated like the torso of an individual dressed with a ceremonial unku shirt.
In one case the body had an unku decorated in quite similar fashion to
that of the Ponce monolith.32 The find shows that Wari rulers used the same
ceremonial dress resource in their political strategies. The designs in various
cases imitate the geometric decoration of the shirts known from the area
of the Tiahuanaco culture, e.g. those adorned with tie-dye circles (Fig. 160).
The headdresses are also Tiahuanacoid. Unlike the statues from Tiahuanaco
which always have the same Classic Tiahuanaco-style decoration and types
of attire, the jars in Ayacucho depict various headdresses and attributes.
The geometric and figurative designs adorning the bodies of the vessels and
which imitate textiles are also quite varied; some of them belong to a highland
tradition and others to a coastal one. The urns exhibit a similar range in
their painted decorations.33 The same holds for some weapons like the atlatls,
which are typical of the Central Andes, whilst others, like the axes or bows
and arrows, only recur in the southern Andes.34 We find the same garment
variety in the groups of turquoise figurines found in the votive deposits at
Pikillacta. Patricia Knobloch and Anita Cook made a systematic study of both
series and concluded that the clothes and headdresses were derived from
various regions subjected by the lords of Ayacucho.35
The Wari and Tiwanaku images were unfortunately not designed by painters
and sculptors in clay like the Moche in the North Coast. This deprived us
of an invaluable source of information regarding the hierarchies and the
ways power was flaunted and wielded. Wari craftsmen faithfully followed the
conventions of the textile art, which had been laid out in the Altiplano and
in coastal valleys like Sihuas since the second half of the first millennium
B.C.36 Although the textile conventions were applied to other techniques and
supports such as pre-firing paint on ceramic surfaces, wood and bone carvings
or stone reliefs, the limitations in figuration specific to textiles decorations
were never overcome. This means that in the Wari and Tiwanaku figurative
repertoires, which are closely related, we do not find depictions of various
individuals in action, nor scenes with landscapes and architecture, and much
less narrative sequences. They were replaced by stand-alone figuresfacing
the front or in profile, full bodied or just the head, and eventually formed long
rows just like in tapestries with structural decoration (Fig. 161).37
The suggestion that these were imitations of the designs found on The Sun
Gate, which is still widespread in the relevant literature, was not confirmed
by recent research. The Gate was designed between the tenth and the
eleventh centuries of our era as part of a roofed enclosure, and was decorated
with niches on the side belonging to the faade.38 The famed friezes are on
the lintel of the side facing towards the inside, and were therefore not meant

for an area open to the general public. The Gate apparently was never
finished or installed in its destination, and was instead left abandoned during
transportation.39 Besides, several personages, poses and attributes which
are absent on the famed friezes on the Gate appear instead both on the
anthropomorphic monoliths as well as on Wari textiles and vessels with a
Tiwanaku-style decoration (Figs. 162 a-f and 163 a-g). A systematic comparison irrefutably proved that there are no Tiwanaku or Wari sculptures or
textiles that can actually be considered an imitation of the famed friezes.
Whenever a resemblance is found it remains limited to the pose and certain
details, but the differences far outstrip the similarities. On the other hand
there can be no doubt that the reliefs found on Tiahuanaco monoliths, as
well as the paintings on the body of Wari anthropomorphic jars, reproduced
types of unkus which really existed, and which may have been used as a
model by the potter or the sculptor.40
The potters who worked in Huari and Conchopata were fully acquainted
with, and had a sophisticated grasp of, the complex repertoire of Tiwanaku
designs, of the syntax which ruled over the combination of details, and
even of the chromatic range (Fig. 164 a-b). One gets the impression that
they had been trained in workshops on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Both
human beings as well as supernaturals have characteristics that place
them within the field of stories and exotic beliefs. Human beings are depicted
as warriors standing on tule boatswhich are useless in the rivers in the
Ayacucho basinwith the weapons, shields, and headdresses typical of
the people of the Altiplano (Fig. 164 b). This mythical gest also had a place
for women and animals from the tropical forest.41 The huge urns where the
humans appear were also decorated with images of supernatural beings.
Despite the similitude in their pose, this case also is not an imitation of the
front-facing deity from The Sun Gate.42
It is worth recalling that the vessels were part of the decoration of the rooms
adjacent to the tombs, and were meant to be used in ceremonies held in
honour of the ancestors. Access to the tombs was through the patios, which
became the centre of a whole complex with a planned layout. The finds made
make it clear that the main reason why the building was erected, was to
temporarily congregate a large number of high-status individuals in order
for them to participate in multiple rituals carried out in the open and roofed
enclosures. No clear evidence has been found of chambers meant for the ruler,
his family and their entourage. The monumental complex was surrounded
by dwellings and areas where the pottery required for activities was manufactured. The vessels used were often intentionally smashed and piled up in
the open areas that lay outside the walls of the buildings. The images of gods
and warriors were not meant to embellish the stelae or the walls of the throne
room. The potters painted them over the jars lined up in front of the tombs
which probably represented the deceasedand on the urns placed where
one entered the patio.43 So just like in the case of Tiahuanaco, this was an art
whose message on the one hand was related to the cult the noble descendants
gave to their direct ancestors, along perhaps with their relatives and vassals,
and on the other to the memory this social group shared. It is possible that
both images and rituals were meant to propitiate the journey of the dead to
the netherworld, and that they likewise helped strengthen the position the
ancestor had vis--vis other ancestors there. The gods and the warriors of past
ages, the founders of the lineages vying for power, probably were the main
protagonists in these images.44 We also have iconographies that evoke victory
in a ritual combat.
It is no mere chance that neither the Wari nor the Inca, nor any other expansive State in the prehistoric Andes, left behind an iconographic legacy that
includes scenes showing military victories, the transportation of booty or
of captives, feasts or life at the court. Yet this type of image accompanied
the rise of the States, the city-States and the empires in the ancient Mediterranean world and in Medieval Europe, and apparently in Asia, Mesoamerica
and Africa, too. Fortunately in the case of the Inca, thanks to the written
sources, no one can doubt the role war had in the development of a vast empire.
The difference just noted must therefore be due to a specific power strategy
and its social context. This is a strategy that respected the cultural and
ethnic diversity of the various actors present in the political scene, who were

