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A few different Andean sites dating to prehistoric B.C. times (above). When comparing the various Andean
culture sites as we have done over the past many posts, we get an idea of how
archaeologists and anthropologists try to determine these different and various
prehistoric cultures. At the same time, we should take a look at how Mormon
(the scriptural record) describes the ancient Nephite cities.
First of all, cities occupy area
in one of three ways: 1) sprawling for miles where one city runs into another
city with no obvious boundaries other than a sign; 2) covering a small area
within a valley where boundaries are obvious, or 3) settlements so small you
could miss them if you do not look closely.
Top: The Los Angeles area of Southern California, where the city itself
is divided into more than 80 separate districts and neighborhoods, covering an area
of 502 square miles, extending for 44 miles longitudinally and for 29 miles
latitudinally, holding 3,884,307 people; Middle: Cedar City, Utah, with a
population of 29,162 and covering 20 square miles, with very obvious boundaries
as the city is surrounded by open areas; Bottom: Nestled at the foot of a
hillside, the town of Cannonville, in Garfield County, Utah, covering 1.2
square miles with a population of 163
The problem is that when we start
deciding upon where Nephite cities were located, we also start thinking of what
they looked like, their size, and how large or small they must have been. Depending
upon where we grew up and where we live, often depends on how we see towns or
cities. As an example, I grew up in Los Angeles, California, where there are
few noticeable boundaries between cities. You could drive for a couple of hours
in just about any direction and never seem to leave the city, though you might
have crossed half a dozen city boundaries.
On the other hand, I spent most
of the past fifteen years in Cedar City, Utah, where you can drive for about
fifteen minutes in any direction and be out of the city limit and into the open
lands where there is little or no housing or buildings. Then there is the
mountainous areas of inland Peru, where you go from valley to valley, crossing
over hills or mountains that separate populations, and it might take thirty
minutes or an hour to cross open land before entering another populated area.
In Peru, the central highlands are filled with one valley after another
because of the cross-hatching, or step ladder effect, of the north-south Cordilleras and
east-west cross mountains. In travel, you are continually going “over” hills and
mountains and “toward” another valley as Mormon describes
In fact, the word “borders” is
used 52 times in Alma alone, describing the differences between areas within
the regions of the Land of Nephi or the Land of Zarahemla, etc. These borders were
distinct enough and separated sufficiently that in Alma, the usage of the term “crossing
over” from one land to another is used 25 times; taking a “journey over” into
the land, city or a location is mentioned 23 times; and a “journey toward” the
land, city or a location is mentioned 76 times--all describing the type of land we find in Andean Peru.
This should suggest that the type
of land that exists in Andean Peru, where three or more distinct cordilleras
run the length of the land and numerous hills and mountains cross those
cordilleras, creating separate and distinct valleys throughout Andean Peru
would lead to such language, gives us a picture of the wordage and purpose of
Mormon’s descriptions.
In addition, these separate
cities and towns were often distinct from one another. As an example, when Alma
left Zarahemla with Ammon, Aaron and Omner, along with two of his sons and
Amulek and Zeezrom, they traveled to the city of the Zoramites, who “were
dissenters from the Nephites” (Alma 31:8) and “had fallen into great errors,”
because of the way they worshipped.
These Zoramites had built
synagogues in which they worshipped on top of a tall, narrow stand they called Rameumptom after a manner which Alma and
his brethren had never beheld and found astonishing beyond all measure.
Then, too, there were distinct
classes in some of these cities and towns, such as with those Zoramites who were
“poor in heart because of their poverty” (Alma 32:4), and had been cast out of
their synagogues by the priests and had no place to worship (Alma 32:5); or in
the case of the Zoramites who had been welcomed by the Ammonites who were moved
with compassion and the Nephites gave the Land of Jershon to the repentant and
converted Lamanites (Alma 17:22-23).
Obviously, an extremely poor
people living in poverty would not have the nicest ceramics with the newest
designs, and it should not be expected to find such handiwork among such cities
and locations. Nor might we expect to find normal crafts and records within the
middens when a people had been at war for nine straight years or more. And what about
the apostate Amulonites and Amalekites, who defected to the Lamanites and
brought with them their art, ceramics, etc., and spread them among classes of
people who probably did not have those objects. In addition, warring peoples
are less likely to be concerned about modern designs and artwork other than to
show their triumphs, but the losers do not even do that.
The point is, when archaeologists
and anthropologists use ceramics as the basis for their judging and
interpreting a people, they need to understand the different classes of the
people being discussed and the problems of those people among themselves and
with others. After all, Nephite warfare was not singular to the Lamanites—the
people in Morianton claimed part of the land of Lehi and a “warm contention
between them” sprung up, requiring those of the city of Lehi to flee from their
lands and into the camp of Moroni (Alma 50:26); the king-men were desirous in
overthrowing the free Nephite government, and refused to stand against the
attacking Lamanite army (Alma 51:13); and what about when Amulon taught the
Lamanites the Nephite language and how to write and keep records (Mosiah 24:7);
or what about when the Lamanites overran the Nephite lands after Mosiah fled
from the City of Nephi?
In all these and many other
cases, the normal development of the Nephites, their buying and selling,
trading and making of products, ceramics, textiles, metalworking, etc., would
have been hampered to some degree—perhaps considerably. Any and all of this
would have had some effect on what they left behind for archaeologists to find
and then interpret in their normal, simple, progressive, diffusion of
development manner.
