Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T22:11:37.874Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Cerrillos, an Early Paracas Site in ICA, Peru*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Dwight T. Wallace*
Affiliation:
University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.

Abstract

Excavations at Site PV62-63 (Cerrillos) uncovered a refuse accumulation several meters deep with two major stratigraphic units, the earlier termed the Cerrillos phase, the later termed the Isla phase. Cerrillos ceramics are of a style new to the Ica sequence and the earliest known in the valley; they represent an early development in the Paracas style, but also share various specific traits with Chavinoid ceramic styles in other areas. Ceramics of the Isla phase represent a local development out of Cerrillos but with many of the Chavinoid traits lacking. The Isla ceramic style had been previously recognized as the earliest known Paracas phase, although no refuse excavations had been made. Isla refuse is associated with a series of superimposed adobe structures, representing terraced habitations arranged in a complex apartment-house-like dwelling unit. The refuse of both stratigraphic units indicates very heavy dependence on agricultural produce, beans and a primitive type of maize being the staples. Various other artifact types were recovered, the Cerrillos textiles also showing similarities with early techniques in other areas.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1962

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Some of this material was presented in a paper at the 26th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, May 6, 1961, Columbus, Ohio.

References

Engel, Frédéric 1956 Curayacu, a Chavinoid Site. Archaeology, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 98105. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Evans, Clifford and Meggers, Betty 1957 Formative period cultures in the Guayas Basin, coastal Ecuador, American Antiquity, Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 235–47. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Kroeber, A. L. 1944 Peruvian Archaeology in 1942. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology, No. 4. Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, New York.Google Scholar
Kroeber, A. L. 1953 Paracas Cavernas and Chavin. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 40, No. 8, pp. 313–48. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Lanning, Edward 1959 Early ceramic chronologies of the Peruvian coast. MS, on file in the Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Rowe, J. H. 1958 La seriacion cronologica de la cerámica de Paracas elaborada por Lawrence E. Dawson. Revista del Museo Regional de lea, Año 9, No. 10, lea.Google Scholar
Sawyer, A. R., 1961 Paracas and Nazca Iconography. In Essays on Pre-Columbian Arts, by Lothrop, S. K. and others. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Strong, W. D. 1957 Paracas, Nasca, and Tiahuanacoid Cultural Relationships in South Coastal Peru. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, No. 13. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Willey, G. R. and Corbett, John 1954 Early Ancon and Early Supe Cultures: Chavin Horizon Sites on the Central Peruvian Coast. Colombia Studies in Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 3. New York.Google Scholar