ARH 347K

1.Irrigation agriculture:

• -increased food production
• -upper valley settlements

• -surplus for corporate labor projects

• 2.Increased trade: coast and highlands

• -luxury and prestige items
• -subsistence diversity

Cerro Sechin (2200-1300 BCE)

Adobe construction and stone carved facade of ritual battle/procession/wartime commemoration

Sechin Alto, Casma Valley (1400-1000 BCE)

• •Focus on large square plazas (contrasted to Caral)
• •Built into the ground, not up

transition from conical adobe construction to stone remodeling

La Florida, Rimac Valley

•parallel arms express opposing yet complementary forces within society and cosmos; the central building represents the synthesis of these opposing forces

“designed to focus and influence supernatural power for the benefit of the community.”

Caballo Muerto, Moche Valley (1800-1300 BCE)

• •Central figure in high relief
• •Would have been heavily painted

•Feline

• •Felines very prominent figures
• •Class cupisnique the most widely used because we have the most of them

zoomorphic, anthropomorphic, phytomorphic

Geometric/abstract, figural elements

"Classic"

"Chavin" and "Chongoyape"

Animals, birds, marine, plants

Feline-cactus, Dual-eye motif, dual shells, captive victims, seated figures, contortionist

Dual eye motif in Cupisnique ceramics


Shows transition from human form to female form

Dual-shells motif in Cupisnique ceramics

Feline-cactus motif in Cupisnique ceramics

• •San Pedro cactus used in curing ceremonies
• •With this in the iconography and with the feline could mean something that was practiced in ancient times

Captive Victim motif in Cupisnique ceramics

Seated Figure motif in Cupisnique ceramics

Spider Decapitator motif in Cupisnique ceramics


•Most highly visual elements are stone bowls and stone vases

Spider Chelicerae motif in Cupisnique ceramics

Cupisnique stone vase

Decapitator figure

Spider chelicerae--avian beak: application like masks to front of fanged face

Cupisnique net design with severed heads and feline


•Netted heads with the feline

• •Capture: net design, ropes (neck, hands), captive figures
• •Decapitation: Supernatural decapitators, isolated heads, slit throats
• •Symbolic dyads: Spondylus – Strombus, Dual eye forms

• 2200-1200 BCE: Cerro Sechín
• •stone façade: 1500 BCE, processing figures

• 1400-1000 BCE: Sechín Alto:
• •U-shaped architecture, mid-agricultural fields

• 1200-900 BCE: Caballo Muerto
• •feline clay sculpture, colonnade facade, sunken square plazas

1200-900 BCE

Cupisnique, post-Sechin Complex, Garagay

• Motif: a repeated visual design or image
• Theme: an idea, message or implied concept in a work(s) of art
• -identifiable by a repeated set of visual motifs that comprise an integrated or reticular visual program (Ex: spider, net design [web], isolated heads = capture and sacrifice)

Pacopampa (1200-200 BCE)

• Stone architecture, stone-lined canals
• Emphasis on central, sunken plazas
• Use of internal/subterranean stone-lined canals
• Three-terrace style architecture
• Stone columns
• Circular plaza built into the architecture

Pacopampa (Early Horizon): feline-avian-serpent

Motifs: feline mortar, avian beak, serpent eyes, rope element, hexagonal net design, serpent pestle

Kuntur Wasi Monolith

Dual-eye motif: quadrangular eye (right) vs. serpent eye (left)

mercury ore (vermillion)

Strombus shell trumpets

a metalworking technique in which a malleable metal is ornamented or shaped by hammering from the reverse side

lacking a lower jaw (Kuntur Wasi)

• Symbolic dyads: shells, eye forms
• Colonnaded entranceways
• Net designs and isolated heads

• High status burials in site center
• Stone-lined canal system

Dry ravine

• cumbe [cumpi]=fine (thread)
• mayo [mayu]=river

image or design carved into stone

• •Where the river tributaries from the highlands divide between those heading west toward the Pacific Ocean and those heading east toward the Amazon Basin
• •The Cumbemayo Canal takes water from the Pacific Ocean drainage and directs it over the Continental Divide into the Cajamarca Basin

Kuntur Wasi-House of Condor

Stone-lined canals: Begin in highland centers, exceed needs for site drainage, direct from West to East, emerge or progress down from highest (third) terrace

Stone-lined canals possible symbolic function: Physical control of water by site center, acoustics of rushing water focus attention, monument as source of group abundance