And what about the 200 years history
of when there were no “ites,” that is, when everyone was the same, there were
no poor among them, and the Nephites experienced what has been loosely called
their “golden period.” As the disciple Nephi described it, “in the thirty and sixth year, the people
were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites
and Lamanites, and there were no contentions and disputations among them, and
every man did deal justly one with another. And they had all things common
among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they
were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift” (4 Nephi 1:2-3).
Certainly such a period would
have left a very different mark upon the land in terms of their art, textiles,
ceramics, metalworks, etc., no doubt with considerable overlapping in far distant areas, and among what were different groups of people. It should also be understood that during the period
preceding this of the destruction of the land, where many cities were sunk in
the seas or covered by earth, hills and mountains, that there would have been a
period of these occupational areas where suddenly, without warning, the
populations disappeared without apparent reason, and there would have been a
void of no ceramics found, either displaced elsewhere from flood waters,
encroaching seas, or developing hillsides and mountains, or buried so deep they
have not yet been found.
Two hundred years after the
appearance of the Savior to the Nephites, “there began to be among them those
who were lifted up in pride, such as the wearing of costly apparel, and all manner
of fine pearls, and of the fine things of the world” (4 Nephi 1:24). No doubt
there were those whose pride drove them to create new, different and costly
ceramics, textiles and metallurgy that were unlike what had been designed and made earlier, or by other classes as these distinctions became more and more apparent.
Once again, the point is that
archaeology and anthropology have no way of judging such sudden changes or
bringing them into their cannon of accepted and “normal” development tenets. The
interesting thing about Andean Peru, such differences, changes, sudden
disappearance and appearance of new and different techniques, in the making of
ceramics, textiles, and metalworks, tends to be the norm rather than the
exception—which has caused quite a stir in the work found along the coastal
areas and highlands of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. However, without the Book of
Mormon, there simply is no way to accurately evaluate and interpret such
findings and data as that, which has been uncovered.
Left: The Wari Culture was to the north and the Tiwanaku Culture was to
the south, though many archaeologists believe the Tiwanaku were much earlier
than the Wari; Right: The extensive coverage of the Wari Culture
The Wari Empire was a political formation
that emerged around 350 A.D. in the central highlands of Peru and lasted to
about 1100 A.D. It began in the Ayacucho (Huamanga)
Valley, about halfway between Lima and Cuzco—a difficult stretch of the
mountain route from the coast to the highlands that moves through four narrow passes
over 13,000 feet, and three times dropping below 6200 feet, through mosquito
(zancudos) infested lowlands and freezing cold nights high on the golden puna.
The Ayacucho Valley, about 200 miles inland
from Pisco on the Pacific coast
the original Wari
city, 15 miles from Huamanga, called Huari, located at 9000 feet and covering
some 9 square miles, where the people grew corn and potato and raised llama and
alpaca, and made figurines, ceramic vessels, textiles and metal objects they
traded far and wide. The political structure of the Wari state included the
ruling elite, minor officials and artisans, with the central parts of the
cities having major religious complexes with plazas. These center areas were
surrounding by residential blocks in walled compounds, separated by streets.
It is claimed that each of the Wari administrative centers
controlled vast resources over local leaders; although the power of the Wari
over its "colonies" is a bit in doubt. The artifacts of the Wari are
spread across Peru; but the exact relationship between the center Wari city and
its outlying "colonies" is currently unclear. The structures were
distinctive; typically large rectangular enclosures, laid out in a strict grid
pattern of squares or patios. The large buildings were administrative centers
and elite residences, with numerous uniformly decorated and shaped room cells.
The ruins of Huari where little actual
archaeological work has been done to-date
It is claimed to have
overlapped the Tiwanaku culture and at one time was thought to have been
derived from it. In 2008, archaeologists found a prehistoric city far to the
north, called Cerro Patapo near the modern coastal city of Chiclayo—the area of
the earlier Moche culture, which now leads archaeologists to consider that the
Wari and Moche were somehow connected. It would probably have been easier to make such connections among different Andean cultures had archaeologists not been so convinced they were separate to begin with. The more that is uncovered, and archaeologists come to understand the early Peruvian peoples, the more they seem connected and the more they mirror the Book of Mormon peoples.
Top: Blue Dot is the location of Cerro
Patapo; far to the left is the coastal city of Chiclayo, which earlier had been
the dominion of the Moche culture; Bottom: Some of the ruins of the ancient
city
The find was the
first to show an extensive settlement related to the Wari culture that far
north and demonstrate that they had a long span of influence. These ruins are primarily of the Wari
(Huari), which flourished in the area along the coast and reaching to the
highlands. The ruins both present the first evidence of Wari influence found in
Northern Peru and by their quality and extent, show this was an important site.
Located 14 miles from Chiclayo, the ruins stretch over an area of 3 miles.
The recently discovered city of Cerro Patapo
hanging on a Cliffside. Archaeologists now believe there is a connection
between the Moche of that area and the Wari, now discovered to have also been in
this northern area
Another
Wari site, this one far to the south, on a low ridge twelve miles east and 20
miles south of Cusco along the road to Puno and Lake Titicaca, is the area of Pikillaqta
(“flea place,” or “City of Fleas”). First discovered in the Lucre Basin in
1927, it was not fully excavated until 1978-1990 by Gordon McEwan. One of the most interesting
aspects of Pikillaqta (and there are numerous) is the hydraulic works that connect
the water resources of the site to terraces and cultivable fields in the Lucre
Basin, including canals, reservoirs, causeways, and aqueducts. This complex set
of features allowed intensive agriculture of maize, potatoes and other crops.
