Early Ritual and Public Hearths in the Casma Valley, Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Illuminated Communities: The Role of the Hearth at the Beginning of Andean Civilization" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Around 1500 BC, the complex society of the Sechin Alto polity of the Casma Valley, Peru produced a wide variety of architectural forms ranging from large platform mounds to small single room dwellings. Hearths used for public or ritual purposes are frequently associated with some of these architectural forms. These hearths range from ventilated hearths set within small roofed buildings that could hold very few people, to open-air hearths set within large open plazas that served as the foci of public activities for hundreds of people. Clearly, these special hearths played an important role in a variety of social settings that reflect the complex nature of the society that built and used these features.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Illuminated Communities: The Role of the Hearth at the Beginning of Andean Civilization   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23041