awpa Pacha

Journal of Andean Archaeology

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Barcoding spindles and decorating whorls: How

weavers marked their property at Cerro Azul, Peru
Joyce Marcus
To cite this article: Joyce Marcus (2016) Barcoding spindles and decorating whorls:
How weavers marked their property at Cerro Azul, Peru, awpa Pacha, 36:1, 1-21, DOI:
10.1080/00776297.2016.1169715
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00776297.2016.1169715

Published online: 05 May 2016.

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Date: 12 October 2016, At: 21:40

BARCODING

SPINDLES AND DECORATING WHORLS:

MARKED THEIR

HOW WEAVERS
PROPERTY AT CERRO AZUL, PERU
Joyce Marcus

Spindles with painted barcodes provide new information on weavers at Cerro Azul (Valley of Caete). Sets of identically barcoded spindles are often found in a specic workbasket, making it likely that each woman coded some of her
personal property. At Cerro Azul, identically barcoded spindles occur in mummy bundles, workbaskets, open-air work
spaces, storage bins, and a brewery. The juxtaposition of spinning, weaving, and brewing in one work space suggests
Late Intermediate behavior anticipated the akllaan Inca institution requiring chosen women to weave cloth
and brew beer. The Inca presumably recongured this behavior so that it could be administered at an imperial
level, rather than the level of the residential compound as at Cerro Azul (A.D. 10001470).
Los husos pintados en el estilo de un cdigo de barras o barcode nos proveen de nueva informacin sobre las tejedoras
de Cerro Azul (Valle de Caete). Grupos de husos con cdigos de barras idnticos aparecieron en costureros especcos,
aumentando la probabilidad de pensar que cada mujer marcaba su propiedad. En el sitio de Cerro Azul, grupos de
husos idnticos se encontraron en los fardos funerarios de las momias, en costureros, en canchones y collcas, y en una
chichera. En uno de los canchones haba mujeres quienes tejieron y prepararon chicha, cosa que sugiere que
algunas prcticas del Intermedio Tardo eran precursoras de la akllauna institucin incaica, en la cual ciertas
mujeres escogidas combinaban la produccin de tejidos y chicha. Los incas, por supuesto, administraron estas
prcticas al nivel del imperio, en vez del nivel del conjunto residencial en el sitio de Cerro Azul (10001470 d.C.).

n places as far apart as prehistoric Europe, Turkey,

and Mexico, archaeologists have discovered abundant spindle whorls, but rarely the spindles themselves. It takes the extreme aridity of regions like
Egypt and the Peruvian coast to preserve spindles, textiles, workbaskets, yarn balls, belt looms, and other

weaving materials that typically perish. The partnership of spindle + whorl is so close that, in some
Native American cultures, the term for spindle and
whorl was the same (e.g., malacatl in the language
of the Aztecs). In the Andes, however, there were separate Quechua terms for spindle ( pushca) and whorl

Joyce Marcus, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, 1109 Geddes Avenue, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
48109-1079 ( joymar@umich.edu)
awpa Pacha, Journal of Andean Archaeology, Volume 36, Number 1, pp. 121. Copyright # 2016 Institute of Andean Studies. All rights reserved.

awpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology

( piruru). When found in workbaskets, coastal

Peruvian whorls are often still threaded on their spindles. When left on the oor of walled enclosures or
storage bins, on the other hand, whorls are more
likely to be found loose.

Volume 36, Number 1

most common craft activity at the settlement.

Conlee suggests that many areas of the coast may
have been involved in exchanging cotton yarn for
camelid yarn, and regional exchange in the Late
Intermediate may have become fairly structured,
with dened tasks for people under the sponsorship
of local elites.
At the north coast site of Las Huacas de Moche,
Chapdelaine et al. (2001) recovered more than 400
whorls in the residential area between the Huaca del
Sol and the Huaca de la Luna. Given the widespread
distribution of spindle whorls across this urban area,
Chapdelaine et al. concluded that large segments of
the population were producing cotton thread.
Neutron activation conducted on a small subset of
these clay whorls suggested that they had been produced in at least two different workshops, although
not in the workshop already known and excavated
at Las Huacas de Moche (Chapdelaine et al. 2001:
805806).
The importance of cloth to Andean peoples is
demonstrated by the abundance of whorls and
weaving implements at many archaeological sites, by
the rich documentary records of the sixteenth
century, and by the incredible skill they displayed in
creating textiles of all kinds. Cloth was a vital ingredient in a wide range of ceremonial, social, economic,
and political activities; it could signal status, ofce,
group membership, ethnic identity, and regional
style (Cobo 1956 [1653]; Costin 1993, 1998;
Franquemont
1986;
Franquemont
and
Franquemont 1987; Gonzlez Holgun 1952
[1608]; Murra 1962, 1989; ONeale 1949; Waman
Puma de Ayala 1980 [1615]; Weiner 1989). As
John Murra (1989: 291) has stated: the extraordinary value placed on textiles in the Andes cultures
and the existence of class differences allowed the
manipulative use of this commodity in a variety of
political and social contexts.
In addition to the great value placed on cloth, there
was incredible labor invested in producing it.
Vreeland (1978: 213) suggests that the greatest production of cloth for the wrapping of mummy
bundles occurred during the Late Intermediate
period. He gives the example of a mummy bundle

