<< Our Photo Pages >> Vichama - Ancient Village or Settlement in Peru
Submitted by davidmorgan on Saturday, 21 September 2019 Page Views: 3410
Multi-periodSite Name: VichamaCountry: Peru
NOTE: This site is 8.228 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Vegueta
Latitude: 11.0255S Longitude: 77.633388W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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bat400 visited on 31st Aug 2018 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 4 Vichama differs from Caral and Banduria by the pictorial reliefs that have been found on several walls of elite residencies and ceremonial sites. The largest of these are easily seen at the primary site which included both a a large circular courtyard with ceremonial building over looking it. There are two walls depicting figures. Many of these appear to be starving figures, while others may be either be in the midst of some sort of exclamation or dance. The starving figures point to sunken abdomens or skeletal remains, but ts difficult to be certain if the other figures depict mournful grief or happy rejoicing.
In 2018 another, smaller wall of even more abstract figures, including snakes and faces was found. This wall has not been stabilized and was covered when we visited.
A large principal stepped pyramid is at the northern portion of the site. It, like other large public buildings here, is built from adobe and stone and uses "shicras" for fill. These were woven bags or baskets containing many rough relatively small stones. This construction method was common to multiple sites in this culture and it is believed this method made the stepped pyramids resilient to the earthquakes common on the west coast of South America. As Vichama is still under active excavation, these shicras are easy to see.
Vichama is notable for mud clay reliefs sculpted into the platforms of the principal pyramid and other public ceremonial buildings. Such building decorations are not known from other Caral-Supe sites, but are used in much later cultures (Chimu, Moche) in western Peru.
The site is rapidly being brought to the same level of access and modern facilities seen at Caral.
More information at the Peru Ministry of Culture website (in Spanish).
Note: More figurative mural sculptures revealed. Rare reliefs depict life and death at 3800 year old Peruvean site.
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