Huaca Prieta

File:View from top of Huaca Cao Viejo.jpg

Panoramic view of Huaca Prieta

Huaca Prieta is the site of a prehistoric settlement beside the Pacific ocean in the Chicama valley, just north of Trujillo, La Libertad Province, Peru. It is a part of the El Brujo Archaeological Complex, which also includes Moche (culture) sites.

Huaca Prieta was occupied as early as 4700 BC, before the ceramics were introduced. It consisted of a huge mound of ash, stones, textiles, plants and shells, with some burials and constructions.

Excavations

File:Cloth fragment, cotton and bast, c. 2500 BC - Huaca Prieta - DSC06148.JPG

Cotton cloth fragment from Huaca Prieta, 2500 BC - American Museum of Natural History, New York

It was first excavated by Junius B. Bird in 1946–1947 who excavated three large test pits in or beside it. The remains, now at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, include many examples of complex textiles made with twining techniques which incorporated intricate designs of mythological humans, condors, snakes and crabs. The many stone artifacts were not fancy—fish net weights, flakes and simple pebble tools; there were no projectile points. In the upper part of the mound there were many underground structures of unknown function, some with burials. They were made of cobblestones cemented with an ash-water mixture. The inhabitants fished, gathered shellfish, and grew fruit, gourds, squash, peppers, beans, tubers and, importantly, cotton.

There is a low mound 70–170 m to the north (now called Monticulo Cupisnique) where Bird excavated three test pits. He found many ruins and much refuse, including ceramics of the Guañape, Early Cupisnique and Cupisnique cultures. The last is linked to the highland Chavín culture. A large tsunami damaged both mounds leaving a thick layer of cobblestones just north of the preceramic mound, at about 850 BCE, between the two Cupisnique phases.

Early maize found

Until recently, it was beilieved that maize was introduced to the region rather late, after the tsunami.

In 2012, it was reported that corncobs found at two ancient sites in Peru (Paredones and Huaca Prieta) may date from as early as 4700 B.C. This suggests that people living along the coast of northern Peru were already eating corn by that time.

These results were reported by Dolores Piperno, and other scientists from Washington's National Museum of Natural History This is the earliest maize discovered so far in South America.

See also

• Andean preceramic
• Norte Chico civilization
• Las Vegas culture (archaeology)

External links

• K. Kris Hirst, Huaca Prieta (Peru): Formative Mound Construction in Peru archaeology.about.com