"Castillo de Huarmey" exhibit at the Lima Museum of Art

After lunch at the Sheraton Hotel with Juan Ramon, Liz and I walked to the Lima Museum of Art (MALI) where there was an exhibit of artifacts recovered from the ruins of a Wari-period palace at Huarmey, north of Lima.

The "Castle" was a stepped-pyramid shaped temple built some 1,200 years ago, and is the first unlooted tomb of nobility of the Wari culture that has been yet found by archaeologists.  It contained the remains of 63 individuals, of which 58 were females and included the bodies of three Wari queens or high-ranking noblewomen.  Over 1000 artifacts were also recovered - including the pieces depicted in the photos below.

The finds are significant because they have brought to light some previously unknown or unconfirmed facets of Wari life and cultural practices.  For example, they have allowed archaeologists and historians to glean a better view on the status of women in Wari culture. They have also confirmed that the Wari buried their notables with an assortment of grave goods, including perhaps human sacrifices, as well as the strengthening the theory that the Wari played a role in the decline of the Moche culture.

Wooden ear spools decorated with turquoise, sea shells, and other materials.

Gold ear spools.

Painted leather shoe.

(More on the discovery can be read here:  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/130627-peru-archaeology-wari-south-america-human-sacrifice-royal-ancient-world)

July 28th: Quinua & Wari

We arrived in Ayacucho on the evening of the 27th of July, and as we all were starving we headed to the restaurant nextdoor to the house, the Wallpa Sua, for some pollo a la brasa. We kicked off the evening with some toddies and after dinner continued with more drinks around the firepit in the restaurant's patio, while fireworks went off overhead.

Afterward, some of us went off to keep it going, while others headed off to bed. At the park across from Santo Domingo church we happened to run into members of the tuna from the university's Civil Engineering program. A tuna is a musical ensemble in the tradition of 17th century Spain. Tunantes dress in archaic clothes and play for donations. The university of Huamanga has a well-known and prestigious tuna, and these young people were following in that tradition. In exchange for some wine and an appreciative audience, they played for us for several hours.

I didn't take the camera, but I did happen to find a video of the tuna that includes some of the very same members whom we met:





The next day, on July 28th proper, we hired a bus to take the whole gang to Quinua and Wari.


Quinua

Quinua is a small town 37 km NE of Huamanga at 3300 meters. On 9 December 1824 it was the site of the final fight for the liberation of South America from Spanish colonial rule, the Battle of Ayacucho.

On the morning of the battle, the Spanish army under Gen. Canterac, some 8,000 strong and armed with 14 cannon, arrayed on the slopes beyond the plain, called the Pampa de la Quinua, while the multinational liberation army composed largely of Colombian, Chilean, Argentine, and Peruvian troops, headed by Gen. José de Sucre, lined up on the pampa itself. Though outnumbered by 3000 men and with only one cannon, the independence army carried the day.

In 1974, for the 150th anniversary of the battle a monument was erected on the pampa. It is 44 meters high to signify the 44-year struggle for independence, and bears statues of the commanders of the independence army. The site is a popular tourist destination, and offers some great views of the region, including the distant city of Huamanga.

Today, Quinua itself is a quiet little town and is well-known for its pottery and as a good place to eat traditional foods. One of its distinctive features is the local custom of placing small ceramic churches or other effigies atop the houses.





Wari

Between Quinua and Huamanga, lies the archaeological site of Wari (aka Huari). Wari was a large city, the capital of a state and culture that spread from Ayacucho to dominate the central and southern Peruvian Andes between 800 and 1100 CE. Today the city lies in ruins, mostly underground, and what is visible is a vast rubble field from collapsing walls, along with literally millions of pottery shards littering the ground.

When I was a kid we'd spend the day wandering among the cacti, picking up shards and hunting for arrowheads and turquoise, some of which was carved into beads by the Wari a thousand years ago. Today such activities are forbidden and access is limited.

Excavations have revealed complex ceremonial structures and even sophisticated plumbing systems made of carefully-shaped stone conduits.

While my dad showed my cousin Carla's in-laws around, my mom and I just took the opportunity to wander a bit and to look back on our days there so many years ago and enjoy the beauty of the place.

Treasures from the National Museum of Anthropology, Archaeology, and History

Moche culture (CE 100 - CE 900)

"Erotic" ceremonial vessel

Chimu culture (CE 900 - CE 1460)

Gold mask and breastplate

Gold necklace

Chimu necklace

Wari culture (CE 500 - CE 900)

Wari cane and wool war helm

Wari vessels

Wari stirrup vessel

Wari vessels

Inca (CE 1200 - CE 1533)

Inca quipu, knotted cords used to keep records

Colonial period (1533 - 1824)

Painting of St. Rose of Lima

War of the Pacific (1879 -1883)

Fragment of the table service of the monitor Huascar

Huaca Pucllana

One evening in Lima my sisters, a couple of cousins, and I went out to dinner at La Huaca Pucllana.

La Huaca Pucllana is a restaurant in Lima's Miraflores district, which overlooks the pre-Inca adobe structure for which the restaurant is named.

 I had been there previously, many years ago, but had not then had the opportunity to dine outside, on the patio, overlooking the huaca itself. 

The huaca Pucllana (also known in older references as the huaca Juliana) is the remains of a 1,500-year old temple complex of the Lima culture, which flourished in the area for centuries before the Yschma,Wari, and later the Incas, left their mark.

It is amazing that such a structure still survives in the midst of a modern city of nearly 11 million inhabitants.  I the early 20th Century, in fact, part of the huaca was destroyed as a brick manufacturer mined it for the clay in its adobe bricks.  Another section was demolished to make room for surrounding streets.

