Oroncota or Huruncuta was an
Inca
The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...
provincial center or capital on the border of
Chuquisaca and
Potosí Department
Potosí (; Aymara language, Aymara: ''Putusi''; qu, P'utuqsi) is a Departments of Bolivia, department in southwestern Bolivia. It comprises 118,218 km2 with 823,517 inhabitants (2012 census). The capital is the city of Potosí.
It is most ...
s of
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
. Oroncota was captured by the
Inca
The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...
s during the reign of
Topa Inca Yupanqui
Topa Inca Yupanqui or Túpac Inca Yupanqui ( qu, 'Tupaq Inka Yupanki'), translated as "noble Inca accountant," (c. 1441–c. 1493) was the tenth Sapa Inca (1471–93) of the Inca Empire, fifth of the Hanan dynasty. His father was Pachacuti, and h ...
(1471-1493) and served as a defensive outpost protecting the eastern frontiers of the Inca empire. The primary residents of the Oroncota area for more than 1,500 years have been the Yampara people. In the 16th century, during the last years of the Inca Empire and the early
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
, Oroncota and its region were under heavy attack by the
Ava Guarani people
The Ava Guaraní are an Indigenous peoples formerly known as Chiriguanos or Chiriguano Indians who speak the Ava Guarani and Eastern Bolivian Guaraní languages. Noted for their warlike character, the Chiriguanos retained their lands in the Ande ...
(Chiriguanos) ethnic group who eventually gained control of the area.
Extensive and scattered ruins of the Inca and Yampara have been excavated by archaeologists.
Setting
The Oroncota area on the eastern slopes of the
Andes
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
consists of the narrow valleys of the
Pilcomayo River
Pilcomayo (in Hispanicized spelling) (Quechua Pillkumayu or Pillku Mayu, ''pillku'' red, ''mayu'' river, "red river", Guarani Ysyry Araguay ) is a river in central South America. At long, it is the longest western tributary of the Paraguay River ...
and its tributary the Inkapampa River for a distance of , at an elevation of about . Agriculture was feasible near the river and on
alluvial fan
An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...
s. Unlike many other Andean prehistoric sites, the inhabitants of Oroncota did not build stone terraces for agriculture.
On the western side of the Pilcomayo River the Pukara or Fortress Plateau rises steeply above the river valleys. The plateau is triangle shaped, about east to west at its widest point and north to south. The average elevation of the plateau is about . Although the climate is semi-arid, in prehistoric and early historic times parts of the plateau were cultivated. In the 21st century, the plateau is uninhabited and the river valleys only sparsely populated.
Oroncota is located southeast of the city of
Sucre
Sucre () is the Capital city, capital of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the List of cities in Bolivia, 6th most populated city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . T ...
and east of the city of
Potosí
Potosí, known as Villa Imperial de Potosí in the colonial period, is the capital city and a municipality of the Department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the highest cities in the world at a nominal . For centuries, it was the location o ...
, the site of the richest silver mines in the Americas in the 16th century. Thus, to protect the highlands and the mines, the control of the Oroncota region was of defensive importance for both the Inca and their
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
successors.
Based on the land suitable for agriculture, archaeologist
Sonia Alconini has calculated that the population of Oroncota was between 1,442 and 4,122 during its existence as a settlement. About two-thirds of the population lived in the valleys and one third on the plateau. The most extensive ruins, and presumably the highest population, are from the Inca period.
Yampara
The Yampara or
Tarabuco
Tarabuco is a Bolivian town in the department of Chuquisaca, capital of the Yamparáez Province and its first section, Tarabuco Municipality. It is best known as the home of the Yampara culture. Its people host the Pujllay festival in March each ...
are the primary ethnic group occupying the Oroncota region. Oroncota was near the southern edge of Yampara territory and other lesser-known ethnic groups such as the Chui and Chicha may have been mixed in with them. The origin of the Yampara is uncertain, although they may have migrated into the area from the east. Although probably speakers of
Pukina, an extinct language, in prehistoric times, by the 16th century they spoke
Aymara
Aymara may refer to:
Languages and people
* Aymaran languages, the second most widespread Andean language
** Aymara language, the main language within that family
** Central Aymara, the other surviving branch of the Aymara(n) family, which today ...
in common with the peoples living on the high
altiplano
The Altiplano (Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechua and Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside Tibet. The plateau is located at the ...
of present-day Bolivia. The Aymara drew a distinction between themselves and the "bow and arrow" (e.g. less civilized) people of the eastern mountains and forests. The Yampara seemed to have inhabited a middle ground between the "civilized" highlanders and the "less-civilized" lowlanders.
Alconini divides the prehistory and early history of Oroncota into four periods: Early Yampara (400-800 CE), Classic Yampara (800-1300 CE), Late Yampara-Inca (1300-1536 CE), and Colonial (1536-1700 CE). The different periods are distinguished by pottery styles. The early Yampara at Oroncota primarily lived in the Pilcomayo valley, but during the Classical Yampara and subsequent times, the plateau became more important for residence. Factors encouraging settlement on the plateau probably included defense.
By the time of the Incas it appears that the Yampara were allied with a number of other Aymara kingdoms in the
Charcas confederation. During Inca, and possibly earlier times, and in common with other Andean peoples, the Yampara were organized into an upper and lower
moiety
Moiety may refer to:
Chemistry
* Moiety (chemistry), a part or functional group of a molecule
** Moiety conservation, conservation of a subgroup in a chemical species
Anthropology
* Moiety (kinship), either of two groups into which a society is ...
. The center of the upper moiety was in Yotala about south of Sucre and the lower moiety was centered in Quilaquila, southwest of Sucre. Each moiety had 10
ayllu
The ''ayllu'', a family clan, is the traditional form of a community in the Andes, especially among Quechuas and Aymaras. They are an indigenous local government model across the Andes region of South America, particularly in Bolivia and Peru.
