15 – Tumis and porras, metalwork and war

The predominance of T-shape objects which might be knifes or tumis on the Mala petroglyphs could represent a late influence on the use of the Chincheros rock art site. The Ts are generally brighter than other images, often superimposed, and applied on faces of the rock that are duller, greyer, more worn. They are also, the majority, drawn without great care.

If they are a gesture of aggression we might expect to see an association with porras, the stone or bronze mace heads, like star symbols but with a central hole. If they are a symbol of local metalworkers, they might be associated more with the shawl pins, tupus, which are also seen on the rocks, often with a similar level of brightness which might indicate a similar age.

On the northern face of PariaCaca rock top) there are four porras, at least five tumis, and two tupus, superimposed on older markings. Other images include the llama at lower left. The items are highlighted below.

The first boulder from the south, and the biggest at the site, has more than twenty tumis, twenty-four according to Tantalean´s count, and Nuñez records mace heads here, though the rock surface has now flaked away. There is a possible solitary tupu lown down to the south and another is shown on Nuñez´drawings on the east side.

On the southern face of the PariaCaca rock, the second big rock from the south, there are six tumis, only one threatening the integrity of the older central images. The others are placed to the side on the shoulder of the rock. There are three tupus close together here, on the shoulder of the rock to the left of the main image panel.

On the weather worn northern side there are many more – up to 18 knives, tumis, and four mace heads, porras. An additional porra and tumi are drawn high up on the top of the rock, above Juan´s JMJR graffiti. There is a pair of tupus here too, higher up, on the shoulder.

Inca porras from the museum of Anthropology in Lima, These are made of stone though bronze if also common.

On the hidden side, visible from the roadside across the river, is one tumi, probably drawn by someone hanging over the drop from the landward peak of the rock, next to two tupus, the pins pointing upwards from two round ornate heads with curlicues and central holes.

On the smaller Rock of the Masked God five metres away, there are six tumis, all on the fresh dark southern side, and one or two on the weather beaten north. There are three six pointed stars here, but they are not necessarily porras, stone mace heads with a central hole to take the handle.  There are several more tumis on the smaller stone nearby, and five on the flat stone behind the walled building, two stones that were un-recorded by Antonio Nuñez.

Inca or early colonial shawl pins, tupus, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There is a central hole in the ornamental end of the pin, to attach it to the fabric of the shawl. The curlicue decoration of the pin above is seen on the tupus represented on the rocks of Cochineros. The pin length here as on the petrogyph images is five or six times the diameter of the pin head.

Moving along the river bank upstream, the Rock of the Running Dogs has eight or nine tumis on its bright southern faces, three of them with ornate handles. On the more degraded upstream face, there are maybe twenty, with very little else other than two strings of llamas and a snake-stream. There is one porra, low down towards the ground. On the top, there are some cupules. The nearby Parrot Rock has just one tumi, whilst the small Rock of the Sitting Shaman, which we will later see is very different in position and iconography, has no tumis.

When we get to the Rock of the Snake God, there are stars or porras on the upper northern face, but no tumis, nor are there tupus.

Low down, in the shadows of a darker area of rock, there is a curious grouping of animal figures and anchor-like tumis. They are smaller than any similar group of figures at the site, and appear to have been drawn together as a group. They are so low down to suggest that they were drawn by a child, and yet they are beautifully drawn and highly imaginative.  The most interesting aspect is their depiction of creatures that are hybrid and in transition, from bird to llama to unknown quadruped. This group seems unique, though metamorphing creatures also occur in another distinct style on several panels, and I will address them separately.

There is a pair of tupus here, high up on the rock, facing north, with the pins upwards. Down by the riverside on the Picaflor Rock there may be one or two isolated tumis and porras.

The rock of the Llamas has the lone figure at its extreme end, perhaps holding a lama by a rope, and four tumis engraved close by, not obviously contemporaneous, one in the finely drawn style that we have seen before on the most southern rock. There are stars or porras here, but the context – of many finely drawn motifs of wheels, human figures, suns and isolated llamas – suggests they are distinct from the porros to the south of the site. There is a finely drawn tumi with an ornate handle, on the second panel from the southern end, and several poorly drawn Ts that could also be tumis.

