$Unique_ID{COW00434} $Pretitle{266} $Title{Bolivia Pre-Columbian Cultures of Bolivia} $Subtitle{} $Author{Amy Oakland Rodman} $Affiliation{Embassy of Bolivia, Washington DC} $Subject{tiwanaku altiplano stone early discovered ceramics aymara carved ceramic known} $Date{1989} $Log{} Country: Bolivia Book: The Cultural Guide of Bolivia Author: Amy Oakland Rodman Affiliation: Embassy of Bolivia, Washington DC Date: 1989 Pre-Columbian Cultures of Bolivia In one of Bolivia's early sites called Viscachani, an unusual quantity of early point types have been preserved close to the surface. In 1954, archaeologist Dick Edgar Ibarra Grasso discovered and recorded more than 12,000 individual examples. Similar lithic material has been reported in Bolivia near Oruro, Lipez, Potosi, Villa-Villa and Cliza in Cochabamba, and La Candelaria in Chuquisaca. Because preservation of perishable artifacts is virtually impossible in the Altiplano due to the severe climatic changes and soil conditions, we know very little of the material remains of these early people and even less about their spiritual life. To attempt any cultural reconstruction one must try to reconstruct from the non-perishable objects that remain, especially those perishable objects which were essential to the lifestyle. The almost indestructible projectile points must have been lashed with fiber cords to wooden spear throwers, to arrow shafts or long wooden spears. Extra points were held ready for use in small bags of knotted fiber cordage or in looped nets. Hats and simple garments may have been formed from leather pelts or of knotted, interlinked or looped fiber textiles. Wherever preserved, the remarkable variety of early fabric structures shows a highly developed technology, one that played a large part in human environmental adaptation, and one that became the first major Andean art form. Simple, non-woven textile techniques perfected during these early periods continue to be used today in the form of basketry and netting. In some tropical areas east of the Andes the identical structures are today shaped into bags, hats and carrying straps. The designs produced by the structures of these non-woven techniques were an important influence in the iconography of later loom woven fabrics. Undoubtedly, in the Altiplano, the major fiber source was the hair of the wild camelid herds. In succeeding millennia, a process of collecting native grains and tubers was slowly developed in the Altiplano and within inter-mountain valleys. Early man followed a seasonal cycle of hunting and gathering around the lake borders and traveling to the eastern valleys and the desert coast of southern Peru and northern Chile. Evidence dating to around B.C. 4,000 attests to the collection of quinua and perhaps the b eginning of settled agricultural life coupled with pastoral activities. One of the most important aspects of early life in the Altiplano was the domestication of the llama and the alpaca. Early camelid pasturing centering around the Lake Titicaca basin, developed in conjunction with arable farming, proved to be the successful combination the gave rise to the great Andean civilizations. To understand the importance of the llama to Altiplano people one has only to view the hundreds of carved stone llama heads remaining from sites attributed to Wankarani villages. The mounds have been formed by continuous occupation of collapsed adobe constructions built within the confines of a large adobe wall. Circular Wankarani houses with thached straw roofs were clustered inside the walled compound. As houses became obsolete, they were simply tumbled to the earth and others built on top. Some settlements were quite small with about 15 house structures, while a few others contained over 780 units suggesting a population of over 3,000 inhabitants. Although none have been found in place, the form of the stone llama heads suggests that they were tenoned horizontally or vertically into walls. The large ears and squared eyes and mouth are prominent features. The llama provided protein to supplement a diet of grains and tubers and was valued for its wool and its capacity as a beast of burden. Llama dung was used as fertilizer in agricultural fields and was perhaps the valued fuel in kilnfired ceramics, as it is still used today for high altitude firing. In addition to stone, ceramics are also major cultural markers used by archaeologists. Wanakarani ceramics have simple shapes without design or applied colors. In clay, as in stone, the Wankarani people shaped heads of Ilamas. These are the only artistic products to survive the culture. Perhaps the most important feature discovered in Wankarani sites is evidence of copper smelting in the earliest occupation levels around B.C. 1200 to 800. These dates are among the earliest in the Andes associated with metal working and are contemporaneous with other metal-using cultures of Chile and Peru. Chiripa At about the same time, around B.C. 1000, the cultural complex known as Chiripa developed around the southern shores of Lake Titicaca. Additional sites attributed to the Chiripa culture are found on the Copacabana peninsula and as far south as the Moquegua Valley in