A chapter survey by Warren Church and Adriana von Hagen on the Chachapoya culture of the northeastern Peruvian Andes, in Helaine Silverman's edited volume Andean Archaeology, published by Blackwell in 2004. It summarizes the archaeological record of the Chachapoya, the monumental hilltop site of Kuelap, the painted sarcophagi and mummy bundles placed in cliff niches, and their conquest by the Inca and subsequently the Spanish, while noting how little of the Chachapoya's own religious vocabulary survives, since they left no deciphered writing system and were largely absorbed before Spanish chroniclers recorded their beliefs in any depth. Its strength is a synthesis of excavation reports otherwise scattered across Spanish and English language site reports. Its limit is exactly the gap it documents: it can describe the material record without being able to name the Chachapoya's own deities or cosmology with confidence.
Facts
Citation
AuthorWarren B. Church and Adriana von Hagen
PublisherBlackwell (in Helaine Silverman, ed., Andean Archaeology)
Publication Year2004
Source Typebook chapter
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
A peer-reviewed archaeological synthesis chapter by named specialists in Andean archaeology, in a standard edited scholarly volume, explicit about the limits of what the material record can establish for a culture with no deciphered writing system. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Chachapoya directly: "Church and Adriana von Hagen on the Chachapoya culture of the northeastern Peruvian Andes, in Helaine Silverman's edited volume Andean Archaeology, published by Blackwell in 2004."
Inca, Cultures This source names Inca directly: "niches, and their conquest by the Inca and subsequently the Spanish, while noting how little of the Chachapoya's own religious vocabulary survives, since they left no deciphered writing system and..."
Claims Backed By This Source (21 claims)
This source backs 21 claims across the atlas. As facts: 14 well-attested, 1 open question. As cited relationships: 4 holds. Plus 2 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Open Questions, 8 claims: 6 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Sources, 8 claims: 6 well-attested, 2 holds.
- Culture Groups, 5 claims: 2 well-attested, 1 open question, 1 holds, 1 general references.
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