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included in certain festivals and ceremonies, and with whom negotiations

were held.45 The cult given to the rulers ancestors and the protective
deities, as well as to the dead members of all the lineages involved in the
States operations, was the cornerstone of the political system and of the
religious ideology supporting it.46
The Tombs of the Wari Elite and the Identity of Their Occupants
Few Wari chamber burials have preserved intact to the present day. The burials
found at Castillo de Huarmey are unique as regards the content and the
quality of the grave goods, as well as the complexity of their architecture. True,
several subterranean chamber tombs and chullpa-mausoleums are known,47
both in the imperial capital as well as in other Middle Horizon settlements,
particularly in the highlands.48 Some of these preserved parts of the bone
remains and parts of the grave goods. Most had been emptied by looters since
the Colonial Period. Such was the case of the monolithic chambers in the
capital city of the empire.49 Until the Huarmey discovery, researchers had
found only relatively humble tombs intact, in cists and small chambers that
in most cases housed individual burials.50 Even so, in the case of Wari the
funeral architecture itself provided invaluable and eloquent information
regarding various social aspects. As was to be expected, the tombs built with
stones and which stand out in terms of monumentality and labour invested
are those found in the imperial capital. All of them were inside the built
area, and in some cases researchers were able to verify that the monolithic
chambers were built after part of the roofed and open areaswhich perhaps
had the role of a palacehad been closed off. In any case, the hypothetical
residential and administrative functions were combined with ceremonial
ones, as is shown, amongst other things, by the erection of a D-shaped ceremonial structurea change that often took place during the final stages in
the use of a building. The chambers, which were assembled using big megalithic slabs carved with fastenings, formed groups and in some cases it is
clear that they were built sequentially, one after the other. They do not differ
much between them except for their size, hence the hypothesis that several
high-prestige families who probably used the building were worthy of having
this particular type of tomb. Yet the relation between funeral and residential
architecture is not always obvious. A large mortuary complex was found
in the Monjachayuq sector which comprised four stories of chambers, most
of which had been built using edged stones with pachilla (small, usually flat
stones). The levels were connected by pits with steps, and the upper level
had over twenty chambers, as well as access to two lateral galleries. The tombs
of higher-status individuals, and perhaps even one of Waris paramount
rulers, are found in the lower levels, particularly in level 4, where there was
only one chamber.51
The recent excavations undertaken by William Isbell and Anita Cook52 at
Conchopata complement the data available on elite tombs in Ayacucho. Based
on comparisons, it can be said that the burials of the representatives of highstatus lineages formed part of the ceremonial architecture complexes. These
are in all cases chamber tombs meant for multiple burials. Tombs carved out
of the bedrock were also found at Conchopata. The burials of lower-ranking
individuals were made in cists located below the diatomite floors, inside habitation spaces and in the niches in the walls. There also are several individual
pit burials, some of which may have been temporary ones prior to the secondary
burial in its definitive location, probably close to other family members.
Due to the conditions in Ayacucho, and in the highlands, organic remains
are generally not well preserved. Yet it is clear that all skeletons recorded in
primary contexts originally were in seated position, with the limbs tightly
pulled up, and were inside wrappings or a bundle. A comparison of the anthropomorphic jars found in situ at Conchopata, the face-neck jars with or without
published provenance, and well-preserved bundles like those of Ancn,53
suggest that the ethnic and political identities of the deceased were articulated above all through their attire and particularly by the headdress, the
unku, the chest pieces and the ear ornaments. It is highly likely that the
contemporary men and women who were well acquainted with the material
culture and the standing visual codes, would not have had much trouble
in identifying an individuals rank from the geometric and figurative designs

on his unku shirt, as well as the face paint and the ornaments worn in the
nose, neck and ears (Fig. 165). The headdress allowed their place of origin
to be recognised at a distance (Fig. 166). In any case, the results attained by
the excavation of mortuary contexts, both Wari as well as other contemporary
ones, all agree on one point: the higher the rank of the deceased, the larger
the range of styles in the grave goods and the bigger the number of artefacts
there will be with classic Tiahuanaco-style-inspired iconography. Although
the archaeometric study of pottery production and distribution in this period
is still in its early stages, nothing suggests that conditions were different
from what was seen centuries later during the Inca Period, i.e. that pottery
was locally manufactured, and that imports were an exceptional occurrence.
On the other hand, textiles and other objects which weighed less or were
particularly valuable could come from far away. Such was the case with objects
made out of wood, bone, metal and obsidian. It should be pointed out here
that the existence of trade routes marked out on the map by the distribution
of imports in both directions has never been irrefutably proven, not even
in the case of obsidian.54 I therefore believe that the objects in exotic styles
were probably given out as presents by higher-ranking rulers, both to subaltern
authorities as well as within the network of relationships established between
members of the elite, as presents, dowries, and so on. Some of these artefacts
may have been manufactured by foreign craftsmen who moved along with
the court.
Castillo de Huarmey: the Necropolis and the Temple of the Imperial
Elites Funeral Cult
There are several reasons why Castillo de Huarmey deserves being called
an imperial elite funerary complex. This is a very original architectonic work
whose design and construction engaged population groups of diverse origins.
It differs in all functional and formal aspects from local, Moche or Gallinazo
precedents.55 The idea of erecting a platform with chullpas on top of the
mountain, as well as its tiered look with stone-lined walls, which the mortuary
complex had during its final phases, are obviously related with highland
Wari architecture and the chullpas of the Callejn de Huaylas. The regular
labyrinthine layout of the largest chullpa-mausoleums, with niches in the walls,
chambers hewn in the rock and located below elaborate seals and floors,
has a remarkable likeness with Ayacucho architecture, from where inspiration
probably came (Fig. 167).
The ceramic offerings, both inside the funerary chamber of the noble women
as well as in other chambers, concur in pointing out that both the producers
and the consumers emphasised their foreign tastes, habits and preferences.
Even the pottery, which was possibly made with the participation of local
potters, took on exotic loans. Thus the kero-cup form, so typical of the Titicaca
Altiplano, is found in the same chamber alongside the mammiform faceneck bottles (see Fig. 78 a-b). Clearly, only a strong political power could have
moved craftsmen far from their place of origin, and have promoted such a
harmonious and productive collaboration.
As has already been noted, access to clothes, ornaments and ceremonial
objects decorated in the Tiwanaku style was used to distinguish the families
of the rulers from other elite lineages who lived in the imperial capital and
in Conchopata, or gathered there on certain occasions. It is clear that the
women and men buried in the chullpas on the summits and in the chambers
on the slopes of Castillo de Huarmey were quite privileged in this regard.
This is borne out both by the quality as well as by the number of the finds: the
most outstanding include the wooden lime container (see Fig. 141), the metal
knives (see Fig. 135), the stone kero cup (see Fig. 78 a-b), and the ear ornaments with different motifs and forms (see Figs. 58, 59, 70, 95-103, 108 a-b
and 110 a-i). The skill in the handling of the designs and the iconographic
details characteristic of the southern Andean area, which is clear in the case
of the wooden carvings, is indeed striking. The luxury elements in the grave
goods are in accordance with the complexity of the funerary contexts. The
high status of most of the fifty-eight women buried in seated position inside
the wrappings was expressed not just by the ear ornaments and other effects,
but also by the variety of weaving objects and the fineness of the textiles,56 as
well as by the human sacrifices with which the funeral ritual ended.57

