Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A few kilometers south of Trujillo, there are two main Moche sites: Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna (
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).
The Moche period declined around AD 700, and the next few centuries are somewhat confusing. The Wari cul-
ture, based in the Ayacucho area of the central Peruvian Andes, began to expand after this time, and its influence
was reflected in both the Sicán and Chimú cultures.
Sicán
The Sicán were probably descendants of the Moche and flourished in the same region from about AD 750 to
1375. Avid agriculturalists, the Sicán were also infatuated with metallurgy and all that glitters. The Sicán are
known to many archaeologists for their lost-wax (mold-cast) gold ornaments and the manufacture of arsenical
copper, which is the closest material to bronze found in pre-Columbian New World archaeology. These great
smiths produced alloys of gold, silver and arsenic copper in vast quantities, using little more than hearths fired by
algarrobo
(carob tree) wood and pipe-blown air to achieve the incredible 1000°C temperatures needed for such
work.
Artifacts found at Sicán archaeological sites suggest that this culture loved to shop, or at least trade. They were
actively engaged in long-distance trade with peoples along the length and breadth of the continent, acquiring
shells and snails from Ecuador, emeralds and diamonds from Colombia, bluestone from Chile and gold from the
Peruvian highlands.
With a structured and religiously controlled social organization, the Sicán engaged in bizarre and elaborate fu-
nerary practices, examples of which can be seen at the Museo Nacional Sicán in Ferreñafe (
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).
Unfortunately, as was the case with many pre-Inca societies, the weather was the ultimate undoing of the Sicán.
Originally building their main city at Batán Grande (
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), northeast of Trujillo, they were forced to move
to Túcume (
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) when El Niño rains devastated the area in the 13th century.
Chimú
The Chimú were contemporaries of the Sicán and were active from about AD 850 to 1470. They were responsible
for the huge capital at Chan Chan (
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), just north of Trujillo. The artwork of the Chimú was less exciting
than that of the Moche, tending more to functional mass production than artistic achievement. Gone, for the most
part, was the technique of painting pots. Instead, they were fired by a simpler method than that used by the
Moche, producing the typical blackware seen in many Chimú pottery collections. While the quality of the ceram-
ics declined, skills in metallurgy developed, with gold and various alloys being worked.
The Chimú are best remembered as an urban society. Their huge capital contained about 10,000 dwellings of
varying quality and importance. Buildings were decorated with friezes, the designs molded into mud walls, and
important areas were layered with precious metals. There were storage bins for food and other products from
across the empire, which stretched along the coast from Chancay to the Gulf of Guayaquil (southern Ecuador).
There were huge walk-in wells, canals, workshops and temples. The royal dead were buried in mounds with a
wealth of offerings.
The Chimú were conquered by the Incas in 1471 and heavy rainfall has severely damaged the adobe moldings
of this once vast metropolis.
