| Unlike those in Mesoamerica, the earliest
major ruins in the Central Andean Area date from before
the discovery of pottery.
Pre-Ceramic Period In the Chicama Valley of the northern
Peruvian coast at Huaca Prieta, monumental ceremonial
mounds were built about 2500BC. Highly skilled cotton
weaving has been found at this site as well as gourds
carved with stylized geometric motifs. Another Pre-Ceramic
site on the northern coast is Las Haldas, where perhaps
the first true pyramids and platform temples in the
Americas were constructed of earth about 1800BC. El
Paraido, or Chuquintanta, on the central Peruvian coast,
is the region's largest excavated Pre-Ceramic site.
Various residential complexes of clay and stone were
built by piling rooms and terraces onto one another,
as in the Pueblo towns in the southwestern United States.
Another important Pre-Ceramic site is Kotosh in the
northern highlands of Peru. At Kotosh, terraced temples
were made of fieldstone set in earth and decorated with
clay reliefs of crossed hands.
Pre-Classic Period Two important cultures developed
in Peru in the Pre-Classic period, Chavín de
Huántar and Paracas.
Chavín
Between about 1200 and 200BC, in the northern Peruvian
highland ceremonial center of Chavín de Huántar,
a civilization flourished that in many ways paralleled
the contemporary Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica.
Both were major early civilizations in their archaeological
areas, and both used feline images in their sacred iconography.
It appears that Chavín artistic influence was
spread not by military but by religious and intellectual
efforts. From Ecuador to southern coastal Peru, evidence
remains of Chavín artistic and iconographic influence.
Chavín de Huántar is composed of a series
of platforms and temples with corbel vaults in some
of the corridors. The finest stone sculpture in the
Central Andean Area is found at Chavín de Huántar
or at Chavín-related sites such as Cerro Blanco
and Cerro Sechin. Unlike the Olmec and other Mesoamericans,
however, the Chavín and later Peruvian civilizations
created very little freestanding stone sculpture or
even clay figurines. Chavín shallow-relief carving
achieved its expressive height in the stylized rectilinear
design of the stela called the Raimondi Stone.
Probably originating in northern Peru, the stirrup-spout
vessel—a closed pot having a hollow U-shaped handle
surmounted by a tubular spout—was the most characteristic
Chavín ceramic shape. Resembling Olmec ceramics,
fine Chavín pottery was produced at outposts
rather than at the principal ceremonial center. In northern
Peruvian coastal valleys at Cupisnique, Chongoyape,
and Tembladera, highly accomplished effigy pots were
made with abstract and realistic designs.
Metalworking developed and the Chavín excelled
at making hammered gold, or repoussé, body ornaments.
Characteristic of the metalwork of the Chavín
are cutout decorative plaques that were attached to
garments, and high cylindrical crowns with mythological
reliefs, which were worn by the Chavín nobility.
Paracas
Another civilization developed from about 1100 to 200BC
at Paracas on the southern Peruvian coast. Because of
the area's extreme aridity, Paracas textiles have been
perfectly preserved. Buried in desert tombs, mummies
were bundled with layers of cloth that was woven or
painted with complex designs or elaborately embroidered.
Effigy pots were also found in the Paracas necropolis.
Many of these show distinct Chavín influence,
especially in the use of feline-cult iconography.
Peruvian southern coastal art has always been more influenced
by schematized textile designs, rather than by the clay
and metal sculpture that promoted the realism of northern
Peruvian art. The decoration of Paracas ceramics, therefore,
was highly stylized, frequently incised, and brightly
polychromed. The vessels themselves were often double
spouted and round bottomed, rather than stirrup spouted
and flat based like northern coastal pots.
Classic Period
Dominating the Classic period were the Moche and Nazca
cultures and the later Tiahuanacu and related Huari
cultures.
Moche
Between about 200BC and AD700 a militaristic society
flourished on the northern Peruvian coast. Formerly
named after its language, Mochica, this civilization
is now referred to by the name of its major ceremonial
administrative site, Moche.
Centered on two large terraced platform pyramids of
sun-baked brick, Moche is one of Peru's most monumental
sites. Although a warrior society, the Moche displayed
none of the spartan taste or disdain for luxury that
characterized the Mesoamerican Toltec. Moche tombs were
filled with some of the most proficient pottery and
metalwork of the Central Andean Area.
Moche ceramics, the best known of ancient Peruvian artifacts,
are among the finest pre-Columbian accomplishments of
sculptural realism and narrative drawing. So-called
portrait-head effigy pots are especially notable for
realistically depicting human features and portraying
emotion. On other Moche pottery the curved vessel walls
are decorated with dynamic scenes drawn with delicate
stylized lines and showing this people's religious and
military life. The Moche also produced more erotic pottery
than any other pre-Columbian civilization. These artifacts
are now interpreted as having ceremonial rather than
pornographic meaning.
Moche metalwork was more ornate and technologically
advanced than that of earlier civilizations. Body ornaments
of gold, silver, copper, and alloys were frequently
inlaid with turquoise and lapis lazuli. Geometric patterns
and mythological motifs, especially the feline deity,
were used.
