Lima. (EFE).- El número de piezas arqueológicas halladas en Machu Picchu en 1911 y que, tras casi un siglo en Estados Unidos, devolverá la Universidad de Yale se reducirá por el momento a 384 y regresará a Perú en dos años, dijo el miércoles la directora del Instituto Nacional de Cultural (INC) del país andino, Cecilia Bákula.

Si bien el número de piezas que el explorador estadounidense Hiram Binghan se llevó para su estudio era considerablemente mayor, Bákula consideró un éxito que por primera vez “Yale reconoce la propiedad irrestricta” de ese “patrimonio cultural y arqueológico”.

En una rueda de prensa, explicó que el INC “ha escogido y aceptado de común acuerdo (…) aquellos objetos que podrían integrar una exposición”, que incluye 384 piezas, pero que esta cifra podría ser mayor después de que especialistas peruanos viajen a EE.UU. en las próximas semanas para ratificar esa lista.

Aparte de los objetos que pueden ser exhibido en un museo, “hay una inmensa cantidad de fragmentería, por ejemplo textiles, que son prácticamente microscópicos o fragmentos de cerámica que podrían no exceder un centímetro”, agregó Bákula.

“Del universo de fragmentos, Perú decidirá con Yale cuáles son aquellos que vienen porque se pueden investigar acá y cuáles son los que se quedan para ser investigados allá”, agregó, tras puntualizar que finalmente todos serán devueltos a Perú.

La fecha de devolución será antes de dos años, cuando “se concluya la investigación”, sostuvo.

Los objetos recuperados se exhibirán en un museo sobre la cultura inca que se construirá en Cusco, para el cual las autoridades deberán acordar una partida, cuya suma no fue revelada por Bákula.

El ministro peruano de Vivienda, Hernán Garrido Lecca, quien encabezó la comitiva peruana encargada de negociar con Yale, anunció la semana pasada que mientras el museo se construye se organizará una muestra itinerante, aunque Bákula señaló hoy que esto “todavía no está decidido”.

Bingham llegó a la montaña que alberga Machu Picchu en 1911, con la ayuda de varios pobladores locales, e instaló una base de campaña para hacer excavaciones en el lugar, por entonces desconocido en el ámbito internacional.

Tras varios años de investigaciones, el expedicionario regresó a EE.UU. con decenas de cajas con restos óseos y cerámicas con el compromiso de devolverlos a Perú en un plazo máximo 18 meses.

Sin embargo, con el paso de los años la Universidad de Yale desconoció el compromiso y se negó a la devolución, cuya petición por parte de las autoridades peruanas se intensificó durante los gobiernos de Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) y del actual presidente, Alan García.

 Fuente Original: Diario El Comercio

La universidad estadounidense de Yale reconoció que las 4,000 piezas arqueológicas de Machu Picchu que están en su poder son propiedad del Perú, pero precisó que no todos los objetos volverán a nuestro país. Al respecto, el ministro de Vivienda, Hernán Garrido Lecca, dijo que todas las piezas volverían al país tras una gira por el mundo. Además, el Perú se ha comprometido a construir un nuevo museo y centro de investigaciones en Cusco. Una vez que esté terminado, a finales del 2009, “los objetos que tienen cualidad de museo volverán al Perú, así como una parte de la colección de investigación”, afirmó la Universidad.

Fuente Original: T News

The Chimú were the residents of Chimor with its capital at the city of Chan Chan in the Moche valley of Peru. The Inca ruler Tupac Inca Yupanqui led the campaign which conquered just fifty years before the arrival of the Spanish in the region. Spanish chroniclers were able to record accounts of Chimú culture from individuals who had lived before the Inca conquest. Archaeological evidence suggest that Chimor grew out of the remnants of the Moche culture; early Chimú pottery had some resemblance to Moche pottery.

The Chimu were also known for worshiping the moon, unlike the Inca who worshiped the sun. The Chimu viewed the sun as a destroyer. This is likely due to the harshness of the sun in the desert environment they lived in.

The Chimú are best known for their distinctive monochromatic pottery and fine metal working of copper, gold, silver, bronze, and tumbago (copper and gold). The pottery is often in the shape of a creature, or has a human figure sitting or standing on a cuboid bottle. The shiny black finish of most Chimú pottery is not achieved by using glazes, but instead is achieved by firing the pottery at high temperatures in a closed kiln which prevents oxygen from reacting with the clay.

