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The fieldwork for the Chilchos project took place in August and September 2004. The members of all the modules met in Trujillo where the director laid out the research strategy. We then left by vehicle transport via Chiclayo – Chachapoyas. Here the members of the archaeological module met in Instituto Nacional de Cultura to arrange the visit of the supervisor. Continuing south some of us visited Montevideo, the former San Ildefonso de los Chilchos, a Spanish reduction from the 16th century. The patron saint San Ildefonso is kept in the church, which was under restoration. We were very kindly received by the alcalde Emilfero Epquén Rojas who gave us admittance to the church.

The whole expedition team met in the district town of Leimebamba, where we delivered our official documentation and permissions to the local authorities at the Instituto Nacional de Cultura, the Municipio and the police station. Despite a solicitude from the people of Chilchos to carry out the investigation and all official papers were complete some of the authorities demanded a public meeting in Leimebamba to decide if they wanted the project to be carried out in Valle de los Chilchos, an anexo to Leimebamba. Unfortunately the behaviour of earlier visitors Peruvians as foreigners has let the local people and authorities to believe that the only interest of people to visit Valle de los Chilchos is to find untouched tombs from the Chachapoya culture and take all the treasures. Consequently it has given the authorities a sense of paranoia where they are not able to distinguish serious working scientists from adventurers, who are able to pay their way. They are also of the opinion that Leimebamba is a kind of state in the state where they as authorities are allowed to veto national level permissions and decisions.

The director and the representatives of the three modules in the Chilchos proyect explained our work in a very unpleasant atmosphere. Unfortunately the only interest of the authorities was in the archaeological module where they postulated absurdities and did not agree on the person the Instituto Nacional de Cultura had assigned as supervisor. However we were “allowed” to continue to Chilchos the next day.

The next morning fifteen horses/mules were mounted, ten animals loaded and ten mule drivers ready for the 43 km long ride to Valle de los Chilchos. The narrow trail in the rugged terrain passes the cordillera in the jalca to the altitude of 3400 masl. where the vegetation changes through the different microclimatic zones. Unfortunately after two hours ride the landscape became shrouded in heavy rain and fog which soaked the entire expedition. Eight hours later we arrived at a crossing point where a bivouac was raised to shelter half of the expedition during the night while the other half continued for five more hours down hill to Chilchos at the altitude of 1600 masl.

The next day everyone had arrived and we were lodged into the very hospitable and nice house of David Delgado, who together with his family became our main informants.

The following evening an official meeting with the local authorities and people of Chilchos was held in the communal house where the project was introduced followed by a fiesta with live music and aguardiente.

The investigations were initiated in all modules. Local guides were hired to take the archaeological and botanical researchers to the specific places. The spacious village was surveyed; households interviewed and various botanical and archaeological activities were carried out in and around the valley.

During our stay the weather was very variable, a few sunny days altering with clouds and rain. The bad weather, which had lasted for a very long period, gave us some problems. We had difficulties recharging our computer from a solar panel due to the limited amount of sunshine. Furthermore, the ever present cloud cover means that only one useful satellite image has been acquired over the region since 2002.

Valle de los Chilchos consists of a village centre near the río Chilchos with a church, a communal house, a little shop with a satellite telephone-connection, a kindergarten and some private houses centered around a large level plaza. Next to the plaza another large level area constitutes the communal sports ground for playing football and social gatherings on Sundays and this is also the location of the local school. Some 50 households are spread all over the valley. The number is never constant as many families come from Leimebamba or Montevideo -get a house in Chilchos where they stay for maybe a couple of years and then go back. Almost every house has a sugar mill.

The socio-economic situation in Chilchos can be described as being mainly self-sufficient. Every houshold has sufficient land growing manioc, maize, rice, arracacha, sugar cane and other products. They have plenty of chicken, pigs, ducks, turkeys and some cattle. Mules and horses are used for transport. Before the coffee price crisis many of the families had smaller coffee plantations and were able to sell the ecological coffee in Leimebamba but only a few are left. Sugar cane used mainly for the production of aguardiente gives a secure but modest income. The agricultural implements consists of a digging stick, pushana , a wooden hoe, a lampa, a hoe with an iron shoe and machetes. Very few families had an ard. A main problem is that all the households have the same products and the products they want to sell have to be carried on mules to the nearest limited market outside Chilchos in Leimebamba.

Documentary evidence located in the archives and published sources show the Chilchos curacazgo in the pre-Hispanic period probably was a leading yunga chiefdom consisting of other minor cacigazgos and lineage groups with close alliances and connections to the sierra and the selva which became conquered by the Incas during their conquest of the Chachapoya c. 1470. Many of the families keep huacos-pots and grinding stones which they have found in their fields in archaeological sites.

In 1530 the Parcialidad de los Chilchos with the cacique principal don Hernando Chilcho is said to have had 5 guarangas (5000 tribute payers) decreased to 1500 tribute payers in 1546 and only 1000 tribute payers later under the encomendero Juan Perez Guevara in the 1550s. TheEuropean introduced diseases together with very heavy burdens of tribute from the encomendero, which forced the Chilchos to flee into the forests towards the east, were responsable for the great loss of people. In the 1570s the Spanish policy of reductions together with the threat of a deadly illness got the inhabitants to move into the new village of San Ildefonso de los Chilchos.

Only as late as the year 1900 the valley was being “rediscovered” by don Geraro Hidalgo, his daughter and brothers during a very difficult journey from Leimebamba. Presently Don Geraro has got a hero status in Chilchos and songs are dedicated his “discovery”. However they were not the “first” – as they did find evidence of human presence in some old huts maybe from people coming from the other eastern side from the Río Jelache/Huambo.

The archaeological team found several remains from the Inca period and evidence of earlier road systems leading to the Laguna de los Condores along the Río Lajasbamba towards the south and along the Río Chilchos towards the east continuing along the Río Verde.

The biologists were surprised to find another vegetation from what they had expected and more mature forest. They carried out several transects and collected 350 plant specimens.

The investigation team left Chilchos in September in two tempi as the biologists still had work to do.

Unfortunately the weather was not much better returning to Leimebamba. Here the authorities wanted another meeting to hear about our results, but as before they were only interested in the archaeological research. The archaeological team leader showed the new sites on a map, which they did not even take a look at- but claimed that we were destroying the archaeological evidence, which in fact are only being destroyed by the local people and not at all taken care of by the local INC.

The next day we left by vehicle transport back to Trujillo, where the analyses immediately began.

Participating institutions:

National Museum of Denmark

University of Copehagen, Institute of Geography

Universidad Nacional de Trujillo

Universidad Privada Antenor Orrego

Universidad Nacional San Agustin, Artequipa

Instituto Nacional de Cultura

Field Museum, Chicago

under the auspices de CONCYTEC