Ximena Garrido-Leca Explores Pre-Inca Writing System Through Seeds and Colonial Text

Artist Ximena Garrido-Leca's project investigates a potential pre-Inca writing system using Phaseolus Lunatus seeds, inspired by a 2010 visit to the Pachacamac ruins near Lima. Archaeologists there discovered rare white and black seeds, which were historically represented in pre-Hispanic Peruvian cultures like the Moche on ceramics and textiles. The artist focuses on a theory by early 20th-century archaeologist Rafael Arcofuego, who proposed these seed representations constituted a symbolic communication system, not ideograms, existing from 100 to 850 BC. Garrido-Leca's research involves translating a 1621 colonial text, 'La extirpación de la idolatría en el Peru' by Pablo José de Arriaga, a manual for eradicating indigenous customs. She specifically works with the chapter 'Edicto contra la idolatría,' which details rituals and punishments, to create new graphic texts by grouping ceramic-reproduced seeds based on morphology and color. This artistic inquiry challenges conventional historical narratives about Peruvian communication methods before the Inca.