Cajamarca, Pre-Columbian

Situated in a large intermontaine basin at 9,022 feet (2,750 meters), Cajamarca is the picturesque capital of Cajamarca Department, Peru. Its ancient occupation dates back to around 1500 bce, but it is famous as the place for the historic meeting between Spanish conquistadors and the Inca Atahualpa in 1532.

Early inhabitants relied on the hunting-gathering of diverse resources, including wild plants and animals, especially deer. By 1200 bce, at the Huacaloma excavation site, the first public buildings appeared for small-scale ritual practices, especially the burning of offerings in hearths and ceremonial maintenance. Later architecture at Huacaloma and the larger Layzón site featured terraced platform pyramids with stonemasonry, monumental staircases, drainage canals, and painted plaster murals, indicating greater populations and political centralization. The Cumbemayo Canal formed part of an elaborate religious system focused on water and fertility in economic production. Agriculture and the herding of camelids became predominant by around 500 bce.

The Initial and Early Cajamarca periods (200 bce–500 ce) witnessed an increase in fortified settlements, probably of competitive, ranked societies. By 700 ce, fine Middle Cajamarca "cursive" pottery was popular in many parts of the Andes for funerary and status displays. Trade for the pottery and other products was facilitated by Wari state expansion into a zone characterized by large fortified centers, such as Coyor. Ceremonial architecture focused on mortuary practices: cliff tombs, subterranean chambers, and aboveground chullpa mausolea. These represented key places to keep and venerate honored deceased, often in association with fine Cajamarca tradition ceramics and stone sculptures. Cajamarca's later prehistory saw the spread of the cult of Catequil (a major pre-Hispanic divinity and pilgrimage center), the now-extinct Culle language, and the resurgence of large, wealthy chiefdoms, said to have been integrated as part of the Cuismanco ethnic confederation, which the Incas conquered around 1460 ce.

In Cajamarca, the Incas established a key provincial capital to administer the client populations and economies of northern Peru, especially its prosperous metal and textile industries. Political structures and alliances changed with the Spanish Conquest. Despite a ransom payment filling a room with gold and silver (the modern Cuarto de Rescate), Francisco Pizarro and his men executed Atahualpa, which precipitated the conquest of the Inca Empire.

See alsoAtahualpa; Incas, The; Pizarro, Francisco.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Silva Santisteban, Fernando, Waldemar Espinoza Soriano, and Rogger Ravines, eds. Historia de Cajamarca, 2nd edition. 2 vols. Cajamarca, Peru: Instituto Nacional de Cultura, 1995.

Terada, Kazuo, and Yoshio Onuki. Excavations at Huacaloma in the Cajamarca Valley, Peru, 1979. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1982.

                                        George F. Lau