RIVER NETWORKS IN THE DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST OF THE PERUVIAN AMAZON BY INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES IN THE ARCHAIC AND FORMATIVE AMAZONIAN PERIODS

Abstract

This article was completed in 2024 as part of the documentary and bibliographic review carried out as part of the project “Inventory of archaeological sites with petroglyphs in the Achayacu ravine, sub-basin of the Cachiyacu River, district of Balsapuerto, province of Alto Amazonas” in Loreto, which is linked to the Sawi ethnic group. Local tradition and documents show that these petroglyphs were part of a cultural and economic circuit linking them to other Amazonian and Andean cultures and civilizations, where rivers were not only a means of transport and trade, but also of ritualistic travel or pilgrimage. Another important aspect is the existence of salt mines and petroglyphs in this area, a pattern that is repeated throughout the pre-Hispanic Andean-Amazonian border, indicating that they were important for trade and food in the region. In this sense, we set ourselves the objective of describing these river circuits in the archaic and formative Amazonian period based on current archaeological and ethnohistorical studies in order to find regularities in the process of exploration, conquest, and occupation of the territory by the pre-Hispanic indigenous peoples.

This is an interpretive and exploratory article that proposes a sequencing and interpretation based on written and oral sources and archaeological remains, from which it is concluded that there was a significant relationship between the river routes of occupation of the Amazonian territory, trade, and the emergence of early cultures and civilizations that were sustained by an agroforestry model and the management of flora and fauna, which coexisted with the extensive agricultural-livestock model of the highlands and the hydraulic-maritime model of the coast.