The first exploratory archaeological digs took place at the huaca in 1967. Finally, in 1981 sustained systematic archaeological work was begun, and in 1984 a site museum and "historic-cultural park" were established.  The 37-acre site includes the 75-foot pyramid proper, and a surrounding ceremonial/administrative sector of smaller, interconnected, buildings and courtyards.

 

 

 

 

 Archaeological investigations have revealed that the site likely began as a temple to a sea divinity of the culture we have come to call Lima, in about 500 CE.   From about 800 CE the Wari people used it as a cemetery for their local elites.  After the collapse of Wari civilization in the 12th Century the site temples appear to have fallen into disrepair for some centuries. At various times, until the Spanish rolled into town, the Yschma villagers to repair or shore up portions of the huaca, particularly on the western side, facing the sea --an echo through the centuries of the site's original purpose.

Pachacamac

This morning Wily, Helba, my dad, and I headed off to Lurin for lunch and to visit the new museum at Pachacamac.

Pachacamac is a 1400 acre archaeological site 40 km south of Lima at the edge of the Lurin Valley. It was first settled in about AD 200, and was one of ancient Peru's primary religious piligrimage sites for over a thousand years, until the Spanish Conquest.

 The main idol of the temple of Pachacamac

The site was dedicated to the earth-creator god, Pachakamaq, who was worshipped far and wide across ancient Peru, and by many successive cultures, including the Ychma, Lima, Wari, and eventually, even, the Incas. 

The remains of the Palace of Taurichumpi, last Inca administrator of Pachacamac

Reconstructed Inca-period structures which housed the "chosen women"

The site museum is pretty much brand-new, having been opened earlier this year and it is a big improvement over the rather small and wear-worn one that had been there previously.

The new museum does not have a great many objects on display, but those it does have are very nice pieces and are arranged and selected to give a very good impression of the cultures who occupied Pachacamac and of the special nature of the site for them.

All in all, it was a great visit.

Inca-period footwear

Inca feathered headdress

Wari-period ceramic "gourd" offering

Grave covering, with spndylus shells brought from Ecuador

Spndylus and cotton necklace, and silver miniature offerings

Inca-period, male and female gold figurines

Ayacucho, Day 3: Pikimachay, Huanta, Luricocha

Susana and I decided that for our third and final day (July 29th) in Ayacucho we'd take a tour of the surrounding area.  Skipping Wari and Quinua, which we'd both been to a bunch of times, we opted for heading somewhat it the opposite direction toward Huanta.

On the way, the tour stopped at Pikimachay cave.

Pikimachay is across a small valley from the site of Wari, and is noted for having sheltered humans some 17,000 years ago.  Making it among the oldest, if not the oldest, human habitation known in the Americas (If I recall correctly, there are two other sites with claims to older human remains, one in Chile and one in Brazil, but both have been seriously questioned and are not wholly accepted within the scientific community.)

Considering the types of fauna whose remains were found alongside the human bones and teeth -animals such as glyptodonts and megatheria- I imagine that the climate of the region was wetter back then than it is now.  Today there is no obvious dry-season water supply near the cave and the vegetation is sparse, scrubby, and generally prickly, consisting mainly of cacti, agaves, and molle trees.

Of those the molles are the friendliest.  In Peru the molle is a common shade tree and the small berries it produces are used to make a type of chicha.   In the US, where it was introduced by the Spanish, the molle is known as "California pepper tree" on account of the berries, whereas in Mexico it is called "pirul" because of its origins in Peru.

The area is so dry that there are few animals, or even birds, visible.  One thing that does seem to thrive are insects.  In fact, walking around one was made keenly aware of the difficulties farmers must face, for not only is there the aridity, rockyness, and steepness of  the land to be dealt with, but there is also no shortage of locusts.

As an illustration, in the image below, taken at the base of Pikimachay hill, there are no fewer than six locusts:

After Pikimachay, the van took us to the town on Huanta.

Huanta is located some 50 kilometers from Huamanga, and is nestled in a green, productive valley, that earned the district the nickname of "Emerald of the Andes."

 

My family's history with Huanta goes way back.  Not only was Mama Pali born there, but her father was at one point mayor and several times member of the town council.

I, myself, hadn't been there since Danny and I took a trip to the city with Mama Pali and her driver, Roman, in about 1973 or 1974.  We travelled in my grandparents' old red VW Beetle and carried a litter of kittens to trade and give away along the way.   At one point we traded one or two of the cats for a Peruvian naked-neck chicken or qalakunka.    The kittens rode in the well of the Bug, but the qalakunka decided to perch on the back seat's backrest, and at every bump and lurch in the unpaved road, the bird flapped its wings wildly to keep its balance, sending feathers everywhere and generally agitating everyone, in addition to shitting all over the back of the car.  We arrived at my great-aunt's house in Huanta a lot less put-together than when we left Huamanga, I must say.

This time around, the trip was more sedate.

It being Independence Day weekend, there was to be a bullfight later in the day and the sponsoring committee was out drumming up donations to give away at the event.

After visiting the Plaza of Huanta, we headed down the road to Luricocha district for lunch.

Luricocha is a semi-rural district, with many orchards producing up to 36 varieties of avocado in addition to a host of other fruits and vegetables.

Luricocha district is also known as the hometown of singer and actress Magaly Solier.

At Luricocha we ate at a place called Recreo Hildaria.  A recreo is a country establishment with plenty of outdoor areas, often some games available such as a soccer pitch or a fussball table or sapo, and offering hearty local fare.  Many are open only on weekends and holidays.

Recreo Hildaria, it turns, out was owned and run by a friend and former schoolmate of several of my younger uncles and aunt, Sr. Ernesto Saenz Jauregui.   We had a nice time chatting and catching him up on the news of the family, and meeting him provided a nice ending to a very pleasant day.