Chimu Art

1. Chimu Art • Distinctive art style • art • merges Moche and Huari motifs • sea motifs prevailed

2. Sicán • flourished from 8th to 14th centuries • Middle Sican • AD 900 - 1100 • production of enormous quantities of metal artifacts • scale and range unprecedented in Precolumbian America • production of arsenical copper ushered in "Bronze Age” • Conqured by Chimú polity ca. 1350

3. Sicán - Sites • Batán Grande • Pampa Grande • Pacatnamú

4. Sicán - Looting • carried out on an enormous scale • began in 1930s and increased through 1940s and 1950s • bulldozer used in late 1960s to reveal tomb outlines • intense looting continued into 1970s • Shimada counted more than 100,000 looters' holes in 1978 • hundreds of long bulldozer trenches in aerial photos

5. Batan Grande • Investigations by Izumi Shimada • 17 major adobe constructions • large shaft tombs • some over 200 objects of silver or gold • arsenic bronze production • evidence for catastrophic flooding ca. AD 1100 • city burned and abandoned, like Pampa Grande

6. Pacatnamu • in the Jequetepeque Valley • also has evidence of flooding

7. Sicán - Huaca Loro • adobe platform mound • chamber excavated between October 1991 and March 1992 • located in 3 X 3 m chamber at bottom of 11 meter shaft • metal objects account for almost 75% by weight • most are of 14-18 karat gold • some objects and nearly all scrap are 10-14 karat gold • include tumbaga and gold-silver alloys

8. Huaca Loro - Principal Burial • body seated and inverted • central person 40-50 years old • accompanied by bodies of two young women • head rotated 180 degrees and pointed upward • painted with intense red cinnabar

9. Huaca Loro - Burial Goods • 1.2 tons of grave goods • mantle with nearly 2000 gold foil squares • three sets of ear ornaments and large gold mask • wooden staff with gold and tumbaga ornaments • gold shin covers and meter-long tumbaga gloves one glove holding gold cup with silver base • silver ceremonial knife

10. Huaca Loro - Gold Cache 1 • northwest corner of burial chamber • rectangular box lined with woven mats • at least 60 major objects, most of gold sheet • 12 tumi-shaped head ornaments • 6 sets of gold feather head ornaments • 14 large disks

11. Huaca Loro - Parabolic Headdresses • four sets at bottom of Gold Cache 1 • 2 m long continuous strip of forged metal • even width of 4.5 cm & thickness of 0.15 mm • mask (46 X 29 cm) • fashioned from a sheet about 0.6 mm thick • weight is only 677 g

12. Huaca Loro - Gold Cache 1 Niches • pit in largest niche in east wall had 1500 bundles of naipes • each bundle consisted of 12-13 naipes • two silver alloy tumi knives • thousands of small tumbaga foil squares • two dozen tumbaga masks, smaller than the one worn

13. Huaca Loro - Gold Cache 2 • more than 50 kg of stone and shell beads • carved wooden frame of a litter • 3 kg of cinnabar • 21 ceramic vessels

14. Huaca Loro - Expertise in Goldwork • parabolic head ornaments • tumi-shaped headdresses • tang narrow, but stout enough to stay erect • gold feathers • 20-21 cm long • tapers in thickness from 0.10 mm at stem to 0.07 mm

15. Huaca Loro - Earspools • show a variety of techniques • forged wire • true filigree • protobrazing • method of joining gold an silver alloys that utilizes copper in each heated over charcoal in a reducing atmosphere

16. Huaca Loro - Metal Offerings • 500 kg of scrap piled along edges of burial • analogous to Huaca Las Ventanas

17. Huaca las Ventanas • tomb about 11 m below the surface • measured 15 X 15 m at the mouth • 3 X 3 m at the bottom • rectangular sheets of set dimensions • placed side by side on interior surface and then covered with polychrome cloth • total surface area of sheets exceeded 100 m²

18. Huaca Loro - Labor Costs • enormous investment of manpower • many sheets worked with depletion guilding • burnished finish • polishing in rooms protected from dust and sand • would have required special workplaces • evidence for master-apprentice arrangement • well-done chasing on front but uneven work on back

19. Sicán Goldwork - Experiments

20. Huaca Loro - Differential Access to Metal • tombs with no metal • tombs with only arsenical copper • tombs with arsenical copper and tumbaga • tumbaga secondary to gold and accessible to more people • tombs with gold and other metals • gold most precious to Sicán elite

21. Sicán - Dynasty of Naymlap • 12 named rulers in dynasty • ends with Fempellec • tempted by sorceress to move Naymlap's idol • results in rains and devastating floods • Spondylus shell dust associated with royalty • Fonga, "Preparer of the Way" • shell dust scattered wherever Naymlap walked

22. Chimú Culture • based in Lambayeque region • probably begins in Sicán phase between AD 700 and 900 • complex of buildings and platforms 4 km from the sea • evidence for catastrophic flooding ca. AD 1100 • ends with defeat by Inkas between 1462 and 1470

23. Chimú Culture - Sites • Chan Chan • Farfan • Pacatnamu

24. Kingdom of Chimor • described in "Anonymous History of Trujillo" written in 1604 • relates origin myth for the Moche Valley • rulers were probably divine or semidivine • extends frontiers from Río Santa to the Río Jequetepeque

25. Kingdom of Chimor - Military Conquests • Jequetepeque supposedly subdued by general from Chimor called Pacatnamu • first provincial governor built administrative center now named for him • also associated with the site of Farfan

