Sican (Other Keyword)
1-3 (3 Records)
Simple cotton cloths primed as canvases and painted with complex imagery are the rarest group of fiber arts found in the Andes. Long-term excavations of Middle Sicán (900-1100 CE) elite cemeteries at the site of Sicán on the North Coast of Peru, however, have shown that high quantities of these paintings, often in polychrome and over 10m in length, decorated the interior surfaces of elite tombs. In this paper we present evidence for their manufacture and use, as well as approaches to preserving...
A compositional signature of multi-craft production?: Food vessels from Great Plaza of Huacas de Sican (2016)
This paper discusses the results of a recent compositional analysis by INAA of 225 samples of ceramics sherds excavated from the Great Plaza of Huacas de Sicán. The analysis revealed a limited number (3) of compositional groups and a high rate of arsenic and uranium in one group. The author argues that the high rate of arsenic indicates the side-by-side production of arsenical copper and ceramic vessels and that the vessels used at the Great Plaza were produced at the regional ceramic workshop...
The Sican Capital: Neighborhoods and Urban Organization in Pre-Columbian Peru (2018)
Cities which become capitals of large states provide unique information on the sociopolitical political organization and the nature of power, as they are home to a society’s leaders and central institutions. In the Andes, scholars have highlighted the existence of cities dominated by a centralized single governing institution, like the Moche capital of Pampa Grande; while others have drawn attention to the empty ceremonial centers, such as Cahuachi, main settlement of the Nazca society. A...