Tucume: Las Pirámides del adobe que Son anteriores a los incas

Author note: Back in February, I had mentioned Tucume in passing, linking to an archived article of mine about this illustrious ghost town. This is the piece in its entirety.

The Lambeyeque Valley in Peru is the site of six adobe pyramids, known by the Lambeyeque people, as well as the Chimu tribe, as the sacred site of Tucume.

Source

The adobe pyramids were constructed before the arrival of the Incas around 1000 to 1100 AD and they are legend to be haunted by evil spirits. The indigenous people are enamored by the site, refusing to visit, afraid of what harm might come to them. It's no wonder that Tucume has been given the name "purgatoria", however many suspect the name was given by the Spanish Conquistadors to stop people from visiting the site. Oddly, grave robbers have never attempted to loot Tucume because of its alluring reputation.

The civilization thrived raising crops and animals and formulating a complete info structure including waterways and manmade watercourses.



The most recent discovery of 119 bodies suggests that ritual sacrifices were performed in one of the many temples on site. Consequently, the sacrifices were most likely performed by the Incas in an attempt to stop Spanish Invasion in 1532.

After the arrival of the Spanish, the only thing that remained of Tucume was the adobe pyramids. Sadly, after Peru was conquered by the Spanish, Tucume was abandoned and exists only as a ghost town.

Tucume was little known to the world until 1988 when Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian explorer, embarked on several excavations. His discoveries led to increased interest about the site. Among his discoveries were Incan and Chimu textiles, metalwork, and pottery. In addition, 40 tombs and burial sites were unearthed, including one such tomb that included "a prominent Inca general, possibly the governor of Tucume".

The entire site spans over 540 acres and includes 26 major pyramids and mounds. The largest of the pyramids is the Huaca Larga, measuring 700 meters in length, 280 meters in width, and 30 meters in height.

Today, the site remains a ghost town, with the exception of a few travelers passing by to take pictures or bike.

South American Vs Old World Complex Societies: Similarities and Differences

The civilizations of the Old World were in fact derivatives of the first ancient cultures, even dominating their ancient counterparts in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China. They did so by utilizing new forms of agriculture and technology, improving upon the methods previously noted. The South American societies paralleled the Old World ancient societies in that they exhibited advanced architecture, powerful armies, social hierarchies, and intensive farming systems.

Agriculture

In Mesopotamia, China, and Egypt, the citizens were “inextricably tied to the irrigation system fed by the great river through canal systems, controlled by the government” (Wenke and Olszewski 2007). This was not the case in South America, as citizens of the civilization worked as a collective, to provide the community with ample resources.

Relatively simple agricultural villages in South America grew mostly maize, beans, squash, and peppers and the abundance of the Pacific Ocean didn’t require the reliance on one staple crop. Overall the impact on the land was relatively low as opposed to their Old World counterparts, who utilized hoofed animals for intensive agriculture. Domesticates in Peru, or rather the role of these animals (llamas and guinea pigs) is unclear.

Sites like Tucume thrived, raising crops and animals and formulating a complete infrastructure including waterways and manmade watercourses, like the advanced systems we observed in Mesopotamia. The advancement of irrigation in this society located in Peru is fascinating. Why? The extreme environment and dry arid lands required physical and cultural adaptations.

South Americans “partially solved” a long standing Old World agricultural problem regarding tubers, developing a method of freeze drying potatoes for storage. In Old World Africa, the use of tubers was limited, as they were never brought under cultivation. Furthermore, tubers were also under cultivation in ancient China, India, the Near East and the Mediterranean Basin.

In sum: Old World societies relied on one staple crop, whereas South American complex societies saw crops as a supplement, utilizing maize, beans, potatoes, quinoa, fish from the nearby Pacific, and squash, to sustain the populations.

Class and Social Hierarchy 

Culturally, Old World societies were a bit different than South America. There was social inequality as sited by the hierarchical organization of class systems. State religions provided, as Wenke and Olszewski (2007) noted, the “context of life”. We saw temples in Mesopotamia which clearly indicated some sort of social hierarchy. The Shang society was headed by a king, who ruled through hierarchically arranged nobility (p 446). Consequently, the Erhlit’ou culture, as evidenced archaeologically, consisted of large abodes, middle sized lodging, and small villages, suggesting an administrative hierarchy.

There was relatively little evidence to suggest social inequality or hierarchy in Peru, as “people seem to have participated in collective labor without developing strong differences in access to resources. Michael Moseley suggested that these Peruvian societies living in villages along the water exhibited “simple social stratification” on the basis of fishing.

In the case of Chan Chan, however, there was clear evidence of a class system much like the districts are separated today. Social classes were sectioned off in nine "citadels" where they lived, worked, and carried on with their daily lives. Evidence at Chan Chan’s reflects a strict political and social strategy, marked by the city's division. The Inka were organized into a stratified class society under a monarch.

In sum: The beginnings of South American complex societies may have not exhibited social inequality, however as advanced architecture was created, farming techniques grew more dependent on labor and class divisions became apparent. This movement towards a more hierarchical class based system was seen in the Old World as well. As technology and agriculture became more advanced so did the need for a political entities and polities to control the new system.

Trade

Old World trade typically happened in the lowlands by the river valleys. This was seen in Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, and Huanghe. If we consider Peru, however, there were populations living in both the highlands and lowlands. Two separate environmental zones were utilizing trade, and not always via waterways. In fact, there is no evidence of boats being used along the Andean coast, so we can assume in fact that seafaring trade was absent.

Technology

Unlike the Old World, the Inka were the only Pre-Columbian civilization to lack or develop a written language. Furthermore, the Inkas and the New World civilizations developed or utilized the inventions of the Old World including wheeled vehicles, making farming and trade much for efficient and thus allowing the Old World civilizations to have overwhelming power.

The Egyptians, although many are unaware, were excellent seafarers, building boats for exchange with other societies via waterways. On the other hand, no boats have ever been found at any sites along the Andean coast, therefore we can assume trade was occurring between highland and lowland societies on foot.

Economics

In Old World Egypt, the resources were similar along the Nile Valley and Delta, however in Andean South America, different natural resources, ocean and farm, gave way to an economic advantage when both resources were utilized.

Final Thought

Although the civilizations of the Old World and South America were quite varied, there was a fundamental similarity between the two. The evolution of the “social institution” gave way to exploitation of peoples, even using the excuse that it was the civic or religious duty of the citizens to conform to this new structure.

Resources

• Wenke and Olszewski: Patterns of Prehistory 2007

Jim O'Donnell Photographs The Nazca Lines

© Jim O'Donnell

Jim O'Donnell from Around the World in Eighty Years tells an amusing and delightful tail of his flight over the Nazca lines. It does, however, involve a cocktail called Pisco Sours and a young, drunken archaeologist, so please keep an open mind. Let's face it, sometimes it takes a little liquid courage to face some of our fears. Jim may have had a tad too much considering his foggy memory, however his story telling keep me captivated and cracking up til the very end.

The Nazca lines as most of you know, are giant geoglyphs spread across the arid Nazca plateau between Nazca and Palpa. The lines themselves were created sometime between 400 and 650AD and are comprised of everything from straight lines to geometric shapes to stylized depictions of spiders, monkeys, orcas, lizards and, of course, the famous hummingbirds. The largest of the figures are nearly 700 feet across. Some of the lines stretch for tens of miles. ~Jim O'Donnell

Read Jim O'Donnell's full story entitled "This Don’t Take No Skill – Photographing Peru’s Nazca Lines"