26. Kingdom of Chimor • first legendary ruler was Tacaynamo • dynasty was reportedly descended from him • settled in the Moche Valley • claimed to have come from afar to govern • son was Nancenpinco • consolidates upstream portion of valley • carries out first stage of external expansion • followed by 5 to 8 unnamed rulers • some accounts give a total of ten

27. Chimor - Minchancamon • last of rulers of Chimor was Minchancamon • conquers coast from Río Chillon to Río Tumbes • defeated by Inka and taken to Cuzco • puppet heir installed until Colonial era • conflict with Inkas sometime between 1462 and 1470 • defeated and lands fell under Inka control

28. Chimú - Religion • rulers responsible for agriculture and well-being of people • principal deity was moon goddess Si • sea was thought of as a deity called Ni

29. Chan Chan • Chimú capital in the Moche Valley • covered about 6 sq km

30. Chan Chan - Chronology • based on shapes of mud bricks • earliest based on Moche V structures at Galindo • early bricks were flat, middle were square-ended, later were tall • last built at Chiquitoy Viejo under Inca aegis • controlled main road to former capital in Chicama Valley

31. Chan Chan - Ciudadelas • northern entry sector, central sector, rear sector • Uhle, Chayhuac, Tello, and Squier • ciudadelas have three major internal divisions • north sector, central sector, canchón, or wing • north-south orientation • average area is about 140,000 sq m • largest (Gran Chimu) contained 221,000 sq m of floor space • smallest (Rivero) is about 87,900 sq m

32. Chan Chan - Ciudadela Architecture • surrounded by battered adobe walls up to 9 m high • base is 1.5-2 m thick • built on layer of partially-submerged boulders • adobes laid in block-like sections with vertical joints • one of the enclosure walls was 650 m long • suggest overwhelming concern with security and control

33. Chan Chan - North Sectors • entered via single door in high north wall • courts contain benches and ramps • virtually all ramps contained burials and have been looted • U-shaped audiencias • slightly rectangular in plan with floor areas of 5-6 m² • most were burned or looted when the site was abandoned • excavated examples in Rivero were probably systematically emptied • nothing found within

34. Chan Chan - Central Sectors • same general layout as north sectors • more isolated and difficult to enter than north sectors • burial platforms • form of a truncated pyramid • usually last structure to be completed within the compound

35. Chan Chan - Sequential Construction • evidence for sequential construction • Uhle has flat adobes • Grand Chimu has square-ended bricks • Bandelier, Laberinto, Velarde, and Squier have tall adobes

36. Chan Chan - Burial Structures • principal structure and secondary cells • number ranged from 15 in Squier to over 100 in Gran Chimu • principal cells were T-shaped • only three survive (Bandelier, Tschudi, and Laberinto) • secondary cells found in noncentral part of the platform shaft and boot-shaped forms

37. Chan Chan - Human Remains • burial structures contain large amounts of human bone • remains of 93 individuals recovered from Laberinto • no more than 25% of total fill was removed • only smallest cell was completely excavated • contained 13 skeletons, stacked like cordwood • 11 more bodies were evident from remains • estimate of 200-300 burials in the platform • in every case where it could be determined, the bones were those of adolescent and young adult females

38. Prestige Items • pottery • textiles • carved wood • weaving equipment • metal objects • both whole and powdered Spondylus shell

39. Chan Chan - Burial Rituals • death of principal person served as trigger for complex rituals extending over a period of time • individual was placed in main chamber and offertory goods were placed with him and in other cells • sacrifice of women to accompany him • large numbers were killed as further sacrifices and buried near the platforms • original platform added to over time and other burials added

40. Chan Chan - Split Inheritance • model suggested by Geoffrey Conrad • king inherits political power but not property • must create own center of authority and production by organizing labor • extended family of dead king inherits that king’s compound

41. Chan Chan - Other Forms of Architecture • elite compounds • annexes to north ends of ciudadelas • about 30 small compounds housing middle-level elites

42. Chan Chan - Residential Units • small irregularly agglutinated rooms (SIAR) • located around the outsides of large enclosures • housed "urban proletariat”

43. Chan Chan -Craft Workshops • estimated that 26,000 craftspeoplelived in the city • cottage industry to support high-ranking personages

44. Chan Chan - Metalworking • copper smelting was not evident despite occasional blowpipes, ingots, and slag • copper may have been imported in already smelted form • many artifacts diagnostic of copper working • stone anvils and hammers • quartz gravers, awls, and chisels

45. Chan Chan -Textile Production • in the form of spinning and weaving spindles, combs, heddles, stakes, and needles of wood and copper • surprising quantity of textiles and textile fragments

46. Chan Chan -Woodworking • evidence in the form of cut blocks of wood • planed smooth on one or more surfaces • manufacture of wooden eartubes • may represent different status from earspools

47. Chan Chan - Food Remains • most of meat provided by herds of llamas • dog and guinea pig also present • small amounts of sea lion bone • cotton and gourds • maize, common beans, squash, peanuts, and chili pepper • avocado and guanabana

48. Chan Chan - Huacas • four located on the outskirts of Chan Chan • Obispo, Toledo, Las Conchas, and El Higo • Obispo was 100 m square at its base and 20 m high

49. Chan Chan - Sunken Gardens • sunken gardens and cemetery • used today for growing crops

50. Chan Chan -Irrigation Systems • built during middle phase • now runs uphill due to fault • elevational increase (No. 1) • new canal with low gradients built farther upstream • extension • new channel can be cut at the end of an extant canal • may have same gradient (No. 3) • may have different gradient (No. 4)