Chimor

Early Chimú (Moche civilization) The oldest civilization present on the north coast of Peru is the Moche or Mochica civilization, which is identified as Early Chimú. The start of this period is not known for certain, but it ended around 700. It was centered in the Chicama, Moche, and Viru Valleys. "Many large pyramids are attributed to the Early Chimú period." (37) These pyramids are built of adobe in rectangular shapes made from molds. "Early Chimú cemeteries are also found without pyramid associations. Burials are usually in extended positions in prepared tombs. The rectangular, adobe-lined and covered tombs have niches in their walls in which bowls were placed". (39) The estimated founding date of the last Chimú kingdom is in the first half of the fourteenth century. Nacen-pinco was believed to have ruled around 1370 and was followed by seven rulers whose names are not yet known. Minchançaman followed these rulers, and was ruling around the time of the Inca conquest (between 1462 and 1470). but the development of the Chimú territory spanned a number of phases and more than a single generation. Nacen-pinco, "may have pushed the imperial frontiers to Jequetepeque and to Santa, but conquest of the entire region was an agglutinative process initiated by earlier rulers". (17) The Chimú expanded to include a vast area and many different ethnic groups. The first valleys seem to have joined forces willingly, but the Sican culture was assimilated through conquest. At its peak, the Chimú advanced to the limits of the desert coast to the valley of the Jequetepeque River in the north. Pampa Grande in the Lambayeque Valley was also ruled by the Chimú. To the south, they expanded as far as Carabayllo. Their expansion southward was stopped by the military power of the great valley of Lima. Historians and archeologists contest how far south they managed to expand. with a powerful elite rule over administrative centers. The hierarchy was centered at the walled cities, later called ciudadelas by the Spanish, at Chan Chan. Downfall The state governed such social classes until the empire of the Sican culture conquered the kingdom of Lambayeque, Peru. The legends of war were said to have been told by the leaders Naylamp in the Sican language and Taycanamo in Chimú. The people paid tribute to the rulers with products or labor. Chimor was the last Andean kingdom capable of stopping the Inca Empire, but the Inca conquest was begun in the 1470s by Topa Inca Yupanqui, who defeated the emperor Minchançaman, and was nearly complete when Huayna Capac assumed the throne in 1493. They moved Minchançaman, the final Chimú emperor, to Cusco and redirected gold and silver there to adorn the Qurikancha. The Chimu Empire was the largest polity conquered by the Inca. == Economy ==

(reed watercraft), 1100–1400 – Museum of the Americas (Madrid) Chan Chan could be said to have developed a bureaucracy due to the elite's controlled access to information. The economic and social system operated through the import of raw materials, where they were processed into prestige goods by artisans at Chan Chan. They engaged in fishing, agriculture, craft work, and trade. Artisans were forbidden to change their profession and were grouped in the ciudadela according to their area of specialisation. Archeologists have noted a dramatic increase in Chimú craft production, and they believe that artisans may have been brought to Chan Chan from another area taken as a result of Chimú conquest. There appears to have been a complex network of sites that provided goods and services for Chimú subsistence. Many of these sites produced commodities that the Chimú could not. Many sites relied on marine resources, but after the advent of agriculture, there were more sites further inland, where marine resources were harder to obtain. Keeping llamas arose as a supplemental way of obtaining meat, but by the Late Intermediate period and Late Horizon, inland sites used llamas as a main resource, although they maintained contact with coastal sites to use supplemental marine resources. They also made masks. Technology One of the earliest known examples of distance communication is a Chimú device consisting of two resin-coated gourds connected by a 75-foot length of twine. Only one example has been found, and nothing is known about its originator or use. == Split inheritance ==

The Chimu capital, Chan Chan, had a series of elite residential compounds or cuidadelas that were not occupied simultaneously but sequentially. The reason for this is that Chimu rulers practiced split inheritance, which dictated that the heir to the throne had to build his own palace. After the death of a ruler, all the ruler's wealth would be distributed to more distant relatives. == Visual arts ==