From Spinning Thread to the

Production of Cloth in the Andes
Andean archaeologists have used the distribution of
spindle whorls as a starting point to document the
organization of labor in textile production. They
rely heavily on whorls because, in areas with rainfall
such as the highlands, ceramic whorls may be the
only textile-related artifact preserved. As a result,
whorls are often asked to explain more than their
share of textile prehistory. On the Peruvian coast,
the recovery of painted spindles, cloth, and workbaskets, as well as other perishable weaving implements,
complements the study of whorls. In some Andean
sites spindle whorl distribution seems to be co-extensive with domestic space, suggesting that spinning was
conducted in all or most residences (e.g., Chapdelaine
et al. 2001; Vaughn 2009). At the site of Pataraya, a
Middle Horizon site (A.D. 7501100) in the
southern Nasca Valley, Edwards et al. (2008) found
more than 100 loose whorls on the oors of domestic
compounds and walled courtyards (Figure 1). A few
whorls were swept into the corners of otherwise
clean patios. At Pataraya, Edwards et al. also found
a substantial amount of chalk, thought to be used
on ngers and bers to reduce friction and resistance
during the spinning process (Kroeber 1937: 248).
The chalk found at Pataraya ranged from chunks in
courtyards to pulverized bits pressed into oors
(Edwards et al. 2008: 91). The presence of so many
whorls on patio and courtyard oors at Pataraya
suggested to Edwards et al. that those spaces served
as work areas.
Also found in the Nasca drainage is the Late
Intermediate site of Pajonal Alto (Figure 1), whose
excavator Christina Conlee (2003: 60) concluded:
judging from large amounts of raw ber, yarn, and
spindle whorls, spinning cotton into yarn was the

Marcus: Barcoding spindles and decorating whorls

Figure 1. The central coast of

Peru, showing the sites
mentioned in the text.

Studying Workbaskets

containing a 4060-year-old Late Intermediate man

who had been wrapped in 60 m2 of cloth, woven
from a total of 265 km of single-ply cotton yarn. It
is estimated that it took 4,400 hours of spinning
and plying to produce that amount of yarn
(Vreeland 1976: 8).
Although textiles have often been used to establish
culture areas and regional chronologies (e.g.,
Conklin 1983; Doyon-Bernard 1990), there have
been fewer studies using textiles and workbasket
contents to assess individual style. Analyzing the
contents of the workbaskets associated with specic
mummies is one way to approach the study of individual style.

In museums all over the world there are Andean

workbaskets, with most of them lacking provenience.
For example, Stone-Miller (1992: 68), citing Susan
Bruce (1991), says that there are perhaps several
hundred Late Intermediate workbaskets in such collections, and they appear to be fairly standardized in
form and contents. Although the types of weaving
implements these workbaskets contain might be
characterized as fairly standardized, one can nd
signicant differences in the sequences of colored
bands painted on spindles. These sequences resemble
todays barcodes in many ways, and a few of the

awpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology

painted spindles in a single workbasket may match

each other, as may some of the whorls in the same
workbasket. Some of our best examples of workbaskets with paired spindles and paired whorls come
from looted Late Intermediate graves.
One well-known workbasket is currently in the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Made of plaited reeds
over split cane, the basket measures 32.5 cm in
length, 13.7 cm in width, and 9.5 cm in depth
(Stone-Miller 1992: 68). It held an astounding 154
items, including two pieces of chalk, a needle,
wooden spindles, a pick made from camelid bone,
shed picks, and bobbins with ber still wound
around them. Also in the workbasket were wads of
unspun camelid wool and a large skein of cotton
plied with unidentied vegetal ber. Sixteen loose
spindle whorls were present. This workbasket, presumed to be that of a woman, held implements for a
wide range of activities, from spinning and weaving
to embroidery and sewing. Of great interest is the
fact that some of this baskets painted spindles had
identical barcodes and bore identical whorls
(Figure 2). In addition to the matching spindles and
paired whorls, there were spindles and whorls in
other styles in the same workbasket. In another workbasket, this time from Ancn, some spindles had
matching and identical barcodes while others were
more diverse (Reiss and Stbel 18801887: Taf. 86).
How are we to explain the presence of identical pairs
(or trios) of spindles and whorls, found among plain or
differently barcoded specimens in the same workbasket? There are several possibilities. Groups of spindles
displaying the same barcode may indicate that, when
a woman received a new batch of plain (unpainted)
spindles, she coded them by painting them in an identical manner, to reect both her ownership and style
preference. By using her personal barcode on her spindles and decorating her whorls in a distinctive way, she
could recognize her property even when sharing a work
area with other weavers. At the same time, women who
regularly worked together might well exchange spindles
or whorls from time to time, either as gifts or loans. The
result would be a workbasket in which some coworkers spindles were found alongside those the
woman had painted herself. At Cerro Azul, a Late

Volume 36, Number 1

Intermediate site in the Caete Valley, we were fortunate enough to nd a number of painted spindles and
workbaskets that could be tied either to specic
female mummies or specic work spaces within an
elite residential compound (Marcus 1987b, 2008).
This allows us to consider a number of explanations
for the spindles with identical barcodes.