southern Peru. The archaeological remains at Chiripa offer a fundamentally different view of early settled Altiplano life. The large mound visible today at Chiripa was formed artificially and faced with stone, perhaps an intentional imitation of the Andean mountain peaks visible in the landscape. In contrast to the scattered round houses of Wankarani, Chiripa houses were carefully arranged around a central courtyard. Their form was architecturally exact, square, with double walls perhaps used for storage, and they were dug into the mound's surface forming subterranean structures. Sometime between B.C. 500-100 the central plaza was renovated. A subterranean temple became the new religious focus with a facing of elaborately carved stone wall plaques. Stone stelae also carved with religious motifs of snakes and human or deity representations were erected in the central open space. The classic Chiripa art style is evident in the iconography carved into one stone panel now housed in the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia in La Paz and a similar one found near Copacabana. In both, a central face is surrounded by scroll and arrow motifs facing the cardinal directions. Llama figures fill the central side space and undulating snakes or cross designs fill the four corners. Each is carefully executed in shallow relief carving. The bilateral symmetry of the entire image and the two feet projecting above and below the central face are evidence of the duality understood in the social and religious life, the forces of male and female in the natural world and perhaps even the divided leadership which would become common in the later Aymara populations. The entire mound was undoubtedly considered a sacred precinct and was reused later as a temple by the Tiwanaku culture and in the same capacity by the Incas. The execution of these monumental architectural embellishments is exquisite. It is probable that the stone carving tradition for which the Bolivian Altiplano is famous had roots in the Chiripa and Wankarani cultures. Exotic artifacts traded into the Altiplano such as metals and semi-precious stones found at many Chiripa sites suggest a connection with areas outside of the Altiplano such as the Cochabamba valley or the desert coast of Peru and Chile. Textiles, perhaps related to the Chiripa cultures, have been discovered near Arica, Chile. These fabrics are known in Chile as part of "Alto Ramirez", a culture with close ties to the Altiplano, especially visible in the designs woven into interlocked tapestry blankets and tunic borders. Llamas are portrayed in profile with rayed deity faces and mountain images. Other important figures are designs of toads, perhaps water symbols, divided into four sections. The tunics were apparently worn with tall helmets of looped camelid fiber decorated with stepped mountain designs. Clothing iconography in these remote periods establishes sound identity with a homeland high in the Altiplano. The beautiful red and blue dyes (relbunium or cochineal and indigo) used in all Alto Ramirez textiles attests to a strong and long-standing fabric tradition and probably a trade or exchange in important dyestuffs already established. The llamas carved into stone and woven into textiles must certainly have been a common site as organized caravans circulated within the different Andean zones. Local Altiplano products and status validating goods such as brightly dyed textiles, shells, metals, stones and feathers were exchanged for valley and coastal products. Life in the Altiplano was made easier from very early times through these continuous caravan connections. This economic complementarity or verticality has been the subject of many recent studies. It remains impossible in most investigations to determine whether goods were exchanged through trade networks with local inhabitants or were exploited by colonies of Altiplano people placed specifically in a variety of productive ecological zones. Whether or not the Alto Ramirez people were in fact colonists of the Chiripa or another Altiplano culture remains uncertain, but their common ties are undeniable. The Cochabamba valley was another area of constant Altiplano interaction and one of the most important productive zones in Bolivia. Although little archaeological investigation has defined the early occupations of this region, it is apparent that settlements with early ceramic types were scattered throughout the area. Stylistic connections suggest Altiplano and coastal influences. Cochabamba, Chullpa-Pampa, Chullpa-Pata One site with very early ceramics discovered in Cochabamba is known as Chullpa-Pampa. Situated on the hills above the plain of Cochabamba (almost certainly in a depression formed by an ancient lake bottom), the area has yielded small globular ceramics with simple shapes and decorated with simple appliqued human facial features with snakes or other animal forms. The ceramics are so similar to Wankarani Altiplano types and to others found in Arica that early coastal/valley/Altiplano connections are obvious. No domestic architecture has yet been discovered, and only a few stone hoes suggest the presence of agriculture. In 1982, other early