Covering an area of 8453 acres,
Pikillaqta was one of the most spectacular regional centers of the Wari
culture. This name was given it by the Spanish during the colonial period, the
original name is unknown. The complex of Piquillacta is composed by more than 700 structures: 200
Kanchas (departments), 504 qolqas (storages) and different buildings that
should have sheltered a population of about ten thousand people.
The city was displayed in a harmonious and symmetric way, in blocks with
straight streets that embraced many sectors such as the administrative,
ceremonial, urban, defensive and a road system. Its buildings had 2 or 3
floors, each 40 feet high. The walls were made with mud and stones, wide at the
bottom but thin at the upper part. At the beginning of the nineties, these
walls were covered with 3 ½-inches of mud, then covered with plaster. The
floors were also made with a kind of thick plaster showing the appearance of a
white city.
While most
ancient Andean cultures have become more and more known, the civilization of Wari remains obscure,
even though they were not a minor, provincial group, but a large, thriving
power that dominated their era, exerting influence over a vast area that
exceeded that of the more celebrated Classic Maya to the north in Central America. Multiple
factors contribute to the Wari’s absence from the public imagination; not least
among them is the dearth of those monumental arts that have traditionally
functioned as a hallmark of civilization. Even as we move beyond facile ideas
of cultural hierarchy, the biases of earlier eras remain embedded in the archaeological
discipline. The Wari had little use for large stone statues representing gods
and rulers, and although their structures are finely engineered, they do not display the pristine masonry that embellishes so much Pre-Columbian
architecture.
Instead, Wari artists
focused their labors on works in mediums often associated with craft,
especially textiles and ceramics. It would be a mistake, however, to equate the
lack of monumental stonework with a lack of cultural sophistication, as Wari:
Lords of the Ancient Andes, the stunning catalogue to the exhibition
organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art, forcefully demonstrates.
The catalogue
provides a valuable overview of the skill and inventiveness of Wari artists,
combining over two hundred illustrations with fifteen essays by distinguished
international scholars from the fields of archaeology and art history that
examine diverse aspects of Wari art and culture.
At present, the consensus is coalescing on defining Wari as
a true empire, the first expansionist state of the ancient Andes. Yet, when
discussing Wari imperialism, it is important to recognize that they employed a
number of strategies that go beyond definitions of imperialism that are rooted
in militarism and conquest. In some cases they asserted territorial and
administrative control, as evidenced by Wari outposts in locations far from
their capital; in others they relied on soft power techniques, such as diplomacy
and cultural influence. The latter appears to have been the strategy employed
in their dealings with the Moche of Peru’s north coast, who they no doubt
influenced since their ceramics appear alongside Moche fineline painted vessels
in Late Moche-period elite burials, a marker of social prestige.
It is an accepted fact that textiles were
perhaps the most important art form in the ancient Andes (as it was among the Nephites), and the Wari were
masters of the medium, as attested by the diversity of technique, the quality,
and the quantity of cloth that has survived. Chapters address different facets
of textiles and textile production, including tapestry tunics, feather work,
and tie-dyed garments. Wari textile designs range from abstract geometries to
figural representations, although these were often highly distorted and
abstracted to the point that, at first glance, they could be mistaken for works
of mid-twentieth-century modernism.
Polychrome ceramics of the Wari style and Wari art have been
found from the Lake Titicaca area all the way north to almost Ecuador, and from
the highlands of the east all the way to the coast during this period, yet
archaeology is silent about the meaning of such finds (certainly it would reflect the Nephite use of textiles as shown throughout the Book of Mormon and also shows a widespread coverage of the Nephite nation).
While anthropologists
consider the manufacture of ceramics as the basis of much of their dating,
contact, grouping and classification of cultural contact, for some reason they
do not consider the proliferation of Wari style ceramics throughout the
Andes as evidence of direct control or even contact. Still, the fact that such
ceramics and art are found in these numerous so-called separate cultures, one
has to wonder why this has not led the scientists to place the meaning of
involvement of these cultures into closer arrangement.
Continuing from the last post
regarding the Moche culture, which existed from about 200 B.C., following the
archaeological-named group called the Chavin and before the group called the Chimú cultures of ancient Peru.
The Moche cultural sphere was
centered on several valleys on the north coast of Peru in regions La Libertad,
Lambayeque, Jequetepeque, Chicama, Moche, Virú, Chao Santa and Nepeña, and
occupied 250 miles of desert coastline and up to 50 miles inland from the
coast. The Moche culture, as seen in their art, was initially influenced by the
earlier Chavin culture (900 to 200 B.C.) and in the final stages by the Chimú
culture. Knowledge of the Moche pantheon is sketchy, but we do know of Al Paec
(sounds strikingly familiar to Pachacamac) the creator or sky god (or his son),
was typically depicted in Moche art with ferocious fangs, a jaguar headdress,
snake earrings, and was considered to dwell in the high mountains. It is
claimed that human sacrifices, especially of war prisoners but also Moche
citizens, were offered to appease him, and their blood was offered in ritual
goblets. Sounds strikingly familiar to the advancing Lamanite hordes that swept
the Nephites far to the north “and did drive the
inhabitants forth out of her, and did take many prisoners both women and
children, and did offer them up as sacrifices unto their idol gods” (Mormon
4:14), and “the Nephites were driven and slaughtered with an exceedingly great
slaughter; their women and their children were again sacrificed unto idols”
(Mormon 4:21).