The Site of Cerro Azul

One of the small coastal polities incorporated into the
Inca Empire in A.D. 1470 was the seoro of Huarco,
situated in the lower Caete Valley, some 130 km
south of Lima. One community in that polity was
Cerro Azul, which covers 8 ha (Figure 1). Cerro
Azuls Late Intermediate occupation was concentrated
in a protected saddle that lies between an 86-m-high
mountain (Cerro Camacho) and two steep sea cliffs
(Cerro Centinela and Cerro del Fraile) (Marcus
2008: Figure 2.2). The most prominent features in
that saddle or depression were 10 large buildings,
eight of which (Structures AH) surround an irregular central plaza (Marcus 1987a, 2008). Structures
AH appear to be residential compounds occupied
by elite families and their staff. These structures
have thick tapia walls, constructed by pouring mud
between wooden boards and then letting it dry in
place. This type of construction is typical of the
Late Intermediate on the south and central coasts
(e.g., Stumer 1971; Villar Crdova 1935).
We excavated in its entirety Structure D, a 1,640
2
m building that had been the residential compound
of an elite family (Figure 3). Structure D included
living quarters, a brewery, storage bins or collcas,
and large open-air work areas called canchones. For
centuries, the refuse from these canchones was
removed and carried to the quebradas or gullies on
the slopes of Cerro Camacho. Over time this accumulating refuse was used to create terraces in the quebradas and, once those terraces became sufciently deep,
they became suitable places to install subterranean
cists for the mummies of the men, women, and children who had lived in the compounds nearby. We
excavated burial cists in Quebradas 5, 5a, and 6,

Marcus: Barcoding spindles and decorating whorls

Figure 2. Two spindles (a and

b) from a workbasket in the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts,
bearing identically painted
barcodes and two matching
whorls (drawn by Kay Clahassey
from a photograph in StoneMiller 1992: 69).

x characters and spirals in yellow paint, along with

black lines and red bands (Figure 4b). The third
spindle bore a red whorl and was painted largely
yellow and black, with only three red lines
(Figure 4c). The fourth had red and black lines with
wide yellow bands, and its whorl was red with a
central black band encircling it, all against a background
of white dots (Figure 4d). One loose whorl in Kroebers
basket was painted red with a central black band.
In addition to the six spindles wrapped in cloth,
this basket had 10 more spindles, several needles, a
cane ute, three small gourd vessels, a comb, a
wooden earplug, an 81-g piece of pyrrhotite (magnetic iron sulde or magnetic pyrite), a quartz
crystal, a 2-g lump of chalk, and other items. As
Kroeber (1937: 249) remarked: The personal
touch of the owner is evident. The value of the nd
is not so much in the individual objects, as in the
fact and nature of their assemblage into a unit.
This weaver took time to assemble her personal
items and either she, or those who buried her, cared
enough to wrap the entire workbasket in a cloth to
protect the contents from the sand and the salt air.
The workbaskets recovered by our University of
Michigan project (19821986) all came from
Quebrada 5a or Quebrada 5-south, and were found
buried with their owners (Marcus 2008: Chapter
9). The complete inventory of each burial will be
the subject of a future report; in this article I will
discuss only the spindles and whorls.

complementing the work of Kroeber (1937), who had

done the same in Quebradas 1, 2, 6, and 7 (Marcus
2008: Figure 2.2). We both found new burials and
salvaged others that had suffered looting. Each of
the cists we excavated contained multiple burials,
but each mummy was wrapped separately. The
women in these bundles were buried with (among
other things) workbaskets lled with spindles,
whorls, pieces of chalk, bobbins, needles, needle
cases, wads of unspun cotton and camelid ber, and
balls of cotton and dyed camelid wool. Given the
presence of gold and silver in the mummy bundles
of the women buried in Quebrada 5anot to
mention the volume of elaborate textiles and tapestries made from dyed camelid bers found with
themthese women were probably some of the
elite members of Cerro Azul society. Their workbaskets were well cared for, each wrapped inside a cloth
to protect both the basket and its contents. The
great luck of being able to associate each workbasket
with a woman allows us to reect on the relationship
between individual style, work group style, regional
style, and the ownership of weaving implements.

The Cerro Azul Workbaskets

In 1925, A.L. Kroeber became the rst archaeologist to
recover a tied-up workbasket at Cerro Azul (Kroeber
1937: Plate 86, Figure 12). He found the basket in
Quebrada 1 and, among its weaving implements,
were six spindles wrapped in cotton cloth. Four of the
six spindles were painted and all were different, as
were the whorls they bore (Figure 4). One of the
painted spindles had black and yellow lines and a
yellow whorl with a red band and yellow dots
(Figure 4a); another had a black whorl and a series of

Workbasket with Individual 1a of Burial 4,

Quebrada 5a
Burial 4a stone-lined cist that held the remains of
several individualswas discovered in Quebrada 5a

awpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology

Figure 3.

Volume 36, Number 1

Structure D of Cerro Azul. The black circles in the North Central Canchn are chicha storage vessels.

(Marcus 2008: Figures 2.12.2). Inside this cist we

found at least two women, each in her mummy
bundle (Marcus 2015: Figure 11). Inside the workbasket of the woman we called Individual 1a were
15 unpainted spindles and eight ceramic whorls.
Four of the eight whorls were black and bore no incising. One whorl was black and was further decorated
with incised lines. The remaining three whorls were
shaped like gears (Figure 5). Two of the black
whorls were still on their spindles. One whorl
(15.2 mm high and 19.3 mm in diameter, with a
hole diameter of 3.5 mm) was globular in shape and

resembled the highly burnished variety of a local

pottery type, Camacho Black. The other whorl
found on a spindle had incised lines (17 mm high
and 18.5 mm in diameter, with a hole diameter of
3 mm) and resembled the standard variety of
Camacho Black (both varieties of Camacho Black
are described in Marcus 2008). Although Individual
1a had 15 spindles made from huarango spines,
none were barcoded or specially marked. This lack
of barcoding sets this womans spindles apart from
those found with the other elite women of
Quebrada 5a. Three additional spindle fragments

Marcus: Barcoding spindles and decorating whorls

Figure 4. Four painted spindles

bearing whorls, from a
workbasket in Quebrada 1 at
Cerro Azul (redrawn by Kay
Clahassey from a drawing in
Kroeber 1937).

