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COTSEN INSTITUTE
OF ARCHAEOLOGY

Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

University of California, Los Angeles
405 Hilgard Avenue
backdirt
Box 951510 annual review of the cotsen institute of archaeology at ucla
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1510
2013
www.ioa.ucla.edu

cotsen institute of archaeology at u c l a

Celebrating 40 Years of Discovery
 Figure 1. Excavations in the main sunken court at Cerro del Gentil.
Figure 2. Lab specialists prepare and examine one of the several
Paracas mummies found in excavations.
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Excavations and Survey in
Chincha, Peru
Our work in the upper Chincha Valley, Peru, contin-
ued in 2013 with some truly spectacular finds from
our excavations in the main platform mound of
Cerro del Gentil (see Backdirt 2012). We excavated in
the center of a partially-looted sunken court on one
of the three platforms (Fig. 1). Our excavations soon
revealed the remains of plaster walls (seen in the
upper left side of the excavation in Fig. 1). We found
pieces of painted plaster indicating that the walls
were covered in designs of at least black and white.
These walls defined a squarish sunken court that is
over 1 meter deep and over 7 meters on a side.
What we have learned is that the platform
mound was built in stages beginning at least by
the middle or late Paracas, ca. 400–100 B.C.E. It
may be earlier: we will find out next season. As
the mound was rebuilt several times, the sunken
court was also rebuilt. On the floor of the court,
we found lavish offerings of textiles, mummies,
pottery, gourds, baskets, and wooden objects (Figs.
2–6). What we still do not know is if the offerings
were placed in an open court over many years and
then paved over to build a new one, or if the court
was kept clean for ceremony and then closed with a
 research in action

Figure 3. Examples of Paracas baskets left as offerings.

lavish offering just prior to building a new one. Our

work next year will help us resolve this question, as
we will be able to date the offerings in each of the
floor levels.
This is a very important discovery for Paracas
archaeology. There is an extensive literature on the
culture but we still do not know if there was a “core”
political center or if the artistic style was widespread
and shared over many valleys. Given the fact that
Chincha is the only valley with substantial Paracas
monumental architecture, our research hints at the
possibility that it was the Paracas political center,
at least in its later phases. Only more research will Figure 4. Detail of basket left as an offering.
answer these intriguing questions.
—Henry Tantaleán, Charles Stanish, and Benjamin
Nigra, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA.
—Michiel Zegarra and Kelita Pérez, Proyecto Chincha.

Figure 5. Engraved Paracas gourd left as an offering.

Figure 6. Pottery vessel left as an offering. All photos by John Cody.

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