Pre-Incan Tomb Uncovered in Northern Peru

Ancient pre-Inca tomb found in northern Peru
AFP
July 14, 2012, 8:00 am

LIMA (AFP) - Archeologists said Friday they have discovered a tomb about 1,200 years old, from the pre-Inca Sican era, in northern Peru.

A grave of the Sican pre-Inca culture, dating back 1,200 years, was discovered by a group of archaeologists in the region of Lambayeque, north of Peru. Human remains and jewelry were found July 4 along with the tomb, likely that of a member of the aristocracy of the Sican or Lambayeque elite.

Human remains and jewelry were found July 4 along with the tomb, likely that of a member of the aristocracy of the Sican or Lambayeque elite, head researcher Carlos Wester La Torre told AFP.

A gold earflap, a silver-plated crown, and some 120 silver and copper ornaments that served as emblems of power, along with 116 pieces of pottery and seashells were found in the tomb.

The tomb was located in a burial chamber some six meters (20 feet) deep in the Chotuna-Chornancap sanctuary near Chiclayo, at the same location where the remains of a Sican priestess were found in October.

"This discovery is very important because we now know one of the elite classes of Lambayeque culture," said Wester La Torre, speaking from Chiclayo, capital of the Lambayeque region.

The Sican culture, also referred to as the Lambayeque culture, worshipped the Sican Lord. It emerged between 700 and 750 AD, remaining in force until 1375, reaching its high point between 900 and 1100.

At that time, there were about seven to eight "Sican lords" representing heavenly powers on Earth, complete with masked face, upturned eyes and pointed ears.

Remains of Sican Priestess Discovered

Remains of Priestess of the 13th Century Lambayeque Culture Found in Peru
Published at 5:10 pm EST, April 14, 2012

Researchers at the Chotuna-Chornancap archaeological digs near the Peruvian city of Chiclayo have found the funerary remains of a woman who was a priestess of the Lambayeque or Sican culture, the project director, Carlos Wester La Torre, told Efe.The preliminary conclusion of physical anthropologist Mario Millones is that this was a woman between 25-30 years old who lived during the second half of the 13th century A.D. in the waning days of that culture on Peru’s northern coast, whose most important historical figure was the Lord of Sipan, considered the Tutankhamun of America, in the 3rd century A.D.

The research, promoted by Peru’s Culture Ministry, got started eight months ago with an excavation that two months later came upon the tomb, but it wasn’t until a few days ago that the sex and age of the priestess were determined.

The bundle of her possessions found in this tomb at the palace where she undoubtedly lived, together with the remains of another seven individuals, a llama, and “a quantity of really impressive goods in terms of quality and technology,” all point to the high social standing she enjoyed in her lifetime.
“Her youth indicates that the post was hereditary and its functions were eminently religious, related to such rituals as sacrifices, the receipt of offerings, and celebrating changes of the seasons, the moon and the tides,” Wester La Torre said.

She also had contact and relations with neighboring cultures like the Cajamarca and others coming from Ecuador that provided her with shells, gold, ceramics and other of the era’s most prized materials and products.

Also found beside her remains were “ceremonial urns bearing revealing icons and objects including a golden sceptre with the image of a Lambayeque divinity, items she used during her life that testify to her prominence.”

“This is all extraordinary information for us because it clearly places the woman within the power structure of a complex society, and reveals that power and religious hierarchy were not the sole province of men, since there is no reason to think there were not more women just like her,” he said.
Carlos Wester compared this discovery with that of the priestesses found 20 years ago at San Jose de More, women who had held positions of religious power in the Mochica culture, which occupied the northern coast of Peru between 100 B.C. and 700 A.D., and also with the intact mummy of the Lady of Cao, the only woman known to have ruled ancient Peru and who was believed to have had supernatural powers.

The director of the Chotuna-Chornancap archaeological project said that, “curiously, it was in the last years of both cultures that women were seen in religious life and positions of power.”

“We still have to see whether this female presence was a political response of society at a time of crisis in order to regain stability, or was a conscious response to the need to have females in power,” he said.

