Cochasquí

Historical context

The society responsible for building Cochasquí is the Caranqui Culture, from the integration period. This society inhabited the northern Ecuadorian highlands, the limits of their territory extended from the Chota river, on the north, to the Guayllabamba river to the south. The Caranqui Culture was heavily agrarian, most of the population lived dispersed through the countryside, in little villages and hamlets. A group of villages formed a chiefdom, which was ruled by a chief or cacique. It is thought that the chiefdom of Cochasquí was one of the most powerful of the Caranqui countries, among others like Otavalo, Cayambe or Caranqui (modern day Ibarra). It is these chiefdoms that oversaw the construction of this kind of monumental complexes of truncated pyramids and earthen mounds. These would have been places for gathering, where the many communities of the chiefdom would come together to celebrate holly days and ceremonies. Maybe these were also the residences for the caciques. For this reason, there are examples of this kind of sites all over the Caranqui countries. Cochasquí is the most famous examples, though it is not the biggest of them, that title goes to La Zuleta site, where 148 mounds and pyramids have been registered.^[5]

History of the site

The human occupation of the site began around 950 AD, when the first settlers arrived. Archaeologists recognize first settlers under the name of Cochasquí I phase. None of the mounds or pyramids were built during this phase, their construction began during the next phase, Cochasquí II, which began around 1250, and lasted until 1550 AD.^[6] The pyramid building was a long process, they were built at different times, and some of the pyramids were even built in multiple phases, enlarging older and smaller pyramids.^[2]

Towards the end of the prehispanic period, the Incas conquered the region. Their influence in Cochasquí has been shown through the finds of Inca pottery in the site. In the incan empire, Cochasquí became an important tambo, which is a way station where travelers of the Inca roads could stop and rest. Some have speculated of the possibility that the native people of Cohcasquí may have been deported to the Cajamarca region, in Peru, under the Inca Mit'a system. And in the same manner, people from Cajamarca may have been brought to Cochasquí.^[2]

The first written references mentioning Cochasquí date to 1538 AD, during the period of the Spanish conquest. It seems that back then, the name Cochasquí referred to the entire mountain today known as Mojanda, instead of any specific site. By 1561, Cochasquí became an encomienda, which was assigned to don Antón Diez, who also held the encomiendas of Patate, Píllaro, Tanta and Tulcán. It is known that at this moment, the chief or cacique of Cochasquí was one Alonso Andaparinango. In the decades that followed the assignment of Cochasquí to Mr. Diez, the site was slowly depopulated as people moved to neighboring settlements, like Malchinguí, Tocachi or Cotacachi. In 1655, Cochasquí was transformed into an hacienda or estate, whose majorat was don Manuel Freire. The Freire family owned of the estate until the independence from Spain in the 1800's.^[2]

In the 1700's, the French Geodesic Mission arrived in what is now Ecuador, with the objective of measuring the circumference of the earth. They made use of the site as a key point to make astronomic observations. The astronomer Pierre Bouguer said that he made some measurements from the top of one of the truncated pyramids on March 20th, 1740.^[7]

It was during the republican period that public interest on the site began to develop. In 1932 the first archeological excavation of the site took place, funded by local historian and amateur archaeologist Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño. The person he chose to direct the dig was the renowned German archaeologist Max Uhle. By this moment, Uhle was 76 years old, Cochasquí was the last site that he excavated in Ecuador. When he arrived on the site, pyramid G had been severely destroyed by looters, the great hole left by them can still be seen today.^[6]

Between 1964 and 1965, a group of German archeologists from Bonn University decided to continue the excavations started three decades earlier by Max Uhle. They were Roswith Hartmann, Wolfgang W. Wurster, Jürgen Wentscher and the leader of the expedition, Udo Oberem. It is also worth mentioning the participation of the renowned Colombian archaeologist Julio César Cubillos. They became known as the "Grupo Ecuador" of Bonn University.^[6]

This renewed interest in the site led to the creation of the Cochasquí Arcaheological Park in 1981.^[7]

Earthen mounds

There are around 15 circular mounds towards the south of the pyramids, though it is thought that there were more in the past. Some have been located using aerial pictures. Some of these mounds were graves. In mound "a" for examples, a woman's skeleton was found accompanied by and offering of three vases and seven deformed human skulls. On mound "n", they found a 3 meter deep grave shaft with and offering of multiple vases and a stone mortar, the skeleton of this grave unfortunately did not preserve. However, not all of the mounds were graves, mound "h" and "x" for examples were excavated but no bones or offerings of any kind were found.^[2] Contrary to popular belief, no gold or any precious metal has been found in any of these mounds.

Truncated pyramids

Above: Cangahua blocks lining the side of a pyramid. Centre: Channels on top of pyramid "E". Below: Architectural miniature representing a truncated pyramid.

The so called truncated pyramids are structures of a rectangular plan. Contrary to common pyramids, these do not have a pointy end, because their slopes are interrupted to form a flat rectangular platform. Nine of the 15 truncated pyramids in Cochasquí have a long ramp that gradually climbs to the top, providing easy access to the platform. These ramps give the pyramids a T shaped plan.^[2]

The main building material for the pyramids was dirt, which was used as filling material to stuff the space in between retaining walls built with cangahua.^[2] Cangahua is a type of very soft volcanic rock, similar to the volcanic tuff,^[8] which is very common in the surroundings of the site.^[5] These retaining walls are distributed in a disorderly manner in the interior of the pyramids, and they are composed of rectangular and polygonal blocks. The outer slopes of the pyramids were lined with rows of rectangular cangahua blocks which allowed to keep them at a steep angle of 20° to 35°. The dirt alone would collapse at this angle. However, it looks like these lining blocks were originally not visible, they were covered with a layer of mud.^[2]

Excavations in the platform of pyramid "E" found the foundations of two structures, giving us an idea of how the pyramids would have looked when they were in use. These were made up of a mud slab burnt to the brick texture. Only one of the two structure was in a good state of preservation. In its interior there were two carefully excavated channels, oriented at an angle from each other. In one of them there were three embedded conical stones. The functions of these channels is not completely known. Further information from the original appearance of the pyramids can be obtained from a Caranqui miniature model made of clay. This model shows a rounded hut on top of the pyramid (which may correlate to the circular slabs found in pyramid "E") and a wall surrounding the entirety of the platform, opening only in the access through the ramp.^[2]

It is thought that these pyramids would have served as temples, where rituals and ceremonies were performed. It is logical to think that these ceremonies would have started with a procession through the ramp for the public to see. But they would have continued privately upon arriving at the top, because the walls would block the view from the outside.^[7]