were found to still have yarn around them. Two had

yarn of the same brown yarn hue; the third fragment
had a yarn of a different shade of brown. One possible
inference from this workbasket would be that even
broken spindle fragments were used to store yarn,
allowing colors to be kept separate.

and below the cross-hatched area, serving to frame

the well-executed cross-hatched design. The crosshatching on the whorls was reinforced by white x
characters painted on the matching spindles
(Figure 5). The decoration on these paired whorls
and spindles was unique to Individual 3 s workbasket.
Individual 3 had a fth ceramic whorl (Camacho
Black), still threaded on a frayed spindle fragment.
This whorl weighed 3 g and was 13.2 mm high and
17 mm in diameter, with a hole diameter of
3.5 mm. A broken sixth whorl from this basket was
Camacho Black (standard variety).
Other items in this womans basket (Figure 6) were
a wad of unspun dark brown cotton, unnished
textile piping and edge binding, a lump of chalk,
bobbins, 22 needles (ve of them tied together with
cochineal-dyed thread), and 30 small skeins of yarn,
whose colors ranged from yellow to green to reddish
brown (Figure 7). Individual 3 was also buried with
all the components of a small belt loom (see
Marcus 1987a: Figure 54).

Workbasket with Individual 3 of Burial 4,

Quebrada 5a
Individual 3 shared a cist with the woman just
described; in fact, hers was the rst mummy bundle
placed in the cist, and she was associated with some
of the most spectacular items of camelid wool, gold,
silver, and bone. We consider her to be one of the
most important elite women in our sample. Among
the items in Individual 3 s workbasket (which was
rectangular and measured 13 cm26 cm8 cm) were
two matching pairs of spindles and whorls
(Figure 5). One pair of spindles had been painted
identically (yellow band, black line, red line, black
line, yellow band, etc.), and both bore Camacho
Black whorls (highly burnished variety). The whorls
were squat and teardrop in shape, but not identical
in size; one whorl was 11.1 mm high and 18.8 mm
in diameter, while the other was 15.8 mm high and
19.6 mm in diameter.
The second pair of matched spindles and whorls in
Individual 3 s basket featured gear-shaped whorls,
cross-hatched and painted white over a black background. Thin red bands had been painted above

Structure 5, Workbasket 1, Quebrada 5a

Another burial cist, Structure 5, was found in
Quebrada 5a (Figure 8). The mummy bundle
found at the very bottom of Structure 5 contained a
woman and her workbasket (42 cm23 cm8 cm
deep). Among the items in this carefully tied-up
basket (Marcus 1987a: Figure 51) were four spindle
whorls and ve painted spindles (Figure 8). One

awpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology

Volume 36, Number 1

Figure 5. Spindles and whorls

from two workbaskets in Burial 4,
Quebrada 5a. Note that
Individual 3 s workbasket had
pairs of spindles and whorls with
identical decoration.

hole 3.5 mm in diameter and a weight of 2.5 g. It

was painted weak red on its base (7.5 YR 5/8 in
the Munsell Color Co. [1954] system). The next
two whorls (Figures 8c and 8d) were identical in
shape (carinated) and color (grayish brown); each
measured 16.2 mm high and 14.7 mm in diameter,
with a hole 3.5 mm in diameter and a weight of 3.5
g. These identical whorls were accompanied by three
identical spindles. Three of this womans ve
painted spindles bore the identical design
(Figure 8). The barcoding on the other two was
similar, but not identical, to the other three. Her
painting of the bands on her spindles tended to be
wider than that of the other women we found, and
she used a lot of yellow and black. She also liked
to juxtapose red and yellow, which differed from
other womens preferences in painting their spindles. Her basket also contained two wads of raw
material for future spinning, one of white cotton
and one of brown cotton.

Figure 6. The workbasket associated with Individual 3 of Burial

4, Quebrada 5a.

whorl was teardrop-shaped (Figure 8a) and made of

Camacho Black pottery, measuring 11.6 mm high
and 15.8 mm in diameter, with a hole diameter of
3.5 mm (weight 4.5 g). Another was an oddly
shaped whorl that resembled a piece of wood
turned on a lathe (Figure 8b); this whorl was
16.5 mm high and 11.7 mm in diameter, with a

Structure 5, Workbasket 2, Quebrada 5a

Workbasket No. 2 (42 cm24 cm8 cm deep) of
Structure 5 was nearly identical in form and

Marcus: Barcoding spindles and decorating whorls

Figure 7. Balls and skeins of

yarn of different colors from the
workbasket shown in Figure
6. The object at the lower right is
unnished edge binding
( probably to be used as trimming
for a cloth bag) and it is barcoded
much like a spindle.

Figure 8. Spindles and whorls

from two workbaskets found in
Quebrada 5a. Note that three of
the spindles from Workbasket 1
of Structure 5 have identical
barcodes; a fourth spindle, while
not identical, has a similar color
scheme.

awpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology

Volume 36, Number 1

Workbasket from Burial 8, Quebrada 5a

construction to Workbasket No. 1. One difference

was that Workbasket No. 2 had a string still attached
to it to help close the lid securely. Most of the contents of Workbasket No. 2 had been taken by
looters before our arrival, so we were only able to
recover one yarn ball of dark reddish brown thread
(diameter 3 cm; weight 2.5 g), as well as a series of
Opuntia spines used to make needles.

