A so-called "serpent dish" from La Fortaleza

A view of the defensive wall of the La Fortaleza fortress

An Inca aryballo shard from La Fortaleza

Map of the Inca state with the location of La Fortaleza (= Las Piedras)

THE AMAZONIAN INTEREST OF THE INCAS PROJECT

Antti Korpisaari 2002

THE BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT

During the first decades of the 20th century, the Finn Rafael Karsten and the Swede Erland Nordenskiöld did groundbreaking ethnographic and archaeological research in Peru and Bolivia. During the 1980’s, Finnish researchers once again became interested in the Central Andean region. The projects headed by Martti Pärssinen (the current professor of Latin American studies at the University of Helsinki) and Ari Siiriäinen (professor of archaeology at the University of Helsinki) began a sequence of research projects which has now spanned over a decade. Thanks to the research carried out by these projects, a tight and enthusiastic group of Latin American scholars has formed at the Department of Archaeology of the University of Helsinki.

The research carried out by the Finnish group has mainly taken place on the harsh high plateau (3800-4000 m.a.s.l.) of northwestern and western Bolivia. In the recent years, however, a growing amount of attention has been directed towards the prehistory of the vast Amazonian rain forest region situated to the east of the Andean mountain range. A central reason for this shift of focus have been the studies of professors Pärssinen and Siiriäinen concerning the geographical extent and border politics of the Inca state (approximately AD 1400-1532). According to the traditional view, the Incas would hardly have ventured into the Amazonian basin. While studying 16th and 17th century archival sources, Pärssinen has, however, found mentions of large military expeditions and of the building of fortresses deep in the Amazonian rain forest.

On the basis of the archival sources gathered by Pärssinen, Siiriäinen made an expedition to northeastern Bolivia, to the confluence of the rivers Beni and Madre de Díos, in 1997. Here, according to Pärssinen’s sources, the Incas would have constructed a fortress during one of their large military expeditions. A visit to the ruins of La Fortaleza, a notable prehistoric site in the region, strengthened this view: a defensive wall built of stone and the remains of stone walled enclosures seemed to point to the direction of the Andes, as the native inhabitants of the rain forest have not utilised stone in their constructions. In 1998, during Siiräinen’s second brief visit to the Riberalta region, the view of La Fortaleza as an Inca fortress strengthened even more, as some unquestionable shards of Inca ceramics were encountered among the shards visible on the ground surface.

The next phase of the studies had to await a couple of years, until in December 2000 the University of Helsinki granted finance for the three-year project “The Amazonian Interests of the Incas”. This project, which includes the following personnel: Ari Siiriäinen (director of the project), Martti Pärssinen, MA Sanna Saunaluoma, MA Antti Korpisaari, MA Marjut Jalkanen-Mäkelä, MA Risto Kesseli and Jussi Korhonen, will carry out documentation, survey and small scale excavations of La Fortaleza and other interesting sites in the Riberalta region during the field seasons 2001, 2002 and 2003.

THE 2001 FIELD SEASON

Four Finnish archaeologists, Ari Siiriäinen, Sanna Saunaluoma, Antti Korpisaari and Marjut Jalkanen-Mäkelä, took part in the fieldwork carried out by The Amazonian Interests of the Incas project during the 2001 field season. The fifth member of the research group was the Bolivian archaeologist Juan Faldín, who functioned as the co-director of the project on behalf of the Unidad Nacional de Arqueologia (The National Unit of Archaeology of Bolivia).
We worked in La Fortaleza for three weeks. In this time we succeeded in mapping the site (the structural features of which were cleaned of vegetation by a group of local men working for us) and also excavated seven small test pits in different parts of the site. Six of the test pits yielded abundant ceramic material. Local caripe tempered types predominate in this material, but shards of Inca and altiplano ceramics were also encountered. All in all, the research of the 2001 field season strengthened our view that the Incas have occupied the site of La Fortaleza in the past – both the stone architecture of the fortress, which resembles typical Inca fortress architecture as known from the mountain area, and the altiplano influenced ceramics seem to point to this direction. An article about the results of this field season (Siiriäinen et al. 2002) appears in the Reports of the Finnish-Bolivian Archaeological Project in the Bolivian Amazon booklet published by the Department of Archaeology of the University of Helsinki.

In addition to the work carried out in La Fortaleza, documentation and test excavations were also carried out in the sites of Las Palmeras and El Círculo. These are ancient habitation sites of the local rain forest dwellers. Both are large circular sites with a diameter of about 300 m. The Las Palmeras site is surrounded by a wide ditch and the El Círculo site by a circular mound. These formidable structural features and the abundant ceramics encountered during our excavations point to large sedentary populations. The work carried out in Las Palmeras and El Círculo is closely related to the doctoral dissertation being prepared by Sanna Saunaluoma. The results of the 2001 investigations are presented in Saunaluoma et al. 2002.

THE 2002 FIELD SEASON

Four Finnish archaeologists, Antti Korpisaari, Sanna Saunaluoma, Marjut Jalkanen-Mäkelä and Risto Kesseli, as well as student of archaeology Jussi Korhonen took part in the 2002 fieldwork. Bolivian archaeologist Juan Faldín continued functioning as the co-director of the project on behalf of the Unidad Nacional de Arqueologia.

