Kuelap
(continued)
Some houses had ventilation ducts at floor level. No doorways with
lintels have survived, but the nearby site of Teya boasts a doorway
that Narváez reckons measured 1.80 meters in height, suggesting
that some of Kuelap’s doorways had similar dimensions. Steps
led into the interiors of some houses, and some floors were paved
with slate flagstones while others had floors paved with smaller
stones set in layers of gray and yellowish clay. Smaller constructions,
often kitchen annexes, contain underground, stone-lined storage
pits topped by stone slabs. Some storage pits appear to have been
re-used as tombs, perhaps when the house was abandoned. Kuelap’s
residents plastered the interiors of their houses. House exteriors
may have been plastered and painted as well, but there is no evidence
for this.
The lack of an on-site water source has long puzzled archaeologists.
Recent exploration of the limestone ridge on which Kuelap rests,
however, has revealed the remains of a stone-lined canal that brought
water to the site from a spring at the summit of the ridge.
A wall also surrounds Kuelap’s upper sector, known as Pueblo
Alto. Constructed of cut limestone blocks, the wall is some 11.5
meters high on its southeastern side and is pierced by two narrow,
winding entryways that taper off like the entrances to the citadel
itself, allowing only one person at a time to enter. The central
sector of Pueblo Alto may have served as a public or ceremonial
area, judging by the few circular residences and a small plaza,
flanked by a rectangular structure measuring 27 by 9 meters. Archaeologists
unearthed numerous burials in this area. Next to this structure
lies a small, quadrangular construction composed of three superimposed
platforms.
At the northern end of Pueblo Alto perches a 7 meter-high, D-shaped
lookout tower known as the Torreón. Here, archaeologists
discovered an arsenal of 2,500 sling stones fashioned of limestone
and heaped in piles scattered around the floor. They also recovered
broken stone axe heads, fragments of charcoal and domestic pottery
as well as deer and guinea pig bone, perhaps the remains of meals
consumed here by sentries.
The Tintero, (“inkwell,” named after the bottle-shaped
cavity in its interior), is located on Kuelap’s southern side.
Reaching a height of 5.5 meters with an upper diameter of 13.7 meters,
the Tintero is built of an outer core of shaped limestone blocks
and an inner core of rock and clay. It was probably reached by a
stairway or a ramp, since destroyed. The function of this unusual,
inverted cone-shaped structure has yet to be determined. It has
been described as a water reservoir, a storage pit, a prison and
a cemetery. One study suggests that it may have served as a solar
observatory, plotting the zenith passage of the sun over the Tintero
to mark the onset of the rains and maize-planting season.
On the summit of the Tintero is an opening 70 centimeters in diameter
leading into a bottle-shaped cavity 5.50 meters high, on the floor
of which is a stone carved with three rounded grooves. This stone
may have been used to plot the passage of the sun. Excavations by
Narváez on the summit near the opening unearthed human and
animal bones and an offering pit filled with deer, camelid and guinea
pig bone. Excavations in the patio in front of the Tintero revealed
a succession of floor levels strewn with deer and guinea pig bone,
cooked maize, charcoal, burnt earth and pottery. Narváez
suggests that this area may have staged feasting and ceremonies
related to the Tintero.
One of the limestone blocks on the eastern side of the Tintero
is graced with a small human face carved in low relief. Swiss archaeologist
Adolph Bandelier photographed another carved human face in 1893,
but it has disappeared, and other carved stone have also been pilfered.
All told, Narváez recorded 24 carved stones depicting anthropomorphic,
zoomorphic and geometric designs, but only the Tintero, the main
and secondary entrances and the perimeter wall are adorned with
carved stones.
The Tintero is flanked by an open, terraced area to the east and
a small, walled patio to the west, where French archaeologist Louis
Langlois observed the remains of a badly looted cemetery. To the
northeast of the patio lie six small circular structures.
Given the torrential and frequent rains in the region, most sites
probably had some sort of drainage system. Kuelap may have been
crisscrossed by an elaborate drainage system, judging by the remains
of canals found on the Pueblo Alto perimeter wall, on some of the
house foundation platforms and on the perimeter wall. (In fact,
the lack of maintenance of Kuelap’s drainage system has caused
parts of the perimeter wall to collapse.)
On the western, cliff side of Kuelap, in an area known as La Petaca
(not to be confused with La Petaca near Tajopampa) archaeologists
found the remains, sadly, destroyed by looters, of some 20 sarcophagi
(purunmachus), built of stone, cane and mud plaster, which once
contained individual burials. North of the citadel, on inaccessible
cliffs known as La Barreta, are the foundations of two finely-built
stone chullpas —above-ground funerary constructions—that
once held multiple burials.
Kuelap’s surrounding perimeter wall also served as a cemetery,
with more than 100 burials placed in the wall at the time of its
construction as well as after the wall had been completed. Although
the majority of these wall burials have been looted, Langlois found
an intact tomb that contained five skulls and several bones. Apparently,
the wall-tombs contained secondary burials; that is, the remains
of individuals originally interred elsewhere, and whose bones were
exhumed and placed in Kuelap’s wall.
Narváez believes that Kuelap was occupied from about AD
500 until its heyday on the eve of the Inca conquest around 1470,
when some 3,000 people may have lived within its walls. Remains
of early colonial pottery unearthed in some of the structures indicate
that people continued to live at Kuelap in early colonial times.
The massive surrounding wall, restricted entryways, possible parapets
and the sling stones stashed on the Torreón suggest that
Kuelap’s inhabitants were preoccupied with security. The rural
population living around Kuelap may have fled to the safety of its
walls during a siege. Kuelap’s residents burned the citadel
when they abandoned it. Recent excavations revealed large clumps
of burnt roofing thatch and charred beams associated with Kuelap’s
final occupation in late Inka and early colonial times.
back to first part
Left: The view from Kuelap, looking
southeast (Adriana von Hagen)
Right: Excavations of house group above Kuelap's main entrance (Adriana
von Hagen)
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