317

Several burials of high-ranking women have been recently excavated in

the Central Andes. The most ancient case recorded dates to the transition
from the Preceramic to the Initial Periods.58 The social role these women
had is a matter of debate; the associations sometimes suggest that they
had priestly roles. Such is the case of those that were excavated at San Jos
de Moro59. It is the authors opinion that the tattoos, dress and headdresses,
as well as the ceremonial clubs and the iconographic context, suggest that
the woman buried at the summit of the Cao Viejo Pyramid (in the Chicama
Valley) also had the role of supreme priestess of the Goddess of the Moon
and the Sea. Rgulo Franco and his team60 instead prefer to ascribe her
the high rank of supreme ruler of the valley. Both roles do not necessarily
rule each other out. The high political position of the woman buried in the
ceremonial area of the fortified temple of Pashash (Recuay culture), who was
worshipped as the ancestor of a ruling lineage, is unquestionable. Like the
women of Castillo de Huarmey, she was also characterised by the use of ear
ornaments.61 According to Carlos Wester, the lady buried at Chornancap
in the company of a high-ranking male individualwho had been interred
previouslyhad priestly roles.62 The burial was directly related with a
palace residence with spacious and complex ceremonial areas; it is therefore
highly likely that both the woman and the man lived or carried out activities
related with their social function in the edifice. In the context just presented,
the burials at Castillo de Huarmey are exceptional, and not just because
they are the first find of the tombs of noble Wari women. The multiple nature
of the burial, the hierarchical distribution beside a main bundle, and the
fact that the individuals were buried sequentially are worth highlighting.
Although in the current state of our knowledge we cannot properly support
one single interpretive scenario, the women may have been the main
wives and concubines of a regional Wari governor, and may even have been
members of the imperial lineage.
We can only imagine what the identities and social position of the dead who
were buried in the upper stories of the mausoleums at the top were from
what remained scattered amongst the rubble and the ruins left behind by
the looters. The quality of the fragmented offerings and their stylistic variety
is no less than in the chambers that did survive. The potters and the weavers
who made these artefacts were perfectly well acquainted with the complex
repertoire of small figurative signs similar to the Mesoamerican glyphs, and
which are so typical of Tiwanaku art.63 The combination of the glyphs in
the shining halos, the lachrymals, the wings and the tails of the supernatural
beings apparently served to recognise the name, the powers, and the rank
of the painted or woven personages. Not all craftsmen were acquainted with
the above-mentioned designs or were able to use them. Even in Ayacucho,
most of the potters only reproduced the outline of the original figures from
the Tiwanaku iconography without going into details, as if something had
prevented them from doing so. The present author has suggested elsewhere
that the use of the first group of objects was restricted to the ceremonies held
by certain noble lineages.64
From the above-sketched standpoint, Castillo de Huarmey presents the
material evidence of some political strategies far removed from those adopted
by the empires that were born in the midst of the Mediterranean slave and
feudal societies, which usually are the benchmark used not just by school
children but also by various scholars. This gap is in turn due to the differences
present both in the social organisation and the religious world view which
under pinned all political behaviour at the time. Its name notwithstanding,
Castillo de Huarmey was not the fortified residence of a noble lord, and it
therefore was not a symbol of the coercive power of a lineage that imposed
its law by force over a peaceful agricultural valley. Quite the contrary, the
rulers of the Wari Empire attempted to inscribe in the landscape a message
that bespoke of inclusion and of the legal right to rule acquired with the
benevolence of supernatural forces. The characteristic silhouette of the ancestor
cult temple was visible from each and every point in the valley. Spacious
walled plazas extended over platforms at the foot of the temple, where the
earthly power manifested itself under the porticos to the crowds that gathered
on festive days. It can be surmised that all extended families established
in several valleys around Castillo were represented on these occasions. The
bodies of their fathers and grandfathers were preserved in the mausoleums

close to the palace. The representatives of certain families and/or priests

could climb to the top of the temple through the stairways in order to carry
out the corresponding rites in honour of all of the founders of the lordly
lineages. The sui generis palace attached to the funerary cult temple and
its hundreds of mausoleums, was quite probably the provincial capital
of the Wari Empire for decades. Future research will perhaps provide data
with which to reconstruct the spatial organisation of the province, as well
as its likely transformation into an independent chiefdom.