Burial 8 of Quebrada 5a was a woman more than 50

years of age. She was accompanied by a workbasket, a
complete loom, and four wooden stakes of the type
used for setting up a loom. Among the items in her
workbasket were a piece of chalk weighing 36 g,
three spindle whorls, and ve spindles. Two of her
ve spindles were unpainted. The other three were
painted with an identical barcode: a black band followed by eight white lines, another black band followed by eight white lines, and a nal black band
(see Figure 9). The three whorls in this basket were
all burnished black. Two were still on their painted
spindles (Figure 9); the third whorl (not illustrated)
might originally have been threaded on the third
painted spindle, but this whorl had been broken in
half by the time we found it.
An interesting organizational strategy was evident
in this womans workbasket. On all of her identically
painted spindles, she had placed yarn of the same
color (7.5 YR 5/6 or strong yellowish brown in the
Munsell Color Co. [1954] system). In contrast, the
yarn wound around the unpainted spindles was of a
different color (2.5 YR 3/2, dusky red). In other
words, this woman had chosen to put yarn of the
same color on her painted spindles, and yarn of a
different color on her unpainted spindles. What this
suggests is that, whatever implications barcoding
may have had for personalizing property, it could
also be used for segregating yarn of different colors.

Workbasket from Structure 6, Quebrada 5a

In Structure 6, another burial cist in Quebrada 5a,
we found a workbasket (38 cm19 cm8 cm deep)
still carefully wrapped in cloth. Inside the workbasket there was 20 g of unspun white cotton, to
which two complete and unpainted spindles were
still attached. We presume that at the time of her
death this woman was spinning cotton and storing
it on these unpainted spindles. She had already produced about 20 cm of thread. One spindle (28.4 cm
long) still bore a squat, teardrop-shaped Camacho
Black ceramic whorl (Figure 8a). The second
spindle (24.5 cm long) had a burnished red biconical whorl (Figure 8b). A third whorl in the basket
was not on a spindle; it had a teardrop shape and
was painted red with a white band at the top and
painted yellow spirals (Figure 8c). Although none
of this womans whorls matched each other, the
red whorl with yellow spirals was similar to those
found in Structure 12 of Quebrada 5-south (see
below). This womans basket also had four yarn
balls and a piece of stone (23 g) that may have
been a polisher of some kind. She also had a small
rolled-up loom with a cotton cord wrapped around
it nine times. Clearly, whoever buried this woman
expected her to resume her spinning and weaving
in the afterlife.

Workbasket with Individual 3 of Burial 9,

Quebrada 5a
The somewhat disintegrated workbasket associated
with Individual 3 had nine spindles. Three had
whorls still on them, three were without whorls,
and three were only fragments. One spindle bore a
Camacho Black whorl (highly burnished variety)
with diamond-shaped incisions (Figure 9). Another
bore a Camacho Black whorl (standard variety) and
measured 15.7 mm in height, 19.8 mm in diameter,
with a hole 3.5 mm in diameter. The third whorl was
gear-like and weighed 7 g (15 mm high and 19.9 mm

Workbasket from Burial 5, Quebrada 5a

Seventy cm below the surface of Terrace 9 of
Quebrada 5a we found Burial 5, a woman associated
with 10 spindles, ve plain and ve with yarn still
wound around them (see Marcus 1987a: Figure 53).

10

Marcus: Barcoding spindles and decorating whorls

Figure 9. Spindles and whorls

from two workbaskets found in
Quebrada 5a. Note that the
workbasket found with Burial 8
had three spindles with identical
barcodes.

Workbasket from Structure 12 in Quebrada

5-south

in diameter, with a hole 3.5 mm in diameter). This

whorl was burnished black, with red and white
paint in the encircling grooves at the top and
bottom. The top surface was painted black, then
red, then white, while the main part of the whorl
was black (Figure 9). The lower surface was painted
white, then red, then black at the very bottom.

Structure 12, a burial cist that had been excavated into

the midden debris of Quebrada 5-south, had its oor
set on bedrock. At an average depth of 1.28 m below
the surface of the terrace, the builders of the cist had

Figure 10. Spindles and whorls

from a workbasket in Structure
12, Quebrada 5-south. Note the
spiral motifs on two whorls.

11

awpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology

laid down a clay oor to compensate for the irregularities in the bedrock. Although looters had disturbed
this cist before our arrival, they did not empty it completely. While they were digging, in fact, they broke
and discarded many items. We were able to salvage
large fragments of broken vessels, as well as part of a
workbasket that contained painted whorls and spindles. Two whorls with yellow spirals were left
behind in the fragmentary basket (Figure 10). So,
too, were three painted spindles with different
barcodes.

Volume 36, Number 1

workbaskets, many of its open courts or canchones

had evidence of weaving in the form of spindles
and whorls.

The Southwest Canchn

Entry into Structure D was through a very wide
opening into the southwest part of the compoundso wide, in fact, that llama caravans had
entered and left abundant scatters of dung pellets
on its oor. As documented in earlier publications
(Marcus 2008), this Southwest Canchn was probably the place where maize and other inland products were unloaded, after which the llamas were
loaded with dried sh for export from Structure
D. A narrow passageway called the South
Corridor prevented the animals from intruding
further into the building. From the oor of the
Southwest Canchn we recovered numerous artifacts, including 13 spindle whorls and 19 spindle
fragments. There were, however, no matching
pairs of whorls or barcoded spindles found here

Structure D
Structure D, one of the ten large tapia compounds at
Cerro Azul, was the residence of an elite family and
its support staff (Figure 3). Structure D included
living quarters, narrow corridors that limited access
to the interior of the building, and open courts
used for spinning, weaving, and the production of
maize beer. While Structure D did not produce

Figure 11. Spindles and whorls

from Structure Ds Southwest
Canchn, including those from
the midden called Feature 6.