Original Source: Chimu culture - Wikipedia

The Wari (Spanish Huari) was a Middle Horizon civilization that flourished in the Andes in the south of modern-day Peru, from about 500 to 1200 A.D. The capital city of the same name is located near the modern city of Ayacucho, Peru. This city was the center of a civilization that covered much of the highlands and coast of modern Peru. Early on, their territory expanded to include the ancient oracle center of Pachacamac, though it seems to have remained largely autonomous. Then later it expanded to include much of the territory of the earlier Moche and later Chimu cultures. The best-preserved remnants of the Huari Culture exist near the town of Quinua at the Wari Ruins. Also well-known are the Wari ruins of Pikillaqta (”Flea Town”) a short distance south-east of Cuzco en route to Lake Titicaca, which date from the Wari period before the Incas rose to power in the region.

The Wari are historically important for a number of reasons. They were contemporaries of the Tiwanaku and shared similar artistic styles. Contact between the two cultures appears to have been limited to a span of 50 years in which there was sporadic fighting over a mine first occupied by the Tiwanaku. The mine straddled the border between the two cultures’ spheres of influence and the Wari attempted, but failed, to secure it for themselves.

Not much is known about their government, as they did not leave behind any written records.

The Wari state established architecturally distinctive administrative centers in many of its provinces. Some 300 years after the Wari empire collapsed, the Incas became the dominant power in the Andean region.

The Wari terraced field technology was adopted by the Incas when they began a major push to improve the agricultural productivity of their lands. The Wari had a major road network set up throughout their sphere of influence, which may have become part of the Inca road system.

The native language of the Wari area in recent times has been Quechua, though the comparative and historical study of the Andean languages suggests that the language of the Wari culture may have been a form of Aymara. The Wari culture is not to be confused with the modern ethnic group and language known as Wari’, with which it has no known link.

The Wari had access to many natural resources, including minerals, petroleum, fish, coffee, cotton, sugar, and wool. This is perhaps why the Wari civilization was comparatively so successful.

The Wari was a great empire and though the Inca Empire is more well-known, the Wari lasted four times as long and it may have been the reason that the Inca Empire had cultural unification. During the time of the Wari Empire, the people put an end to cultural regionalism and began cultural unification.

Original Source: Huari culture - Wikipedia

The Moche civilization (alternately, the Mochica culture, Early Chimu, Pre-Chimu, Proto-Chimu, etc.) flourished in northern Peru from about 100 AD to 800 AD. Today it is understood that they were not politically the same people as the Chimú or the Lambayeque. Scholars have proved that the Moche were not politically organized as monolithic empire or state but rather as a group of autonomous polities that shared a common elite cultural expressed mainly in the iconography. Pre-Columbian years as expansive as 300 BC to 1000 AD are sometimes described as the era of the Moche. They are noted for the elaborate painted ceramics and pottery, gold work, and irrigation systems. Moche history is broadly categorized into five periods based on the increasing complexity of pottery decoration. Many Moche ceramic pieces, including their highly detailed erotic pottery, can be found at the Museo de la Nacion and the Museo Larco Herrera, both in Lima.

The Moche primarily were farmers, who diverted rivers into a network of irrigation canals. Their culture was sophisticated, although they had no written language. Yet, their artifacts document their lives with detailed scenes of hunting, fishing, combat, punishment, sexual encounters and elaborate ceremonies and harmony was a huge part of their celebrations.

The Moche lived in many valleys in the north coast of Peru: Lambayeque, Jequetepeque, Chicama, Moche, Viru, Chao, Santa, Nepena. Major Moche sites include Sipan, Pampa Grande, Dos Cabezas, Pacatnamu, San Jose de Moro, El Complejo El Brujo, Mocollope, Cerro Mayal, Complejo Huacas del Sol y de la Luna, Galindo, Huancaco, Panamarca, entre otros. There are several Moche ruins not far from the city of Trujillo, Peru. The Huaca del Sol, a pyramidal structure on the Rio Moche, had been the largest pre-Columbian structure in Peru but was largely destroyed when Spanish Conquistadors mined its graves for gold. Fortunately the nearby Huaca de la Luna seems to have been more important to the Moche and has remained largely intact. It contains many colorful murals with complex iconography and has been under excavation since the early 90’s.

