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Unlike those in Mesoamerica, the earliest major ruins in the Central Andean Area
date from before the discovery of pottery.
Pre-Ceramic Period In the Chicama Valley of the northern
Peruvian coast at Huaca Prieta, monumental ceremonial mounds were built about
2500BC. Highly skilled cotton weaving has been found at this site as well as
gourds carved with stylized geometric motifs. Another Pre-Ceramic site on the
northern coast is Las Haldas, where perhaps the first true pyramids and platform
temples in the Americas were constructed of earth about 1800BC. El Paraido, or
Chuquintanta, on the central Peruvian coast, is the region's largest excavated
Pre-Ceramic site. Various residential complexes of clay and stone were built by
piling rooms and terraces onto one another, as in the Pueblo towns in the
southwestern United States. Another important Pre-Ceramic site is Kotosh in the
northern highlands of Peru. At Kotosh, terraced temples were made of fieldstone
set in earth and decorated with clay reliefs of crossed hands.
Pre-Classic Period Two important cultures developed in
Peru in the Pre-Classic period, Chavín de Huántar and Paracas.
Chavín
Between about 1200 and 200BC, in the northern Peruvian highland ceremonial
center of Chavín de Huántar, a civilization flourished that in many ways
paralleled the contemporary Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica. Both were major
early civilizations in their archaeological areas, and both used feline images
in their sacred iconography. It appears that Chavín artistic influence was
spread not by military but by religious and intellectual efforts. From Ecuador
to southern coastal Peru, evidence remains of Chavín artistic and iconographic
influence.
Chavín de Huántar is composed of a series of platforms and
temples with corbel vaults in some of the corridors. The finest stone sculpture
in the Central Andean Area is found at Chavín de Huántar or at Chavín-related
sites such as Cerro Blanco and Cerro Sechin. Unlike the Olmec and other
Mesoamericans, however, the Chavín and later Peruvian civilizations created
very little freestanding stone sculpture or even clay figurines. Chavín
shallow-relief carving achieved its expressive height in the stylized
rectilinear design of the stela called the Raimondi Stone.
Probably originating in northern Peru, the stirrup-spout vessel—a
closed pot having a hollow U-shaped handle surmounted by a tubular spout—was
the most characteristic Chavín ceramic shape. Resembling Olmec ceramics, fine
Chavín pottery was produced at outposts rather than at the principal ceremonial
center. In northern Peruvian coastal valleys at Cupisnique, Chongoyape, and
Tembladera, highly accomplished effigy pots were made with abstract and
realistic designs.
Metalworking developed and the Chavín excelled at making
hammered gold, or repoussé, body ornaments. Characteristic of the metalwork of
the Chavín are cutout decorative plaques that were attached to garments, and
high cylindrical crowns with mythological reliefs, which were worn by the
Chavín nobility.
Paracas
Another civilization developed from about 1100 to 200BC at Paracas on the
southern Peruvian coast. Because of the area's extreme aridity, Paracas textiles
have been perfectly preserved. Buried in desert tombs, mummies were bundled with
layers of cloth that was woven or painted with complex designs or elaborately
embroidered. Effigy pots were also found in the Paracas necropolis. Many of
these show distinct Chavín influence, especially in the use of feline-cult
iconography.
Peruvian southern coastal art has always been more influenced by
schematized textile designs, rather than by the clay and metal sculpture that
promoted the realism of northern Peruvian art. The decoration of Paracas
ceramics, therefore, was highly stylized, frequently incised, and brightly
polychromed. The vessels themselves were often double spouted and round
bottomed, rather than stirrup spouted and flat based like northern coastal pots.
Classic Period
Dominating the Classic period were the
Moche and Nazca cultures and the later Tiahuanacu and related Huari cultures.
Moche
Between about 200BC and AD700 a militaristic society flourished on the northern
Peruvian coast. Formerly named after its language, Mochica, this civilization is
now referred to by the name of its major ceremonial administrative site, Moche.
Centered on two large terraced platform pyramids of sun-baked
brick, Moche is one of Peru's most monumental sites. Although a warrior society,
the Moche displayed none of the spartan taste or disdain for luxury that
characterized the Mesoamerican Toltec. Moche tombs were filled with some of the
most proficient pottery and metalwork of the Central Andean Area.
Moche ceramics, the best known of ancient Peruvian artifacts,
are among the finest pre-Columbian accomplishments of sculptural realism and
narrative drawing. So-called portrait-head effigy pots are especially notable
for realistically depicting human features and portraying emotion. On other
Moche pottery the curved vessel walls are decorated with dynamic scenes drawn
with delicate stylized lines and showing this people's religious and military
life. The Moche also produced more erotic pottery than any other pre-Columbian
civilization. These artifacts are now interpreted as having ceremonial rather
than pornographic meaning.
Moche metalwork was more ornate and technologically advanced
than that of earlier civilizations. Body ornaments of gold, silver, copper, and
alloys were frequently inlaid with turquoise and lapis lazuli. Geometric
patterns and mythological motifs, especially the feline deity, were used.
