Tambo (architecture)

Type of construction with containment.

In the Inca Empire, a tambo (from Quechua tanpu, which means temporary accommodation) was an enclosure located next to an important road used by itinerant state personnel as a shelter and as a collection center for administrative and military purposes. Its importance lies in the fact that the tambos are the buildings with the greatest presence throughout the Inca Empire. The Inca trail (Qhapaq Ñan) had dairy farms 20 or 30 km (a day's walk) apart. Its main function was to house the chasquis (emissaries) and the Inca officials who traveled these roads. There is no information if they housed ordinary men. People from nearby communities were recruited to serve in the tambos as part of the work system called mita.

In addition to serving as shelter, it is known that the tambos were collection centers for food, wool, firewood or other basic materials for food. In this way, in times of climatic hardships or natural disasters, the tambos fed and provided some materials for the population of the nearest villages. Since agriculture was the main source of food for the inhabitants of the Inca Empire, the administration established these places as a warehouse where food could be stored in case of emergency, thus ensuring the supply of the population.

Features and Functions

The Incas built many tambos when they began to expand the Qhapaq Ñan during the reign of Túpac Yupanqui from 1471 to 1493. Researchers estimate that there were 2,000 or more tambos. Given this number, the The great variety of tambo sizes and functions is difficult to fully describe. At a minimum, tambos had lodging, cooking facilities, and storage silos called collcas (qullqas). Beyond this, there is a considerable amount of variation between different dairy farms. Some tambos were little more than simple inns, while others were essentially towns providing temporary accommodation for travelers. Furthermore, there are no clear markers distinguishing large tambos from towns or small administrative centers. Architectural and documentary evidence suggest that the functional sizes of settlements probably corresponded to their capacity to house a population.

Conchamarca tambo en el Camino Inca a Machu Picchu.

The functions of the tambos depended on their size and the facilities they contained. Each tambo had the capacity to house various state officials. For example, the smaller tambos served as relay stations for the chasquis. Larger drums could also provide other functions. For example, the larger tambos had larger warehouses that could provide supplies and some accommodation for armies on the move. This function, however, should not be confused with that of the collcas, which were just warehouses from which the troops resupplied. armies as they passed by. The largest and most luxurious tambos were generally used to house the traveling Inca and their entourage (typically wives and state officials).

Beyond serving various types of travelers, the larger tambos also contained facilities where various specialists, such as potters and weavers, made their wares. They could also serve as administrative centers from which local lords oversaw the region. In addition, the larger tambos contained ceremonial spaces that served as places for religious practices. Additionally, historians also found evidence of hunting activity, mining activity, and coca production/exploitation at the sites of some tambos.

Pedro Cieza de León made numerous references to tambos in his Chronicles of Peru. In the following passage, Cieza de León described the general uses of tambos that he learned from the native peoples:

And so there were adequate supplies for their men, each four leagues had shelters and warehouses, and representatives or stewards living in the capital of the provinces took great care to see that the natives kept these inns or well-provided accommodations. And some of them would give no more than others, and all should make their contribution, kept the accounts through a method of knots, which they call quipus, and in this way, once the troops had passed, they could check and see that there had been no fraud.

Spacing and location of drums

Inca Road.

The Inca Empire was connected by many main and secondary roads that effectively linked the peoples of ancient Peru. The design of these roads (of more than 30,000 km) was of high quality and professionalism, despite the great geographical difficulties (Andes mountains). Cuzco was the center of this road network and most of the roads converged there, since the capital of the Incas was for them the "navel of the world" and everything had to start and culminate in her.

Many historians or scholars state that the tambos were generally placed within a day's walk of each other. However, as Hyslop points out, there are many factors, both individual and external, that can affect the amount of time you can walk in one day, making this description problematic. In practice, the distances between tambos vary greatly, from less than 10 km to almost 45 km. Many different factors affected the placement of these tambos. In general, the Incas tried to build near water and on favorable terrain, while trying to avoid unfavorable terrain (such as marshes or steep slopes). In some cases, the Incas tried to build far from local population centers (for unknown reasons), but other times they tried to build near local labor sources. Additionally, the location of the tambos may have been influenced by the average speed of the llama caravans, which moved more slowly than an individual. Another important traveler who moved more slowly than a typical individual was the Inca or ruler of the empire (Sapa Inka). Since the Sapa Inka traveled with a large procession, the trip was slower than if you were traveling alone, which would require a closer placement of the drums.

The southernmost tambo discovered is the Pirque Tambo, located on the edge of the Maipo River with an old suspension bridge that linked the two ends of the river. It was discovered with the expansion of Santiago de Chile to the south.

Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala wrote that there were five categories of tambos: city and royal inn, town and royal tambo, town and royal tambo, royal tambo (or tambo del Inga), tambollo. He also pointed out that for every ten tambos there was one of a higher hierarchy.The first three are settlements with a resident population, while the last two are only for the provision of services to the road. In the drums there was only an enclosure without victuals or people. Some sites or complexes could also fulfill the role of tambos by including adequate facilities to supply and offer rest to passers-by.

Architecture

Tambo remains are scattered throughout modern Peru, northwestern Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, southern Colombia, and Ecuador. Tambo remains show a wide variety of architectural styles. Although this variation is difficult to capture in full detail, some rough categories can be defined. For example, some tambos were built before the Inca Empire existed, and the Incas simply took control of them. Pre-Inca tambo architecture can be divided into two basic categories. Some tambos were not modified in any way and therefore present an architectural style that is clearly pre-Inca. However, some of these sites were renovated by the Incas, so some pre-Inca sites do present some Inca architecture.