12

Marcus: Barcoding spindles and decorating whorls

(Figure 11); instead, there was a mix of styles,

suggesting that we were dealing with general
refuse rather than a work area.

were different. As one would expect, the debris

found in Feature 6 came from a wide area and probably included the discarded property of multiple
women.

Feature 6

The Northeast Canchn: A Walled

Enclosure for Weaving and Spinning

Ten of the whorls and 18 of the spindles recovered

from the Southwest Canchn came from a single
midden called Feature 6. Feature 6 seems to represent
the nal sweeping up of the ne-fraction debris left
on the oor of the Southwest Canchn shortly
before Structure D was abandoned. Since this debris
had never been carried to the quebradas, it simply
remained piled against the eastern wall of the
canchn. This midden, roughly 50 cm deep and
2 m in diameter, gave us considerable insight into
the range of debris-producing activities that had
been carried out in the nal months of occupation
in the Southwest Canchn.
We isolated Feature 6 and assigned two of our most
careful workmen the job of ne-screening it (Marcus
2008: Figure 4.18). The contents revealed a remarkable range of activities that had taken place in the
Southwest Canchn; there were more than 8,000
sardine remains and 2,800 specimens of anchovies
(Marcus et al. 1999). We found human ngernail
trimmings, llama bones, craysh, molluscs, crabs,
and chitons as well as maize, beans, squash, gourds,
chili peppers, peanut hulls, and fruit pits. Both
cotton and camelid wool were present, as were
needles, spindles, whorls, bobbins, fragments of
tapestry, embroidered cloth, and practice webs for
novice embroiderers. Some needles and spindle fragments still had thread or yarn associated with them.
Five of the 10 complete whorls were decorated, and
at least two spindles were sufciently preserved to
illustrate (Figure 11). One of the whorls had a
yellow spiral on a weak red background, similar to
the decoration on some whorls seen in workbaskets
from the quebradas, specically that of a woman
from Structure 12 (Quebrada 5-south) and that of a
woman from Structure 6 (Quebrada 5a). The paint
on most of the spindle fragments had faded, but
judging from the best preserved, all the barcodes

The Northeast Canchn was the largest of the openair enclosures in Structure D (Figure 3). Measuring
approximately 20.3 m17.5 m, this work space
could only be reached after passing through a very
narrow corridor and an elite residential patio to
which access was restricted. Postmolds in the oor
of the Northeast Canchn suggest that small posts
may have been inserted there in order to set up backstrap looms. This inference is plausible because many
of the artifacts discarded on the oor adjacent to the
postmolds were weaving implements. Given its
location, this canchn would have been a private
place in which elite women and their daughters and
female relatives could work and converse. It is also
the kind of place where novice weavers could
observe more experienced women.
Among the artifacts found in the Northeast
Canchn were ve spindles and three whorls, as
well as a possible loom stake. There were no matching
pairs of spindles on the canchn oor (Figure 12), but
a storage bin in the south wall of the canchn (Collca
1) yielded an interesting collection (see below).
Signicantly, the weaving items in the collca were
not broken and appear to have been stored there for
future use, presumably in the Northeast Canchn.

Collca 1
Collca 1which measured 4.71 m long, 1.31 m
wide, and 1.05 m deep and had a volume of 6.48
m3was conveniently located alongside the south
wall of the Northeast Canchn. It had been created
simply by placing an L-shaped tapia wall against the
south wall (Figure 3). Between their spinning and
weaving sessions in the Northeast Canchn, the
elite women of Structure D could use Collca 1 to

13

awpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology

Volume 36, Number 1

Figure 12. Three whorls and a painted spindle from the oor of the Northeast Canchn, Structure D.

store weaving implements and other items. The

largest item stored in the collca was a wooden
weaving sword (kallwa) more than 1 m long
(Marcus 1987a: Figure 56A). Inside the collca we
also found yarn balls, a large piece of chalk, wooden
loom stakes, a belt loom, one whorl, and eight spindles. The whorl (11 mm high and 15 mm in

diameter, with a hole diameter of 3.5 mm and a

weight of 3 g) bore a horizontal red band and small
yellow spirals against a black background. A rollout
of this whorls design can be seen in Figure 13. A
similar set of colors had been applied to one of the
spindles; this spindle (19.2 cm long) was rst
painted black, then red, after which white spirals
Figure 13. Spindles and one
whorl from Collca 1, a storage bin
in the south wall of the Northeast
Canchn, Structure D. Although
no two spindle barcodes were
identical, the group of weavers
using this storage bin shared
similar preferences in color
scheme.

14

Marcus: Barcoding spindles and decorating whorls

were added. Two white spirals t on the circumference of the spindle.

