Ruta y camino: memoria, historia y arqueología del Qhapaq Ñan (Capacñán ) en el valle de Guayllabamba (Sierra Norte del Ecuador).

Abstract

The case study research presented here distinguishes “route” from “road” and clarifies the understanding and study of ancient road systems associated with the Qhapaq Ñan¹ through a case study. This is the section identified between the hill of Azuajatu, in the municipality of Guayllabamba, and the hill of Gualaquincha, in the municipality of Calderón (10.8 linear kilometres). This section is divided into 4.8 km of documentable road, using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and pedestrian routes, and 6 km of reconstructable road, using least-cost analysis of the topography of the terrain to identify the optimal route(s) of the road. We believe that the section coincides with the route taken by the soldier Cieza de León around the mid-1540s (1544-45?), when he went from the “aposentos de Cochasquí” to the current historic centre of Quito, necessarily crossing the Pisque River and, for geographical, historical and architectural reasons that we will show, a narrowing of the Guayllabamba River, which was used as an obligatory passage at that time. Due to the current state of conservation of the section of the road and its relationship with several monumental archaeological sites with a clear Inca affiliation, we believe it is advisable to develop a programme of improvement that takes into account the active participation of the communities of the municipalities of Guayllabamba and Calderón, as well as other social actors interested in the preservation of the heritage of the Capacñán.²

^{1. The term “Qhapaq Ñan” expresses the phonology of the Cusco Quichua language and has been adopted by convention by Unesco to name the entire Andean road system, which represents an invaluable heritage for South America and humanity in general (Unesco, 2014).}

^{2. We adopt the term “Capacñán” in accordance with the morphosyntactic and phonological diversity of the Quichua that developed in the equatorial Andean region after the arrival of the Incas, thus recognising cognate forms of Cusco Quichua with modern Barbacoan languages (Floyd, 2022). On the other hand, we believe that “capac” is inserted as a prefix in other toponyms of the equatorial Andean region and that Capacñán means “main road” (Anhalzer, 2022a and b).}