Moche Art showing their god Al-Paec,
with fangs of the all-powerful Jaguar, the Andean symbol of God
Another deity who frequently
appears in Moche art is the half-man, half-jaguar Decapitator god, so-called
because he is often represented holding a vicious looking sacrificial knife (tumi)
in one hand and the severed head of a sacrificial victim in the other. The god
may also be depicted as a gigantic spider figure ready to suck the life-blood
from his victims. That such scenes mirror real life events is supported by
archaeological finds, such as those at the foot of the Huaca de la Luna where
skeletons of 40 men under 30 years of age show evidence that they were
mutilated and thrown from the top of the pyramid—another reference to the
viciousness of the Lamanite attacks as the Nephties “began to be swept off by
them even as a dew before the sun” (Mormon 4:18)
and “the Lamanites did come down against the city Desolation; and there was an
exceedingly sore battle fought in the land Desolation, in the which they did
beat the Nephites, who were
driven from city to city and “those whose flight was swifter than the
Lamanites’ did escape, and those whose flight did not exceed the Lamanites’
were swept down and destroyed” (Mormon 5:7), and in the city of Boaz, “the
Nephites were driven and slaughtered with an exceedingly great slaughter”
(Mormon 4:21).
The
bones of these skeletons display cut marks, limbs were ripped out of their
sockets, and jaw bones are missing from severed skulls. Interestingly, the
bodies lie above soft ground caused by heavy rains, which suggests the
sacrifices may have been offered to the Moche gods in order to alleviate this
environmental disaster.
As Mormon writes: “we
did come to the city of Angola, and we did take possession of the city, and
make preparations to defend ourselves against the Lamanites. And it came to
pass that we did fortify the city with our might; but notwithstanding all our
fortifications the Lamanites did come upon us and did drive us out of the city”
(Mormon 2:4). Mormon, of
course, did not know what happened in those cities after the Nephites escaped
and fled to another city for their defense, but obviously the hatred of the
Lamanites toward them would have evoked strong action, manifest in terrible
acts of violence and torture toward the captured, wounded, and defeated Nephites
left behind.
“Behold,
the land was filled with robbers and with Lamanites; and notwithstanding the
great destruction which hung over my people, they did not repent of their evil
doings; therefore there was blood and carnage spread throughout all the face of
the land, both on the part of the Nephites and also on the part of the
Lamanites; and it was one complete revolution throughout all the face of the
land” (Mormon 2:8).
Artwork on pottery and textiles was
filled with war, cruelty toward the enemy and human sacrifice
AT excavations at two Moche sites were found the skeletons of dozens of people who had been buried there of young
men who had multiple healed fractures on their ribs, shoulder blades, and arms
suggesting they had been in fights (or combat), who had slit throats.
There
can be no question this was a time of terror and horrible acts of violence, man
toward man, Lamanite toward Nephite. Such a time of warfare is also depicted in
the archaeological record of the Andes at this time. In Peru, during this period,
ceremonial goblets have been discovered which contain traces of human blood,
and tombs have revealed costumed and be-jewelled individuals almost exactly
like the religious figures depicted in Moche murals performing such violent
acts.
In one instance, archaeologists
have found where during the last several years, the Moche civilization pulled
back to two river valleys (Moche and Laquetepeque) and built fortified
settlements, a sure sign of being attacked or fear of it. Soon after, the Moche
disappeared, though archaeologists are uncertain over the reason—but certainly
it was caused by, or coupled with, the development of a
new military power to their immediate south, the Moche were never able to
recover.
Certainly, the Moche culture was sophisticated;
and their artifacts express their lives, with detailed scenes of hunting and
fishing; however, they seemed to concentrate far more on fighting, sacrifice,
sexual encounters and elaborate ceremonies, similar to the debauchery of the Nephite nation during its collapse.
Top: Moshce warriors wearing the traditional headdress depicted in
textile and pottery art; Bottom: Scenes from Moche art of wars and ceremonies
The Moche cultivated maize, quinoa, beans, manioc, and sweet
potatoes with the aid of massive irrigation works that
the Moche people built and maintained. In addition, Moche society was highly
stratified, with the elite constructing their dwellings on platforms so they
literally looked down on commoners, enhancing their position in society.
Again,
in discussing the convergence, or overlap of these so-called separate
“cultures,” that archaeologists claim existed rather than one continual people
developing over the centuries, we look at the Moche site of Pampa Grande that covered about 1500
acres and included the once 180-feet high Huaca Fortaleza ritual platform, the
summit reached by a 950-feet ramp where a columned structure at the top contained
a mural of felines.
This site, like others of the
Moche culture, existed at an earlier time, this one with the Chavin and
Cupisnique, about 600 to 300 B.C., and then by the Moche I period about 300 to
200 B.C. and the Moche II thru IV periods of 100 B.C. to 500 A.D. It would be a
lot less confusing and fragmental if archaeologists would stop trying to invent
different cultures and recognize that a single people through this thousand
years occupied this same area. It would also show that the Nephites of the Book
of Mormon existed as the scriptural record shows over this same 1000 year
period. And like the Nephites, the Moche disappeared suddenly and left no
trace, leaving unanswered questions for the archaeologists, but certainly not
to the student of the Book of Mormon.