Six spindles in Collca 1 displayed barcodes that
were preserved well enough to illustrate (Figure 13);
another six had been painted, but their barcodes
had faded. Four spindles appeared to be unpainted,
but since three of these still had yarn on them, any
code could be hidden below the yarn. It is probably
no accident that a high percentage of the spindles
stored in the collca bore barcodes, since this would
have allowed a number of women to store, recognize,
and reclaim their spindles. Five of the painted spindles
in Collca 1 are of particular interest because they constitute a stylistic group in which the same production
steps had been followed. These ve spindles had
been painted black, red, and white (Figure 13). No
yellow paint had been applied to any of them. This
shared theme of red and white lines against a black
background raises the possibility that the women painting them regarded themselves as a group, possibly even
a group of relatives. Reinforcing the possibility was the
presence in Collca 1 of a dressed gurine, an item that
might have occupied a daughter while her mother was
weaving nearby. Indeed, we know of cloth models
from the central coast that depict a daughter sitting
and playing near her mother (see Skinner 1975;
Willey 1974).
In Collca 1 we also found a cloth practice web
bearing embroidered birds, something that a novice
weaver ( perhaps a daughter?) might have created
(Marcus 1987a: Figure 58A). We also recovered
plain-weave cotton cloths, warp-stripe plain weaves
(Marcus 1987a: Figures 58B, 59), and fragments of
cords that could have been used to tie one end of a
backstrap loom to a post set in the oor. In sum,
no work space in Structure D produced as much evidence for experienced women and novices working
side by side as Collca 1.

produced evidence of chicha-making, weaving, and

spinning (Figure 3). This juxtaposition of individuals
devoted to spinning, weaving, and brewing is of considerable interest in light of the Late Horizon strategy
of using aklla, or chosen women, to weave cloth and
brew beer at sites such as Hunuco Pampa (Morris
and Thompson 1985). In fact, the practice of
having women brew beer and weave cloth in the
same work area may go back to the Middle
Horizon. At the site of Marayniyoq near Wari,
Lidio Valdez (2006: 7274) reports nding spindle
whorls surrounding grinding slabs; from this juxtaposition he infers that women were engaged in spinning
and weaving, grinding qora and making chicha in the
same work space.
The North Central Canchn of Structure D at
Cerro Azul enclosed 110 m2 of oor space (Marcus
2008). It featured two long cooking hearths and a
number of very large vessels set into the oor
(Figure 3). Some of the largest vessels were set with
their shoulders at oor level; these were probably
formed and red in situ. The vessels in the brewery
fell into four different size classes. The largest could
have held almost 2,000 liters of beer; the next
largest, 700 liters; the next, 500 liters; and the smallest, roughly 125 liters. These four size classes correspond to four Quechua terms for vessels of different
sizes (Marcus 2009). Had all the vessels in the
North Central Canchn been in use simultaneously,
the total volume of beer produced would have been
5,000 liters. If, on the other hand, only half of the
vessels were lled at any one time, their capacity
would have been 2,500 liters.
How many people could be entertained at one time
with beer from this North Central Canchn brewery?
We can estimate this by referring to John Gillins
1940 study of a celebration in the town of Moche.
Gillin (1947: 46) estimated that each person attending a ceremony consumed 3 liters of chicha. If we
apply this gure to the brewery in Structure D, we
can suggest that the elite there could have entertained
somewhere between 800 people (half-capacity) and
1,600 people (full-capacity).
The fuel used in the brewerys hearths included any
wood or cane that happened to be available, including

Walled Enclosure for Weaving and

Brewing Chicha
Immediately west of the Northeast Canchn lay the
North Central Canchn, a large enclosure that

15

awpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology

caa brava (Gynerium sagittatum), a broken

wooden weaving sword, and broken wooden posts
or loom stakes that appeared to be made from
willow (Salix sp.). We also found maize-grinding
implements, including three handstones and two
grinding slabs.
In addition to the brewing of beer, the North
Central Canchn produced evidence of spinning.
We found a total of 16 spindles on the oor. One
was plain; four were painted, but too faded to draw;
four were too fragmentary to reveal the complete
barcode pattern; while at least two (and possibly
three) had white-painted spirals and were so similar
to each other as to suggest that they had been
painted by the same individual (Figure 14a). Two
other spindles had identical barcodes (Figure 14b);
three others were similar, but not identical
(Figure 14c, d, and e).
Let us now look at these groups of spindles in
detail.

Volume 36, Number 1

2. The second group (two spindles) shares a

barcode that features two white lines on a
black background, then a thick red band, then
a wide yellow band, then thin white lines anking a black line, then a wide yellow band, then a
red band, and nally two white lines on a black
background (Figure 14b).
3. The third group is less uniform, but may be the
work of a group of women whose barcodes
shared several elements (Figure 14c, d, and e).

Where Spindles with Identical

Barcodes Were Found
Clusters of spindles with identical barcodes are clues
to where spinning was done. The archaeological
context most likely to have groups of spindles with
identical barcodes was the workbasket; the least
likely was a general midden such as Feature
6. Several canchones (the Southwest, Northeast, and
North Central) of Structure D had groups of similarly
painted spindles, while several small rooms (e.g.,
Rooms 1, 3, 9, 10, 11, and 12) yielded no spindles
at all. It is clear that weavers preferred open spaces

1. The rst group (three spindles, perhaps painted

by one woman) bears the identical barcode, distinguished by ending in nine white lines
(Figure 14a).

Figure 14. Spindles from the

North Central Canchn of
Structure D, a work space where
both brewing and spinning were
carried out. Note the groups of
identically barcoded spindles a
and b.

16

Marcus: Barcoding spindles and decorating whorls

with sunshine and plenty of oor space to work. The

presence of spinning and weaving artifacts in the
North Central Canchn, alongside the hearths and
chicha storage vessels, suggests the presence of
women who were multitasking. Their spinning
implements were found on the oor and their
broken weaving swords became fuel for brewing.
The juxtaposition of these activities reminds us of
the Inca practice in which the aklla did both the
brewing and the weaving in the same space.