In 2002 more work was carried out in the La Fortaleza site (as well as in two other nearby sites – Tumichucua and the estancia of Mr. Roger Giese). In La Fortaleza one of the main aims for the 2002 fieldwork period was the excavation of a network of evenly spaced test pits across the 9,7-hectare area enclosed by the fortifications of the site. This work led to a number of interesting results. Among the more than 4000 ceramic shards discovered in the 30 test pits excavated were a couple of dozens of typical Inca shards – most notably two large shards of shallow plates and a number of aryballo shards. In addition, Inca influenced ceramics were found in a probable burial uncovered by a fallen tree. The shards and complete vessels so far uncovered represent a number of different vessel shapes and strengthen our argument of the La Fortaleza site as a fortress built by the Incas. A number of other ceramic shards found in the test pits plus the probable sodalite beads and a bit of copper/bronze found in the above-mentioned burial also point towards the Andes. Our test pit network also showed that the area of the fortress has been quite intensively inhabited – the 1 x 1-meter test pits yielded an average of almost 1.9 kg of ceramic shards per pit. The preliminary results of the 2002 field work period (Korpisaari et al., forthcoming) will be published in the first months of 2003 along with our first four radiocarbon dates.

Other main objectives of the 2002 field season were to investigate more closely the ca. 600 m long ditch running in the southwestern and western parts of the Fortaleza area and to partially excavate the round montículo situated within the main complex of stone walls in the eastern part of the site. A group led by Jalkanen-Mäkelä carried out these tasks.

Across the ditch, an 11-m long and 1 m wide shaft was excavated to reveal the original dimensions and construction of the ditch. Unfortunately, the findings of this excavation turned out to be of minor interest. Instead, interesting results were obtained at the montículo. Here, the areas to be excavated were placed in line with stone lines running towards the central part of the montículo from its southern and eastern sides in order to find out if these stone lines – or walls – continued inside the montículo. It was found out that the two stone lines were connected by a third wall within the montículo. Because of the lack of time and the hardness of the soil, the group of Jalkanen-Mäkelä did not have time to uncover the possible remaining walls. Thus, the construction of the inner walls of the montículo remained unclear. It could originally have been quadrangular, but the possibility that it has been hexagonal cannot yet be ruled out (some local informants actually say that it has been hexagonal). The work will be continued in 2003.

Another objective was to clarify the dating of the montículo; in other words, to find out whether the stone walls and the overlying earthen construction are contemporary or not. Inside the montículo, virgin earth was not reached. At a depth of about 70-80 cm below the montículo's present surface, some interesting ceramic shards were found; among them a painted fragment of Inca pottery and some flat stone objects of “afiladores de flecha”, as well as some chert flakes. The central and eastern parts of the montículo have been badly destroyed by “huaceros”.

The preliminary results of Jalkanen-Mäkelä's 2002 fieldwork will be published in the spring, 2003 (for further information, e-mail: jalkama@hotmail.com).

PUBLICATIONS RELEVANT TO THE CURRENT INVESTIGATIONS

Korpisaari, Antti – Faldín, Juan – Kesseli, Risto – Korhonen, Jussi – Saunaluoma, Sanna – Siiriäinen, Ari – Pärssinen, Martti, forthcoming: Informe preliminar de las investigaciones arqueológicas de la temporada 2002 en el sitio de la Fortaleza de Las Piedras.

Pärssinen, Martti 1992: Tawantisuyu. The Inca State and Its Political Organization. (Studia Historica 43). Societas Historica Finlandiae, Helsinki.

Saunaluoma, Sanna – Faldín, Juan – Korpisaari, Antti – Siiriäinen, Ari 2002: Informe preliminar de las investigaciones arqueológicas en la región de Riberalta, Bolivia. Reports of the Finnish-Bolivian archaeological project in the Bolivian Amazon – Noticias del proyecto arqueológico finlandés-boliviano en la Amazonia boliviana. Eds. Siiriäinen, Ari & Korpisaari, Antti. Department of Archaeology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki. (31-52)

Siiriäinen, Ari – Faldín, Juan – Jalkanen-Mäkelä, Marjut – Korpisaari, Antti – Saunaluoma, Sanna 2002: The fortress of Las Piedras in the Bolivian Amazon. A report of the field investigations in 2001. Reports of the Finnish-Bolivian archaeological project in the Bolivian Amazon – Noticias del proyecto arqueológico finlandés-boliviano en la Amazonia boliviana. Eds. Siiriäinen, Ari & Korpisaari, Antti. Department of Archaeology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki. (1-28)

Siiriäinen, Ari & Martti Pärssinen 1997: Eighty Years after Erland Nordenskiöld: The Question of the Eastern Frontier of the Inca Empire in Bolivia. Revista Xaman 4/97 (The web based newsletter of the Iberoamerican Centre of the University of Helsinki, http://www.helsinki.fi/hum/ibero/).

Siiriäinen, Ari & Martti Pärssinen, in press: The Amazonian Interests of the Inca State (Tawantinsuyu). Baessler-Archiv, Neue Folge, Band L.

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