Chan Chan

The original meaning and the language of origin of the place name Chan Chan remain unresolved issues among specialists. Among others, scholars such as Ernst Middendorf, Jorge Zevallos Quiñones, Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino and Matthias Urban have dealt with the question. The puzzle is made difficult by the erratic nature of its written record in colonial documents and by the linguistic situation of the pre-Hispanic North Peruvian coast. As is known, the Trujillo region presented the Mochica, Quingnam, Culli and Quechua languages, among others, of which only Mochica and Quechua are sufficiently documented. Currently, there are two linguists (Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino and Matthias Urban) who have done an etymological analysis, one more than the other, but both rule out a Mochica origin. Etymological analysis by Matthias Urban Regarding the variation in its written record, the toponym appears for the first time in documentation written as 'Cauchan' in the foundation act of the Trujillo town council of 1536. It has also been proposed that the name 'Canda' offered by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo to refer to Trujillo is another written variant of the modern Chan Chan. The form 'Chanchan' only appears in documentation in a stable manner from the mid-17th century onwards. According to the review of antecedents offered by Urban, there have been three previous etymological proposals for the toponym, two of which can be considered completely fanciful and unmotivated. The etymologies of H. Bauman as 'city of snakes', who unmotivatedly appeals to Mesoamerican languages, and that of J. Kimmich as 'city of the moon', who unmotivatedly appeals to a Cariban word for 'moon', deserve the latter qualification. The third etymological hypothesis was postulated by German scholar Ernst Middendorf, who offers the Mochica noun xllang 'sun' as etym and finds in the toponym a reduplication of that root. Without being convinced by any of these previous proposals, Urban is inclined to the tentative attribution of the toponym to the extinct Quingnam language already proposed by Zevallos Quiñones in the XXth century. According to these authors, although it is not possible to offer an etym nor a primary meaning for the place name, the quingnam attribution is justified by the fact that this was the language of the kingdom of Chimor and by the similarity in its apparent structure with other regional toponyms and anthroponyms also apparently constituted by the reduplication of two monosyllabic roots. Urban concludes that Etymological analysis by Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino More recently, linguist PhD Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino a Quechumaran etymology for the toponym. According to his hypothesis, both the form 'Chanchan' and the variants 'Cauchan' and 'Canda' may well be explained by a Quechua etym *kanĉa 'corral, fence, fenced place' and the Quechumaran toponymic morpheme *-n (of probable Aymara etymology). Thus, the current pronunciation would be the product of an "orthographic trap", since originally the would have been used to represent the sound of a voiceless velar stop [k] at the beginning of the word. Originally, the toponym would have been *kanĉa-n(i) '(place) where fences/ corrals abound', whose Quechualization results in phonetic /kantʃáŋ/ in . According to this proposal, the toponym would be neither Mochica nor Quingnam, nor would it be so ancient in time. However, Urban has rejected Cerrón-Palomino's hypothesis as implausible and ratified his previous conclusions. In response to this, Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino dismisses Urban's observations and reaffirms his proposed etymology, which he finds sufficiently explicit and rigorous, concluding that it is definitely Quechumaran. File:Chanchan-reconstruccion-fonetica.jpg|Reconstruction of the phonetics of Chanchán in /kantʃáŋ/, based on the etymology of Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino. File:Comparativa-chanchan.jpg|The toponym Chanchán is shown related to other toponyms with the same Quechumaran root. == History ==

Chan Chan is believed to have been constructed around 850 AD by the Chimú. It was the Chimor empire capital city with an estimated population of 40,000–60,000 people. and placed it on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The World Heritage Committee's initial recommendations included taking the appropriate measures for conservation, restoration, and management; halting any excavation that did not have accompanying conservation measures; and mitigation of plundering. A Pan-American Course on the Conservation and Management of Earthen Architectural and Archaeological Heritage was funded by many institutes coming together, including ICCROM, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Government of Peru. Chan Chan has been on the List of World Heritage in Danger since 1986. Since 2000 they have implemented safety measures that include documentation of everything, public management, and an emergency and disaster plan. Conservation plan In 1998, The "Master Plan for Conservation and Management of the Chan Chan Archeological Complex" was drawn up by the Freedom National Culture Institute of Peru with contributions from the World Heritage Foundation – WHR, ICCROM, and GCI. The plan was approved by the Peruvian Government. Methods of conservation include reinforcement and stabilization of structures of main buildings and around the Tschudi Palace, using a blend of traditional and modern engineering techniques. Chan Chan currently has 46 points of critical damage, though the site's total damage far exceeds these points. The regional government of La Libertad is funding conservation efforts at these points. == Archeological site ==

The archaeological site covers an area of approximately , being considered the largest adobe city in the Americas and the second in the world. The walled compounds (palaces) that make up the metropolis are those in the following table. Recently, archaeologist have given Mochica names to such compounds, despite Chimor having spoken other language than Mochica. This has been criticized as a denial of local history. Walled compound Tschudi The walled complex "Tschudi" is the greatest in illustration of the importance of water, particularly of the sea, and of the cult that surrounded it in the Chimu culture. The high reliefs of the walls represent fish, directed towards the north and the south (what can be interpreted as representation of the two currents that mark the Peruvian coast: that of Humboldt, cold, that comes from the south and the one of El Niño, hot, that comes from the north), waves, rombito (fishing nets), as well as pelicans and anzumitos (mixture of sea lion and otter). This coastal society was governed by the powerful Chimucapac and was united by the force of a social control originated in the necessity of a strict management of the water, as well as by the external threats. The "Tschudi" complex had a single entrance and high walls up to twelve meters for a better defense, and was wider at its bases (five meters) than at its summits (one meter), in anticipation of possible earthquakes on the seismic coast. == Buildings ==

