Ancient Civilizations of Peru
The distant Past
The
territory on ancient Peru had been well travelled for more than 10,000 years
before the arrival of the Spaniards in the land of the Incas.
At Lauricocha
an archaeological site situated at altitude of 13,000 feet in the central
Andes, caves have been found in which the first Peruvians found shelter.
In the south
they also took refuge in caves, such as those found at Toquepala. Cultural evidence
at both sites largely confined to projectile points shipped form stones. The
walls of Toquepala’s caves are painted with hunting scenes which date to the
early hunting and gathering period.
The Incas’
remotest ancestors were hunters and gatherers. Primitive groups along the
pacific coast were especially adept at extracting marine products from the
bountiful coastal waters.
They were
the descendants of groups of originated in Asia crossed the Bering Strait into
North America during the last ice age.
These early Asiatic
people dispersed throughout the continent, bringing with them from their native
lands the cultural traditions which, by the second millennium BC, would evolve
into the first significant Andean civilizations.
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Bown with post-firing painting of a human with the body of a feline.
The post-firing technique was often employed by Paracas Culture.
The Vessels were painted with a variety of colours by mixing mineral pigments with plat resin.
Paracas-Cavers culture, 700 B.C. - 100A.D. |
The First Signs of Civilizations
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Miniature stone warrior holding
a shield and club and wearing a nose ornament.
Moche Culture, A.D. 50 - 800 |
During the second
millennium BC. , several thousand years after the first humans occupation on
the region, the first signs of sedentary civilization began to emerge in Peru,
following a shift from hunting and gathering activities to intensive to marine exploitation
and then to agriculture. One result of this early manifestation of a more
complex social structure was population growth, which in turn necessitated a
search for improved irrigation, cultivation and food storage techniques.
Architectural
evidence is the best measure of the beginnings of civilization.
Enormous monuments
began to rise along the central coast and in the northern region of Peru. Las
Haldas for example (around 4000 years old), is a vast pre-ceramic site on the
north of coast which included residential areas for the elite as well as ceremonial
and communal centers, and the ruins of Caral are even older, apparently dating
form 5,000 years ago. Early monumental public architecture emerged in Peru as
result of the wishes of the elite, who evidently benefited from the
construction of these imposing edifices.
Essentially
religious in nature, these structures elevated the prestige of the elite and
ensured that their orders would be carefully obeyed. The primary objective of
the ruling elite was to increase their own privileges by gaining preferential access
to available resources. A secondary result of such rule was the maintenance of
the community and guaranteeing for society as a whole.
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| Double-chambered whistling pitcher shaped like a pair of drums. |
Ancient Peruvian Civilization
The people
from the Andes built large and complex cities, irrigated entire coastal
valleys, worked with gold and other metals, wove textiles of intricate beauty,
made by clay vessels so vivid that they were sculpture than pottery and
mummified their dead.
They did
not, however, develop a formal system that we can read today, and most of what
we know about them has been learned through a
legacy of architectural remains and the objects of stone, clay, gold,
textile and other material which they were buried with their dead. The Spaniards
reported on their experiences with the Incas during the conquest and their writings
provide us with another valuable source of information.
Researchers
have studied artifacts and identified successive artistic styles in their
efforts to establish a cultural chronology for their various people on Ancient
Peru.
In the past
60 years more sites than ever before have been excavated by professional
archaeologists and these have dated to through scientific methods. In the cases
of several cultures, we now understand a great deal about people who produced
their artifacts, their way of life, their political structures, and even
something of their history. In other cases, however, our knowledge remains
limited.
And yet,
during the thousands of years that people have lived in Peru, inter-regional
trade and evolving socio-cultural complexities have led to the spread of
similar artistic styles over a wide are. Scholars call the phenomenon of an
artistic style which gains widespread acceptance an archaeological horizon: a
term used approximate contemporary between distant sites.
In the central
Andes Peru, a series of major time periods has been established around the
horizon concept. After a nearly period of hunting and gathering, known as the
pre-ceramic period, comes the initial period, which is marked by the first use
of pottery. This is followed by five periods which cover relatively widespread
artistic styles(Early, Middle and Late Horizon), as well as intervening periods
of extensive influence of the Inca Empire, and the middle horizon probably
reflects a smaller-scale states that were nevertheless fairly large.
The broad
similarities between early horizon cultures were most likely due to the
adoption of religious cults by emerging elites in different regions of the
Andes. The following cultural sequence has been simplified, and includes only
the best known cultures, whith emphasis on the coastal and regions. Learn more about Pre - Inca Culture with best private walking tour guided company.
Chavin Culture,
10000 – 200 B.C.
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| Chavin Culture, 1000-200 B.C. |
In the first
millennium B.C. A new architectural and
artistic style spread across Peru.
Its beginning
may be traced back to the Cupisnique style of the northern Peruvian coast.
Similar deities and animal figures have been found on pottery and textiles
throughout the country. These elements were brought together and reached their fullest
expression and the site known as Chavin de Huantar. It is though that Chavin as
the main center of a religious cult, and objects featuring Chavin iconography
have been found throughout the Andes. Located at the headwaters of one of the
large tributaries of the Amazon which emerge from the high Andes, Chavin could
only be reached from the coast by crossing the towering peaks of the Cordillera
Negra and the Cordillera Blanca.
Chavin and
Cupisnique are characterized by a complex, almost baroque, style which combines
human figures with zoomorphic attributes, typically featuring menacing fangs,
claws, or beaks. Many of the images were engraved around stone columns or
shafts, making them difficult to interpret, and intended for leaders of the
cult.