Shell The Chimú people highly valued mollusk shell for its economic and political significance as a luxury good traded over long distances, and the shell was often viewed as a symbol of elite status and divine power. Using shell as a medium for their art and artifacts, the Chimú frequently employed the shell of Spondylus a type of marine bivalve mollusk. The most abundant Spondylus species present in Peru are Spondylus calcifer Carpenter and Spondylus princeps Broderip, Spondylus calcifer has red and white hues, primarily used for beads and artifacts. Uses and symbolism Spondylus shell had a wide variety of uses in Andean culture and took a variety of forms, ranging from whole shells to fragments to ground shell powder. and the image below displays a sling shot made of shell. Representing wealth and power, the shell was ground into powder and spread out before the Chimor king by an official called the Fonga Sigde, forming a "red carpet" for the ruler as he walked. Shell were likewise used for ornamentation of certain buildings and architectural structures. Known as the "daughter of the sea," the Spondylus shell has also been linked to femininity, with the univalve embodying masculinity. Spondylus has specialized sensory organs, in particular, sensitive eyes and papillae, that Andean cultures associate with extra sensory protection. Sensitive to temperature changes in water and thriving in warmer waters, the shell was thought to have divinatory powers, and because its migratory patterns are related to El Niño conditions, its presence is seen as an omen for disaster. Sections of ciudadelas, large compounds often reserved for the kings and elite individuals, were used as storage areas for shell artifacts, and the architecture and ornamentation of these structures symbolize the treasures of the sea. Los Buceadores (the Divers), a relief in Chan Chan in Ciudadela Uhle, displays imagery of a pair of figures in a tule boat, one of whom holds a paddle, and another pair of shell divers beneath the boat and connected to ropes. The relief also features a net-like semicircle, as well as spiny figures that represent shells. While many archaeological sources point to the abundance of shell-working, as the remains of shell workshops and artifacts were uncovered widely in Peru, little evidence documents the movement of Spondylus from its source in Ecuador to workshops in Chan Chan. The shell was viewed as an exotic material, and the Chimor control of the exchange of the imported luxury good served as a means of political control, establishing and legitimizing the rule of the nobles. The marine bivalve was likely traded either through independent merchants or state-administered long-distance trade, with a north-south movement of the items. Some Chimú artisans worked in metal workshops divided into sections for each specialized treatment of metals: plating, gold, stamping, lost-wax, pearl, the watermark, and embossing wooden molds. These techniques produced large variety of objects, such as cups, knives, containers, figurines, bracelets, pins, and crowns. They used arsenic to harden the metals after they were cast. Large-scale smelting took place in a cluster of workshops at Cerro de los Cemetarios. Although copper is found naturally on the coast, it was mostly attained from the highlands in an area about 3 days away. Since most of the copper was imported, it is likely that most of the metal objects that were made were likely very small. The pieces, such as wires, needles, digging stick points, tweezers, and personal ornaments, are consistently small, utilitarian objects of copper or copper bronze. The Tumi is one well-known Chimú work. They also made beautiful ritual costumes of gold compounds with plume headdresses, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and breastplates. == Religion ==

Deities on his boat – Lombards Historical Society Museum In Pacasmayo, the Moon deity (Si or Shi) was the greatest divinity. It was believed to be more powerful than the Sun, as it appeared by night and day, and it also controlled the weather and growth of crops. Devotees sacrificed animals and birds to the Moon, as well as their own children on piles of colored cottons with offerings of fruit and chicha. They believed the sacrificed children would become deified and they were usually sacrificed around age five. The Chimú worshipped Mars (Nor) and Earth (Ghisa) deities, as well as the Sun (Jiang) and the Sea (Ni) deities. Jiang was associated with stones called alaec-pong (cacique stone), which were believed to be ancestors of the people in whose area they stood and sons of the Sun. Tombs in the Huaca of the Moon belonged to six or seven teenagers from 13–14 years of age. Nine tombs belonged to children. In 2011, archaeologists uncovered human and animal skeletons in the village of Huanchaco. After years of excavation, they identified more than 140 human (and more than 200 llama) skeletons from children between the ages of 6 and 15, all of whom had deep slashes across the sternum and broken rib cages indicating that their hearts may have been removed. According to National Geographic, if the analysis is correct, the discovery constitutes "the largest single mass child sacrifice event known in world history". The burial is dated at 1400–1450. Anthropologist Haagen Klaus speculates that Chimú might have turned to children when the sacrifice of adults was not enough to stop torrential rain and flooding caused by El Niño. In August 2019 the archaeological team working at this site revealed that the bodies of 227 victims, aged between four and 14, had been excavated, further establishing this as the largest-ever known example of child sacrifice. == Architecture ==

Differential architecture of palaces and monumental sites distinguished the rulers from the common people. At Chan Chan, there are ten large, walled enclosures called ciudadelas, or royal compounds, thought to be associated with the kings of Chimor. They are surrounded by adobe walls that are nine meters high, giving the ciudadela the appearance of a fortress. The bulk of the Chimú population (approximately 26,000 people) lived in barrios on the outer edge of the city. and there were often as many as 15 in one palace. Chan Chan shows a lack of a unifying plan or a discernible pattern. The urban core contains six principal classes of architecture: • U-shaped audiencias or courts • SIAR or small irregular agglutinated rooms, which probably served as the residences for the majority of the population == See also ==