There are however pairs of tupus here. One pair is close to the two monkeys on a tree or branch. There are two more pairs amongst wheels and stars, at the southern end of the rock and a fourth pair, in the channel that appears to lead water condensing on the upper rock surface down over the eastern face where it has eroded some of the images. Here too is a single tumi.

So the association of knives, tumis, and mace heads, porras, as symbols of aggression and war,  is at best unclear. It seems only to apply to two or three panels of the major rocks of the site. It speaks more of a temporary invasion of the site than a conquest and re-dedication. They are usually drawn on the poorer quality faces of the rock, suggesting a later date, and are concentrated on the downstream boulders. The tumis are drawn crudely, in a variety of sizes and styles, often but not always pointing blade downwards.

To suggest that these are the most important or significant images here, is to accept dominance by volume or number. Clearly many such symbols have been marked on the rocks, with a few on all the rocks, but the largest numbers are on three rocks which also have  other complex drawings. But they only have one thing to say, and seem to drown out by repetition more subtle ideas. It seems an obvious parallel with the behaviour of the elected majority of the Congress, the elected legislative body of Peru, in 2016, which  is engaged in a similar game to destroy or subvert constructive activity with a barrage of threats, abuse and misdirection.

Equally, the association of tumis and tupus is ambiguous. We have a pair of shawl pins on each of the three faces of the PariaCaca rock, with a third pin on the southern panel, and four pairs of tupus and a singleton on the Rock of the Llamas. Elsewhere, we may have two single pins on the Rock of the Tumis, and a possible pair, somewhat unconvincing, on the river-facing panel of the Parrot Rock.

If there is a correlation or a link between the tupus and a tumis, the best indicator is on the hidden face of PariaCaca Rock.

The body of this face is inaccessible today without ropes, or great courage and agility – the rock is undercut on the river side, so that a rough hewn cliff, not smoothed by water wear like the upper side, faces the visitor.  I approached the rock from the river bank on my first visit to the stones, I took a pair of photographs of the looming boulder.  The sun was beginning to descend and glancing off the steep face as a harsh light. It was only later, looking at the enlarged images on the computer screen, that I could discern fabulous drawings dark in contrast to the sunlight reflecting off the rock.

Neither Nuñez nor Tantalean appears to have noticed the designs on this rock panel, which is large, complex, and quite different to others at the site. It may be that unless the sun is at that precise angle in the early afternoon, the markings are barely visible from the ground. It has many motifs – not seen elsewhere, and equally lacks images that are so common on the other rocks – llama trains, stars, tumis.

The inaccessibility of this rock face suggests it may have been completed as a panel at some earlier stage, when the level of the land was 2 or 3 metres higher on the eastern side. As such, it would be a record of an early stage of the development of the site, without the over drawing apparent on other rocks.

It appears to be free of the rash of tumis drawn over other panels but it does have just one, close to two tupus which could, just, have been drawn by someone hanging over the rock from above. Antonio Nuñez recorded these in his drawings, and labelled them aves, birds. He presumable also crept to the edge of the rock and peered downwards to see these two “birds”. But it appears that from that angle, nothing else was visible.

It is easy to imagine a single artist, held by the ankles, drawing his two shawn pins and a tumi knife, close together high up on this hidden face.

There is a strong suggestion that these tumis and tupus were drawn together, more recently than the other work on this and other panels. These are also the most detailed tupus of the site, clearly showing the central holes in the ornamental head needed to fix the chain which hold the pins together, removing any ambiguity of their intended depiction.

Tumis are everywhere, in groups of seven or eight, porras are widespread, in ones and twos, and tupus, mostly paired, are concentrated on two rocks – totalling 16 tupus – with four more on two further rocks.

The possible connection is that both the tumis and tupus represent metal objects, which may allow us to link them to datable cultures or technologies in the area.