...
s (territorial clans).
Illustrating that the Yampara at Oroncota remained some independence from the Incas is the archaeological site of Yoroma, north of Oroncota near the junction of the Pilcomayo and Incapampa rivers. Yoroma was a center for lithic tool-making and ceremonial feasting for both the Yampara and Inca. However, Yoroma retained its Yampara character during Inca times and its leaders and elites prospered. The Yampara of Yoroma retained autonomy and functioned more as allies than subjects of the Inca—perhaps united by a common enemy, the Chiriguanos.
Incas and Spanish
The Yampara and other people of the eastern Andes came under the influence of the Inca Empire in the 15th century. The Spanish chronicler,
Bernabé Cobo
Padre Bernabé Cobo (born at Lopera in Spain, 1582; died at Lima, Peru, 9 October 1657) was a Spanish Jesuit missionary and writer. He played a part in the early history of quinine by his description of cinchona bark; he brought some to Europe on ...
, said that during the reign of emperor
Tupac Yupanqui
Topa Inca Yupanqui or Túpac Inca Yupanqui ( qu, 'Tupaq Inka Yupanki'), translated as "noble Inca accountant," (c. 1441–c. 1493) was the tenth Sapa Inca (1471–93) of the Inca Empire, fifth of the Hanan dynasty. His father was Pachacuti, and ...
(1471-1493) the Inca attempted to incorporate the Aymara kingdoms and the eastern Andes into their empire. 20,000 people fled the invading Inca army and took refuge on the plateau at Oroncota. Unable to overcome the defenses of the plateau, Tupac Yupanqui staged fiestas and offered beautiful women to lure the defenders out of their fortress plateau, then sent his army forward to capture Oroncota and incorporate it into the empire as part of Inca
Collasuyu
Qullasuyu (Quechua and Aymara spelling, ; Hispanicized spellings: ''Collasuyu, Kholla Suyu'') was the southeastern provincial region of the Inca Empire. Qullasuyu is the region of the Qulla and related specifically to the native Qulla Quechuas wh ...
.
This story has fanciful elements, but may be in essence true. In whatever case, the Incas established a presence in Oroncota. They built three complexes mixed in among the Yampara settlements. The first and largest, called Oroncota, was near the center of the plateau and covered an area of . It featured a main plaza, surrounded by buildings and
qullqa
A qullqa ( "deposit, storehouse"; (spelling variants: ''colca, collca, qolca, qollca'') was a storage building found along roads and near the cities and political centers of the Inca Empire. To a "prodigious xtentunprecedented in the annals of ...
s for storage. The stonework was characteristic of high-prestige Inca architecture, indicating that the buildings symbolized Inca administration and control. A second site on the plateau, El Pedregal, about south, was a defensive outpost in an unpopulated area covering . The third Inca complex, Inkarry Moqo, was located near the Inkapampa River about north of Oroncota, covered , and was apparently dedicated to collecting and storing agricultural products. The Inca facilities at Oroncota were small compared to those of other provincial settlements.
The Incas interest and control of Oroncota illustrates the oft-cited principle of the
vertical archipelago The vertical archipelago is a term coined by sociologist and anthropologist John Victor Murra under the influence of economist Karl Polanyi to describe the native Andean agricultural economic model of accessing and distributing resources. While som ...
attributed to the Incas and their predecessors who lived on the austere Altiplano of Peru and Bolivia. Needing the agricultural products grown at lower altitudes, especially
maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
,
coca
Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine.
The plant is grown as a cash crop in the Argentine Northwest, Bolivia, Al ...
, and
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
, the Incas established colonies or gained control in areas of lower elevations and warmer climates. Oroncota also had the function of frontier defense, protecting the empire from the raids of the Guarani people derisively called Chiriguanaes by the Incas and Chiriguanos by the Spanish. About east of Oroncota the Incas established a chain of defensive outposts to defend Oroncota and the transportation corridor to the Andes highlands. The outposts from north to south were Incaprica, Cuzcotoro, Iñao, and Incahuasi.
Beginning about 1520, Chiriguano raids threatened the eastern Andes frontier of the Incas (and later the Spanish). Two Yampara officials, Aymoro and his son, Francisco Aymoro, led the effort to retain Inca control. The Incas sent officials (Ojejones) and
mitma Mitma was a policy of forced resettlement employed by the Incas. It involved the forceful migration of groups of extended families or ethnic groups from their home territory to lands recently conquered by the Incas. The objective was to transfer bo ...
(highland populations forced to move to recently conquered areas) to bolster the defenses by staffing and provisioning Oroncota and other Inca settlements. The Aymoros, Yampara, Orejones, and mitma probably held Oroncota for a time against the Chiriguanos.
After their conquest of the Inca Empire in the 1530s, the Spanish continued to face a military challenge from the Chiriguanos in the eastern Andes. Viceroy
Francisco de Toledo
Francisco Álvarez de Toledo ( Oropesa, 10 July 1515 – Escalona, 21 April 1582), also known as ''The Viceroyal Solon'', was an aristocrat and soldier of the Kingdom of Spain and the fifth Viceroy of Peru. Often regarded as the "best of P ...
visited Oroncota or passed nearby in 1574 during a failed Spanish military operation against the Chiriguanos. He made an apparent reference to Oroncota when he mentioned that the "final Inca fortresses" had been captured by the Chiriguanos.
[Scholl, 306]
References
{{reflist, 2
Archaeological sites in Bolivia
Prehistory of Bolivia
Former populated places in Bolivia
Ruins in Bolivia
History of the Inca civilization
Chuquisaca Department
Ethnic groups in Bolivia
Potosí Department
Inca Empire