Pottery

Moche pottery is some of the most varied in the world. They used molds in order to mass produce huge quantities of it. But despite this, they had a large variation in shape and theme. Virtually all vegetables and important activities are documented in their pottery, including war, sex, metal work, and weaving. They would apply figures onto pottery before it dried, which is seldom done today because of the risk of explosion in the kiln if air gets into the joints.

They also seemed to be obsessed with individuality. Many of the later of the 143,000,000 bricks in the Huaca del Sol had a maker’s mark. Important persons would have vases made to resemble their heads. The portrait vases also show the personality of the subject: some are shown laughing, others in deep thought, others angry, etc. Some Moche art is erotic in nature, showing various acts including oral and anal sex.

The coloration of Moche pottery is not very varied, white and red(nortes) are used almost exclusively, with a yellowish cream color and black in only a few pieces. Their adobe buildings have mostly been destroyed by looters and the elements over the last 1300 years, but the two huacas that remain show that the coloring of their murals was much more varied, with every color of the rainbow represented. Not much is known about their clothing since it has all disintegrated; the Moche lived in the north of Peru, which gets flooded in El Niño years.

Lima’s Museo Larco holds a large collection of Mochica ceramics and artifacts, including a gallery of erotic pottery.

Moche erotic pottery is fascinating, not only due to the vast number of sexual activities represented, but also because procreative coitus was only depicted in a limited number of circumstances. While anal intercourse, fellatio, masturbation and cunnilingus were commonly depicted on Moche pottery, vaginal intercourse was only depicted when the male involved wore ceremonial garb, the female had two braids which ended in snake’s heads, and the copulation occurred under an elaborate roof of a ceremonial building. In these scenes of procreative sex, additional figures are always depicted watching the couple in the building and holding their hands as though in supplication. The precise meaning of this has never been established.

Religion

Moche worship featured a figure called the Decapitator, mostly depicted as a spider, but also depicted as a winged creature or a sea monster. When the body is included, it is always shown with one arm holding a knife and another holding a severed head by the hair. It is thought to figure in the ritual human sacrifice of foreign soldiers or tribal citizens. This human sacrifice also included the consumption of human blood by the Lord of Sipán, who was a Moche spiritual, military and civil leader. This act is believed to have been done to appease the Decapitator. While some scholars, such as Christopher Donnan and Izumi Shimada, argue that the sacrificial victims were the losers of ritual battles among local elites, others, like John Verano and Richard Sutter, suggest that the sacrificial victims were warriors captured in territorial battles between the Moche and other nearby societies. Burials in plazas near Moche pyramids have found groups of people sacrificed together and skeletons of young men deliberately excarnated, perhaps for temple displays.[1] The sacrifices are believed to have been to ensure the coming of the yearly rains.

Demise

There are several theories as to what caused the demise of the Moche political organization. To understand this process of political collapse, we need to consider it as separate historical events in the different valleys where these Moche polities developed. Studies of ice cores drilled from glaciers in the Andes reveal climatic catastophe between 563 to 594 AD, possibly a super El Niño, that resulted in 30 years of unrelenting rain and flooding followed by 30 years of drought. This catastrophe would have disrupted the Moche way of life and shattered their faith in their religion, which had promised stable weather through sacrifices. However, these catastrophic event did not cause the final Moche demise. Recent evidence uncovered by diverse archaeologists has shown that the Moche polities survived beyond 650 AD in the Jequetepeque Valley and the Moche Valleys. For instance, in the Jequetepeque Valley, later settlements are characterized by fortifications and defensive works. In any case, there is no evidence of a foreign invasion, as many scholars have suggested in the past (i.e. a Huari invasion). Evidence of a period of social unrest followed the climatic changes, as the Moche civilization tore itself apart and fought over the remaining resources.[2]

Original Source: Moche culture - Wikipedia

The Moche civilization (alternately, the Mochica culture, Early Chimu, Pre-Chimu, Proto-Chimu, etc.) flourished in northern Peru from about 100 AD to 800 AD. Today it is understood that they were not politically the same people as the Chimú or the Lambayeque. Scholars have proved that the Moche were not politically organized as monolithic empire or state but rather as a group of autonomous polities that shared a common elite cultural expressed mainly in the iconography. Pre-Columbian years as expansive as 300 BC to 1000 AD are sometimes described as the era of the Moche. They are noted for the elaborate painted ceramics and pottery, gold work, and irrigation systems. Moche history is broadly categorized into five periods based on the increasing complexity of pottery decoration. Many Moche ceramic pieces, including their highly detailed erotic pottery, can be found at the Museo de la Nacion and the Museo Larco Herrera, both in Lima.