If the tumis are considered as representative of metal-working, this does not enable us to assign an Inca date to them. Certainly the Inca promoted mining, particularly of gold and silver, as the Spanish invaders discovered. In a single year, from 1533 to 1534, “the conquistadores plundered an estimated 10 metric tons of 22-carat gold and 70 tons of fine silver from the Inka cities of Cajamarca and Cuzco” according to ….?.

But this does not imply that there was no metal working before the Incas. Quite the contrary. Latest findings date gold and silver work to four thousand years ago around Lake Titicaca and copper work to over three thousand years ago in north west Argentina, a little further south. Hammered gold and copper foils were found in the lower Lurin valley close to Lima, on the summit of the U shaped platform mound called Mina Perdida, dated to over 3000 years ago.

Gold is found in pure form, in nuggets or veins, and its working can be done cold. Similarly silver can be found as “native” metal rather than an ore. Under Spanish control up to forty years after the conquest, workers at Huantajaya, Peru, simply gouged out chunks of native silver from surface outcrops. There were lumps of nearly pure silver weighing as much as one hundred pounds.

Similarly copper may have been available as “native copper”, in metallic form rather than as ores. A great piece of such copper, just 2 mm thick but almost a metre long and half a metre wide, is in the Geology Museum of the National University of Engineering in Lima.

In ancient Peru, copper use has been dated to the late Chavin from 1000 to 200 BC. An abundance of copper items for farming, weapons and domestic use have been found. Other aspects of the Chavin culture such as religious belief and iconography spread throughout the highlands and the coast from north to south, and it seems the metal objects spread too. A copper necklace from the Paracas culture a hundred kilometres south of Mala was found in a Cavernas tomb dated to 700 BC.

The smelting of ores to make copper seems to have begun with the Moche, from 2200 years ago. There are ceramics showing four workers blowing air through pipes to  oxygenate a furnace, in which are an axe heads and sheets of copper.

Photograph of a Moche (Mochica) ceramic pot vessel in the form of metallurgy craftsmen smelting metal objects from gold, copper or silver in a furnace or kiln. The Moche culture began about 200 B.C., lasting to about 1000 A.C. inhabiting the North Coast of Peru. The Moche artists produced the only realistic or naturalistic fine art sculpture visual art in pre-Hispanic or pre-Columbian South America. Much Mochican clay pottery survives, often painted with red and white slip. Photography by Nathan Benn from collection of the National Museum of Archeology and Anthropology in Lima, Peru in July 1989.

An early Moche burial excavated in the Jequetepeque Valley which leads from North of Trujillo up towards Cajamarca in northern Peru, revealed a 20 year old man, wrapped in extremely finely made copper headbands. This individual also had a number of metal shields, mace heads, spear launchers, metal chisels, metal axes, and darts. In his hand, he held small metal-working chisels. The burial was dated to 200 BC. He would seem to be an early metal-worker with some of the weapons that he made.

Moche people of ordinary status were buried with a piece of folder copper sheet in their mouths, or in their hand, whilst the richest burials would include gold and silver pieces, or gilded and silvered copper. Clearly then coastal metal-working was routine over a thousand years before the Incas, at least in the north.

However the majority of Moche metalwork was decorative rather than functional. The Lord of Sipan, a burial excavated from an adobe pyramid close to the coast in 1990, had gold nose ornaments, ear plugs, copper sandals, gold and turquoise brooches, face mask, gold chest plate, headdress, and necklaces of gold and silver beads in the form of peanuts. Two other tombs found nearby were equally surrounded by gold and silver ornaments and status symbols. The burials were dated to around 700 CE.

As Moche empire declined other cultures from high in the Andes expanded. Tiwanuku, at the southern end of Lake Titicaca, became a major trading centre around 600 CE and copper working is evident here. They may have produce molten metal to pour links to hold  their stonework together.