ceramic sites were uncovered near Cochamba. A site known as Chullpa Pata was discovered near the community of Cliza and another in Sierra Mokko northeast of Quillacollo. Stratigrafic excavations yielding a variety of local ceramic types suggest an independent, yet co-existing tradition in the valley. One large stone and adobe structure discovered in the lower levels of the excavation at Chullpa Pata formed the base of a square or rectangular pyramid, another artificial mountain undoubtedly used for ceremonial functions. The most interesting art forms discovered in these early Cochabamba sites are the small, beautifully carved and often polished stone figures. Many decorated without obvious sexual symbolism apparently represented human fertility objects while others suggest connection with natural phenomenon such as water and rain. Tiwanaku No commentary on Bolivia's prehistoric cultures would be complete without a discussion of Tiwanaku. Most visitors are aware of the beautiful and mysterious Altiplano site located just south of Lake Titicaca where stone sculptures and monumental stone architecture remain standing. But few understand the duration and extent of this important culture's influence throughout Bolivia, southern Peru, northern Chile, and northwest Argentina, an area known as the South Central Andes. About the same time that Chiripa was developing elsewhere, around 1000 B.C., a small village of the first Tiwanaku inhabitants was established in the area of the Kalasasaya at the site of Tiwanaku (see map). The occupation is known by a particular ceramic type called Kalasasaya or Tiwanaku I. The first images of the puma or jaguar, an animal motif common to later Tiwanaku style, is evident in simple representations in the first Tiwanaku ceramic type. Birds, perhaps ducks, were modeled and painted and human images were also formed. Little is known of the layout or ornamentation of this early Tiwanaku settlement because the area was extensively renovated in subsequent centuries. Some investigators believe that at least some of the stone sculpture discovered in excavations at the site could pertain to this early period. One candidate for an early date is the small monolith which was originally erected in the center of the subterranean temple in front of the Kalasasaya. The snake images on the monolith's sides recall Chiripa designs and the duality expressed by the figures on the monolith's two faces could represent a sexual dyad similar to that suggested by the Chiripa image. The Chave (1975) have termed this monolith style "yaya-mama" to represent its sexual meaning which means "father-mother" in Aymara. The appearance of a new painted style designated Tiwanaku III or Early Tiwanaku marks the first major architectural growth of Tiwanaku. Ceramics of this period were painted with designs loosely resembling pumas and birds. Some distinctive vessel shapes clearly influenced the more widely known ceramics of the succeeding Classic period of Tiwanaku or Tiwanaku IV, such as the open bowl with a scalloped rim, hollow base, and appliqued modeled feline heads. These particular vessels have been termed "incensarios" and have been discovered with obvious burned interiors giving evidence to their use. Much of the architecture and monumental embellishment of Tiwanaku was probably carried out during this stage of Tiwanaku III, a period just prior to the Classic developments of Tiwanaku IV. Monoliths which have recently been uncovered, such as the curved lintel from Kantatayaita and the large anthropomorphic stele erected outside the walls of the Kalasasaya, reveal a style in contrast with the very standard iconography of the Classic period. It is possible to picture the site of Tiwanaku at the time as an extremely large ceremonial and urban center with palaces, temples and monumental stepped pyramids faced with megalithic pillars and cut stone blocks, further decorated with solid stone staircases and carved sculpture. Tiwanaku III ceramics, architectural units, and monoliths possibly dated to the same period have been discovered not only at the Tiwanaku site, but in many sites surrounding the southern portion of Lake Titicaca, signifying a widespread cultural diffusion into this area. Tiwanaku Altiplano sites of lesser importance such as Lucurmata, Wankani, Mocachi, and Qallamarka, contain smaller scale sculpture and architectural units which replicate those of the Tiwanaku site; still no other center equals that of Tiwanaku in scale or degree of elaboration. During the succeeding Tiwanaku IV or Classic period, the site of Tiwanaku and possibly the allied, smaller altiplano sites as well, underwent architectural expansion and a massive program of site beautification. Building projects complete with megalithic sculptural decorations were executed in all the major precincts. The Classic style and the following Tiwanaku V or Expansive style was spread throughout the South Central Andes in ceramics and portable art carved in wood and bone and woven into textiles. Classic style Tiwanaku pottery has been discovered widely distributed around the entire Lake Titicaca basin and in the surrounding regions of the Altiplano, in Cochabamba