(1) Amongst an abundant literature, the

following are recommended: Trigger, Bruce.
Understanding Early Civilizations. A
Comparative Study. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2003; Kardoulias, Nick.
World-System Theory in Practice: Leadership, Production and Exchange. Lanham:
Rowman and Littlefield, 1999; Algaze,
Guillermo. The Prehistory of Imperialism:
The Case of Uruk Period Mesopotamia, in
Rothman, Mitchell S. (Ed.), Uruk Mesopotamia & Its Neighbors. Santa Fe: School of
American Research Press, 2001, pp. 27-84;
Yoffee, Norman. Myths of the Archaic State:
Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States
and Civilizations. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2005.
(2) Lumbreras, Luis Guillermo. Childe
and the Urban Revolution: The Central
Andean Experience, in: Manzanilla, Linda
(Ed.), Studies in the Neolithic and Urban
Revolution: The Gordon V. Childe Colloquium (Mexico 1986). London: BAR International Series 349, 1987. See also by
the same author: El imperio Wari, in
Historia del Per, Vol. II. Lima: Editorial
Juan Meja Baca, 1985, pp. 11-91; id.,
El imperio Wari. Lima: Ediciones Altazor,
2007. On Marxist approaches in archaeology see: Patterson, Thomas. Marxs
Ghost. Conversations with archaeologists.
Oxford: Berg, 2003; McGuire, Randall H. A
Marxist Archaeology. New York: Percheron
Press, 2002.
(3) In the Mediterranean basin, social
distances were expressed from the sixth
century BC to the fifteenth century A.D.
in a forceful and obvious way by residential
architecture and settlement organisation.
Here we can call up the examples of the
palatial hacienda house and its subsequent
imitation, the urban villa of the HellenisticRoman age (e.g. Pompey). We should also
recall that the castle evolved from the
tower-donjon, which had turned into the
palace by the late Middle Ages. The differences between these types of elite architecture and a peasant or burgher house are
obvious for any schoolboy, and show that
the consolidation of rival classes is forcefully imprinted on the cultural landscape
whenever this phenomenon actually takes
place. On the differences in the urban
development processes in the Old and
the New World see Makowski, Krzysztof.
Andean Urbanism, in Silverman, Helaine,
and William H. Isbell, Handbook of South
American Archaeology. New York: Springer,
2008, pp. 633-657; id., Ciudad y Centro
ceremonial: el reto conceptual del urba
nismo andino, Annual Papers of the
Anthropological Institute 2: 1-66 (in Japanese: translated by Shinya Watanabe),
2012. In Spanish: http://www.ic.nanzanu.
ac.jp/JINRUIKEN/publication/index.html.

(4) The following stand out amongst

the abundant relevant literature: Carroll,
Maureen, and Jane Rempel. Living
Through the Dead: Burial and Commemoration in the Classical World. Oakville,
Conn.: David Brown Book Company, 2011;
Garland, Robert. The Greek Way of Death.
Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press
1985; Toynbee, Jocelyn. Death and Burial
in the Roman World. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1971; Cumont, Franz.
After Life in Roman Paganism. Lectures
delivered at Yale University on the Silliman
Foundation. New Haven: Yale University
Press 1922; id. Recherches sur le symbolismefunraire des Romains. Haut Comissariat de ltat Franais en Syrie at au
Liban, Service des Antiquits, Bibliothque
archologique et historique, Vol. XXXV.
Paris: Librairie Paul Geuthner, 1942.
(5) See the essay by Milosz Giersz in this
volume.
(6) The process of change in the funeral
behaviour at the time when the monetarybased market economy was consolidating,
at the same time when the slave mode
of production was spreading throughout
the Eastern Mediterranean world, was
studied in depth by Dentzer, Jean Marie.
Le motif du banquet couch dans le
Proche Orient et le monde grec du VIIIme
au IVme sicle avant J.C. Rome: Bibliothque des coles Franaises dAthne
et de Rome, Fascicule 246, 1982. Also quite
illustrative are the comparisons made
in Laneri, Nicola (Ed.), Performing Death.
Social analyses of funerary traditions in
the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean.
Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2008,
between the funeral pomp of the Early
Bronze elite in the fourth and third millennium BC in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and
the behaviour recorded in the Classical
Period, particularly the articles by Morris,
Ellen F. Sacrifice for the State. First
Dynasty Royal Funerals and the Rites
at Macramallahs Rectangle (pp. 15-37);
and Pollock, Susan.Death of a Household
(pp. 209-222).
(7) The best-studied cases are those of
Kunturhuasi, Paracas, Sipn, Sicn, and
Chan chan. The Kunturhuasi burials
(Onuki, Yoshio [Ed.]. Kuntur Wasi y Cerro
Blanco. Dos sitios del Formativo en el
Norte del Per. Tokio: Hokusen-Sha, 1995;
Onuki, Yoshio, and Kinya Inokuchi,
Gemelos prstinos. El tesoro del templo
de Kuntur Wasi. Lima: Fondo Editorial
del Congreso del Per-Minera Yanacocha,
2011), and those of Pacopampa which
were recently discovered by Yuhi Seki,
are in contrast with the humble burials of
local leaders in the Preceramic and Initial
Periods (Burger, Richard. Los seores
de los Templos, in Makowski, Krzysztof
(Comp.), Seores de los Reinos de la Luna.

318

Lima: Banco de Crdito del Per, 2008,

pp. 13-37), even thought they were found
in the temples platforms, just like the
previous ones. In Paracas, the bundles
with the bodies of the leaders were buried
among the bundles of lower-ranking
individuals, including women and children,
within a restricted area set aside for
this and respectively located at the centre
of each of the neighbouring settlements
of Wari Kayn and Arena Blanca. Relatives
and subjects contributed to the making
of the bundle by dressing it up with
new layers of textile offerings in periodical
ceremonies held after the first burial
(Makowski, Krzysztof. Los hombres
guerreros, las mujeres alfareras: cambios
sociales tras el ocaso de Chavn, in
Makowski (Comp.), Seores de los Imperios
del Sol, pp. 1-18; Peters, Ann. Paracas:
Liderazgo social, memoria histrica y lo
sagrado en la necrpolis de Wari Kayan,
in Makowski, (Comp.), Seores de los
Imperios del Sol, pp. 211-221; Makowski,
Krzysztof. Deificacin frente a ancestrali
zacin del gobernante en el Per prehispnico: Sipn y Paracas, in Arqueologa,
geografa e historia. Aportes peruanos en
el 50 Congreso de Americanistas, Varsovia
- Polonia 2000. Lima: Fondo Editorial
de la Pontificia Universidad Catlica
del Per - PromPer, 2005, pp. 39-80. A
comparison of the royal burials of Sipn
(Mochica) and Sicn (Lambayeque)
suggests that the post-mortem deification
of the ruler, as follows from the icono
graphy and the type of offerings of precious
metals recorded in the Early Intermediate
Periods Moche tombs, became the main
goal of the funeral pomp from the Middle
Horizon onwards. The ruler was treated
as a deity and as a descendant of a god:
Millaire, Jean Franois. Moche Burial
Patterns: An Investigation into Prehispanic
Social Structure. Oxford: BAR International Series 1066, Archeopress, 2002; Alva,
Walter. Sipn. Descubrimiento e Investi
gacin. Lima: Quebecor World Per, 2004;
Alva, Walter, and Luis Chero. La tumba
del Sacerdote Guerrero, in Aimi, Antonio,
Walter Alva, and Emilia Petrazzi (Eds.),
Sipn. El tesoro de las tumbas reales.
Florencia-Miln: Fondo talo-Peruano,
Giunti Editore, 2008, 114-137; Shimada,
Izumi. Cultura Sicn: dios, riqueza y poder
en la costa norte del Per. Lima: Fundacin
del Banco Continental para el Fomento
de la Educacin y la Cultura, 1995; id.,
Sican Metallurgy and Its Cross-craft
Relationships, Boletn del Museo del Oro
41: 26-61, 1999; Shimada, Izumi, Ken-ichi
Shinoda, Julie Farnum, Robert S. Corruccini, and Hirokatsu Watanabe. An Integrated Analysis of Prehispanic Mortuary
Practice: A Middle Sican Case Study,
Current Anthropology 45 (3): 369-402, 2004.
Despite the differences in form and design,
both the Sicn ramped pyramids and
Chanchans citadels had the role of palace
whilst the ruler lived, and after his death
they became ceremonial enclosures for
the funeral cult: Conrad, Geoffrey W. The
Burial Platform of Chan chan: Some Social
and Political Implications, in Moseley,
Michael, and Kent Day. Chan Chan:
Andean Desert City. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982, 87-117.