Another site fitting into this
same scenario is that of El Brujo (Left: blue arrow; Red arrow is Pampa
Grande). This thriving religious
center was built by the Moche people, who dominated Peru's northern coast from A.D.
100 to 800. At El Brujo they performed rituals, buried their prominent dead,
and practiced grisly human sacrifice. Archaeologists have not found rich tombs
here, like those found 80 miles (130 kilometers) north at the Moche
site of Sipán. But they have uncovered elaborate murals, friezes, and reliefs
that shed new light on this relatively unknown people. And like those of Pampa
Grande and the Moche in general, El Brujo was suddenly and without reason
abandoned, though there
is evidence of fire damage to many of the buildings.
As Mormon wrote: “That
whatsoever lands we had passed by, and the inhabitants thereof were not
gathered in, were destroyed by the Lamanites, and their towns, and villages,
and cities were burned with fire” (Mormon 5:5).
The Moche, also known as he
Mochica, were a contemporary culture with the Nazca civilization in the south,
from around 200 B.C. to the mid first century A.D., and were able to accumulate
the wealth and power necessary to establish themselves as one of the most
unique and important early-Andean cultures. The Moche also expressed themselves
in art with such a high degree of aesthetics that their naturalistic and
vibrant murals, ceramics, and metalwork are amongst the most highly regarded in
the Americas. This would have been to the north of the Land Southward in the Nephite Land of Promise.
The Moche spread to eventually cover an area from the
Huarmey Valley in the south to the Piura Valley in the north, and was at one point divided
linguistically by two separate but related languages: Muchic (Lambayeque
Valley) and Quingan. The two areas also display slightly different artistic and
architectural trends and so the Moche state may be archaeologically better
described as a loose confederacy rather than a single, unified entity, reaching
its highest point in the first two centuries A.D.
It is interesting
during this 200-year-flowering of (Moche) expansion and sophistication of
society that it coincides with the 200-year period following the Savior’s visit
to the Nephites. In fact, according to archaeologists, in many places new
phases of the culture were beginning at this time, as newcomers and local
peoples began to merge and form regionally-rooted societies. Early examples of
complex regional societies are emerging at this time in the mountains and
plains of the northwest, probably receiving some influences from the advanced
civilizations of the high Andes.
It might also be
understood at this time, Zarahemla had been destroyed by fire (3 Nephi 8:8;
9:3), and civilization within the Nephite nation shifted to the area of
Bountiful (3 Nephi 11:1)—just before this the Nephites, under direction of
Lachoneus, the Governor, and of the prophet and Chief Captain, Gidgiddoni, had
gathered in the area of Zarahemla to Bountiful and fortified themselves and
took up defensive positions against their enemy the Gaddianton Robbers (3 Nephi
3).
Left: Location of the original Moche settlement; Right: The view of the two huge pyramids, one in background, the other
foreground right
The capital, known simply as
Moche and giving its name to the civilization which founded it, lies at the
foot of the Cerro Blanco mountain and once covered an area of 741 acres.
Besides urban housing, plazas, storehouses, and workshop buildings, it also has
impressive monuments, which include two massive adobe brick pyramid-like
mounds. These monumental structures, in their original state, display typical
traits of Moche architecture: multiple levels, access ramps, and slanted
roofing.
Buildings excavated between the
two pyramid-mounds include many large residences with courtyards enclosed by
walls, in the Hebrew/Jewish style. The fields around the site are laid out in a regular grid pattern of
small rectangular plots often with a small adobe viewing platform, which
suggests some sort of state supervision and control by the elite (Kuraka)
class. Moche agriculture benefitted from an extensive system of canals,
reservoirs, and aqueducts, so that the land could support a population of
around 25,000.
Buildings
excavated between the two pyramid mounds (one—Huaca del Sol—shown in
background) include many large residences with courtyards enclosed by walls
shown in foreground
Other Moche sites include a
pilgrimage center at Pacatnamú, a mountain top site above the Jequetepeque
River, which was actually used from the Early Intermediate Period, about 200
B.C., and there was an administrative center at Panamarca, where there is
another large adobe brick mound, this time with a switch-back ramp leading to
the top of the structure, and also at Huancaco in the Viru Valley and Pampa de
Los Incas in the Santa Valley.
The massive interior of the tall excavated walls still show signs of
design and color, for which the Moche were famous
According
to archaeologists, the sudden appearances of characteristic monumental adobe
mounds and defensive structures attest to this imposition over local
peoples--or matching the Nephitre gathering where they defended themselves against the Gaddianton Robbers. On the other hand, they could just as well show the importance
of the battles the Moche fought against an enemy to the south who had driven
them northward over the centuries. Attesting to this, there are images of
warfare, prisoner sacrifice and portraits of important individuals all signalling a
time of strong political (or military) leaders.
Archaeologist
believe that the southern sphere somehow seems to have briefly dominated the
northern one, then later the north seems to have had more power, and finally
both collapsed around the time that the Wari were beginning their state.
Throughout this trajectory the northern sphere was more self-contained (and
this cohesion was carried forward by the subsequent Lambayeque culture)--another similarity to the Book of Mormon Nephite struggles.