The Moche primarily were farmers, who diverted rivers into a network of irrigation canals. Their culture was sophisticated, although they had no written language. Yet, their artifacts document their lives with detailed scenes of hunting, fishing, combat, punishment, sexual encounters and elaborate ceremonies and harmony was a huge part of their celebrations.

The Moche lived in many valleys in the north coast of Peru: Lambayeque, Jequetepeque, Chicama, Moche, Viru, Chao, Santa, Nepena. Major Moche sites include Sipan, Pampa Grande, Dos Cabezas, Pacatnamu, San Jose de Moro, El Complejo El Brujo, Mocollope, Cerro Mayal, Complejo Huacas del Sol y de la Luna, Galindo, Huancaco, Panamarca, entre otros. There are several Moche ruins not far from the city of Trujillo, Peru. The Huaca del Sol, a pyramidal structure on the Rio Moche, had been the largest pre-Columbian structure in Peru but was largely destroyed when Spanish Conquistadors mined its graves for gold. Fortunately the nearby Huaca de la Luna seems to have been more important to the Moche and has remained largely intact. It contains many colorful murals with complex iconography and has been under excavation since the early 90’s.

Pottery

Moche pottery is some of the most varied in the world. They used molds in order to mass produce huge quantities of it. But despite this, they had a large variation in shape and theme. Virtually all vegetables and important activities are documented in their pottery, including war, sex, metal work, and weaving. They would apply figures onto pottery before it dried, which is seldom done today because of the risk of explosion in the kiln if air gets into the joints.

They also seemed to be obsessed with individuality. Many of the later of the 143,000,000 bricks in the Huaca del Sol had a maker’s mark. Important persons would have vases made to resemble their heads. The portrait vases also show the personality of the subject: some are shown laughing, others in deep thought, others angry, etc. Some Moche art is erotic in nature, showing various acts including oral and anal sex.

The coloration of Moche pottery is not very varied, white and red(nortes) are used almost exclusively, with a yellowish cream color and black in only a few pieces. Their adobe buildings have mostly been destroyed by looters and the elements over the last 1300 years, but the two huacas that remain show that the coloring of their murals was much more varied, with every color of the rainbow represented. Not much is known about their clothing since it has all disintegrated; the Moche lived in the north of Peru, which gets flooded in El Niño years.

Lima’s Museo Larco holds a large collection of Mochica ceramics and artifacts, including a gallery of erotic pottery.

Moche erotic pottery is fascinating, not only due to the vast number of sexual activities represented, but also because procreative coitus was only depicted in a limited number of circumstances. While anal intercourse, fellatio, masturbation and cunnilingus were commonly depicted on Moche pottery, vaginal intercourse was only depicted when the male involved wore ceremonial garb, the female had two braids which ended in snake’s heads, and the copulation occurred under an elaborate roof of a ceremonial building. In these scenes of procreative sex, additional figures are always depicted watching the couple in the building and holding their hands as though in supplication. The precise meaning of this has never been established.

Religion

Moche worship featured a figure called the Decapitator, mostly depicted as a spider, but also depicted as a winged creature or a sea monster. When the body is included, it is always shown with one arm holding a knife and another holding a severed head by the hair. It is thought to figure in the ritual human sacrifice of foreign soldiers or tribal citizens. This human sacrifice also included the consumption of human blood by the Lord of Sipán, who was a Moche spiritual, military and civil leader. This act is believed to have been done to appease the Decapitator. While some scholars, such as Christopher Donnan and Izumi Shimada, argue that the sacrificial victims were the losers of ritual battles among local elites, others, like John Verano and Richard Sutter, suggest that the sacrificial victims were warriors captured in territorial battles between the Moche and other nearby societies. Burials in plazas near Moche pyramids have found groups of people sacrificed together and skeletons of young men deliberately excarnated, perhaps for temple displays.[1] The sacrifices are believed to have been to ensure the coming of the yearly rains.

