We arrived in Quito on February 18th and set about finding our new hotel, La Rosario, which we had booked online. The hotel was up an annoying hill that we had to take taxis in and out of, but the hotel itself is quite nice – it reminded me of a spa when we first walked in. Colin and I headed to McDonalds for some food while discussing arranging my flight and tour to the Cuyabeno reserve in two days time. The following morning of the 19th I headed off to see some ancient ruins around Quito city, while Colin went to the agency’s office to pay for my Cuyabeno tour. I took a taxi from La Rosario to the bus station, then jumped on a bus 2 hours out to the Pichincha province 3100 meters above sea level to see the largest Pre-Columbian ruins in Ecuador, known as Cochasqui.
I arrived in a nearby town called Cayambe and took a taxi for $15 USD (round trip, plus waiting time for my visit) to the ruins. I found out later that there is a much cheaper way to do this, taking a bus for $1 USD from Cayambe which goes to Malchingui and drops you off at the entrance to the ruins – but I didn’t know this at the time. You can get a bus from Malchingui down to the highway as well from where you can flag down a return bus to Quito. Once I was at the site and had paid my entrance, I joined a group tour which was just leaving and started exploring the site with our Spanish-speaking guide.
We could see the outline of the ancient pyramids. These pyramids had been built out of a hard volcanic-ash material known as cangahua, a Quechua word meaning “hard land.” The pyramid structures were originally built by an agricultural culture now known as the Caras, likely as a religious center. The Quitu culture, a dominant force in the area, eventually intermarried with the Caras (as they could not conquer them outright) and the resulting Quitu-Cara culture then used the area as an observatory, but possibly still as a religious center as well.
The pyramids were built by the Quitu-Cara culture during what is called (after the site’s name instead of the culture’s) the Cochasqui period I in 950-1250 BCE and the Cochasqui period II in 1250-1550 BCE, sticking up from the overgrown grass over a 200 acre area. There are 15 different pyramids and at least 14 tombs located here, 9 with ramps. A few of the pyramids had been a bit more uncovered than others, with overhangs built to protect what had been exposed for tourists to see. One of the pyramids, pyramid 5, is one of the best preserved and in the shape of a scorpion. Inside pyramid 5 numerous ceramic pots were found along with 575 human mummified heads.
We walked further to one of the exposed area which was the supposed ancient astronomic observatory our guide spoke about. This use is hypothesized because certain parts of the pyramid structures seem to be laid out in astronomical calendar patterns. Some of the pyramids had cut-outs on the floors inside the buildings. Inside these cut-outs, smooth, polished rocks in an oblong shape have been found. Perhaps these were markers or counters of some kind, no one is sure.
After the pyramids we made two more stops – one in a museum with Cochasqui period pottery found in graves around the site, and another a replica house from the period. Inside the replica house were different examples of toys and games that children used to play, some of which were found buried in their graves with them. Once I had finished up I met my taxi driver and asked him to drop me at a bus stop for Quito. Though he drove me nearly back to Cayambe rather than one of the much closer stops (I got a bit of a ‘duh’ of a taxi driver) I made it in the end.
It took ages but I got the bus back to Quito and got off at the stop La Florida. I entered the taxi just as it started pouring rain and gave the driver directions. Turns out, the driver didn’t know how to get anywhere close to the site, and it took more than 30 minutes to get up a simple (but a little long) hill to the site which was just under the climb up to Quito’s cable car near the eastern side slope of the Pichincha volcano.
Just before 3:00 pm I arrived at the La Florida ruins. La Florida consists of 6 tombs of the Quitu culture people which have been designed as 12.5-15.1 meter deep shafts, and have been radiocarbon dated to 340 CE. The site was quite small, but the pieces on display were incredible, as it is supposed by the finding of emerald beads and fine textiles that the tombs belonged to quite high status individuals. Each grave had a high status ‘principal’ burial within it, along with other ‘companions’ to the high status individual and human sacrifices that had likely been buried alive according to their positioning. Many of the graves had replicas of bodies inside, placed in the way there were found originally buried. One of the graves was grown over with plants, due to the microclimate created by the location of the grave and its uncovering.
After seeing the replicas I headed back into the museum. My guide showed me a news article with a drawing of two faces on it. It turns out that the archeologists had commissioned drawings which reconstructed what the ancient people’s faces would have looked like, based on the shape of skulls that had been found at the site. Also found were some clothing made of spondylus shells – two stunningly intact ponchos which had been buried with the bodies. There were jewelry pieces, along with little bits of gold, including some which had been used for throwing arrows and spears.
I asked the taxi driver to take me to Rumipamba Archeological & Ecological Park next, a 32 hectare site which had both animals and nature walks, along with ancient ruins and burials. The site was almost closed, but I did manage to find one of the student guides working there to take me around. She wasn’t too keen because of the rain, but took me around anyways. We went into the museum first, which housed the artifacts found in various graves on the site, from what is called the Quito culture.
The Quitu people inhabited the Rumipamba site for thousands of years –during the Late Formative Period (1500 BCE to 500 BCE), the Regional Development Period (500 BCE to 500 CE), and the Period of Integration (500 CE to 1500 CE) – there is evidence of pottery, tombs, and villages from each of these periods at the site. There are more than 25 tombs related to the Period of Integration alone! Since there is also evidence of nearby volcanic eruptions, by Pululahua Volcano and Guagua Pichincha Volcano, the area has not been occupied continuously, but in stages. My guide explained to me that many of the Quitu culture excavated homes I was viewing also doubled as burial sites for the family’s dead. It looks like when someone died in a Quitu household, they simply buried their body under the dirt of the living room floor. The last home/burial site we viewed was the oldest in the area – estimated at more than 3,500 years old.
I found a taxi to take me back to the hotel, where I was able to relax after the crazy, long day I had. I had to pack as well - the next morning I was flying out early, off north to the Cuyabeno Reserve in the Amazon!
Francesca
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