(8) Kaulicke, Peter. Memoria y muerte

en el Per antiguo. Lima: Fondo Editorial
de la Pontificia Universidad Catlica
del Per, 2000, pp. 26-39; Isbell, William H.
Mummies and Mortuary Monuments. A
Postprocessual Prehistory of Central Andean
Social Organization. Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1997, pp. 38-108.

(16) Cummins, Tom. Queros, Aquillas,

Uncus and Chulpas: The Comparison
of Inka Artistic Expression of Power,
in Burger, Richard L., Craig Morris,
and Ramiro Matos Mendieta (Eds.),
Variation in the Expression of Inka Power.
Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks,
2007, pp. 267-322.

(9) DeLeonardis, Lisa, and George F. Lau,

Life, Death and Ancestors, in Silverman,
Helaine. Andean Archaeology. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing, 2004, pp.77-115.

(17) Cook, Anita G. Las deidades huari

y sus orgenes altiplnicos, in Makowski,
(Comp.), Los dioses del antiguo Per,
pp. 39-65; Makowski, Krzysztof. Vestido,
arquitectura y mecanismos del poder en
el Horizonte Medio, in Makowski (Comp.),
Seores de los Imperios del Sol, pp. 57-71.

(10) Boytner, Ran. Clothing the Social

World, in Silverman (Ed.). Andean Archaeology, pp. 130-145.
(11) Salomon, Frank. The Beautiful
Grandparents: Andean Ancestor Shrines
and Mortuary Ritual as Seen through
Colonial Records, in Dillehay, Tom (Ed.),
Tombs for the Livings: Andean Mortuary
Practices. Washington, D. C.: Dumbarton
Oaks, 1995, pp. 315-353.
(12) Pillsbury, Joan. The Concept of the
Palace in the Andes, in Evans, Susan
Toby, and Joan Pillsbury (Eds.), Palaces
of the Ancient New World. Washington,
D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2004, pp. 181-190;
Makowski, Krzysztof, and Carla
Hernndez. Las casas del Sapa Inka,
in Makowski, Krzysztof (Comp.), Seores
de los Imperios del Sol. Lima: Banco de
Crdito, 2010, pp. 173-184.
(13) See, for example, the case of the palaces
of Chimor: Pillsbury, Joan. Los palacios
de Chimor, in Makowski, Krzysztof
(Comp.), Los seores de los reinos de la
Luna. Lima: Banco de Crdito del Per,
2008, pp. 201-222; Mackey, Carol. Elite
Residence at Farfn. A Comparison of the
Chim and Inka Occupations, in Christie,
Jessica Joyce, and Patricia Joan Sarro
(Eds.), Palaces and Power in the Americas.
From Peru to the Northwest Coast. Austin:
University of Texas, 2006, pp. 313-352;
for other cases see note 6.A comparison
with the Wari palaces is in order: Isbell,
William H. Landscape of Power: A
Network of Palaces in Middle Horizon
Peru, ibid., pp. 44-98; McEwan, Gordon F.
Conclusion. The Function of Pikillacta,
in McEwan, Gordon F. (Ed.), Pikillacta:
The Wari Empire in Cuzco. Iowa City:
University of Iowa Press, 2005, pp. 147-164.
(14) See the essay by Gary Urton in this
volume.
(15) DAltroy, Terence N., and Katharina
Schreiber. Andean Empires, in Silverman,
Helaine (Ed.), Andean Archaeology.
Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004, pp.
255-279; Schreiber, Katharina J. Wari
Imperialism in Middle Horizon Peru.
Anthropological Papers No. 87. Ann Arbor:
Museum of Anthropology, University
of Michigan, 1992; id. The Wari Empire
of Middle Horizon Peru: the Epistemological
Challenge of Documenting an Empire
Without Documentary Evidence, in
Alcock, Susan E., Terence N. DAltroy,
Kathleen D. Morrison, and Carla M.
Sinopoli (Eds.), Empires: Perspectives
from Archaeology and History. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2005,
pp. 71-92.