Nazca
The Nazca of Peru's southern coastal region were
roughly contemporary with the Moche. Like their Paracas predecessors, the Nazca
produced little architecture and excelled at making textiles and pottery with
colorful stylized designs that contrast sharply to the realism and restrained
color of northern Peruvian ceramics. Nazca pottery is as exuberantly polychromed
as it is boldly designed and drawn. Paracas incising was no longer used, and
color was applied before (instead of after) firing. Although both the Moche and
the Nazca made pots that combined modeled elements and drawings, the Moche
preferred sculptural pottery, and the Nazca, painted.
Among the most enigmatic of all pre-Columbian remains are the
Nazca lines. These are drawings in the earth of geometric shapes, animals,
birds, and fish that can be fully recognized only from the air. Certainly
ceremonial in use, the images recall those painted on Nazca pottery. They were
made by removing dark upper-surface stones to reveal a lighter substratum.
Tiahuanacu
Tiahuanacu is a Bolivian site in the southern Central Andean highlands near Lake
Titicaca. Although Tiahuanacu was settled as early as about 200BC, it was
between about AD200 and 600 that this urban complex became the center of another
major Classic period civilization.
In Tiahuanacu art and architecture the emphasis is on austerity,
control, and permanence. Decorative motifs and religious imagery are rigidly
stylized. Both buildings and sculpture are characterized by a monumental effect
and monolithic appearance. The Gateway of the Sun at Tiahuanacu is cut from a
single stone and ornamented with finely executed relief decoration; only 3.7 m
(12 ft) high, it appears more monumental because of its design. Scattered
throughout the Tiahuanacu area are pillarlike monolithic statues that reach
heights of more than 6 m (more than 20 ft) and are decorated with low-relief
detailing. The Tiahuanacu culture was one of the few in the Central Andean Area
committed to an extensive use of stone for architecture, sculpture, and
ceremonial objects.
Huari
The Huari (Wari) shared a religion and
iconography with the Tiahuanacu, but were socioeconomically separate. Between
about 750 and 1000 the Huari Empire put an end to Peruvian regionalism, thereby
preparing for the cultural unification of the Inca period.
Like the Moche, the Huari were a warrior society that
appreciated fine artistry and design. Coastal Huari cultures (formerly referred
to as Coastal Tiahuanacu) produced textiles of the highest quality. Many of the
patterns, especially for ponchos, were abstractions of motifs painted on
Tiahuanacu pottery. Although less refined than Tiahuanacu ceramics, Huari
pottery stressed solid construction, bold design, and a rich use of polychromy.
Post-Classic Period The Inca were preeminent during the
Post-Classic period, rivaled only by the Chimu.
Chimu
Northern Peru was dominated by the Chimu from
about 1000 until 1470. Their imperial capital of Chan Chan was constructed of
large walled adobe compounds reflecting those of earlier Huari settlements. The
largest Andean urban site and a true city, Chan Chan consists of ten major
quadrangles, each containing small pyramids, residences, markets, workshops,
reservoirs, storehouses, gardens, and cemeteries. The buildings are decorated
with geometrically patterned mosaics of adobe bricks or bas-reliefs, molded in
clay plaster, of stylized animals, birds, and mythological figures.
Although Chan Chan was not fortified, the Chimu defended their
empire by building fortresses on the frontiers. Paramonga, which defended the
southern border, is considered a masterpiece of military engineering, as is the
fortress of Saccasihuamán above Cusco.
Chimu pottery was primarily mass-produced through the use of
molds. Its characteristic black color was achieved through almost smothering the
flame, drastically reducing the oxygen in the kiln, during firing. Decoration
was usually molded relief, and the surface was polished after firing to give the
pot a silverlike sheen.
Metalworkers also mass-produced objects by using molds. Compared
with Chimu pottery, however, the metalwork is more distinctive in design and
individual in artistic execution.
Textiles were made with the same quality and quantity as other
Chimu arts. The featherwork was especially outstanding, and their feathered
ponchos were among the most luxurious garments made in the Post-Classic period.
Inca
The Inca, who called themselves Tawantinsuyu, ruled from Cusco an empire
extending between Ecuador and Chile. A highland warrior people, the Inca
preferred an aesthetic that was formally simple, decoratively sparse, and
functional. Because the Inca were the Native Americans that the Spanish
conquered, their culture is the Central Andean Area civilization of which most
is known; however, as happened with the treasures of their Mesoamerican
contemporaries, the Aztecs, many Inca artifacts were destroyed by the Spanish,
out of greed for gold and silver or out of Christian militancy.
Highland Inca cities such as Machu Picchu were carefully planned
to harmonize with the landscape, both through the use of indigenous materials
and through the architectural repetition of surrounding natural forms.
Structurally among the most accomplished in the pre-Columbian period, Inca
buildings were constructed with carefully shaped, precisely fitted stone masonry
that was left undecorated. Trapezoidal doors and windows were characteristic.
The Inca produced neither large-scale freestanding statues nor
architectural sculpture. Metal figurines and small stone ceremonial bowls in the
shape of llamas and alpacas are among the finest examples of their sculpture.
Inca pottery, like that of the Chimu, was mass-produced, but it
was less distinguished. The most characteristic shape was that of the aryballos,
a polychromed container for carrying liquids. In both textiles and metalwork,
the Inca continued the Central Andean tradition of high-quality design and
execution.
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