The Andes are probably the only place in the world where a great civilization rose and flourished without ever developing a written method of record keeping. Though it stretched over 2,500 km, and involved elaborate economic and cultural exchanges between the coastal lowlands and the mountain heights, Andean civilization found it possible to organize large-scale projects from temples to wars while keeping their accounts by tying knots in string.
As a result, the earlier phases of that civilization are known to us from archaeology rather than history, and though it must have had saints and heroes, high priests and great kings, we will never know their names, and their deeds are but dimly adumbrated in the grave goods they were buried with amid the ruins of their cities.
Still, archaeology has brought a fair amount to light, and Japanese archaeologists have made major contributions. The University of Tokyo has sponsored excavations and research in Peru continuously since 1958, and a show now at the Suntory Museum of Art presents finds from the major site of Kuntur Wasi that date from the earliest stages of Andean civilization, and include the oldest metalwork yet discovered in the Americas.
The site of Kuntur Wasi ("House of the Condor"), in Cajamarca Department in the northwestern part of Peru, was discovered in 1946 by local residents who noted stone walls and scattered artifacts and informed the National Museum in Lima. A preliminary survey established the site was of the Formative Period (ca. 2500 B.C.E.-1 C.E.), but no further work was done until a Tokyo University team arrived in 1988 for what proved to be a 10-year project.
The highlands around Cajamarca today are a quiet, agricultural backwater; Cajamarca itself is known mainly as the town where Francisco Pizarro took the Inca Emperor Atahuallpa prisoner in the midst of his own army, beginning the downfall of the Inca Empire. Before then, however, it was an important cultural center with a deep archaeological record. The Tokyo University group had been investigating Formative Period sites in the Cajamarca Plateau to the east of the city, and were hoping to illuminate the relationship between the highlands and the coastal strip by investigating a site in between. Kuntur Wasi, on the western watershed of the Andes, was selected.
The investigators found a series of terraces, with massive stonework showing through in places, crowning 2,300-meter Mount La Copa. At the top was a broad, flat artificial platform of about 1 hectare, with little showing above the surface. An exploratory trench showed that the platform was supported by three levels of heavy stone reinforcing walls, with stairs leading down to the lower terraces. It was clear that this was only the final phase of the site; earlier layers must lie below.
The excavations, which went forward in three stages, led by Tokyo University's Yoshio Onuki, revealed that the site had been occupied from about 1000 B.C.E., making it one of the earliest known ceremonial sites in Peru. The first dig ('89-'90) revealed the foundations of a series of buildings and plazas -- and, under them, graves accompanied by golden crowns, ornaments and fine pottery.
Their enthusiasm thus whetted, Onuki and his researchers returned for another season of digging in '93-'94. The discoveries were not as dazzling, but they did much to make clear the scope and complexity of the site.
The earliest stage (ca. 1000-800 B.C.E.) antedated the use of metal, and was characterized by brightly painted clay idols, from which it was dubbed the Idol Period.
In the second phase (ca. 800-500 B.C.E.), dubbed the Kuntur Wasi Period, the original site was made the foundation for a greatly expanded facility. The graves associated with this period contained the "14-Face Crown" and "Five-Jaguar Crown," the highlights of the exhibition, as well as bold ceramic efforts like the cheerful frog-shaped jug.
The third phase (ca. 500-250 B.C.E.), called the Copa Period from the name of the mountain, saw repeated extensive rebuilding of the site, including an intricate network of subsurface water channels.
The Copa Period grave goods showed marked improvements in technique; flattening, cutting and shaping the gold, silver and copper, they created delicate beads and ornaments like the necklace of jaguar masks that would not shame a modern jeweler. The jaguar clearly had deep meaning for the people of Kuntur Wasi; the mask motif is repeated from the tiny necklace beads through pottery to giant stone bas-reliefs.
Then, in the final or Sotera Period, the entire complex was overthrown, the buildings razed and the site abandoned, sometime before 50 B.C.E.
Onuki's third expedition ('96-'98) brought the Copa Period graves to light, as excavations pushed out into previously unexplored areas. The graves were in an outlying area, showing that not only the central buildings had potential for rich finds. Consequently, a fourth excavation is now under way.
The importance of the site to the world's heritage, moreover, has become so clear that UNESCO is funding a major three-year effort to fully excavate the stone walls and plazas, after which it will be open to the public.
Already open is the Kuntur Wasi Museum near the site. The cooperation and hard work of the local villagers was central to the success of the dig, and the unexpected, spectacular discoveries sparked local pride, with demands that the relics remain in the vicinity. Funds were raised in Japan, including a Foreign Ministry grant, and the museum opened at the end of 1994 amid general celebration.
One of the purposes of the present exhibition is to raise further funds for the museum, which stands as a monument to Japanese-Peruvian relations and successful, public-spirited archaeology.
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