‘Children of the Thunderbolt’: Divine leadership in the Central Andes before the Incas

This study examines ancient Andean developments involving art and leadership, specifically among groups of the Recuay cultural tradition (cal AD 100–700) of Peru’s North-Central Highlands. We detail new archaeological discoveries at the hilltop center of Pashash (Pallasca Province, Ancash Department), the seat of an important Recuay polity emerging by the third century AD. Based on ethnohistorical comparisons and the imagery of elaborate materials (e.g. carved monoliths, metalwork, ceramics), we contend that special Recuay leaders were apotheosized into ancestral divinities and given iconographic associations to storm gods. The visual associations appear to regard key persons – ancestors and heads of kin groups – as ‘hijos del Rayo,’ the privileged offspring of apical thunder-lightning storm divinities prominent in the high Andes during historical times. The case helps to (1) evidence early takeup of storm god ideology and highland segmentary political organization known principally for later prehistory and colonial times; and (2) mark an instance of divinely-sanctioned rulership long before the Incas.