Garagay (pronounced Gur-duh), which are the remains of a ceremonial center built in the valley of the Rimac River, where notable Chavin-style mud high-reliefs stand out, is located in the lower Rimac valley in the middle of the urban area of Lima, along Peru's central coast 5 miles inland from the Pacific shore, in an area today called the “Urbanization of the Pacific.” It has been dated by archaeologists to sometime during the first millennium BC, and is one of the largest centers of pre-Columbian culture.
The site is situated in San Martin de Porres, on the north side of the Rimac River, and is part of the ancient spread of pyramids in what is now the Lima area . It was constructed and utilized by agriculturists who grew cotton, sweet potato, and other crops using gravity canals or flow irrigation—a canal irrigation system where water is available at a higher level and the ground is slightly sloped, allowing the water to flow downward to the point of use (As opposed to direct irrigation where the water is directly diverted from the river to the crops via a channel). The Garagay complex includes a 98-foot-high stepped, flat-topped pyramid and is located in a 22-hectare, or 54-acre area near Lima's colonial district.
Although much of Garagay has been destroyed by the metropolitan expansion of Lima, some 40 acres survive intact, which monumental architecture of the site served as the focus for the complex that is situated in the middle of the urban area of Lima.
Garagay is composed of three large terraced structures arranged around a large esplanade. It has a U-shape open to the northeast, an architectural feature of the central coast, which was the architectural style of the time. The buildings are similar to the main pyramid of Caral, 108 miles to the north of Lima. They are both built with stones edged and clay in balls alternately spaced.
The site was studied and excavated mainly by the archaeologist Peruvian archaeologist and author of Chanchan Metropoli Chimu, Rogger Ravines in 1975. Although it was protected with a fence, in 1985 the archaeological zone was invaded and sacked and since then its state of conservation is delicate. The excavations, studies and their conservation were in charge of the National Institute of Culture which is the Ministry of Culture of Peru. Currently, research, conservation and value work is carried out, by a team of specialists from the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima, led by archaeologist Héctor Walde.
The most conspicuous remains are those of the platform complex, which embraces a 22-acre open plaza. In its final form the terraced central pyramid-platform rose some 75 feet above the plaza, and access to its atrium and level summit was provided by a broad inset stairway. Garagay massive public constructions are the product of a multitude of superimposed fills and buildings erected over many centuries.
In its general ground plan and coarse masonry construction, Garagay resembles dozens of other public centers also dating from the same period that have been found from the Lurin valley one of the three valleys of Lima, to the Pativilca valley (Richard L. Burger, Chavín and the Origins of Andean Civilization, Thames and Hudson, London, UK, 1992; Jeffrey Quilter, The Ancient Central Andes, Routledge World Archaeology, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England, 2013).
Garagay is best known for fine clay friezes that decorated the walls of its central and lateral mounds. Excavations of Garagay central atrium in 1974 revealed a mural painted in yellow, white, red, pink, and grayish blue mineral-based pigments. The main theme was a fanged supernatural creature with spider attributes, which were closely associated with predicting the onset of rainfall, so it is likely that the ceremonies conducted at Garagay and other similar centers on the central coast were intended to ensure the necessary conditions for irrigation agriculture in this arid zone. Elaborate votive offerings of figurines and exotic items such as Ecuadorian Spondylus shell were also found at the atrium and a similar atrium that had been superimposed, or laid above and over it.
Excavations reveal figures of mythological creatures at the ancient Peruvian temple at Caragar. In fact, the most important Chavin monument that’s been found in the Lima region is the Ceremonial Center of Garagay. This magnificent temple is perhaps one of the oldest examples of the Chavinoide movement in the region, and could be contemporaneous with the old Temple of Chavin in Huantar. The combined architecture and urban planning is the work of several generations. In the building of the central pyramid it is possible to see the successive additions and replacements that are typical of the construction of such large monuments.
