Site Library Library of the Americas

The Chachapoyas

The Cloud People, Warriors of the Clouds
The Chachapoyas of Peru

The name Chachapoya is in fact the name that was given to this culture by the Inca; the name that these people may have actually used to refer to themselves is not known. The meaning of the word Chachapoyas may have been derived from sacha-p-collas, the equivalent of "colla people who live in the “woods” (sacha = wild p = of the colla = nation in which Aymara is spoken). Some believe the word is a variant of the Quechua construction sacha puya, or people of the clouds.

Five hundred years before the Inca, a remarkable band of warriors called the Chachapoya built some of the greatest stone monument in the Americas, yet their civilization vanished almost without a trace.

The Chachapoyas' territory was located in the northern regions of the Andes in present-day Peru. It encompassed the triangular region formed by the confluence of the rivers Marañón and Utcumbamba in the zone of Bagua, up to the basin of the Abiseo river, where the ruins of Pajaten are located. This territory also included land to the south up to the Chontayacu river, exceeding the limits of the current Department of Amazonas towards the south. But the center of the Chachapoyas culture was the basin of the Utcubamba river. Due to the great size of the Marañón river and the surrounding mountainous terrain, the region was relatively isolated from the coast and other areas of Peru, although there is archaeological evidence of some interaction between the Chachapoyas and other cultures. The Chachapoya were talented engineers whose various burial practices lead them to build mountain side mausoleums in honor the afterlife of their dead. Mummy bundles wrapped in the finest of textiles were set high in Andean caves, often marked with red arches to identify them.

The three most important archaeological sites of the Chachapoya are Keulap, Gran Pajaten and Vira Vira.

VIRA VIRA
Keith Muscutt describes the ruins that sit on a high mountain top, with the sacred Huayabamba lake to the north and the jungle to the east as magical. The summit city of Vira Vira is comprised over ovr 200 Chachapoya roundhouses enclosed by a defensive wall. Nearby cliff tombs near Tajopampa may still contain mummies and artifacts that have not been descrated and destroyed by tomb robbers searching for golden artifacts buried within the mummy bundles.

KUELAP
The construction of the Kuelap fortress began in the 6th century and is the largest stone structure of South America (Kuelap sits on an escarpment at 9,840 ft (3,000 m). Massive walls form a giant platform on which the city is built. The exterior walls rise up to 65 ft (20 m) tall, and extend along the ridge for 639 yds (584 m). It has five levels of gigantic walls inside walls and contains 400 stone houses. It is located on a mountain higher than Machu Picchu, is much older than the Inca Empire and was built to stop the mightiest empire of the Americas, the Wari (Huari) or Tiahuanaco Empire of Bolivia.

To enter the site there are three narrow entrances and once inside there are many roundhouses typical of Chachapoya design. There are two obvious religious places namely the Castillo which is a platform overlooking the second entrance and the unusual tintero, which appears like a chopped off inverted cone. Much of the site is covered by trees, laden with bromiliads orchids and mosses and home to many birds.

GRAND PAJATEN
Gran Pajáten sits on a hilltop, and consists of a series of at least 26 circular stone structures atop numerous terraces and stairways. The ruins occupy an area of about 20,000 m². The principal buildings are decorated with slate mosaics displaying human, bird and geometric motifs. Analysis of ceramic samples and radiocarbon dates show that the area was occupied as early as 200 BCE, but the visible building ruins on the present site were constructed during Inca times. Based primarily on architectural evidence, the settlement is attributed to the Chachapoyas culture.

The Cloud Peoples made up of several separate City States never united into one force, even when faced by Incan aggression. After 50 years of successfully fighting against the Inca during the government of Tupac Inca Yupanqui in 1470 the Chachapoya were subdued. There is abundant historical information regarding this era especially in the chronicle of Pedro Cieza de Leon Cieza, the Spanish conquistador.





Sources: The History Channel: http://www.history.com/media.do?action=clip&id=mysteries_chachapoyahistory_broadband http://www.history.com/media.do?action=clip&id=mysteries_chachapoyatombs_broadband http://chachapoyas.com/ http://www.vilayatours.com Wikipedia

The Mayan Class Structure
Visegimal system
Haab
Skye - Eilean a' Cheò, The Misty Isle
Longcount
Kulkulkan pyramid

The Chachapoyas

Temple of Inscriptions