(18) Zilkowski, Mariusz S. La guerra de

los wawqui. Los mecanismos y los objetivos
de la rivalidad dentro de la lite inca, ss.
XV-XVI. Quito: Abya Yala, 1997.
(19) Knobloch, Patricia J. Who Was Who?
In the Middle Horizon Andean Prehistory,
accessed on 4/2008 athttp://www-rohan.
sdsu.edu/~bharley/WWWHome.html; id.,
La imagen de los seores Wari y la recuperacin de una identidad antigua, in
Makowski (Comp.), Los seores de los
imperios del Sol, pp. 197-2009; Cook, Anita
G. The stone ancestors: idioms of imperial
attire and rank among Huari figurines,
Latin American Antiquity 3: 341-364, 1992.
(20) On the organisation of Tahuantinsuyu:
DAltroy, Terence N. The Incas. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing, 2001, pp. 86-108,
177-197; Prssinen, Martti. Tawantinsuyu:
el estado inca y su organizacin poltica.
Lima: Instituto Francs de Estudios
Andinos-Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia
Universidad Catlica del Per, Lima 2003.
(21) E.g. Tung, Tiffiny A., and Anita
Cook. Intermediate-Elite Agency in
the Wari Empire: The Bioarchaeological
and Mortuary Evidence, in Elson,
Christina M., and R. Alan Covey (Eds.),
Intermediate Elites in Pre-Columbian
States and Empires. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2006, pp. 68-93;
Conlee, Christina A., and Katharina
Schreiber. The role of Intermediate Elites
in the Balkanization and Reformation
of Post-Wari Society in Nazca, Peru,
ibid., pp. 94-111; Covey, R. Alan. Inter
mediate Elite in the Inka Heartland,
A.D.1000-1500, ibid., pp. 112-135.
(22) Makowski, Krzysztof. Horizontes
y cambios lingsticos en la prehistoria
de los Andes centrales, Boletn de Arqueologa PUCP 14: 95-122, 2011; Cerrn
Palomino, Rodolfo. Contactos y despla
zamientos lingsticos en los Andes
centro-sureos, el puquina, el aymara
y el quechua, ibid.: 255-282; Isbell, William
H. La arqueologa wari y la dispersin
del quechua, ibid.: 199-220; George Lau,
Culturas y lenguas antiguas de la sierra
nor-central del Per: una investigacin
arqueolingstica, ibid.:141-164.
(23) Zilkowski, Mariusz S. Seores
y reyes en los Andes o del concepto
y atributos del soberano andino,
in Makowski, (Comp.) Seores de los
imperios del sol, pp. 80-86.
(24) Zilkowski, Mariusz S. Ataw
o la guerra justa en el Tawantinsuyu,
Tawantinsuyu 2: 5-22, 1996.

(25) According to William Isbell and

Enrique Gonzlez Carr (personal communication), some statues come from the
Monjachayoq sector, hence the name given
by inference due to the particular type
of dress that the peasants related with the
habit worn by nuns.
(26) The statues of ancestors of both sexes
that rose at the centre of the plazas in
the ceremonial complexes, beside the
monoliths decorated with textile motifs,
gave the name to the Altiplanos religious
tradition which preceded the Tiahuanaco
Period: Yaya Mama (father mother
in the Aymara language): Chvez, Sergio
J. The Yaya Mama Religious Tradition
as an antecedent of Tiwanaku, in YoungSnchez, Margaret (Ed.), Tiwanaku: Ancestors of the Inca. Denver-Lincoln: Denver
Art Museum-University of Nebraska
Press, 2004, pp. 70-93. Several of these
monoliths were moved from their original
ceremonial centres to the more respected
and ancient cult place in Tiahuanaco,
which is known as the Semi-Subterranean
Temple, once this site became the capital
city of a regional State: Janusek, John W.
El surgimiento del urbanismo en Tiwanaku
y del poder poltico en el altiplano andino,
in Makowski (Comp.), Seores de los
Imperios del Sol, pp. 39-56.
(27) Makowski, Krzysztof. Royal Statues,
Staff Gods, and the Religious Ideology
of the Prehistoric State of Tiwanaku, in:
Young-Snchez, Margaret (Ed.), Tiwanaku:
Papers from the 2005 Mayer Center Symposium at the Denver Art Museum. Denver:
Denver Art Museum, 2009, pp. 133-164.
(28) Makowski, Krzysztof. El Panten
tiahuanaco y las deidades con bculos,
in Makowski (Comp.), Los dioses del
antiguo Per, pp. 67-110; id., Los perso
najes frontales de bculos en la iconografa
tiahuanaco y huari: tema o convencin?,
Boletn de Arqueologa PUCP 5: 337-373,
2001; id.La imagen del mundo natural,
la iconografa textil y el ejercicio del
poder en Tiahuanaco, in Snchez Paredes,
Jos, and Marco Curatola Petrocchi
(Eds.), Los rostros de la tierra encantada.
Religin, evangelizacin y sincretismo
en el Nuevo Mundo, Homenaje a Manuel
Marzal, S. J. Lima: Fondo Editorial de
la Pontificia Universidad Catlica del
Per-Instituto Francs de Estudios, 2013,
pp. 670-724; Agero Piwonka, Carolina,
Manuel Uribe, and Jos Berenguer Rodrguez. La iconografa Tiwanaku. El caso
de la escultura ltica,Textos antropolgicos
14 (2): 47-82, 2003.
(29) Isbell, William H., Christine
Brewster-Wray, and Lynda E. Spickard,
Architecture and Spatial Organization
at Huari, in Isbell, William H., and
Gordon F. McEwan (Eds.), Huari Administrative Structure and State Government.
Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1991,
pp. 27-33, Figs. 8-15.
(30) Prez, Ismael. Estructuras
megalticas funerarias en el complejo
Huari,Boletn de Arqueologa PUCP 4:
505-548, 2000; Isbell, William H., and
Antti Korpisaari. Burial in the Wari
and the Tiwanaku heartlands: similarities,
differences, and meanings, Dilogo
Andino. Revista de Historia, Geografa
y Cultura Andina 39: 91-122, 2012.

