{"id":80,"date":"2010-08-18T01:13:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/?p=80"},"modified":"2016-09-18T16:50:05","modified_gmt":"2016-09-18T15:50:05","slug":"peru-trip-2-the-lambayeque-and-the-moche-lords-of-sipan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/peru-trip-2-the-lambayeque-and-the-moche-lords-of-sipan\/","title":{"rendered":"Peru Trip #2 – The Lambayeque and the Moche Lords of Sipan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Map<\/a>What an epic day. Lying in bed late yesterday evening, reading myself to sleep, I noticed the bed suddenly wobbling strangely, I thought maybe it was a tremor – nothing as alarming as an earthquake – then maybe just a couple in the room next door having a rather good time. Then it was over before I could really work it out, and I forgot about it. Today, however, it was the small talk of the day amongst the Chiclayo guides and drivers who took me around to the tourist sites in my itinerary
\ntoday. It was a mini-earthquake; the first in quite some time, especially noticeable for someone, like me, on the sixth floor of my hotel. The joys of being so close to a continental plate subduction zone!<\/p>\n

Anyway – up early to get breakfast in before meeting my guide for the
\nday at 8.45am, we headed straight off to the Tucume complex, a
\nLambayeque (also known as Sican) site to the north of Chiclayo.
\nFollowing the Cupisnique culture 800-200BCE on the far north coast, the
\nPiera-based Vicus culture 1000BCE-300CE and the Moche civilisation
\n1-800CE over the whole of northern Peru, the Lambayeque\/Sican culture
\n750-1375CE, contemporary with the Chimu in the southern half of northern
\nPeru, covered the northern half of what had been the Moche
\ncivilisation. Facial reconstruction from royal skulls, along with
\ndistinctive ceramic and architectural styles, set them apart from both
\ntheir Moche forebears, and their Chimu 900-1470CE neighbours, whose
\nculture represented more of a development from the earlier Moche. Both
\nwere later taken over by the pan-Andean Inca’s, shortly before the
\narrival of the Spanish. The only surviving written records of any
\npre-Columbian cultures are of course, like Roman accounts of the Celts,
\nwritten by the Spanish conquerors, but include a monk’s retelling of the
\nLambayeque origin myth, which claims that their first God-King arrived
\nfrom the sea, with a fleet. Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki expedition proved
\nthe practical possibility of the Lambayeque having originated from a
\nPolynesian invasion. Contemporary with the third stage of the
\nLambayeque culture another group of Polynesians of course arrived in New
\nZealand, establishing the Maori, and populating the islands for the
\nfirst time. Even if, after the manner of Francis Pryor’s anti-invasion
\nhistorical stance, this Polynesian invasion of northern Peru was little
\nmore than a Norman-style invasion by a new ruling elite, it is still a
\ncompelling theory. Mochica, the language of the Moche, was spoken all
\nover the north right up until the last Mochica speaker died 25 years
\nago, and there is no record of any specific Lambayeque language.<\/p>\n

The Tucume complex is from the third stage of the Lambayeque\/Sican
\nculture, with its own distinctive style of ceramics. The first and
\nsecond stages, 750-900CE, and 900-1100CE, were characterised by a dark
\ngrey ceramic style (the colour came from the smoke of the firing
\nprocess) that, at least in the second stage, was mainly focussed on
\nrepresentations of their God-Kings. The second stage ended during a La
\nNina – the 20-30year dry period that appears erratically in opposition
\nto the more common El Nino<\/a>
\nwet periods that bring floods every half-decade or so to the Peruvian
\ncoast. The 2nd stage Sican culture – and their 30 or more pyramids –
\nended in flames, and they moved to Tucume, where a third stage Sican
\nculture 1100-1375CE, built another 26 new pyramids, but were no longer
\nled by God-Kings.<\/p>\n

\"Tucume<\/p>\n

Tucume is a vast site – a complex of 26 mud-brick pyramids –
\nclustered around an isolated pyramidal hill. The pre-columbian peruvian
\npyramid is not like the Egyptian pyramid; in the north here,
\nespecially. Here in the north they were made of mud-brick, and with wide
\nflat tops that act as platforms for royalty and priesthood to live on,
\nwith all their various entourages. The largest of the pyramids here at
\nTucume is the largest pyramid in the Americas. They have all suffered
\nsomewhat from the last 1000 years of rain, but for mud-brick it is
\nremarkable how much has actually survived!<\/p>\n

\"Me<\/p>\n

Further south the last museum of the day showcases the remains of two of
\nthe Lords of the Sican\/Lambayeque culture – from the second stage
\n900-1100CE, prior to Tucume.<\/p>\n

\"Sican<\/p>\n

But by far the most amazing visit of the day has been to the Lords of
\nSipan museum in the town of Lambayeque. Sipan, a pyramid site up to the
\nnorth east of the coastal area and unsupported by electricity and other
\namenities, was one of the main burial tombs of the Moche kings, and the
\nmuseum here in Lambayeque houses two of them – everything from the gold
\nand silver clothing to their very skeletons, in a magnificent new
\nbuilding built just like a pyramid. This is probably one of the finest
\nmuseums I have ever been to, and although everything was in spanish my
\nguide interpreted it all in excellent English for me and it was the
\nhighlight of the day. Cameras and mobile phones are not allowed inside,
\nso I took no pictures. I did however buy the book, and have taken a
\ncouple of snaps for you to get the idea…<\/p>\n

\"Lords<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Reconstruction<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Belt<\/p>\n

All in all an exhausting day – and time for the local specialty dish: duck and rice; washed down with a Chilean red methinks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What an epic day. Lying in bed late yesterday evening, reading myself to sleep, I noticed the bed suddenly wobbling strangely, I thought maybe it was a tremor – nothing as alarming as an earthquake – then maybe just a couple in the room next door having a rather good time. Then it was over … Continue reading “Peru Trip #2 – The Lambayeque and the Moche Lords of Sipan”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archaeology","category-journeyman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":902,"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions\/902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}