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| Ychsma | |
|---|---|
| Name | Ychsma |
| Region | Central Coast of Peru |
| Period | Late Intermediate Period |
| Major sites | Pachacamac, Manchay, Tablada de Lurín |
| Notable artifacts | ceramics, metalwork, textiles |
Ychsma The Ychsma were a pre-Columbian cultural tradition on the central coast of present-day Peru, flourishing in the Late Intermediate Period and interacting with neighboring polities and pan-Andean networks. Archaeological evidence from coastal sites and highland contact zones links the Ychsma to trade routes, ritual centers, and shifting political formations that included interactions with the Wari, Chimú, Inca Empire, Ichma, and later colonial institutions. Their material culture and iconography reflect exchanges with the Nasca, Moche, Chancay, Lima, and highland polities such as the Huari and Qhapaq Ñan regions.
Scholarly designation "Ychsma" derives from 16th–18th-century colonial chronicles and toponyms recorded by chroniclers such as Pedro Cieza de León, García de la Vega, and Martín de Murúa, and from place-names noted in administrative records of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Variants include orthographies found in Spanish archives and indigenous vocabularies collected by Bernabé Cobo, Francisco de Xerez, and later antiquarians like Max Uhle and Richard L. Burger. Colonial census records from the Real Audiencia of Lima and missionary accounts by Bartolomé de las Casas and José de Acosta preserve alternate spellings that shaped modern archaeological nomenclature.
Ychsma developments occurred amid post-Wari reorganization on the central coast, contemporaneous with the rise of the Chimú polity at Chan Chan, coastal dynamics involving the Lima tradition, and highland incursions associated with the Wari collapse. Radiocarbon sequences from sites attributed to Ychsma show occupation spanning the 10th to 15th centuries CE, overlapping with documented expansion of the Inca Empire and maritime networks linked to the Pacific fisheries exploited by groups like the Manta and Chimú. Spanish colonial conquest narratives, such as those by Cieza de León and Pedro de Cieza de León, describe the region's incorporation into Inca administrative structures and later colonial encomienda patterns imposed by officials from the Municipality of Lima and the Real Audiencia.
Archaeological patterns indicate a landscape of ritual centers, fortified huacas, and settlement hierarchies suggesting local chiefdoms or confederations analogous to contemporaneous systems in the Chancay and Nasca zones. Elite residences and administrative architecture exhibit links to the Inca provincial model documented in chronicles of Garcilaso de la Vega and policies enacted by the Inca Garcilaso lineage narratives. Social stratification is inferred from burial differentiation comparable to findings at Pachacamac and elite tomb assemblages akin to those excavated by Max Uhle and later teams from institutions like the Peabody Museum and the Museo Nacional de Antropología, Arqueología e Historia del Perú.
Ychsma subsistence combined coastal fishing exploiting anchoveta and littoral resources, irrigated agriculture in river valleys like the Lurín River and Rimac River, and caravan trade with highland producers of camelid fiber and metals. Artifact assemblages include polychrome ceramics, hammered copper-alloy items, and textiles exhibiting motifs comparable to Chimú and Chancay workshops documented in museum collections such as the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Museo Larco. Exchange networks linked Ychsma producers with markets recorded in colonial cabildos and with logistical arteries of the Qhapaq Ñan that facilitated movement of goods, labor drafts, and tribute under late prehispanic polities.
Architectural remains attributed to Ychsma include huacas, platform mounds, and ritual plazas with construction techniques showing affinities to Pachacamac and coastal ceremonial centers. Ceramic arts display stirrup-spout forms, geometric painting, and iconography resonant with motifs from the Moche, Nasca, and Lima traditions; metalwork features arsenical copper and tumbaga alloys paralleling metallurgy from sites associated with Cuzco and Wari technologies. Craft specialization is evident in workshops comparable to those studied by archaeologists from the Smithsonian Institution and universities such as Yale University and University of California, Berkeley.
Ritual practice centered on huacas and pilgrimage routes similar to those documented at Pachacamac, with offerings including ceramic vessels, metal ornaments, and imported goods reflecting pan-Andean cosmologies encountered in accounts by Bernabé Cobo and José de Acosta. Burials range from simple interments to richly furnished tombs with textiles, shell ornaments, and spondylus imports analogous to ceremonial materials traded across the Pan-Andean world and noted in ethnographies preserved in archives of the Real Colegio de San Marcos and missionary reports to the Viceroy of Peru.
The Ychsma cultural horizon was incorporated into the expanding Inca Empire in the late 15th century and later transformed under Spanish colonial institutions including the encomienda and parish networks of the Archdiocese of Lima, as reflected in demographic and land records held in the Archivo General de Indias. Modern archaeological research by scholars such as John H. Rowe, Max Uhle, Richard L. Burger, and institutions like the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos continues to reassess Ychsma identity, heritage management, and site preservation amid urbanization of the Lima Province and cultural patrimony debates involving museums like the Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú.
Category:Pre-Columbian cultures of Peru