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(31) Isbell, William H. Repensando el

Horizonte Medio: el caso de Conchopata,
Ayacucho, Per, Boletn de Arqueologa
PUCP 4: 9-68, 2000; Rodrguez Carpio,
Gonzalo Javier. Urnas de Conchopata:
contextos, imgenes e interpretaciones.
Licentiate in Archaeology degree disser
tation. Lima: Pontificia Universidad
Catlica del Per, 2004.
(32) Cook, Anita G. The Middle Horizon
Ceramic Offerings from Conchopata,
awpa Pacha, 22-23: 49-90, 1984-85;
Cook, Anita G. Wari y Tiwanaku: Entre
el Estilo y la Imagen. Lima: Pontificia
Universidad Catlica del Per, 1994,
lam. 6.
(33) Cook G., Anita, and Nancy. L.
Benco. Vajillas para la fiesta y la fama:
produccin artesanal en un centro
urbano Huari, Boletn de Arqueologa
PUCP 4: 489-504, Figs. 9C, 10A, 2000;
Ochatoma Paravicino, Jos. Alfareros
del Imperio Huari: vida cotidiana y
reas de actividad en Conchopata.
Ayacucho: Universidad Nacional de
San Cristbal de Huamanga, Facultad
de Ciencias Sociales, 2007; Knobloch,
La imagen de los seores Wari.
(34) Ochatoma Paravicino, Jos, and
Martha Cabrera Romero. Ideologa
Religiosa y Organizacin Militar en la
Iconografa del rea Ceremonial de
Conchopata, in Wari: Arte Precolombino
Peruano. Sevilla: Centro Cultural el
Monte, 2001, pp. 173-211; Ochatoma
Paravicino, Jos, and Martha Cabrera
Romero. Religious Ideology and Military
Organization in the Iconography of a
D-Shaped Ceremonial Precinct at
Conchopata, en Silverman, Helaine,
and William H. Isbell (Eds.), Andean
Archaeology II: Art, Landscape, and
Society. New York: Kluwer Academic /
Plenum Publishers, 2002, pp. 225-247.
(35) Knobloch, Who Was Who?; id. La
imagen de los seores wari, in Makowski
(Comp.); Cook, Anita G. The stone
ancestors.
(36) Isbell, William H., and Patricia J.
Knobloch. Missing Links, Imaginary
Links: Staff God Imagery in the South
Andean Past, in Isbell, William H.,
and Helaine Silverman (Eds.), Andean
Archaeology III: North and South. New
York: Springer, 2006, pp. 307-351; Isbell,
William H., and Patricia J. Knobloch.
SAIS: The Origin, Development, and
Dating of Tiahuanaco-Huari Iconography,
in Young-Snchez (Ed.), Tiwanaku,
pp. 165-210.
(37) Makowski, Krzysztof. Los personajes
frontales.
(38) The tentative absolute date follows
on the one hand from a comparison
of the Bennett and the Ponce monoliths,
and on the other from the C14 dates
related with the ceramic finds made at
Pariti Island: Korpisaari, Antti, and
Martti Parssinen. Pariti: isla, misterio
y poder. El tesoro cermico de la cultura
Tiwanaku. La Paz: CIMA, 2005. The
decoration on this pottery has stylistic
similitudes with The Gate of the Sun.
In any case this is not the most ancient
relief at Tiahuanaco, and it was not
the model for other known sculptures:

Makowski. Royal Statues, Staff Gods,

and the Religious Ideology; id. La imagen
del mundo natural.
(39) Protzen, Jean-Pierre, and Stella
Nair. Pumapunku: plataformas y
portales, Boletn de Arqueologa PUCP 5:
337-373, 2001; id. The Stones of Tiahuanaco.
A Study of Architecture and Construction.
Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, 2013.
(40) See, for example some well-preserved
unkus: Young-Snchez, Margaret.
Los unkus de los seores del sur: Huari
y Tiahuanaco, in Makowski, Krzysztof
(Comp.), Seores de los Imperios del
Sol: 225-237, especially the tunics and
unkus with Tiwanaku-style figurative
decoration, Figs.1 (the tunic from the
Doorway), 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12; Rodman,
Amy Oakland, and Arabel Fernndez.
Los tejidos huari y tiwanaku: comparaciones y contextos, Boletn de Arqueologa
PUCP 4: Figs. 9a, b. Lima (the tapestry
with iconography of Tiwanaku origin
found at Vegachayoq Moqo, in Huari);
compare with the Tiwanaku tunics from
San Pedro de Atacama, ibid., Figs. 3, 5.
As for the complete Wari unkus and
mantles with Tiwanaku iconography:
Rommel, ngeles, and Denise Pozzi-Escot,
Textiles del Horizonte Medio. Las evidencias de Huaca Malena, Valle de Asia,
Figs. 9, 10, 11, 12, 18; Makowski El
Panten tiahuanaco y las deidades con
bculos, pp. 83, Fig. 91, 106, Fig. 107;
the large Wari mantle from the Staatliches
Museum fr Vlkerkunde, Munich, with
a decoration comparable to the Tiwanaku
skirts and belts, as well as with the
lower frieze in the Doorway of the Sun:
De Bock, Edward K., and R. Tom Zuidema,
Cohrence mathmatique dans lart andin.
Vers un modle global pour lanalyse de
liconographie andine, in Purin, Sergio
(Ed.), Inca-Peru, 3000 mil ans dhistoire.
Brussels: Muse royaux dArt et dHistoire,
Imschoot, uitgeverssa, 1990, 460-469,
Figs. 364-366; the famed unku from Museo
de Arte de Lima, and; Bergh, Susan E.
The Bird and the Camelid (or Deer):
A Ranked Pair of Wari Tapestry Tunics?,
in Young-Snchez, Margaret (Ed.),
Tiwanaku: Papers from the 2005 Mayer
Center Symposium at the Denver Art
Museum. Denver: Denver Art Museum,
2009, pp. 225-245, Figs. 1, 2, 11.
(41) Cook, Anita G. Wari Art and Society,
in Silverman, Helaine (Ed.), Andean
Archaeology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing,
2004, pp. 146-167. Fig. 8.3.
(42) For instance, in the Ayacucho Robles
Moqo-style urns found at Pacheco, in
the Nazca Valley, there is a deity with
staffs in its hands standing in front-facing
position but wearing female clothing:
Lyon, Patricia. Female Supernaturals
in Ancient Peru, awpa Pacha 16: 109,
pl. XXXII, Fig.14, 1978.The image of the
maize cob, which is missing in Tiwanaku
art, is repeated in her attire. Instead
of staffs, her male partner depicted on
this same vessel bears arms and has a
prisoner. Winged profile felines are another
recurring group in Conchopata. Some
of them take a flying position when
depicted with a full body. At Tiahuanaco,
this posture is known in just one relief:
the Kantatata stone: Cook, Anita G. Wari

