Getting High in Peru and in sync with Thor Heyerdahl?

Posted 11/11/13 but went to Tecume 10/11/13

A Sican, non-elite home

Signage at the site

The final stage of the Sican culture took place in Tecume:  Even the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl (Kon-Kiki)  became interested in the stories surrounding Tecume leading to the discovery of 26 pyramids around the area, all predating the arrival of the Spanish and all in a 540-acre area. Some readers may still remember his 1947 trip on a raft leaving from the Pacific coast of Peru heading west in his belief that the pre-Inca peoples also could have sailed west to settle Polynesia.  His interest led to the building of a museum at Tecume. 

Cerro La Roya

 

The mountain Cerro la Roya and area around it was where the Sican built their final capital after leaving the Huaca Las Ventanas area around AD 1050. Here the Sican would be followed by the Chimu. The mountain against which some Huacas were constructed was called Cerro la Roya (Stingray Hill) until the Spanish arrived who changed the name to Purgatory Hill.  The story is that in their attempt to convert the residents to Christianity, they would take the unconvinced, dress them up as demons, take them to the top and throw them off to their deaths and into Purgatory. Today, you can climb Purgatory Hill and see the numerous remains of Huacas, including Huaca Las Ventanas where we were the day before (October 10). 

 Multiple views of the model in the museum
Note the Huacas built on slope of the mountain

 

At least 40 tombs of the Sican and their successors, the Chimu, followed by the Inca have been excavated so far, but no rich tombs as at Huaca Las Ventanas and Huaca El Oro, the first home for the Sican. The grave goods in the tombs included ceramics. It appears from the ceramics and other artifacts that representations of the Sican god were now few and far between. This may be understandable since at their previous home (Huacas Las Ventanas, de Oro, etc.) they suffered at least 30 years of drought and they blamed their lords and gods, burned the Huacas, and moved to Tecume.  There aren’t too many ceramics or other artifacts on display in the Tecume museum, but what they did have in the cases had animals and only a few with human “mugs” on them. In examining my photos, I was unable to find signs of their gods but only back to nature mugs. 

 

 

Examples of their ceramics

Below, views of the Huacas at Tecume and the surrounding area.

Here, a condor flew overhead

The Huacas continued to grow and expand during the Sican 250-year period before taken over by the Chimu around 1375, and you can see several of the 26 Huacas from the top of Cerro La Roya. They continued to be centers of worship, with the absence of the lords of Sican; however, future excavation could bring the lords to light again. Time will tell.

 

Paz y Shalom, Neal Bierling