Chan and later sites on the north coast, our evidence

from the North Central Canchn at Cerro Azul
suggests that women on the central coast and living
in shing communities were involved both in
weaving and in brewing. The second model, therefore, does not t Cerro Azul as well as it ts the
north coast.
The third model is one of household production of
beer, a part-time activity, which could have involved
both men and women (Cobo 1956 [1653]: 242).
Moore (1989: 689) says that there is no reason to
expect that the state would be directly involved in
either the production of chicha or the maintenance
of the residential group. This third model is believed
to t both Manchn in the Casma Valley (Moore
1989) and Omo in the Moquegua Valley
(Goldstein 2005: 209).
Which model best ts Cerro Azul? It would seem
that a forerunner of the aklla system, in which
certain groups of women were responsible for both
weaving and beer-brewing, best explains the data
from our North Central Canchn. Since some
believe they can trace this model back to the
Middle Horizon (Valdez 2006), its application to
Late Intermediate Cerro Azul would not be unreasonable. Stated differently, while the idea that women
brewed beer in the highlands and men made the
beer on the coast may be an accurate generalization
for the Late Horizon, that rule of thumb may not
t the Late Intermediate, since we have evidence
that elite women at Cerro Azul were involved in
both brewing and weaving in the same canchn.

Which Model Fits Cerro Azul?

Sixteenth-century ethnohistoric documents suggest at
least three models for chicha production. One attributes this activity to women, one to men, and one
to both working together. Let us begin with the
model of aklla or mamakuna who were supplied
with maize and wool by the Inca state in order to
produce textiles and chicha in the akllawasi or
house of the chosen women (Cobo 1956 [1653]:
232233; Morris 1979: 28; Murra 1980:
171172). This model has been shown to t
Hunuco Pampa, an installation built by the Inca
along their royal road (Morris 1979, 1982), where
Morris and Thompson (1985: 70) noted the juxtaposition of large jars, maize-grinding stones, and numerous spinning and weaving tools (Morris et al. 2011).
Our second model involves men who became
specialists in producing beer for large-scale elite hospitality (Rostworowski de Diez Canseco 1977: 241).
Day (1982: 339) suggests that this model may t
the Tschudi Compound at Chan Chan in the
Moche Valley. Basing her generalization on sixteenth-century documents, Rostworowski de Diez
Canseco (1977: 241) argues that women were the
primary brewers of beer in the highlands, while
men were the chicha-makers on the coast. One of
her sources is a 1621 statement by Pablo Jos de
Arriaga (1968: 106) alleging that men on the coast
made the chicha; his evidence comes from the
north coast, where brewing beer had become a
specialized, full-time activity or profession for some
men. While this may have been the case at Chan

Why We Should Take Note of

Barcoding
Our current evidence suggests that elite weavers used
colored barcodes to identify their own spindles.
Groups or pairs of spindles with identical barcodes
occur in workbaskets, storage units, and those work
spaces where spinning and weaving were regularly
carried out. Clusters of identically coded spindles
allow us to suggest that women both spun thread
and brewed beer in the North Central Canchn at

17

awpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology

Cerro Azul. To be sure, groups of elite women who

regularly worked together may have loaned each
other spindles from time to time, but even this collegial behavior did not eliminate the clusters of identical
spindles that we found at Cerro Azul. There is, in fact,
suggestive evidence that barcoding was not limited to

Volume 36, Number 1

spindles. Figure 15 shows the edge binding from a

wool bag found in 1925 at Huaca Malena in the
Asia Valley (Tello 2000; Frame and Angeles Falcn
2014). This edge binding shows a sequence of lines
very similar to the barcoding seen on spindles,
raising the possibility that, once a weaver had established her personal code, she used it on multiple
and diverse products and personal possessions.
Margaret Young-Snchez (1992: 49) describes the
Late Intermediate weaver as having a wide scope
for individual expression in the choice of color,
pattern, and color sequencing. This may reect the
fact that the Late Intermediate was an era of decentralization, with many autonomous polities or seoros,
each of which was free to develop its own regional
style. In such an environment, barcoding afforded
weavers the chance to (1) establish an artistic identity;
(2) mark personal possessions in such a way that they
could be recognized in shared work spaces; (3) key
ones yarn colors to specic spindles; and (4)
perhaps even reinforce the relationship of mothers
and daughters who worked together. For the archaeologist, an awareness of barcoding can enhance our
ability to identify weavers work spaces within residential compounds, and perhaps even to detect the
labor practices which gave rise to the imperial institution known as aklla.

Acknowledgments
I thank all the members of the University of Michigan
Cerro Azul Project, especially Mara Rostworowski de
Diez Canseco, Kent Flannery, Jeffrey Sommer, Sonia
Guilln, Ramiro Matos Mendieta, C. Earle Smith,
Charles Hastings, John Jones, James B. Stoltman,
and Dwight Wallace. I also thank Kay Clahassey
who deserves special thanks for generously preparing
all the artwork for this article. Her artwork brings to
life all the spindles and their faded barcoding. The
Cerro Azul excavations were supported by a
University of Michigan Faculty Fund grant and a
grant from the National Science Foundation (BNS8301542). Permission to excavate was granted by the
Instituto Nacional de Cultura (Credencial 102-82-

Figure 15. Two strips of edge binding from a wool bag found at
Huaca Malena in the Asia Valley. The edge binding shows a
decorative pattern similar to the barcoding on spindles (redrawn
by Kay Clahassey from a painting in Tello 2000: 158).

18

Marcus: Barcoding spindles and decorating whorls

DCIRBM, Credencial 041-83-DCIRBM, Credencial

018-84-DPCM, and Resolucin Suprema 357-85ED). I thank Guillermo Cock, Christopher Donnan,
Craig Morris, Michael Moseley, and Charles Stanish,
who offered excellent advice, either in the eld or in
writing up these results.

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