Chan Chan has many different types of buildings many of which have been destroyed. The buildings included temples, houses, reservoirs and even funeral platforms, often decorated with ocean-like designs such as fish, birds, waves and more. The Chimú built buildings mostly in a rectangular or square shape through tight spaces. The city also consisted of 10 citadels, of which only 4 have been recovered. This means the city of Chan Chan had 10 rulers, the Chimú were very adamant on the "Great Lord on top". The culture lived in a classist society where the rulers and gods were on top then it went all the way down to servants. A citadels complex is usually 40 feet tall and built with only one entrance. It was a palace type place with beautiful decorations and was built for a "god or ruler". == Workers and people ==

Chan Chan held many different types of workers and people. They lived in a classist society where rulers and gods came first and servants last. The city consisted of nobles, farmers, fishers, trader, servants, and many more. They had many craftsmen in the city who designed beautiful fabrics, pots, and ceramics. The Chimú civilians had a belief that the sun created three eggs, gold for the ruler and the elite, silver was for the wives of the rulers and copper was for anyone else not in those two categories. The elite lived in the citadels. The rest of the civilians lived in small homes that doubled as their workshops. Although they were an agriculture city, the Chimú people did excellent jobs on their pottery and textiles and is what they are most famous for. They designed many beautiful pieces of artwork, some of which are still around today. == Religion and culture ==

The Chimu have 10 citadels, but the Tschudi is the only one that tourists are allowed into. It is believed that Tschudi was built in honor of the Chimú God of the sea whose name in quingnam is unknown. This is believed because of the many ocean-related figures in the building. There was a pond in the middle of the building that was used for religious ceremonies, fertility, and even worshipping water. Something that the Chimu civilians worship very much is the ocean, they are directly next to the Pacific Ocean and get most of their food through it. They also relied very much on their irrigation system, so they believe that worshipping gods related to the ocean is important. == Architecture ==

The city has ten walled ciudadelas which housed ceremonial rooms, burial chambers, temples, reservoirs and residences for the Chimú kings. small, irregular agglutinated rooms (SIARs) and mounds called huacas. There are no enclosures opening north because the north-facing walls have the greatest sun exposure, serving to block wind and absorb sunlight where fog is frequent. To increase the farmland surrounding the city, a vast network of canals diverting water from the Moche river were created. Once these canals were in place, the city had the potential to grow substantially. Many canals to the north were destroyed by a catastrophic flood around 1100 CE, which was the key motivation for the Chimú to refocus their economy to one rooted in foreign resources rather than in subsistence farming. In particular, the city is severely threatened by storms from El Niño, which causes increased precipitation and flooding on the Peruvian coast. Chan Chan is threatened by vandalism. In May 2025, a vandal defaced it with spray paint. ==Recent archaeological conservation surveys==

The archaeological site at Chan Chan is under constant and severe threat of ruin from weathering. Several archaeologists, conservationists, and an array of institutions are working to survey the architecture existing there. Different methods of survey can be utilized but any methodology must be both quick enough to maximize access to extant physical material and accurate enough to document the site effectively. In order to meet these requirements, unmanned aerial vehicles are being utilized. The current state of UAV technology is such that craft consisting of relatively small components combined with lightweight imaging technology can be employed. The possible imaging products include Digital Elevation Models, ortho-photos, and 3 Dimensional Virtual Models. The work intended to build a 3D Heritage Building Information Model (HBIM) of the Huaca Arco Iris, the largest adobe monumental complex in South America. The huaca is placed chronologically alongside the first structures built at Chan Chan. The time frame of the site's construction was towards the end of the Middle Horizon in the Central Andes. The primary function of the huaca is believed to have been a ceremonial funerary platform. In 1963, the Patrona de Arqueologia of Trujillo carried out a project to restore much of the walls at the site. This initiative refrained from adding any new artistic designs. This work contributes to the Plan Maestro de conservación y manejo del Complejo Arqueologico Chan Chan, a UNESCO required architectural conservation plan created by the Instituto Nacional de Cultura of Peru. Creating 3D models of the Huaca Arco Iris is one major initiative of the Italian Mission in Peru. The baseline methodology for the work was the data-information-knowledge system. The data acquisitional survey was initially conducted using spherical photogrammetry. An inspection of the huaca was carried out in 2018 by the Italian Mission. They uncovered additional brick layers on the outside of the south-eastern wall. A Sony Alpha 77 camera was utilized to capture 43 images. With the help of Metashape software, the team created a 3D textured mesh model of the wall. Combined with 3D meshes of the famous bas-reliefs of the other adobe and brick walls, this model was placed into Rhinoceros software to make 3D models of the wall's architectural components. Colosi et al. reached several conclusions in their work. One conclusion is that consistent monitoring of the huaca and Chan Chan as a whole is necessary for limiting anthropogenic damage. The primary conclusion is that ontology-based Heritage Building Information Models are necessary for the longevity of the physical structures and the collective memory of Chan Chan. Clay and straw mud architecture is believed to be the oldest building method on earth. It is extremely versatile, especially considering any size bricks can be created and used to build any size structure. 180 UNESCO World Heritage are constructed to some degree from mud. An international conference for the theme of adobe architecture took place in Iran in 1972. In 1994, the Getty Center established a course on mud architecture and its conservation at the Museo de Sitio at Chan Chan. ==See also==