The Hilltop Fortress of Acaray

“Yea, he [Moroni] had been strengthening the armies of the Nephites, and erecting small forts, or places of resort…and also building walls of stone to encircle them about, round about their cities and the borders of their lands; yea, all round about the land…and in their weakest fortifications he did place the greater number of men; and thus he did fortify and strengthen the land which was possessed by the Nephites” (Alma 48:8-9).

Another magnificent hilltop fortress is found at Acaray, also known as the Fortress of Acaray, an archaeological site located in the Huaura River Valley on the near north coast of Peru (Norte Chico), a little north of Chancay, in Chancay Valley. The impressive fortress is located on a series of three hilltops, each ringed with a number of perimeter defensive walls that have parapets and bastions, which stand as testaments to the military nature of the site. Surrounding the hilltop fortress are lower-lying areas of occupation and extensive cemeteries that, unfortunately, have been heavily looted over the centuries.

The fortress covered the entire top of the hill surrounded by three defensive stone walls, and overlooks the entire valley

The 23-hectare site is one of the largest fortified sites known in the near-north-coast area, and holds significant potential for exploring, for along the north and central Peruvian coast there is a wide distribution of similar material culture that suggests to archaeologists interaction between these localized polities. According to Vega, “Acaray’s location at the opening of the river delta provides views up valley and of nearly the entire delta heading to the sea. In addition, Acaray offers a view of the foothills to its north. The easily defended location, the defensive architectural features such as parapets and bastions, and the presence of abundant slingstones over the surface of Acaray meet the criteria outlined by other scholars for the identification of a fortification.”

The German archaeologist Hans Horkheimer wrote about Acaray in 1962, in the Peruvian magazine, Caretas, published in Lima. Calling it the Fortaleza de Huaura (the Fortress of Huaura), considering it a true ancient fortress. Horkheimer noted the abundance of rolled river cobbles on the surface of the site, which were obviously used as projectiles for slings (slingstones).

During the 1970s, interest in Acaray increased and the first work by archaeologists was initiated at the fortress. Peruvian archaeologist Mercédes Cárdenas, of the Riva Agüero Institute, excavated at Acaray, among other coastal sites, as part of a larger project to understand the use of marine resources in the past on the Peruvian coast and to obtain radiocarbon dates. She led a team that surveyed the Huaura Valley and excavated at several sites, including the hilltop fort at Acaray.

Around the same time, Peruvian archaeologist Arturo Ruiz Estrada, of the National University José Faustino Sánchez Carrión, and Peruvian engineer Domingo Torero, visited the fortress and wrote a detailed account describing the architectural features of the site, and specifically its fortified walls and center.

In 2004, North American archaeologist Margaret Brown Vega, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, began a two-year research at Acaray, carrying out intensive mapping, surface analysis, and excavations. All agree that this was a defensive fortress built for the protection of settlements in the hills and valley against an attacking force.

Acaray sits on top of the hill that has a commanding military view of the entire valley

For  her Doctorate of Philosophy in Anthropology dissertation in 2008, Margaret Brown Vega studied the ritual war, and how those frame the construction of communities. Excavations at the fortress of Acaray yielded evidence for conflict and ritual activities associated with two major time periods, the last millennium B.C. and a later A.D. period. Using site survey and excavation data, a geographic information system to perform spatial analysis, and data on regional contexts this study “demonstrated that Acaray was simultaneous a place constructed with defense in mind, and a locale for social and ritual activities linked to the strengthening of social bonds an defensive structures.” She also added, “Defensibility and inaccessibility are key characteristics of fortified sites. The location of entrances and structures within walled areas and the placement of military architecture enable an analysis of how people moved within this space and how that movement and access were inhibited.”

The ridge top on which Acaray is located has steep slopes and cliff faces. These natural defensive features are augmented by megalithic walls. Alternating anticlines and synclines on the ridge top create terrain that presents a challenge to anyone ascending the summit, and gullies along the southern side of the ridge are too steep to climb. Terraces and structures have been built in these areas with ease of access, but the architectural features impede access along these more easily traversed routes. The defensive walls restrict access to varying degrees in all three sectors of the hilltop fort, and one has a lower wall with two entrances that almost entirely encircles the hilltop. A second discontinuous wall with one entrance encloses the major structures of this sector. The wall connects to two natural outcrops that further restrict access and a number of remnant wall bases that once had stone walls that extended across wider gullies that would have further restricted access up the hillslopes. Two structures attached to the defensive walls served as bastions that projected out from defensive walls or fortifications and permitted defenders to launch projectiles against attackers on the outside of defenses.

Excavations of this earlier occupation period revealed underlying architecture that had been destroyed characterized by well-made stone and mortar walls and benches and fine, yellow, plastered surfaces. Obviously, this earlier occupation was permanent, and Acaray was a fortified settlement with ceremonial structures at its summit, with war, and constant threat of war, framing the formation of the community. During this same period there were at least six other forts at the same time in the lower Huaura Valley, which verifies the pattern of a network of defensive settlements in the valley.

Obviously, when Moroni “fortified, or had built forts of security, for every city in all the land round about,” he knew what he was doing. So much so, that when the Lamanites approached one of the fortified cities, they were astonished at the defenses, for what “hitherto been a weak place, had now, by the means of Moroni, become strong, yea, even to exceed the strength of the city Ammonihah” (Alma 49:13-14).

(See the next post about the fortress of Pisac)