At the same time the Wari empire spread, building roads and sharing its highly stylised iconography in textiles and ceramics. Up to 1000 CE, these two empires influenced the highlands from Titicaca to Cajamarca – modern Peru from north to south – as well, for the Wari, as much of the coast.

In the Lambayeque region of Northern coastal Peru many mines, metal working and smelting sites have been excavated dating to 1000-1400 CE. When the Incas conquered the Chimu in this region they were said to have taken Chimu metal workers to Cusco because of their exceptional skills.

Pedro Cieza de Leon, writing in 1553, says “as the Chimus were so skilful at making metals, many of them were taken to Cusco and the capitals of the provinces, where they wrought jewellery, vessels,and goblets of gold and silver, and whatever else they were ordered.”

The Chimu capital at Chan-Chan is thought to have housed fourteen thousand artisans – weavers, ceramicists, and metalworkers. Some of the advanced practitioners of these skills including metal working and weaving may have been brought in turn from the Sican culture,  which flourished from 900 to 1100  CE.

Also on the Northern coast, in a burial assigned to the Sican culture, almost five hundred copper implements which appeared to be digging points were buried. They were designed to be mounted on a wooden shaft but appeared to be unused, in many cases unfinished.

In a 20 metre deep Sican shaft tomb, with 17 human sacrifices and layers of Spondylus shell and lapis lazuli, was 500 kg of assorted copper objects including spear points and hoe blades. More interesting still were small rectangles of hammered and cut copper sheets, neatly stacked according to size. These so-called naipes have been found in several Sican tombs, though not in such numbers. Smaller naipes can be 4 x 2 cm, up to larger sheets of 8 x 10 cm.

It is easy to see that this could be some form of prototype money, easily transported and in standard sizes. It would be particularly useful for long distance coastal trade such as was supposed to have taken place between northern Peru and Ecuador and possibly further afield.

Metal working in Mexico began just 1200 years ago, contemporary with late Moche and Sican, and the skills may have been transferred from Northern Peru by coastal traders.

Knives, tumis, ornaments or just forms for trading bronze metal? These objects are on display in the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City. Metal working is thought to have developed late in Mexico, and may have been introduced from South America.

But if the tumis and tupus on the Mala rocks are the homeward heading doodles or the guild identity marks of local metal workers, we should find further evidence in the valley and its environs for such an industry.

Others have written that “metal…was only known in the valley of Mala with the coming of the Incas in 1470.” You could on that basis say that the markings must be Inca. An alternative is to say that if the markings are pre-Inca, metal must have been known previously in the valley.

The Mining company Comestable operates two mines close to each other, and just 3 km inland from the Pan American highway, a similar distance from the Coast as the town of Mala, but some 4 km to the South. The mine entrances are 400 metres above sea level, and 2.5 million tonnes of ore are extracted annually, producing 20,000 tonnes of ore concentrate. Useful quantities of gold and silver are found within the ore. The area is located to the South of the River Mala, and the companies also has a land package of 40,000 hectares which covers virtually the entire area between the Rio Mala south to the river of Coaillo that reaches the sea at the beach resort district of Asia. Its Southern holdings include some of the historic mines visible on Google Earth, reached by footpaths and bridle paths over the hills and moutains from Calango and Retama.

Walking from a friend’s chacra or smallholding on the edge of Quilmana, a district of Canete, towards the sea, I discovered a modern mine, small scale, a couple of holes in the hillside, that had been opened up in the 21st century and then closed as the price of copper fell. The stones with their tumi and tupu images on the apple orchard terraces by the Rio Mala were less than sixty kilometres away, over the mountain ridge of hills to the northwest. Perhaps more interesting still, it was just three kilometres from Cerro d’Or, the presumed historic city of the Guarcos.  

There are then, it turns out, some clues that point towards a local metal working industry which is recorded on the rocks. The tumis could represent the imposition of a mining culture, crude and disrespectful, that entered the valley and imposed its own statements on the agricultural and fertility rituals of the existing people. Brash new money, as it were, shouting its presence.

…Forward to 16 – metalworking in the Mala valley

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