Though the state of conservation of the skeletal remains is “good in general terms,” they will be removed as a whole “without taking them apart as is usually done,” in order to continue studying them in the laboratory and later exhibiting them as “testimony” to women’s access to power in pre-Columbian civilizations.

Exciting Intact Pre-Inca Tomb Uncovered in Peru

From itv.com

Pre-Inca tomb found
9.00AM Sun Jul 17 2011
Peruvian archaeologists working in the north of the country say they've found an unspoiled tomb from the Lambayeque culture.

Initial studies indicate that the tomb belonged to a priest-like individual who performed human sacrifices during fertility ceremonies. [The article does not explain how this conclusion was reached.]

"He has with him, as offerings, three copper knives, some metal objects, a skirt made of circular copper sheets," says Fausto Saldana, an archaeologist working at the Huaca Chotuna site.
Archaeologists who have been working at Huaca Chotuna for three years say it's the first time they've discovered such a figure - and in such a well-preserved state.

Saldana and his colleagues also discovered a number of pieces of ceramic and pottery, including pots and jars, and the remains of three other individuals.

They said the tomb dates back to 1350-1400.

The Lambayeque culture - also known as the Sican culture - predated the Inca and inhabited what is now the north coast of Peru between about 750 and 1400.
By: ITV News

Sican Exhibit in Canada

The Canadian Museum of Civilization is sponsoring an important exhibit of Sican artifacts. Image: Sican bird deity.

Secret Riches: Ancient Peru Unearthed
Special Exhibitions Gallery C
December 14, 2007 - April 27, 2008

A thousand years ago in Peru, the Sicán forged a complex civilization. This exhibition features 120 spectacular gold and ceramic objects recently excavated from an undisturbed tomb. Discover the story of the Sicán — an ingenious culture often eclipsed by its better-known successors, the Inca.

Organized and circulated by The Nickle Arts Museum, in cooperation with the Sicán National Museum, Peru, and the National Institute of Culture of Peru.

This exhibition is made possible with the support of Willow Park Wines and Spirits, Government of Alberta Community Development, AMJ Van Lines.

The Sicán were mainly farmers, fishers, metalworkers and artisans who lived in the fertile valleys and coastal plains that lie between the Pacific Ocean and the foothills of the Andes, near the equator in northern Peru. Sicán culture started about 1,250 years ago and flourished for at least 500 years, before collapsing in the fourteenth century.

The Sicán are renowned today for the scale and sophistication of their metalworking, said to be unequalled in pre-Columbian America. They were the first people in northern Peru to produce bronze on a large scale, and their production and shaping of gold foil and gold sheets required extraordinary skill.

The Looting of Sican Treasures
The Sicán buried some of the finest objects of their material culture deep underground, in the treasure-laden burial chambers of the rich and powerful. Since at least the 1930s those tombs have been raided on a massive scale. One 50 square-kilometre area of former Sicán land has been described as perhaps the most heavily plundered site in the world. Using aerial photographs of the area, an archaeologist has counted about 100,000 holes dug by looters and about 100 trenches carved by bulldozer to uncover shaft-tomb entrances.

Although tomb raiding in Peru goes back to at least the Spanish Conquest in the sixteenth century, it reached a fever pitch in the heartland of the Sicán in 1937 when a local landowner retrieved 15 potato sacks of gold artifacts from a single tomb. Looting soon became an organized commercial activity. Treasure hunters would dig vertical shafts deep into the ground and then tunnel horizontally. The full measure of their success will never be known, but it is likely that tons of precious artifacts were taken. Much of the looted treasure — especially the most spectacular of the gold objects — ended up in museums and private collections around the world, usually misidentified as Incan. Removed from any physical or cultural context, their value to archaeologists was vastly diminished. Did the object come from a royal palace or a commoner’s grave? Was it found in Sicán territory or in a far-off land? Was it decorative or utilitarian? Was it a single piece or part of a set? Was it worn by a man or a woman, an adult or a child? Was the object modified or damaged, even through the simple act of cleaning? Were original parts discarded or replaced?

All that vital information is lost forever when objects are looted and dispersed.
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