This
again could show that after the flowering of the Moche culture, which declined
around 300 to 400 A.D., mirrors the decline of the Nephite nation after their
200-year peak following the Savior’s visit, and their eventual movement under
Mormon’s leadership into the Land Northward where they made a treaty with the Lamanites
in 350 A.D., abdicating the entire Land Southward to their enemies (Mormon
2:28-29).
The larger Moche 'pyramid' is the
Huaca del Sol, which has four tiers and stands over 140 feet high today, though
originally it was 165 feet in height. It covered an area 1115 feet by 525 feet,
and was constructed using over 140 million bricks, each stamped with a maker's
mark. A ramp on the north side gives access to the summit, which is a platform
in the form of a cross. The smaller structure, known as the Huaca de la Luna,
stands 1800 feet away and was built using some 50 million adobe bricks. It has
three tiers and is decorated with friezes showing Moche legends and rituals.
The entire structure was once enclosed within a high adobe brick wall--an obvious defense for a people who were historically used to being attacked.
Both pyramids were constructed during the early A.D. period, were originally brightly colored in red,
white, yellow, and black, and were used as an imposing setting to perform
rituals and ceremonies. The Spanish conquistadors later diverted the Rio Moche
in order to break down the Huaca del Sol and loot the tombs within, suggesting
that the pyramid was also used by the Moche for generations as a mausoleum for
important persons.
Following the peak of the Moche period (after 200 A.D.), an extensive
canal systems and agricultural fields became covered in sand (blown inland from
the coast where it had been deposited by erosive flooding from the valleys),
and the population left the area, resettling further north in the Lambayeque
Valley, notably at the sites of Sipán and Pampa Grande. The move may also have
been precipitated by the expansion of the Huari based in the highlands of
central Peru. At Sipán some of the best preserved and richest tombs in the
Americas have been discovered, including the famous 'Warrior Priest' tomb with
its outstanding precious metal objects such as a gold mask, ear-spools,
bracelets, body armour, sceptre, ingots, and magnificently crafted silver and
gold peanut necklace.
In the Nephite record, this was a time of decline for the
Nephites who deteriorated in numerous ways preceding their final battles of the
4th century A.D. recorded by Mormon.
(See the next post, “The Earliest Americans—Moche – Part II,” for more
on the similarities between the events recorded during the Moche period and
those in the scriptural record)
The Paracas culture was an Andean
society between about 1200 B.C. and 100 B.C., with an extensive knowledge of
irrigation and water management and significant contributions in the textile
arts. It was located in what today is the Ica Region of Peru, a huge
pre-Columbian seaside site along the Paracas Peninsula. The early part of the
Paracas development (1200 to 900 B.C.) is also associated with the Chavin
culture.
The Paracas developed around the Peninsula,producing a
famous thin-walled pottery and some of the most extraordinary textiles in
existence. Great woven mantles, ponchos, and small tapestries were created
between 1000 and 250 B.C. Human remains found at Chavin show indications of
cranial surgery and the odd, but common practice (in Meso- and South America),
of head shaping for beauty.
Characterized by their big,
underground necropolis where bodies were preserved as mummies wrapped in
luxurious cloths, their knowledge of medicine was advanced as demonstrated by
surgical operations to the brain (cranial trepanations) with the patient’s
survival. Their textile art was considered the best of all ancient cultures,
their econonmic activity was based on agriculture and fishing, and they built
extensive aqueducts creating artificial watering channels and used guano for
fertilizer.
The site on the peninsula was first
investigated by the Peruvian archaeologist Julio Tello in the 1920s, who
discoverfed the Paracas Cavernas or shaft tombs, set into the top of
Cerro Colorado, each containing multiple burials. The associated ceramics include incised polychrome
"negative" resist decoration and other wares of the Paracas
tradition. The associated textiles include many complex weave structures as
well as elaborate plaiting and knotting techniques.There is evidence that the tombs and site were used for centuries, again suggesting an ongoing societal development, such as we find with the Nephites in the Book of Mormon, rather than the isolated, individual cultures proposed by most archaeologists, who place separate names on each settlement they find.
The necropolis of Wari Kayan
consisted of two clusters of hundreds of burials set closely together inside
and around abandoned buildings on the steep north slope of Cerro Colorado. The
associated ceramics are very fine plain wares, some with white and red stripes
and other with pattern-burnished decoration, and other wares of the Topara
tradition.
Top: The crest of Cerro Colorado, over the twin knobs of the Wari Kayan
hillside. The Necropolis funerary bundles, massed on the hillside, faced to the
north toward the view of the bay of Paracas; Bottom: An Archaeological Team
working on uncovering the funerary hillside
Each burial consisted of a
conical textile-wrapped bundle, most containing a seated individual facing
north across the bay of Paracas, next to offerings (artifacts) such as ceramics,
foodstuffs, baskets and weapons. Each body was bound with cord to hold it in a
seated position, before being wrapped in many layers of intricate, ornate, and
finely woven textiles. The Paracas Necropolis embroideries are now known as
some of the finest ever produced by Pre-Columbian Andean societies, and are the
primary works of art by which Paracas is known. It is another consistent match with the scriptural record which, time and again, mentions the textile capabilities of the Nephites down through the centuries.
