From Mountain Worship to Guarding the Sacred Lakes: Surveys of Cerro Canoncillo, Cerro Prieto Espinal, and Cerro Santonte

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Bridging Time, Space, and Species: Over 20 Years of Archaeological Insights from the Cañoncillo Complex, Jequetepeque Valley, Peru, Part 2" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

At the heart of the community, Cerro Cañoncillo and its lakes formed enduring sacred spaces across the landscape. In this paper, we explore in greater depth how the ceremonial centers of the region interrelated spatially and symbolically with neighboring mountains and lakes that were likely venerated as wak’as. Combining survey data and visibility analyses, we argue that Cañoncillo secured a unique and privileged place in the sacred landscape of the valley, but one that became increasingly secured and isolated away by the Late Intermediate period (1000–1470 CE) with the replacement of Huaca Colorada-Tecapa by Huaca Dos Cruces. Although Jequetepeque was predominately a landscape of fortified mountainsides during the Middle Horizon-Late Intermediate period (650–1472 CE), Cerro Cañoncillo lacked these features. Meanwhile, the heavily defended mountains of Cerro Prieto Espinal and Santonte guarded both this mountain and the lakeside oasis which lies between them. Cerro Prieto Espinal (~500–1500s CE) shows a pattern of mountainside worship that cleaved close to the mountain exclusively with north- and west-facing platforms and walls facing Talambo and Cajamarca. At Santonte, a south wall dating to the LIP highlighted an isolated south-north route from the now abandoned Huaca Colorada-Tecapa to the Cañoncillo lakes flanked by the three mountains.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Bridging Time, Space, and Species: Over 20 Years of Archaeological Insights from the Cañoncillo Complex, Jequetepeque Valley, Peru, Part 2   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38490.0