Pre-Incan Dancefloor That Sounded Like Thunder Was Used For Worshiping Lightning God

[Judi Lynn]

Abstract

The past is silent, or mostly so, yet sound can open a window to this same past. Early Spanish colonial ethnohistoric sources from the Andes are littered with references to indigenous dancing and music as an accompaniment to ritual and feasts. Recent archaeological research in the upper Ica Drainage on the late Prehispanic (CE 1000–1532) site of Viejo Sangayaico has revealed an open-air platform potentially prepared as a type of sprung or ‘sounding’ dancefloor which produces a deep percussion-like sound when stepped upon. I interpret this feature as a sounding platform for stomp dancing. The larger site’s association to veneration of Andean lightning and thunder deity suggests that dancing at this location might have been in part attuned to this supernatural entity. Wider ethnohistoric evidence provide a potential parallel into understanding what type of activities were practiced on this platform and site.

Introduction

If the past is a foreign country (Lowenthal, 1985), then it’s sounds and rhythms are distinctly muted, coming to us mostly through later derivative music and the odd archaeological relic of a musical instrument or object. In some cases, these finds reveal a hidden scale and thereby lost repertoire of sound (Aguirre-Fernández et al., 2020, Herrera et al., 2014, Kolar et al., 2012). Yet, for the most part, the past is silent. That said, the importance of sound and soundscapes in the Andes has long been recognized (Moore, 2005) and gaining an insight into this aspect of the past is potentially enriching. Andean ethnohistoric records attest to the importance of sound, music and dance for all manner of ritual purposes, including the numerous provincial and imperial yearly festivals (Guaman Poma de Ayala, 1993, pp. 239–240, see also Fig. 1), funerals (Cobo, 1990, p. 250) as well as when preparing for, and just prior to, battle (Cobo, 1990, p. 245), actually music and dance pervaded multiple aspects of Andean life (Olsen, 2002).

Here I study a unique type of musical ‘instrument’, one which in turn helped reproduce a wider soundscape with its religious and animistic overtones. In this regard, we have here a specially prepared percussion surface, in essence a type of sprung or ‘sounding’ dancefloor, composed of different types of soil, ash, and camelid guano to create a floor surface able to shock absorb, while also generate a deep acoustic drum-like sound when people stepped, or rather, stomped on it. In effect, recreating a large drum on the ground surface.

Located at 3,600 m in the upper Ica drainage within the site of Viejo Sangayaico (SAN 1), this Prehispanic dancefloor dates to the Late Intermediate Period (CE 1000–1400), with its use extended into the Inca imperial period (CE 1400–1532) and possible early Spanish colony (CE 1532–1615) before the site was wholly abandoned and its inhabitants moved to the present town of Sangayaico lower down. Analyzing the archaeological evidence from the site (Chauca Iparraguirre and Lane, 2015, Huaman Oros and Lane, 2014, Lane et al., 2019), we posit that given the possible ritual association of Viejo Sangayaico that this sounding dancefloor was employed in the veneration of local deities. In particular, water worship associated to an Andean thunder and lightning entity, in turn linked to regional tutelar deities establishing ties between different ethnic groups. In this case the local Chocorvos and the regional Chanka ethnic groups.

This article introduces the site of Viejo Sangayaico and analyses the construction of the ‘sounding’ dancefloor before contextifying it’s use within the ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence from the region and elsewhere, providing insights into how this dancefloor might have been employed and for what purpose it was built. Following, I reflect on the power inherent to sound and dance in the invocation and veneration of the sacred in the Andes.

Section snippets

The site of Viejo Sangayaico (SAN 1)

At the period in question here, the upper Ica Drainage was home to the Chocorvos or Chokurpu, (also known as the Chocoruo, Chocorbo o Chucurpu, Rowe, 1946, p. 188), an ethnic group with ties to the south-central highland Chancas, with whom they apparently formed an alliance (Bueno 2003:43–44). The Chocorvos were a highland, Late Intermediate Period (LIP) ethnic group; the Late Intermediate Period (CE 1000–1400) in the highlands was characterized by loosely bounded, weakly centralized ethnic...

More:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278416523000314

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XzPczjlkJ-A

Found a contemporary dance from the same area, have no idea if any of it could have been passed down from ancient times with modifications, of course, and costume changes, but there is a heck of a lot of stomping going on!