Burials at the necropolis of Wari
Kayan continued until about 250 A.D., and many of the mortuary bundles
include textiles like those of early Nazca. In addition, the Paracas Culture depended on
fish and other resources from the sea, were also farmers and cultivated beans,
maize, red peppers, yuca and peanuts. They were also exceptional craftspeople
and produced exquisitely worked stone clubs, obsidian knives, gourd bottles,
rattles, pottery, shell and bone necklaces, hammered gold face and hair
ornaments, feather fans and basketry.
Their
knowledge of medicine was advanced, just as they demonstrated, the remains of
surgical operations to the brain (craneal trepanations) with the patients'
survival. These people used to deform their skulls while still alive, giving
them a 'lengthened head.’ This might be reminiscent of the Zoramites and their strange religion and practices, which included the place called Rameumptom, that Alma confronted (Alma 31:21). Certainly, such practices would not have been standard among the Nephites.
Paracas wrapped their mummified
dead along with funeral offerings, in embroidered cloaks, which are among the
finest examples of the art of textile making. The multicolored designs on these
textiles bear a definite relationship to those of painted pottery of the contemporaneous
and later Nazca culture.
Textiles were valued as a means for sharing religious lore
and beliefs. They were worn to indicate status and authority. Some textiles
were over 34 meters long and would have required large numbers of people and
complex organization to make.
They are made from camelid wool (probably llama or alpaca)
and plant fibers (identified as cotton). The bright colors include indigo,
green, browns, pink and white. These were all produced using natural dyes
and would have been particularly striking against the sandy beige colors of the
surrounding landscape
Natural dyes don’t
always last when exposed to light or moisture so the survival of these in such
vibrant conditions for over 2,000 years is extraordinary. This survival is
likely to be due to the dry conditions of the unlit underground burial chambers
in which they were found.
While
the Paracas culture developed in this region between about 1200 B.C. and 100
B.C., the Topará culture is thought to have entered or "invaded" from the north
at approximately 150 B.C. The two cultures then coexisted for one or more
generations, both on the Paracas Peninsula and in the nearby Ica Valley, and
their interaction played a key role in the development of the Nazca culture and
ceramic and textile traditions. Though the elaborate textiles have only been
preserved in the coastal desert sites, there is growing evidence that people
associated with these cultures lived and traveled between the Pacific lowlands
and the Andean highland valleys and mountain pastures to the east, again remiscent of the constant travel between cities indicated during Nephite times (Alma 8:6; 30:32, etc.).
The
Paracas Peninsula is home not only to the Paracas Culture, but thousands of
birds, pelicans, penguins, fish, seals and other marine life. A veritable
paradise for a maritime fishing culture; perhaps one of the reasons why the Nephites were so involved in "their shipping and their building of ships" (Helaman 3:14). They were, after all, on an island for the first 600 years of their occupation of the Land of Promise, and had a single, but long coastline after that; obviously, they would have been a maritime people, building so many cities along the seashore (Alma 50:9,15,25; 51:22,26,etc.)
Continuing with our series on the
ancient peoples of Andean South America—the Land of Promise—and showing how the
findings of archaeology of these “earliest Americans" fits so well into the
Book of Mormon and describe the Nephite people in their various settlement areas.
In this area, the ancient site of Pucará
(Pukara), meaning “fortress” in both Aymara and Quechua, is located in the
southern highlands of present-day Peru in the northern basin of Lake Titicaca—in the area first settled by Nephi after leaving his brothers and fleeing northward. during the period between about 587 B.C. and when Mosiah left, aroudn 300 B.C., the Nephites spread out and build numerous cities—this being one of them.
The Early Intermediate Period site, believed to be 300 B.C. to 300 A.D., is known
for its unusual horseshoe-shaped temple or sanctuary of stone masonry.
Situated at an altitude of 12,700
feet, the site overlooks the Pucará River about 37 miles northwest
of Lake Titicaca. Scattered mounds and a series of sunken
structures known as the Qalasaya are visible some distance west of the present
course of the Pucará River, to the southwest of the present village of Pucará.
The site shows a downtown area with monumental structures, temple complexes and
administrative buildings, then expands out close to a square mile with
residential areas, production areas and other spaces that developed as people
grew more interdependent (spread out into separatle settlements).
Left: The Pucará site with the
Lagunita Mound in the background (yellow arrow); Right: the central sunken
enclosure on the main temple complex, the Qalasaya
Excavations at the site have revealed
a discontinuous sequence of occupations beginning about 1300 B.C., with
the major buildings belonging to the Pucará culture and date about 1700 years
before the Inca (200 B.C. to 200 A.D, at which time Pucará was a major
religious center with an extensive residential zone, and may have been the
administrative center of the Pucará culture as well. The complex polychrome
painted and incised pottery of this period belongs to what is known as the
Pucará style, which shows stone sculptures and Pucará
pottery resembling those of Tiwanaku, in the southern
Titicaca basin. And since the earlier levels at Tiwanaku show Pucará-type
pottery, it is apparent that the Pucará culture was a forerunner of the Classic
Tiwanaku styles.
After the Pucará occupants abandoned the site, it was not inhabited again
until some time in the Late Intermediate Period, when Collao-style pottery was
being used. Eventually, even the Inca settled in this area and occupied the
site in later periods.
Top: The Pucará
site with the town in the background; Bottom: the sunken Qalasaya
The Pucará is considered one of
the refined branches of the Chavin culture and seems to have been a foundation
of the later Wari Empire and Tiwanaku culture.
It is also obvious from the site that it was occupied after the Pucará by
several “chiefdoms” or “kingdoms,” with the Inca the last occupants—another match to the development of the Nephite people over a long period of time.