Depictions of ferocious and fearsome serpents, multi-colored big cats and other mythological creatures associated with Peru's ancient civilizations have begun to emerge from the walls of a long-buried temple being excavated in downtown Lima.
Remarkable polychrome friezes on two of the pyramids, as well as thousands of ceramic and textile objects, have been uncovered at the Huaca Garagay temple complex, which are an extraordinary example of the art of South America's first civilizations. In fact, the studies of archaeologists Rogger Ravines and William H. Isbell also determined that Garagay was older than Chavín de Huantar and not the other way around, and it was theorized that Garagay could be one of the sources of the so-called Chavin style. However, there is controversy regarding this theory and from this it was theorized that Garagay could be one of the sources of the so-called Chavin style; However, there is controversy regarding this theory—Peter Kaulicke Roermann, a German archaeologist based in Peru, considers that the uncritical reading of the dates has caused great confusion, for which reason it would be wrong to attribute Garagay an age prior to that of Chavín, and considers more relevant that the later radiocarbon date, yielding 780 BC, is more accurate (Peter Kaulicke, History of Peru: Ancient Peru, Empresa Editora El Comercio, Lima, 2010, p61).
“No other similar representations have been found belonging to contemporaneous cultures,” archeologist Hector Walde, who is directing the excavations, told EFE Agency, in Madrid, Spain. To find similar multi-colored friezes, it is necessary to travel roughly 500 miles north of Lima to Huaca de El Brujo and Huaca de la Luna, which were built much later than Garagay by the Moche civilization that thrived several centuries before the Inca Empire
There, several weeks ago, Walde's team found depictions of two enigmatic beasts: a spotted big cat and another figure comprising two impressive and opposing faces with huge fangs, separated by a vertical row of teeth.
Once again, the greater Zarahemla area surrounding Pachacamac and about 25 miles northward to the Pativilca valley just north of Lima, was one sprawling complex of pyramids, public buildings and living centers. After 400 years in the City of Nephi, the Nephites would have numbered in the tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, but how many went with Mosiah is neither mentioned nor implied (Omni 1:13), though we know that the number of people of Zarahemla (Mulekites) outnumbered Mosiah’s people (Mosiah 25:2), and together “there were a great number, even so many that they did not number them; for they had multiplied exceedingly and waxed great in the land” (Mosiah 2:2).
Obviously, the Muekites had expanded outward from the original settlement of Zarahedmla, toward the north and further inland. The Lurin River is a 67½ mile long watercourse located in the Lima Region, and originates in the glaciers and lagoons of the western Andes. It is known as the Chalilla River until joining the Taquía creek where it receives its common name. Its main tributaries are the Taquía, Llacomayqui, Tinajas, Numinkancha and Kanchawara rivers on its left bank and the Chamacna on its right bank. It crosses the provinces of Huarochirí and Lima in the Lima region before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. The draining basin of the Lurín River covers an area of 640 square miles—an ideal spot for the growth of the population. In fact, the Lurin River and Valley is the southern-most area of the population growth of what today is the Greater Lima Area. And Pachacamac is the southern-most city of the Lima area, and has more than 50 temples and buildings making it the largest archaeological complex in the city of Lima. Over time, the site grew to over 80 hectares or 200 acres, with only as northward and inland growth since to the south is open desert and even today there are very few settlements in that area.
That this overall area became the capital of the Nephite nation is obvious as first the Mulekites and then the Nephites whom the Mulekites joined to make a sizable population in need of a growing area.
Some say that Pachacamac and the Lima area cannot be Zarahemla because it says it was in the "center of the land" (Hel 1:27). But Pachacamac is in the center of the Nephite lands along the north-south axis.
ReplyDeleteThere are no large cities in the Andes to the east of Pachacamac/Lima --so that remains the most believable location for Zarahemla in center of the Andes model. The statement in Omni 1:16 also supports Zarahemla being along the coast, but maybe does not prove it.
I remain convinced that somewhere in that area was the original Zarahemla, most likely Pachacamac.