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LEfT Project Director Peter Eeckhout (right), conservator Aline Huybrechts (centre) and a worker extract a jar from the floor in building B4. Only the necks of these vases intended to contain liquid were flush with the surface: the vases were buried deliberately to ensure better preservation of the contents. This structure was originally intended to accommodate pilgrims, but during the Early Colonial Period visitors of another form arrived. This horseshoe (BELoW) belongs to that period, and at the time of the Spanish conquest, the place seems to have served as a stable.
offerings found there. Nowadays, such stones are used by traditional healers. Naturally, there may be other explanations for these objects, but it seems plausible that the occupants of B15 counted one or more healers among their number. This would be in keeping with Pachacamac acting as a kind of pre-Hispanic Lourdes, and flourishing as a popular pilgrimage site under Incan rule, primarily because of a god who cured diseases. Bringing together all of the archaeological evidence suggests that the building was primarily dedicated to ritual activity, which could involve communicating with venerated ancestors, praying for water and fertility, and even hoping to be cured of serious diseases.
Abandonment of the complex during the Early Colonial Period (AD 1533-1572) was marked with a ceremony that involved scattering offerings through the rooms
66).
and seeds; black stones from the highlands, some chosen because of their distinctive shapes; whole or worked shells from the equatorial region;
and seeds; black stones from the highlands, some chosen because of their distinctive shapes; whole or worked shells from the equatorial region;
worked shells from the equatorial region;
and corridors (see CWA 66). These objects had been gathered from throughout the Andes: Amazonian parrot-feather ornaments and seeds; black stones from the highlands, some chosen because of their distinctive shapes; whole or worked shells from the equatorial region; cups inlaid with mother-of-pearl and spondylus in the style of Peru’s north coast, metals, and ceramics featuring Inca ornamentation. This remarkably rich assemblage highlights just how far pilgrims were travelling to Pachacamac during the Inca occupation. With the exception of the stones, all of the objects were deliberately destroyed, and their torn fragments scattered through the rooms and corridors. Afterwards, they were covered with rubble. It is possible that this reflects the size of the crowd attending the ceremony, with all of the people symbolically participating by leaving a stone, in line with a custom that is still very common in the Andes.
It seems that we are touching here on very deep concepts related to the unique beliefs of these ancient populations. The behaviour we are seeing would fit with a sense that objects can intervene at different levels, such as in the human world, as well as the realms of the gods, the dead, the spirits, and so on. By this reading, the objects become animated during the manufacturing process and are only de-animated when they are destroyed or dismantled. This is, of course, particularly valid – but not unique – to artefacts adorned with magical imagery and/or made with special materials, like most of the B15 finds.
It seems certain that these rituals played out at around the time of the Spanish invasion, as imported glass beads were
LEfT Building B3, which may well have been a minor sanctuary, yielded numerous examples of foundation offerings, including this dog burial being carefully investigated by Archaeology PhD student Céline Erauw (ULB-FNRS).
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