The
writings of 16th-century Spanish chroniclers Pedro de Cieza de Leon (1553) and
Garci Diez de San Miguel (1567) frequently mention the Collao and the Lupaca,
centered on the western shores of Lake Titicaca, as being rivals and perhaps
the most powerful of all the other political groups during the Inca domination
of the area. Archaeologists have proposed that these same political groupings,
although perhaps with different boundaries, also existed in immediately late
pre-Inca times—showing the period when the Lamanites moved in and occupied the area after Mosiah left with those Nephites who would go with him.
Top: The La Raya Pass with the Andes
beyond, a natural barrier between Titicaca and Cuzco; Bottom: Today, at the top
of the Pass, vendors sell a avariety of arts and crafts made by local people to
the tourists who come through on buses
Between
Cuzco and the Titicaca regions is the famous pass at La Raya, several days walk
north from Lake Arapa (the northern extension of Lake Titicaca), along the
Vilcanota River (about 115 miles as the crow flies, and about 100 miles north
of Pucará)—along this route the Lamanites coming from the south would have passed to get to the Nephite location around Cuzco, the City of Nephi, of which numerous references in the scriptural record mention the many wars between the two during this time.
At 14,232 feet elevation, the Pass is the conjunction of the cordillera and the
origin of the Vilcanota knot, where two lofty and narrow chains of mountains
emerge northward, the Cordilleras de Carabaya and Vilcanota, separated by a
deep gorge, where the Andes enter Peru with the Cordillera Occidental (western)
runs parallel to the coast and the Cordillera Real from Bolivia ends in the
rough mountain mass of the Knot. This area is also the watershed between the
valley that drains into Lake Titicaca and the valley that leads down to Cusco
and to the Sacred Valley. It was a natural geographical and cultural boundary—the perfect spot to separate the Nephties from the Lamanites when Nephi came northward.
To
the south of the Pass, on the Collao Plateau, were the Collao (Colla), the ancient roads passing
Lake Titicaca joined on the north and served as the southern boundary of that
culture along the Meseta del Collao or Altiplano (high plain in the Andes
Mountains), while the plateau itself extended far to the south, where also the
Tiahuanaco flourished.
According
to Pedro de Cieza de Leon, the Spanish conquistador and chronicler of Peru, the
story was told him by the indigenous natives around Lake Titicaca, who claimed
they heard them from their ancestors, who in like manner heard them in the old
songs they received from very ancient times, that there came from a southern
direction a white man of great stature who, by his aspect and presence, called
forth great veneration and obedience. He had great power and could change plains
into mountains, and great hills into valleys, and make water flow out of
stones (see the outline of events preceding the advent of the Savior as described in 3 Nephi and the destruction outlined, of mountains becoming valleys and valleys becoming mountains).
People called him the Maker of created things, the Prince of all
things, Father of the Sun, who performed other wonders, giving life to men and
by his hand marvelous great benefits were conferred on the people. He gave
orders to men how they should live, and he spoke lovingly to them with much
gentleness, admonishing them that they should do good and no evil or injury one
to another and charitable to all. In most parts he is generally called Ticiviracocha, but in the province of
the Collao they call him Tuapaca, and
in other places Arnanan. People built
temples and put blocks of stone for a likeness of him, and offered up
sacrifices before them. It is held that the great blocks at Tiahuanacu were
from that time. They said that the man went toward the north working marvels
along the way of the mountains and that he never more returned.
One
can only wonder at the account found in 3 Nephi of the destruction and the
appearance of the Savior to the Nephites:
The Maker of created things…“I
am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all
things that in them are” (3 Nephi 9:15);
A white man of great stature
who, by his aspect and presence, called forth great veneration and obedience…”
they understood they cast their eyes up again towards heaven; and behold, they
saw a Man descending out of heaven; and he was clothed in a white robe; and he
came down and stood in the midst of them; and the eyes of the whole multitude
were turned upon him, and they durst not open their mouths, even one to
another, and wist not what it meant, for they thought it was an angel that had
appeared unto them” (3 Nephi 11:8);
Change plains into
mountains, and great hills into valleys…”many
mountains laid low, like unto a valley, and there shall be many places which
are now called valleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great”
(Helaman 14:23);
Father of the Sun…“both
of the Father and of the Son” (3 Nephi 1”14);
By his hand marvelous great
benefits were conferred on the people…”his disciples
bare record that he gave them power” (3 Nephi 18:37);
Admonishing them that they
should do good and no evil or injury one to another and charitable to all…”ye
shall not forbid any man from coming unto you when ye shall meet together, but
suffer them that they may come unto you and forbid them not “ (3 Nephi 18:22); “And
blessed are ye if ye have no disputations among you” (3 Nephi 18:34);
He spoke lovingly to them
with much gentleness…”And when he had said these
words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little
children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them” (3
Nephi 17:21);
He gave orders to men how
they should live…”Pray in your families unto the
Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed.“
(3 Nephi 18:21); “Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the
world” (3 Nephi 18:24).
What
a marvelous confirmation of the Book of Mormon found in the old stories the
Indians passed down for generations that were told to the Spanish conquistadors
and recorded by their chroniclers.
These Zoramites had built
synagogues in which they worshipped on top of a tall, narrow stand they called Rameumptom after a manner which Alma and
his brethren had never beheld and found astonishing beyond all measure.
