Pre-Incan Roots

I managed to catch quite the nasty cold last week, and I even had to stay home from work for part of Thursday and Friday, but by Saturday midday, I really needed to get out of the apartment. I decided to go check out one of Lima's pyramids. Lima is named after one of the early societies to settle in this area.

The pyramid from the main Plaza.

The Lima people started building around 200 AD, and they were later taken over by the Wari around 600 AD. This was all before the Incas conquered most of the region in the 1400s.

Huaca Pucllana, the name of the pyramid, was the religious and ceremonial center of the Lima complex, which also included a grand plaza, administrative buildings, and homes of the elite. Most other people lived in the surrounding area in less auspicious structures. Lima was a great place to settle because it had the freshwater source of the Rimac river and the ocean for fishing nearby.

A view of Miraflores on the way up

Lima is also susceptible to earthquakes, so it was initially a difficult place to build larger structures. Incredibly, the Lima architects developed a technique of stacking bricks in alternating diagonal structures, giving the pyramid a flexible reinforcement when earthquakes shook the structure. They also stacked bricks in alternating patterns horizontally to give it more flexibility. The new techniques meant that they could continue to build a larger pyramid around the smaller one that already stood. 

I didn't manage to get a photo of the diagonal structures, but it is sort of visible at the bottom of this shot...

Most pyramid tombs in the other cultures are hollow to allow access to those who are buried, but the Lima pyramids are solid throughout the structure. This is because they were build over time, and thus solid layer was build over solid layer. Therefore as you excavate each layer you would discover a new slew of tombs from that period.

A tomb from the Wari period

The tombs they that have excavated (only about a third of the pyramid has been excavated and is open to visit) show burial of people with their livelihoods. Weavers were buried with yarn, potters with pottery, etc. The pyramid continued to grow even after the Wari took over so there is a mixing of Wari and Lima style tombs. The points of transition is what mostly has allowed archaeologists to have a clear idea of when the Wari assumed power in the area.

Beyond the actual pyramid, there was also a sample farm and animal enclosure that showed the dominant crops and animals that these societies cultivated.

There was your typical Peruvian fare like beans, corn, coca, and wheats. As well as Andean ducks, llamas and al pacas. Llamas are apparently larger than al pacas, so they were used as pack animals, whereas al pacas were exclusively used for their fur and milk. There was also cotton plants that grew various hues of orange and red cotton that were used for weavings. Unfortunately, they weren't in bloom so I couldn't get a picture of it.

There was very few dyes and paints used in Lima and Wari weavings, pottery and architecture. The only evidence of a dye that has been found is a mineral-based yellow dye that was thought to have covered the entire pyramid at its height. This was also used for pottery, but more common was painting with a "negative" technique, which involved covering parts of the pots as they were heated, creating a lighter coloring on the protected surfaces.

The upper plaza that is thought to have been the site of human sacrifices.

Human sacrifice was also thought to be a regular event, and this upper plaza was used for most of the ceremonies. It is thought that most of the tombs in the lower plaza were sacrifice victims and regular burials were conducted elsewhere.

It's been really fun to learn about the long list of societies that rose and fell before the Spanish arrived. Huaca Pucllana is just one of many pyramids and structures that survive in the area, and one of the few that has a dedicated excavation ongoing. They are slated to start a few others, but there are just too many. As recently as 2012, they discovered the remains of a new set of ruins while digging for the structure of a new building. That begins to show you why Peru is labeled one of the world's "cradles of civilization".

Next up: Pre-colombian artifacts and more archaeological history