and the Mizque Valley, in Moquegua, Peru and Arica and San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile. The iconography of the Classic Tiwanaku style, although highly stylized, reveals a great deal about the material culture. A central deity figure, recognized with a rayed headdress, always portrayed frontally and holding staffs (perhaps spear throwers), was certainly the major Tiwanaku god. Attendant figures are depicted in profile as human or animal headed images often holding staffs as well. In one image drawn in fine line incision on the back of the Ponce monolith, attendants are depicted holding raised cups in some unidentifiable ceremony. Often staffs end in human heads, or heads are held by the hair in other clear images carved in portable Tiwanaku art. Headless bodies have been discovered in Tiwanaku burials. Burials of heads alone implies a certain cult of trophy head collecting or a value in the severed head. The tenoned stone heads of the Semisubterranean temple represent a monumental form of human sacrifice on permanent display. Tiwanaku rulers may be represented in the monolithis carved in human form which were erected in the central plazas throughout the site. Recorded for later periods of Andean history, standing stones representing humans were important intercessors between the physical world and that inhabited by the gods. During the Inca period, the Inca ruler, himself considered a god, stood on a platform in the center of the plaza in the Inca capital at Cuzco. His function as intercessor with the natural world and with the other gods must have equalled the Tiwanaku stone figure's functions. It is possible that during an important ruler's reign or to commemorate his death, Tiwanaku craftsmen shaped stones in recognition of his power. Stone images wear clothing resembling garments discovered in Tiwanaku burials on the Chilean coast and desert highlands. Tiwanaku costumes were brilliantly dyed and often highly patterned. Furry hats formed of strips of dyed alpaca hair coiled or knotted over a straw foundation have been uncovered in burials of Tiwanaku affiliation in San Pedro de Atacama in the Chilean desert highlands. These hats closely resemble headwear worn by Tiwanaku people shaped in Tiwanaku ceramics and carved in stone. Tapestry tunics also uncovered in the Chilean desert with Tiwanaku images show the high quality of weaving and dyeing produced by covering the monoliths carved in human form. Other Tiwanaku textiles shaped into bags and narrow bands discovered in Bolivian dry caves and burials in the coastal desert once wrapped and protected objects of Tiwanaku's important cult of hallucinogenic snuff known as the "complejo de rape". Wooden and stone tablets, mortars, spoons and tubes often carved with Tiwanaku religious iconography have been discovered in sites located throughout the South Central Andes. The objects held in the hands of Tiwanaku monoliths could represent "keros" (cups) of chicha or maize beer or drug tablets, all important ceremonial items. During the Tiwanaku period, as before, large caravans of llamas, figures often carved on wooden snuff tablets, traveled throughout the South Central Andes carrying Altiplano agricultural produce, salt, and manufactured items such as the textiles and cult objects connected with the "rape" complex. As evidence of the importance given to ceremonial maize and drug plants, Tiwanaku llama images clearly carry maize on their backs and other vegetation symbols perhaps representing the hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus. The presence of these objects decorated with Tiwanaku motifs used with the snuff complex is the most often cited evidence for Tiwanaku influence in the South Central Andes. Instead of any major military conquest, it seems that Tiwanaku culture spread with the simultaneous exchange of economic produce and ideological doctrine. During the period of Tiwanaku IV and V (500-1000 A.D.) most formerly independent cultures of Bolivia, southern Peru, northern Chile and northwest Argentina became part of the Tiwanaku empire. As Tiwanaku was consolidating its control of the Bolivian Altiplano around 200 A.D., other local cultures were developing outside of the Tiwanaku sphere of influence in the lowland valleys and along the broad river basins of Bolivia's eastern frontier with the region of tropical "selva". In the Cochabamba valley a ceramic style developed known as Tupuraya. A similar though distinct style and associated culture called Mojocoya has been found in the area near and to the south of the Mizque River. No archaeological investigations have yet identified house type or settlement pattern of either of these cultures, however it is obvious from several ceramic vessel shapes, from the spears used in fishing and the textile techniques of simple looping, knotting and interlacing using plant fibers, that the cultures were influenced by their tropical environment and perhaps tropical origins. The Tupuraya ceramic style is painted with black and red ceramic slips on a white ground. Forms include tripod and tetrapod vessels and a wide flaring beaker similar to the Tiwanaku "kero". Closely allied vessel shapes, the