Who Built Cerro Narrío?

 Cerro Narrío, in the Cañar Province of southern Ecuador is an iconic site in the archaeological accounts of the prehistory of Ecuador. Situated in the southern highlands of Ecuador, adjacent to an expanding community, it has nearly been destroyed by looters for nearly 100 years, since Max Uhle first brought Cerro Narrío to the attention of archaeologists internationally in 1922, following his archaeological explorations in the southern highlands of Ecuador.

J. Scott Raymond, University of Calgary, and Florencio Delgado, Universidad de San Francisco, Quito, almost as common numerically, though confined to the lower levels, is the spectacularly thin-walled pottery identified as Narrío Red-on-Buff Fine. This was the index ware—the pottery type that marks or indicates a specific chronological period—for the archaeological culture or phase known as Chaullabamba.

In addition to the local pottery, exotic styles and influences identified at Cerro Narrío include Valdivia and Chorrera elements from coastal Ecuador, specifically around the Santa Elena Peninsula (J. Scott Raymond, “Rescuing Cerro Narrío, Cañar Province, Ecuador,” Report on Investigations at Cerro Narrío, Ecuador, July 1 to August 15, 2008, Dumbarton Oaks, Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC).

Jaredite landing on the Santa Elena Peninsula, known archaeologically as the Valdavia Culture. Later they moved up into the low highlands and built the city of Moron, which was their capital for nearly their entire occupation of the Land Northward

 

It should be noted here that Moroni, in abridging the Jaredite record, writes of the location on the city of Moron and where the king dwelt, saying: “And when he had gathered together an army he came up unto the land of Moron where the king dwelt, and took him captive, which brought to pass the saying of the brother of Jared that they would be brought into captivity” (Ether 7:5, emphasis added). He also goes on to say that: ”Now, the land of Moron, where the king dwelt, was near the land which is called Desolation by the Nephites” (Ether 7:6, emphasis added).

Consequently, these hills or mountains where Moron was built was near the Land of Desolation, but not within it, suggesting a closeness to the Narrow Neck of Land.

In addition, based on the relative changes in the percentages of pottery and wares found in different stratigraphic levels, the occupational history of the site was divided by archaeologists into an earlier and a later phase. Though work at the site was conducted prior to the advent of radiocarbon dating, subsequent assays of charcoal collected from the lower levels of the site gave a date of 1978 BC. Then too, there is the analysis of a large animal bone assemblage from the Formative archaeological site of Challuabamba in Ecuador’s southern highlands that provides additional evidence for the existence of local and extra-local trade connections during the second millennium BC (Peter W. Stahl, “Selective Faunal Provisioning in the Southern Highlands of Formative Ecuador, Latin American Antiquity, vol.16, Iss.3, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2017). This places the development of these southern Ecuadorian highlands lands into the 2100 to 2000-year period of the Jaredites, as did

Cross-referencing of exotic styles found primarily in the upper levels of the site associate the Late Cerro Narrío phase with the Late Formative period—about 1500–500 BC (Donald Collier, and John V. Murra, Survey and Excavations in Southern Ecuador, Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Series, Publication 523, vol.35, 1943).

These and other carbon 14 dates from sites in the Cañar Valley having an Early Cerro Narrío component associate this phase with the Early Formative period of Ecuadorian prehistory. Cross-referencing of exotic styles found primarily in the upper levels of the site associate the Late Cerro Narrío phase with the Late Formative period.

Though Max Uhle (left) did not carry out excavations at the site, he noted the large quantities and great variety of fine ceramics that had been looted from it. Since then, Cerro Narrío has been looted periodically—especially during the holy week of Semana Santa. In addition to fine pottery reported by Uhle, carved spondylus shells, gold ornaments, and obsidian are reputed to have been recovered from the site. Following Uhle's visit, the only archaeological investigation of the site was made in the early 1940's by Donald Collier and John Murra, of the Field Museum in Chicago. Their excavations yielded a relative chronology for the site, which they divided into two broad periods, Early Cerro Narrío and Late Cerro Narrío. The calendrical ages of these two periods have not been established and remain a source of controversy among archaeologists

Karen O. Bruhns, Exchange between the Coast and the Sierra in the Late Formative: New Evidences of Azuay,” ed., F. Bouchard and M Guinea, British Archaeological Reports, International Series 503, Oxford,1989, pp57–74; Robert Braun, “The Formative as Seen from the Southern Ecuadorian Highlands,” First Symposium on Andean-Mesoamerican Anthropological Correlations, edited by Jorge G. Marcos and Presley Norton, Superior Technical College of the Coast, Guayauil, 1982, pp41–119).

A charcoal sample, collected in the 1970's from the site but lacking exact provenience, yielded a radiocarbon date in the third millennium BC. Although some archaeologists rightly question the reliability of this date, it may mark the beginning of the occupation at Cerro Narrío. If so, the site continued to be occupied, perhaps intermittently, until late Prehispanic times, and was possibly a major political and cultural center of the Cañari people when the Incas began their conquest of Ecuador in the 16^th Century AD.

This is one of the few cultures found in South America that archaeologists agree had an unbroken occupation from 2000 BC to 1600 ADFig. 1: A view of Cerro Narrío and Cañar from the west. As identified by Collier and Murra, the site of Cerro Narrío is delimited by the boundaries of a large hill of the same name. To the east of the hill lies the small city of Cañar, which has been expanding steadily westward for the past few decades. The north, west, and south sides are flanked by small farmsteads owned by Cañari Indians.

 The pockmarked surface of Cerro Narrío, southwest side. Donald Collier, and John V. Murra remarked on the extensive looting of the site, which made it difficult for them to find undisturbed locations for their excavations. Continued looting has since turned the surface into a moonscape, discouraging archaeologists from carrying out further excavation. Looters, however, have not touched the land bordering the hill to the east and northeast.

The recent urban expansion of Cañar poses the largest and most immediate threat to Cerro Narrío. In the past few years, local developers purchased land skirting the eastern and northeastern flanks of the hill and, began digging trenches for water service, sewage and electricity.

The point is, that dates of events in the southern highlands of Ecuador has shown a remarkable comparison, both occupation and dating, to the Jaredite landing and movement inland up into the hills or mountains of southern Ecuador (the Land Northward). This site became a crossroads for important movement and trade for centuries as did the Jaredited cit of Moron, which lasted as the capital city of a vast people for some 1600 years.