y Tiwanaku, Lam. 56; see also the comparison made in Makowski. El Panten
tiahuanaco y las deidades con bculos,
p. 78, Figs. 83-86. The initial hypothesis
that all images with a Tiwanaku-inspired
iconography were derived from the
original theme depicted on The Doorway
of the Sun (Isbell, William H. Conchopata,
Ideological Innovator in Middle Horizon
1 A, awpa Pacha 22-23: 49-90, 1984-85;
Cook. Op. cit. was recently replaced by
another one, that of the iconographic
interaction area- SAIS (Southern Andean
Iconographic Series): Isbell and Knobloch.
Missing Links; id. SAIS: The Origin,
Development, and Dating of TiahuanacoHuari Iconography. According to this
hypothesis the Titicaca basin, the South
Coast, the Cuzco area and the Ayacucho
basin shared an iconographic tradition
defined by the recurrence of faces with
a shining halo, beings depicted from the
front and winged profile beings. Isbell
likewise believes the established convention (full body or with the head detached,
facing the front or in profile) was exclusively related with one particular deity.
But this hypothesis lacks convincing
supporting evidence according to
Makowski. Los personajes frontales de
bculos; id. Vestido, arquitectura y
mecanismos del poder; id. Animales en
la herldica del Imperio: smbolos de
identidad y poder huari-tiahuanaco,
Journal of Cultural Symbiosis Research 7:
87-127, 2012. On the contrary, weavers,
sculptors, potters and smiths made a
remarkable effort to provide the front-and
profile-facing figures with a definite
personality, defined through a repertoire
of significant details: types of feathers,
lachrymals, body paint, clothing, and the
attributes they held in their hands. These
details allow for the depiction of beings
of both sexes (e.g. Lyon, Female Supernaturals), deities with weapons, plants,
severed heads, human captives, and so on.
The latter replaced the staffs. Makowski
(Los personajes frontales de bculos;
Vestido, arquitectura y mecanismos del
poder; and Animales en la herldica
del Imperio) likewise believes that the
craftsmen serving the rulers of Tiahuanaco
and Huari used a repertoire of signs
comparable, toutes proportions gardes,
to Mesoamerican glyphs or to the tokapu
(Zilkowski, Mariusz S., Arabas Jaroslaw,
and Jan Szeminski. La Historia en
los queros: apuntes acerca de la relacin
entre las representaciones figurativas
y los signos tocapus, in Gonzlez Carvajal,
Paola, and Tamara L. Bray, Lenguajes
visuales de los Incas. Oxford: BAR, Series,
2008). Torres, M. Constantino. Iconografa
tiwanaku en la parafernalia inhalatoria,
Boletn de Arqueologa PUCP 5: 427-454,
2001, reached a similar conclusion in the
case of the snuff tablets with Tiwanakustyle figurative decoration. Knobloch.
La imagen de los seores Wari, recently
defined a large variety of supernatural
personages in the painted pottery of
Conchopata. The results of the work done
by Susan E. Bergh (The Bird and the
Camelid (or Deer): A Ranked Pair of Wari
Tapestry Tunics?) regarding Huari textiles
likewise concur: the anthropomorphic
camelid or deer join the large list of personages depicted from the front or in profile,
including supernatural human beings,

birds, felines and land snails, all bearing

wings and a staff, as well some other object
in one hand. There is, in fact, a remarkable
range of deities. Some of these are shown
both from the front and in profile, walking,
flying or in abbreviated fashion as heads
removed from their bodies.
(43) See note 31.
(44) For Patricia Knobloch, La imagen
de los seores Wari, the posture of some
deities and their gestures suggest that
what the Wari wanted to remember were
the deeds performed by the warriors the
gods had taken prisoner, and who were
finally sacrificed by decapitation. Knobloch
likewise believes that the god and the
victim represented opposite sides in conflict,
and that these varied on each vessel.
The conflict itself been in war or ritual
combat, is not depicted. The hypothetical
political message hence remained hidden
by the plot of the religious narrative.
(45) The research undertaken at Cerro
Bal, a fortified administrative complex
with a palatial residence, banquet
halls and large areas for brewing chicha,
provided a forceful example of these
strategies: Williams, Patrick Ryan, and
Donna J Nash. Imperial interaction
in the Andes: Huari and Tiwanaku at
Cerro Bal, en Isbell, William H., and
Helaine Silverman (Eds.), Andean
Archaeology I: Variations in Sociopolitical
Organization. New York: Kluwer Academic,
2002, pp. 243-265; Williams, Patrick
Ryan, Donna J. Nash, Michael E. Moseley,
Susan DeFrance, Mario Ruales, Ana
Miranda and David Goldstein. Los
encuentros y las bases para la administracin poltica wari, Boletn de Arqueologa PUCP 9: 207-232, 2005.
(46) Makowski, Krzysztof. Primeras
Civilizaciones. Enciclopedia Temtica
del Per, vol. IX. Lima: Empresa Editora
El Comercio, 2004, pp. 132-182.
(47) Isbell, Mummies and Mortuary
Monuments., pp. 195-213; Paredes, Juan,
Berenice Quintana and Moiss Linares.
Tumbas de la poca Wari en el Callejn
de Huaylas, Ancash, Boletn de Arqueologa
PUCP 4: 449-488, 2000.
(48) Isbell, Repensando el Horizonte
Medio; id. Mortuary preferences: a Wari
culture case study from Middle Horizon
Peru, Latin American Antiquity 15, 2004:
3-32; Valdez, Lidio M., Kattrina J. Bettcher,
Jos A. Ochatoma, and J. Ernesto Valdez.
Mortuary preferences and selected references: a comment on Middle Horizon
Burials, World Archaeology, 38 (4): 672-689,
2006. On the coast, the contexts that have
been excavated are often intrusive in local
architecture, which was built previously
either during the Early Intermediate
Period or at the beginning of the Middle
Horizon, e.g. Mogrovejo, Juan, and Rafael
Segura. El Horizonte Medio en el Conjunto
Arquitectnico Julio C. Tello de Cajamarquilla, Boletn de Arqueologa PUCP
4:565-582, 2000; Rommel and Pozzi-Escot,
Textiles del Horizonte Medio; see also
the burial bundles recently discovered
at Huaca Pucllana: Flores Espinoza,
Isabel. Los wari en Pucllana, in Flores
Espinoza, Isabel (Comp.), Los Wari en
Pucllana. La tumba de un sacerdote. Lima:
Ministerio de Cultura, 2013, pp.17-86.