PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Pambamarca Archaeological Project consists of an international team of researchers investigating ancient, historic and living landscapes in Pambamarca, Ecuador. The project area of Pambamarca is located at an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet in the Andean sierra, where snowcapped peaks dominate the horizon. As past participants can attest, working on the project is exhilarating as multiple teams perform a variety of tasks everyday like settlement survey, site mapping, remote sensing, excavations and laboratory work. This year the project will continue to study the massive Pre-Columbian fortresses that were built on the peaks of the Pambamarca mountains by Inka and Ecuadorian societies.

The Pambamarca fortresses pose a number of interesting research problems concerning their origins and use. The late kings of the Inka Empire were enchanted with Ecuador, and moved their armies as far north as Quito with relative ease. Naturally, as they looked further north beyond Quito, the Inka armies expected little resistance from the indigenous societies located in and around what is now known as Pambamarca. As they moved out from Quito, however, the Inkas encountered fiercely resistant societies that were prepared to fight at great lengths for their independence. In fact, during the next 17 years these Ecuadorians managed to turn back the Inka until finally their fortresses fell in the early 1500s. The historical documents describe a subsequent period of Inka rule in which the Inkas constructed and occupied a set of fortifications in the area.

Today the provinces north of Quito are rife with the remains of prehispanic fortresses, with the greatest concentration lying in the mountain range of Pambamarca. Empirically, this project seeks archaeological and historical data relating to the construction and occupation of the Pambamarca fortresses, as these data will effectively evaluate a number of hypotheses about the imperial and colonial realities of the Inka period in Ecuador. Topically, the project is interested in the nature of resistance and domination along the northern frontier of the Inka Empire, as such knowledge will contribute greatly to our understanding of imperial and colonial processes in the ancient world.

The efforts of the Pambamarca Archaeological Project are valuable on other levels as well. First, in cooperation with professors and archaeologists from the host country, the project provides Ecuadorian university students with the opportunity to learn and train with foreign archaeologists. Second, the results of this research will be included in the pending application of the Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural del Ecuador to move the Pambamarca Pre-Columbian Fortress Complex from the Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites to the Permanent List. Currently, Ecuador has four Permanent World Heritage Sites: The Islas Galápagos, the Parque Nacional Sangay, Ciudad de Quito, and the Centro histórico de Santa Ana de los Ríos de Cuenca. Pambamarca would be the first entry from Ecuador to highlight in particular the country’s important PreColumbian cultural heritage.