For sites built in the Inca period, architectural styles can be divided into three basic categories. Some tambos were definitely local in their architectural style. This was typically in places where the local culture was strong and allowed to continue. Other sites had mostly Inca architecture, but had at least some subtle influence from local traditions. Finally, some tambos only contain Inca-style architecture. Due to the strong influence that local culture tends to have on these structures, Inca-style tambos tend to exist more in isolated areas than in areas with large populations.

The kancha was an architectural feature found in many tambos throughout the Inca Empire. The kancha consists of a large structure with rectangular walls, which houses a series of smaller one-room structures inside. The decision to build smaller structures inside appears to be related to the cold and rainy environment of the Andean highlands. Hyslop notes that the kancha was present in Inca structures ranging from the great Coricancha in Cuzco to the smallest and most remote tambo along the Inca road system. Thus, kanchas were not only present in the tambos, but were present in a variety of Inca buildings. Historians think that kanchas were typically used as living facilities, reflecting the purpose of tambos to house individuals or groups who they travel.

Stone was the most important material for building the structures of the Incas, but it also had another great meaning. The stone was very important in the creation story of the Incas. Inside the stone lived the spirit or power that had the ability to become human or vice versa. For this reason the Incas worshiped stones and appreciated the actual substance rather than what could be built with stones. For example, huacas or sacred stones appear in the creation story. When all of Manco Cápac's brothers turned to stone, the remains were considered huacas. Aya Auca, Capac's third brother, was renamed Cuzco Huaca and it was he who took care of the Cuzco countryside. Also, during the war against the enemies of the Incas, known as "chanca", one of the most powerful governors of the empire, Pachacútec, prayed to the gods, and the stones were transformed into a force of soldiers and who defeated the Chanca.

This respect for stone and its powers gave rise to his mastery and expertise with masonry. They used stones of unusual sizes and glued them together without any mortar to make walls. The stones were so well placed that a sheet of paper could not be placed between them. The surface was carved smooth and without right angles to make it look like they were alive. The tambos were built taking advantage of the openings in the mountains, which were contained and built with stone and had a roof to protect from inclement weather, due to their location generally around the Andes mountain range.

The two best-known techniques used for tambos are:

• Rustic or pirka: made with rough stones carved and settled without much care. The empty spaces were filled with small and abundant stones and mud. This type was used for the construction of terraces, warehouses and houses for ordinary people, etc.
• Type of Enchased: made with igneous stones and larger stones to contain the force of the earth of the wall.

Tambos and their role in the messaging system

The Inca Empire had about 10 to 12 million inhabitants in the fifteenth century, it occupied a large part of the Andean western coast and in order to control the entire territory, they made a network of roads at the foot of the hills so that the chasquis They could carry news, messages, parcels, fish and fruits to all the populations of the Inca Empire. This network of roads was called Qhapaq ñan or Capac ñan in Quechua which means great road and they also called it Inka ñan or Inca trail.

When the Spanish conquistadors arrived, there were already approximately 10 miles of cobblestone roads. This trail reached the Mapocho valley and a part of it is today the Avenida Independencia in Santiago de Chile. The main artery is 5,200 km long and the secondary network penetrated through several cross roads that even reached the jungles and the Gran Chaco, which reached up to 5 km high in the Andes mountain range.

The Incas, who based themselves on the Mochica and Chimú messengers (cultures of ancient Peru that emerged on the Huari north coast between the years 1000 and 1200) to create the chasquis, which means “the one who receives” or “give, receive something”.

Each town had chasquis between the ages of 18 and 25, serving daily shifts from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the posts assigned to them. The Peruvian Luis Millones Santa Gadea, in his work on the chasquis, describes them with a tunic or shirt and flip flops. They only carried a loud snail, a tuft of white feathers on their heads to be seen from afar, and a carved cane.

There were two techniques for carrying a message. One was the quipus, a series of colored and knotted ropes that were used for administration. Recently, some researchers say that the color and location of the knots can mean phrases, not just numbers. The other technique was the word, where the chasqui passed the message repeating it several times, out loud when he was arriving or they ran together for a stretch until the other chasqui remembered it.

Tambos after the Inca collapse

Scholars such as Craig Morris point out that after the collapse of the Inca Empire, the people living in the territory of the former empire stopped using tambos. From this, Morris suggests that the tambo system was part of an "artificial urbanism" created by the Inca Empire. Tambos had therefore been less useful to people living throughout the Inca Empire than to the Incas themselves. Morris supports this argument with statements that tambos were frequently positioned for interregional contact and travel, rather than being located near large local villages.

Although the indigenous Andeans may have stopped using tambos after the fall of the Inca Empire, tambos did not go entirely out of use: Spanish colonizers began using the tambo system. Sometimes the Spanish used the structures Inca tambos, but they also built new structures along roads. Sometimes the Spanish would build a new tambo along a road that still had a tambo left over from the Inca Empire. Historians know that the Spanish they extended the system of tambos beyond what existed in the entire Inca Empire, increasing the amount of territories covered. The use by the Spanish for the advance of their troops and for the colonial economy made the current remains of the tambos are difficult to distinguish if during the Incanato they were only tambos or they were tambos with additional administrative, religious or political functions. This distinction can be achieved through archaeological excavations.