The Huaca Cao Viejo, at far right, with the mound of the Magdalena de Cao Viejo church in front of it.
The Early
Colonial Period on the North Coast of Peru
Trujillo, one of Peru’s
largest cities, was founded in 1534, early in the Colonial Period. It
was named after Pizarro’s home town, in Spain, and quickly populated
by encomenderos, Spaniards who were granted the use of Indians to work
for them on lands. While the ecomenderos preferred life in the city, their
lands (encomiendas) were supervised by a few Spanish or Indians who worked
for them.
Native peoples adopted differing strategies for survival. Some tried to adapt to Spanish customs including conversion to Christianity and adoption of European dress. Other Indians resisted Spanish rule, practicing their customs and rituals in secret away from Spanish eyes. For the first few decades after the Spanish arrival many Indians remained living in the country, close to their agricultural lands, as they had previously. The severe depopulation due to Spanish diseases impelled many people to leave their communities and join others, however, while other people fled cruel masters.
Just as native peoples were diverse in their backgrounds, attitudes, and behaviors, there was great variability among the invaders from the Old World. Many Europeans other than Spaniards came to Peru and Africans were brought as slaves, first as personal servants and later as agricultural workers.
The Trujillo Cathedral, today, viewed from the Plaza de Armas.
Dominican friars established a mission headquarters at Chicama, in the valley of the same name. From this base they sent out missions including one at Magdalena de Cao. These missions commonly were at a reducción, a forced resettlement of Indians. The policy of reducciones was established early in the colonial period but only was enforced regularly when political stability developed in Peru, in the 1560s and 1570s. Natives were forced out of their homes in the country and made to live in European-style communities, organized on a grid pattern of intersecting streets and with a town square near which a church and government buildings were located.
Map showing churches established on Peru's north coast during the early colonial period. Magdalena de Cao is underlined.
Most of our information on reducciones comes from written sources which provide general, broad views. Only recently have archaeologists started to examine what life was like in these settlements. The goal of our project is to understand daily life at Magdalena de Cao.
Archaeology and History at Magdalena de Cao Viejo
History and archaeology are different modes of investigating the past.
In most societies only a few people know how to read or write. Documents
therefore usually present the biased views of the past of the writer or
printer or the person with power over them. Historical documents thus
tend to concentrate on issues important to elites and to bias their accounts
to justify them, their actions, and beliefs.
While history commonly offers a view of the past from the “top, down,” archaeology views it from the “bottom, up.” Archaeological remains usually are fragments of specific behaviors, often left by common people doing common things. Archaeology thus provides views of people and things that usually are not mentioned in documents, including history books. History offers the “big picture” of the elite while archaeology provides views of everyday lives.
Archaeological investigations of historical sites or times often have historical documents available, as well. This does not always make study easier. In fact, sometimes archaeology and history tell not only different messages but conflicting ones. One of the unique aspects of our work at Magdalena de Cao Viejo is that we are excavating documents, uniquely combining both archaeology and history. We discuss this extraordinary aspect of our work in the Work to Date section.