Assessing Chronology, Spatial Setting, and Architectural Planning at Pampa de Llamas-Moxeke, Casma Valley

Summary

The archaeological site of Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke in the Casma Valley, Peru is an architectural complex comprising two opposing large platform mounds united by a sequence of aligned rectangular platforms and structures. The site was studied mainly in the 20th Century by various investigators; the most recent of whom carried out intensive excavations in the 1980s aiming to produce exact dates and explain the function of the settlement. This previous work suggested that the complex dates to the Early Formative Period, implying contemporaneity with local sites including Las Haldas, Sechín Bajo, Cerro Sechín, and Sechín Alto. However, the occupational history of Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke is considerably more complex than what was originally proposed. New data contribute to explanations of the construction sequence, settlement planning, use of the natural setting, and the reasoning for the selection of the complex’s physical placement, particularly in political and economic terms. As such, construction of Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke began in the end of the Late Archaic and was subject to modifications according to the social transformations occurring with the introduction of ceramics and the Chavín phenomenon. In turn, its ruling class would have dominated the socio-political scene in the middle Casma Valley.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21385