CHACHAPOYAS CULTURE

Between 800 and 1570 A.D Chachapoya culture was develop in the Northeast side of Peru. Their territories extended around 3 hundred kilometers along the actual Amazonas and San Martin cities. The stage known as Classic Chachapoya is based in the establishment of their identity and the growth of the culture, this lasts between 800 A.C. until the Inca invasion on 1470 A.D.

CULTURAL INFLUENCE
The chachapoyas developed in a relative isolation. Although there are by fits and starts evidences of contact with other groups of the north and west of Marañon River. The vestiges found of their artistic and architectonic production seems they were descendants of Andean immigrants who adapted their culture to the new environment. The relative isolation development of the Chachapoyas culture ended during the XV century when the Incas controlled them.

ENVIROMENT
The Chachapoya culture grew on the east slopes of the Andes, between 2 and 3 thousand meters over the sea level, this was a very humid and full of vegetation, marshes and always cover by fog. Because of this, the meaning of Chachapoya may be "fog woods".

ORGANIZATION
Several ethnic groups with a same cultural tradition in the actually Amazonas and San Martin area joined together in a confederate state early 800 d.C. The big cities were independent within each other and rule by a powerfully "curaca". These groups shared the same language, customs and farming techniques. The gathered for religious ceremonies or to protect of an enemy attack.

AGRICULTURE
The agriculture was developed taking advantage to the great ecosystem variety. The slops were transformed in wide cultivation terraces, and the lower areas there were complex drainage systems.

The chachapoya people depended on the agriculture, pasturage, hunt and collected for their daily life. Their economy was based in the domestic pottery and textile production. The exchange and production of food helped to strengthen social nets and alliances with other groups.

ARCHITECTURE
Its main characteristic is the richness of their buildings, most of them decorated with a frieze system made by stones in different levels, forming geometrical designs like frets. Generally they built circular buildings made of stone, its walls have relieve stoned ornaments. They also had inclined ramps. The most important complexes are Kuélap and Gran Pajatén.

KUELAP
It is like a fortified city, with walls over 600 meters long and 19 meters high.

It is located in the actual Amazonas region, in a spot of hard access, at three thousand meters high and at edge of an abyss. Protected by the walls there were found around four hundred constructions, most of them circular. The entrance to the circular platform is through narrows alleys, this characteristic suggest Kuelap was built for defensive goals.

This city had sophisticated road system y drainage of the water from the rains through channels along the whole complex.

ART AND IDENTITY
They develop a symbolic language with geometric motives like triangles, rhombus, looped, and ornamented squares, that appear over the circular tenements in stoned friezes. These symbols had an ethnic and social meaning.

TEXTILES
The pieces found in the tombs of Los Cóndores lagoon give testimony of the skills of the weavers chachapoyas, not only in the art and manufacture technology but also in the original iconography of their designs. According to the Spaniard chronicler Pedro Cieza de León, "the chachapoyas made rich and valuable clothes for the Incas".

POTTERY
The pottery is rough and utilitarian. The techniques they used to decorate were: application, impressed, dotted, and jerky. The vessels had band applications in the borders, some of them with incisions or small protuberances in the body.