tripods and kero forms were used by the Mojocoya people who painted red and black colors on an orange slipped ground. Burial caves have been located with abundant Mojocoya pottery and textiles. White cotton bags and tunics were woven in simple warp-faced plain weave and were painted orange-red with iron oxide pigments. Tunics were often embellished around the sleeve and neck openings, with embroidered geometric and zoomorphic figures. Warp stripes of brown or blue dyed cotton or more brightly dyed alpaca were a common decorative feature in the many simple bags which have been preserved. Omereque, Mojocoya and Tiwanaku influence After about 500 A.D. Tiwanaku influence was felt in almost all parts of Bolivia, northern Chile and southern Peru. In addition to the local Mojocoya ceramic style and textile articles woven of cotton, the caves of Mojocoya were filled with ceramics of definite Tiwanaku origin and textiles which have been linked to the Tiwanaku culture through their particular structures and use of brightly dyed alpaca yarns. Small bags woven of interlocked tapestry around a circular warp and narrow bands woven of a variety of complicated structures including supplementary-warps, complementary-warps, transposed warps and float weaves have been discovered in portable articles of the Tiwanaku culture especially associated with Tiwanaku's drug cult of hallucinogenic snuff, snuff tablets, tubes and textiles. These remain the best documented markers of Tiwanaku presence in areas outside of the Altiplano. After the fall of Tiwanaku around 1100 A.D. a proliferation of local groups, evidenced in a multitude of new ceramic types, evolved to control the vast territory formerly held under Tiwanaku influence. Undoubtedly these late kingdoms and chiefdoms found in all parts of Bolivia were created from the local inhabitants established in earlier periods. The major characteristic of the regional development period is the political and social unrest evident in the establishment of fortified villages or "pucaras" high on hilltops. One ceramic type dated to the period of declining Tiwanaku influence is known as Yampara and has been discovered in a large variety of sites in the departments of Cochabamba and Chuquisaca. Beautiful large pitchers and smaller cups with straight horizontal handles were decorated with a variety of complex designs suggesting geometric natural forms. In another similar, yet distinct ceramic type recently identified as Ciaco, the clay body is white kaolin and the decoration is painted in red, yellow and black. The Ciaco style represents the ceramic type made by the local inhabitants of the Cochabamba valley, perhaps the Chuis or Cotas described in colonial documents. Vessel forms and some decorative elements share characteristics with Inca ceramics which arrived in the valley during Inca military campaigns or with Inca colonists between 1450 and 1538. No large ceremonial precincts, decorated architecture, or stone sculpture have been uncovered dating to this period. Instead of the standardized religious practices noted during Tiwanaku influence, it appears that a localized religion concerned with natural sacred places in the landscape was followed. Altiplano and Aymara kingdoms With the fall of Tiwanaku, the Lake Titicaca basin, which had been under central bed control for almost a millenium, was served into distinct political and possibly ethnic groups. These independent Aymara kingdoms shared a common language and many cultural patterns such as burial practices in stone or adobe towers known as "chullpas". There is evidence, however, to suggest that domestic house structures varied between round and square preference within groups. Pottery was distinct and other practices may indicate ancient ethnic differences. Historical documents recorded at the time of the Spanish invasion reveal that the most powerful kingdoms were the Lupaca, with their capital at Chuquito located southwest of Lake Titicaca, and the Colla, located just to the north with their capital at Huatuncolla near present-day Puno. Apparently, territorial rivalry kept these two nations in constant warfare and around 1430 the Lupaca succeeded in conquering the Colla and sacking the town of Huatuncolla. Political control within the Aymara kingdoms was divided between two separate rulers reflecting the dual division of Aymara territory into two groups called moities. One moity division was known in Aymara as the Alasaa sector and the other as the Maasaa. Within the Lupaca kingdom of the early 1400s we know that the Alasaa ruler was Cari and the Maasaa ruler was named Cusi. Cari was given more deference and greater status and apparently controlled a larger territory than the Maasaa ruler Cusi. Each town was also divided into an Alasaa or Maasaa moity with a separate lord governing each sector. This dual leadership was an important facet of Aymara political, social, and religious life and may have been a continuation of a similarly divided system evident within the art of ancient Bolivian cultures. Power resided in the lineages of kings and lords and the architectural vestiges of the rule remains today in the standing burial towers "chullpas", the