La Paloma

1
La Paloma

• Location
• Central coast
• South of Lima
• Chilca Canyon
• Dating
• radiocarbon date of 4360 340 BC

2
La Paloma - Features

• 4000-5000 huts
• irregularly distributed in three superimposed
  settlements
• cover an area of 600 m across
• represent occupations of short duration
• remains later used as graves
• building patterns continued unchanged when cotton
  appeared

3
La Paloma - Hut No. 12

• Conical form preserved almost intact
• Construction
• floor dug 35 cm below ground level
• framework of willow, acacia, and cane
• matting attached to serve as walls
• whale ribs held the matting in position
• small and well-fitting arched door
• shells piled around the base of walls for
  stability
• cooking activities carried outside on heated
  stones

4
Huaca Prieta

• Location
• Dating
• History
• Excavated by Junius Bird
• Later published by John Hyslop

5
Huaca Prieta

• Features
• hill of refuse
• must have been dwelling for several hundred
  people
• well-made "permanent" houses
• small, subterranean, pit-house type
• walls lined with large cobbles in mud mortar
• communal labor used to construct retaining walls

6
Huaca Prieta - Artifacts

• Textiles
• weaving, knotting, and looping
• patterns of serpents, birds, and sea creatures

7
Huaca Prieta - Activities

• cooking apparently done in baskets with stone
  boiling
• fishing done with nets and sinkers
• chipped stone reminiscent of earlier Preceramic
  artifacts

8
Asia

• Location
• Central coast region
• located in the lower Omas Valley
• Features
• series of mounds covering 30 ha
• rectangular structure of 12 X 12.5 m
• made up of rooms and passages
• wall foundations of earth reinforced with rubble
• stake holes of supports for flimsy shelters

9
El Aspero

• Location
• at the mouth of the Rio Supe
• Dating
• pyramids in existence by 2800-2600 BC
• abandoned prior to use of pottery
• Major Characteristics
• 17 standing mounds
• early urbanization and formal complexity

10
El Aspero - Features

• Features
• settlement covers an area of about 13.2 ha
• Huaca de los Sacrificios
• Huaca de los Idolos

11
El Aspero - Huaca de los Idolos

• mounds may correspond to rank in temple hierarchy
• suggestive of social hierarchy
• each official may have had access to altar or
  platform
• construction techniques
• built in multiple stages
• progressive filling-up of rooms
• competition for use of manpower likely
• may indicate mit'a

12
El Aspero - Artifacts

• Artifacts
• four-footed mortar similar to Shillacoto
• suggests long-distance contacts

13
Bandurria

• Trade
• necklace made of seed of espingo, from eastern
  slopes
• Features
• pyramid-mound
• burials of infants in baskets
• Artifacts
• figurines of unbaked clay

14
La Galgada

• Location
• Tablachacha Canyon
• equidistant from the Marañon and the Pacific
• Features
• stratified buildings
• many burials with grave goods
• Dates
• two periods, Late Preceramic and Initial Period
• documents transition from oneperiod to the next
• slow change from one to the other

15
La Galgada - Architecture

• two phases, circular court and temple mound
• buildings painted white or black with polished
  finish
• subcircular plan with a central firepit and vent
  under the doorway
• dominant orientation was west
• chambers tend to face Cerro Pajillas
• in form of woman mother image, powers of earth
  and death
• niches in the wall chambers close to exact
  cardinal directions
• North Star not visible, compass must have been
  used
• scattered placement and variety of colors and
  orientations suggest absence of clear integration

16
La Galgada - Mounds

• North Mound
• grew by filling rooms
• practice also found at Aspero
• never really looked like a pyramid
• massiveness mitigated by curve of walls and
  ornamentation
• shows evidence of dominance of group with local
  background
• all its Preceramic tombs had been looted
• South Mound
• series of rectangular ritual chambers
• Square Chamber

17
La Galgada - Ceremonial Area

• began to take shape around 3000 BC
• everyone appears to have had equal seating
• chambers could have accommodated only 10 to 15
  people
• admission to ceremonies may not have been
  restricted
• men, women, and children found buried in the
  chambers

18
La Galgada - Earliest Burials

• elaborate burial rituals
• hair of dead was cut in short locks
• shorn head covered with basket or bag
• bits of hair placed next to body
• body was tied in a flexed position
• body bundled in bark cloth, cotton mantle, and net

19
La Galgada - Late Preceramic Burials

• changes in older patterns
• cutting of the hair went out of style
• numerous bone pins indicate concern with hair
• in one case they were found in the hair
• small-headed pins found near the head
• indicates change in degree of inequality

20
La Galgada - Textile Working

• change suggests that site may have changed
  partners
• Preceramic network may have been based in the
  highlands
• Preceramic

21
La Galgada - External Relationships

• Kotosh
• polished yellow clay used as a finishing coat
  also typical of ritual chambers at Kotosh
• evidence of contact with this center 250 km away
  may indicate site was dominated by kin group from
  Kotosh
• Valdivia
• naked females with large, elaborate hairdos
• no evidence of outer clothing or footwear

22
La Galgada - Agriculture

• site must have begun with agricultural population
• no plants domesticated in the valley
• necessary for sites occupation
• many different crops grown
• cotton most abundant
• squash, gourds, guava, lima beans, and avocado

23
La Galgada - Early Irrigation

• clear evidence for irrigation canals
• more efficient use per unit of land
• problem is that the amount of land is limited
• settlers may have arrived from a highland valley

24
Eastern Slopes

• Appear to have had early populations
• Best known settlment is Kotosh
• Close relationships with tropical forest areas o
  the east

25
Kotosh

• Location
• Eastern slopes (Amazonian drainage)
• on tributary of Huallaga
• History
• excavated by Japanese expedition
• Features
• Templo de los Manos Cruzadas
• 9 X 9 m room
• walls plastered with clay