A prehistoric pyramid in the shape of a volcanic cinder cone, Nepeña Valley, Peru (original) (raw)
A 2,300-year-old architectural and astronomical complex in the Chincha Valley, Peru
Recent archaeological research on the south coast of Peru discovered a Late Paracas (ca. 400-100 BCE) mound and geoglyph complex in the middle Chincha Valley. This complex consists of linear geoglyphs, circular rock features, ceremonial mounds, and settlements spread over a 40-km 2 area. A striking feature of this culturally modified landscape is that the geoglyph lines converge on mounds and habitation sites to form discrete clusters. Likewise, these clusters contain a number of paired line segments and at least two U-shaped structures that marked the setting sun of the June solstice in antiquity. Excavations in three mounds confirm that they were built in Late Paracas times. The Chincha complex therefore predates the better-known Nasca lines to the south by several centuries and provides insight into the development and use of geoglyphs and platform mounds in Paracas society. The data presented here indicate that Paracas peoples engineered a carefully structured, ritualized landscape to demarcate areas and times for key ritual and social activities. chiefdoms | Andean
14C absolute chronology of the Pyramid III and the Dynastic Model at Pachacamac, Peru
Radiocarbon (Tucson, Arizona), vol. 45 (1) (2003):59-73., 2003
Pachacamac, covering an area of about 600 hectares (ha) near the Pacific shore, is one of the largest and most important archaeological sites in Peru. Most of the monumental adobe-made buildings of the later pre-Inca period (or Late Intermediate Period, about 10th-15th century AD) are so-called pyramids with ramps (the role of the ramps has been interpreted in different ways). Precise dating of the pyramids appears as a crucial step in defining the functions of Pachacamac in pre-Inca times. In this paper, we present the results obtained from 3 field campaigns at Pyramid III, one of the biggest buildings of the site. A total of 24 radiocarbon datasets from 4 different laboratories will help us to place the various steps of development of Pyramid III on a timescale, defined on the basis of the excavations. More absolute dates are available from another pyramid with ramps, which allow us to make comparisons and propose a new model of interpretation for the Pachacamac site during the Late Intermediate Period (LIP).
Journal of Cultural Heritage, 2018
The present paper presents results of a comprehensive engineering analysis for understanding the current structural damage condition of a sector of one of the most representative archaeological complexes in Perú: the main Moche culture pyramid of Huaca de la Luna. It is estimated that this pyramid was built in stages with adobe masonry between 100 and 600 A.D. Severe structural damage was identified near the NW corner during the archeological excavation in the form of damaged walls, fissures, cracks, compressed adobe blocks, and incomplete geometry of perimeter walls. An interdisciplinary team carried out an engineering diagnosis involving: detailed surveying and mapping of the geometry of the complex, multiscale characterization of the material components, geotechnical assessment of foundation conditions, and advanced numerical modeling to help evaluate the possible reasons for the observed structural damage. The results indicate that the origin for the observed damage is uneven foundation settlements related to a variable foundation layer thickness that is associated to the sloping bedrock at the site of this complex. The complex soil-structure interaction issues associated to the foundation conditions and high foundation pressures in the NW corner of the complex, coupled with the high internal stresses in the lower part of this structure that reach the strength capacity of this fragile material, appear to be the main reasons for the observed damage. This interdisciplinary study provided an effective approach to find a valid and scientific-based explanation for the observed archaeological evidence and open up new engineering and archaeological discussions for finding the most appropriate strategies for future conservation and structural consolidation works at this invaluable Moche culture heritage site.
The Fortaleza Valley, Peru: Archaeological Investigation of Late Archaic Sites (3000–1800 BC
Monumental architecture, including stepped pyramids, sunken circular plazas, and upright monoliths (huancas), has been identified at sites throughout the Norte Chico region along the coast of Peru. During 2003 and 2004, test excavations were conducted at six of these sites in the Fortaleza Valley. Excavation included 1 3 2-m test pits and sections cleared along road cuts and looters' pits. Good preservation of plant materials, along with fiber bags, or shicra, used in construction of monumental architecture yielded ample samples for dating. This report describes and illustrates the precise context of the samples and provides the radiocarbon dating results for 79 samples. Project results show that the sites tested were occupied during the Late Archaic Period between 3000 and 1800 BC. The pattern of constructing large mounds paired with sunken circular plazas clearly begins by the third millennium BC, and a U-shaped layout of sites appears to develop during that period, as indicated by the regularity of site plans and monuments at sites such as Caballete and Porvenir. NB: THIS IS A PROOF. THE PRINTED VERSION IS THE DEFINITIVE COPY.
Late Preceramic Effigy Mounds from El Paraíso, Chillón Valley, Perú
Multiple imagery is now available for two giant platform mounds from a four thousand year old Late Preceramic Chillón coastal valley site of Perú (Figure 1). The site of El Paraíso has been studied by a number of archaeologists including Patterson and more recently, Marco Antonio Guillén has excavated at the site. Elsewhere we have presented (Benfer and Adkins 2008) but not published some astronomical alignments from the major temple. The imagery we discuss here includes drawings and photographs of carved bone figures, plane table maps, a Total Station map, a kite wire frame map, legacy aerial photos, Google Earth satellite maps, and planetarium maps. Taken together with on the ground “truthing,” ethnography, and ethnohistory, the imagery permits identification of the mounds as giant animal effigies based on dark cloud constellations in the Milky Way (Benfer 2011m 2013; Benfer et al. 2011; Benfer et al. 2014). These constellations were first brought to the attention of archaeologists by Leo Pucher de Kroll in 1950 in a now unavailable publication but cited in Villena (2008). Gary Urton brought their identity in modern Andean peoples to the attention of archaeology with his ethnographic studies and reviews of earlier ethnographic identifications (1981b:109). Eeckhout (1998) and Itier (1997) showed the widespread distribution of the myth of the fox across South America. The Fox Constellation is embedded in its dark cloud constellation in the Milky Way. We showed that the Fox Constellation was linked to the December solstice sunrise at the site of Buena Vista (Benfer and Adkins(2008), and we associate animal effigy mounds as earthly representations of dark cloud constellations. We have discussed a number of possible giant animal effigy mounds in detail elsewhere (Benfer 2011, 2013; Benfer et al. 2011; Benfer et al. 2014)