most obvious cultural marker of the period. Some were formed of blocks of highly polished stone decorated in shallow relief with shakes and other animal forms. Others were constructed of sections of thick adobe and straw, and some contained a mixture of the two materials. The chullpas were planned and built as a magnificent, prominent and obvious display of strength and grandeur. The grouping of several chullpas within a specific area suggests territorial markers and may in fact represent cemeteries of specific lineages within the various kingdoms. In most, the dead were buried within a small chamber just above or below ground level. There is evidence that the Aymara towns contained several standing stelae in human form. None have been excavated within any particular architectural precinct or obvious ceremonial sector, rather, it seems that monoliths during this period were worshiped in natural settings especially in locations on hilltops. Those carved stone statues that have been uncovered around the Lake Titicaca basin appear to have certain common resemblances one to another and to very early types discovered in the site of Tiwanaku, suggesting a long tradition of worship with similar form. It is possible that the statues themselves have survived intact from extremely early periods to be used even today in some Aymara villages. Wealth of the Aymara kingdoms was measured in alpacas and llamas carefully bred for wool and used in great trading caravans. Like the Tiwanaku empire before them, and perhaps earlier lake Titicaca groups, the Aymara exchanged potatoes, salt and high altitude products for both necessary and desired valley and coastal goods. Trade or exchange was not the only method used by Aymara lords to assure access to important complementary goods. Through historical documentation it is known that each lake basin kingdom held lands in the eastern valleys and on the Pacific coast. These areas were managed by colonial occupations of Altiplano people who provided the corn, coca, dye plants, and other products impossible to grow on the Altiplano. Some authors have suggested that the large settlements on the eastern slopes of the Andes, identified as home to the Mollo culture, are actually colonial occupations of the lake basin Lupaca nation. Although Mollo ceramics and the Lupaca ceramics known as "allita Aymara" do share a great deal of stylistic similarities, more probably the large fortified and carefully planned villages were constructed by separate political groups with close ties to the Aymara kingdoms. Iskanwaya is one of the largest Mollo villages and may have served as the culture's center. Houses are constructed close together as U-shaped structures sharing side walls. House groups are arranged on natural terraces high on the slopes of hillslides. Through ceramic styles and radiocarbon dating it is apparent that the Mollo culture was established in valley sites around 1200 A.D., after the dissolution of the Tiwanaku empire. Ceramics of a style related to the Incas' ceramics have also been discovered at the site testifying to a later Inca occupation. While the Aymara kings were fighting among themselves to establish their territorial rights to lands around the Titicaca basin, the Incas of Cuzco prepared to invade the valuable region and incorporate the vast wealth into their own expanding realm. A first opportunity came during the reign of the emperor Viracocha when both Zapana, king of the Colla, and Cari, king of the Lupaca, asked for alliances with Cuzco. Apparently, when Zapana heard that the Inca Viracocha had decided to help the Lupaca lord Cari, he invaded Lupaca territory. Zapana was killed and sometime around 1430 Huatuncolla was sacked by the Lupaca. One of the Inca origin myths describes the first Incas as rising out of Lake Titicaca. In this bit of propaganda the Incas were obviously attempting to associate themselves with one of the most important religious centers of the Andes. Temples were built on the Island of the Sun and Koati in Lake Titicaca and at Incaracay and Incallacta in the Cochabamba valley. All the Aymara territories were incorporated into the Kingdom of Cuzco. Tawantinsuyo was a single suyo, one quarter of the Inca empire. Roads were refurbished and built to connect all parts of the empire and tambos, fortresses and temples were distributed throughout Bolivia. Although the Incas left quantities of their material culture in architecture, ceramics and metal artifacts, and established their language, Quechua, in many locations throughout Bolivia, the duration of their occupation was no more than 70 or 80 years. In 1535 Diego de Almagro traveled across the Inca and pre-Inca roads through Bolivia to the Chilean coast with an army of Spanish and Indian forces. Hernando Pizarro, hearing of internal fighting among the Lupaca and the Colla, brought an army from Peru and finally subjugated the Aymaras. In 1542 the entire area was annexed as the audiencia de Charcas of the Spanish Vice-royalty of Peru. The Spanish, European missionaries, and travelers who arrived soon after began to record all elements of native life, and thus prehistory gave way to the historical record in the Andes.