Nazca
The Nazca of Peru's southern coastal region were roughly
contemporary with the Moche. Like their Paracas predecessors,
the Nazca produced little architecture and excelled
at making textiles and pottery with colorful stylized
designs that contrast sharply to the realism and restrained
color of northern Peruvian ceramics. Nazca pottery is
as exuberantly polychromed as it is boldly designed
and drawn. Paracas incising was no longer used, and
color was applied before (instead of after) firing.
Although both the Moche and the Nazca made pots that
combined modeled elements and drawings, the Moche preferred
sculptural pottery, and the Nazca, painted.
Among the most enigmatic of all pre-Columbian remains
are the Nazca lines. These are drawings in the earth
of geometric shapes, animals, birds, and fish that can
be fully recognized only from the air. Certainly ceremonial
in use, the images recall those painted on Nazca pottery.
They were made by removing dark upper-surface stones
to reveal a lighter substratum.
Tiahuanacu
Tiahuanacu is a Bolivian site in the southern Central
Andean highlands near Lake Titicaca. Although Tiahuanacu
was settled as early as about 200BC, it was between
about AD200 and 600 that this urban complex became the
center of another major Classic period civilization.
In Tiahuanacu art and architecture the emphasis is on
austerity, control, and permanence. Decorative motifs
and religious imagery are rigidly stylized. Both buildings
and sculpture are characterized by a monumental effect
and monolithic appearance. The Gateway of the Sun at
Tiahuanacu is cut from a single stone and ornamented
with finely executed relief decoration; only 3.7 m (12
ft) high, it appears more monumental because of its
design. Scattered throughout the Tiahuanacu area are
pillarlike monolithic statues that reach heights of
more than 6 m (more than 20 ft) and are decorated with
low-relief detailing. The Tiahuanacu culture was one
of the few in the Central Andean Area committed to an
extensive use of stone for architecture, sculpture,
and ceremonial objects.
Huari
The Huari (Wari) shared a religion and iconography with
the Tiahuanacu, but were socioeconomically separate.
Between about 750 and 1000 the Huari Empire put an end
to Peruvian regionalism, thereby preparing for the cultural
unification of the Inca period.
Like the Moche, the Huari were a warrior society that
appreciated fine artistry and design. Coastal Huari
cultures (formerly referred to as Coastal Tiahuanacu)
produced textiles of the highest quality. Many of the
patterns, especially for ponchos, were abstractions
of motifs painted on Tiahuanacu pottery. Although less
refined than Tiahuanacu ceramics, Huari pottery stressed
solid construction, bold design, and a rich use of polychromy.
Post-Classic Period The Inca were preeminent during
the Post-Classic period, rivaled only by the Chimu.
Chimu
Northern Peru was dominated by the Chimu from about
1000 until 1470. Their imperial capital of Chan Chan
was constructed of large walled adobe compounds reflecting
those of earlier Huari settlements. The largest Andean
urban site and a true city, Chan Chan consists of ten
major quadrangles, each containing small pyramids, residences,
markets, workshops, reservoirs, storehouses, gardens,
and cemeteries. The buildings are decorated with geometrically
patterned mosaics of adobe bricks or bas-reliefs, molded
in clay plaster, of stylized animals, birds, and mythological
figures.
Although Chan Chan was not fortified, the Chimu defended
their empire by building fortresses on the frontiers.
Paramonga, which defended the southern border, is considered
a masterpiece of military engineering, as is the fortress
of Saccasihuamán above Cusco.
Chimu pottery was primarily mass-produced through the
use of molds. Its characteristic black color was achieved
through almost smothering the flame, drastically reducing
the oxygen in the kiln, during firing. Decoration was
usually molded relief, and the surface was polished
after firing to give the pot a silverlike sheen.
Metalworkers also mass-produced objects by using molds.
Compared with Chimu pottery, however, the metalwork
is more distinctive in design and individual in artistic
execution.
Textiles were made with the same quality and quantity
as other Chimu arts. The featherwork was especially
outstanding, and their feathered ponchos were among
the most luxurious garments made in the Post-Classic
period.
Inca
The Inca, who called themselves Tawantinsuyu, ruled
from Cusco an empire extending between Ecuador and Chile.
A highland warrior people, the Inca preferred an aesthetic
that was formally simple, decoratively sparse, and functional.
Because the Inca were the Native Americans that the
Spanish conquered, their culture is the Central Andean
Area civilization of which most is known; however, as
happened with the treasures of their Mesoamerican contemporaries,
the Aztecs, many Inca artifacts were destroyed by the
Spanish, out of greed for gold and silver or out of
Christian militancy.
Highland Inca cities such as Machu Picchu were carefully
planned to harmonize with the landscape, both through
the use of indigenous materials and through the architectural
repetition of surrounding natural forms. Structurally
among the most accomplished in the pre-Columbian period,
Inca buildings were constructed with carefully shaped,
precisely fitted stone masonry that was left undecorated.
Trapezoidal doors and windows were characteristic.
The Inca produced neither large-scale freestanding statues
nor architectural sculpture. Metal figurines and small
stone ceremonial bowls in the shape of llamas and alpacas
are among the finest examples of their sculpture.
Inca pottery, like that of the Chimu, was mass-produced,
but it was less distinguished. The most characteristic
shape was that of the aryballos, a polychromed container
for carrying liquids. In both textiles and metalwork,
the Inca continued the Central Andean tradition of high-quality
design and execution.
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