Demise

There are several theories as to what caused the demise of the Moche political organization. To understand this process of political collapse, we need to consider it as separate historical events in the different valleys where these Moche polities developed. Studies of ice cores drilled from glaciers in the Andes reveal climatic catastophe between 563 to 594 AD, possibly a super El Niño, that resulted in 30 years of unrelenting rain and flooding followed by 30 years of drought. This catastrophe would have disrupted the Moche way of life and shattered their faith in their religion, which had promised stable weather through sacrifices. However, these catastrophic event did not cause the final Moche demise. Recent evidence uncovered by diverse archaeologists has shown that the Moche polities survived beyond 650 AD in the Jequetepeque Valley and the Moche Valleys. For instance, in the Jequetepeque Valley, later settlements are characterized by fortifications and defensive works. In any case, there is no evidence of a foreign invasion, as many scholars have suggested in the past (i.e. a Huari invasion). Evidence of a period of social unrest followed the climatic changes, as the Moche civilization tore itself apart and fought over the remaining resources.[2]

Other

The Moche was an Early Intermediate culture that co-existed with the Ica-Nazca culture. They were preceded by the Chavín horizon and succeeded by the Huari and Chimú. They are thought to have had some limited contact with the Ica-Nazca culture because they mined Guano for fertilizer in Ica-Nazca territory. Moche pottery has been found near Ica, but no Ica-Nasca pottery has been found in Moche territory.

Note: Mochica was the Chimuan language spoken in the area when the Conquistadors arrived, but there is no indication that this was the language spoken by the Moche, so scientists still call them the Moche after the location of the primary archaeological site. There is some evidence they were the same people as the later culture known as Chimú.

Recent discoveries

In 2005, a mummified Moche woman was discovered at the Huaca Cao Viejo, part of the El Brujo archeological site on the outskirts of Trujillo, Peru. It is the best preserved Moche mummy found to date and the tomb that housed her had unprecedented elaborateness. The archaeologists on the site believe that the tomb had been undisturbed since approximately 450 AD. The tomb also contained various military and ornamental artifacts, including war clubs and spear throwers. A garroted young girl, probably a servant, was found in the tomb with her. News of the discovery was announced by Peruvian and U.S. archaeologists in collaboration with National Geographic in May, 2006.[3]

In 2006 perhaps the most lavish (certainly the most valuable, pound-for-pound) Moche artifact ever discovered turned up in a Londoner’s office — a magnificent gold mask depicting a sea goddess with beautiful spirals radiating from her stone-inlaid face. It is thought that the artifact was looted from a nobleman’s tomb in the late 1980s (La Mina); it has now been returned to Peru [1].

Original Sources: Moche culture - Wikipedia

The Nazca culture flourished in the Nazca region between 300 BC and 800 AD. They created the famous Nazca lines and built an impressive system of underground aqueducts that still function today. Near the aqueducts open to tourists, there is an overlook point which includes an Inca building added after the Inca conquest of the area. On the pampa, on which the Nazca lines were made, the ceremonial city of Cahuachi (1-500 AD) sits overlooking the lines. Modern knowledge about the culture of the Nazca is built upon studying the city of Cahuachi.

Pottery

The Nazca region is a desert that the Nazca turned into a viable agricultural area using their aqueduct technology. Nazca pottery has been divided into eight phases. Around 200 BC, at the end of the Early Horizon drought, Nazca I began. Pottery from this era contains the mythical content of Paracas art, but added realistic subject matter such as fruits, plants, people, and other animals. Realism increased in importance in the following three phases (II, III, IV) referred to as the Monumental phases. The pottery from these phases includes renditions of their main subject matter against a bold red or white background. In the next phase, Nazca V, the backgrounds are filled in and the subject matter now included bodyless renditions of both demons and humans. Nazca VI, and VII include the earlier motifs but also add militaristic ones, and portraits of elite members of the society. Nazca VI and VII also begin to show the influence of the Moche. Finally, Nazca VIII saw the introduction of completely disjointed figures and a rich iconography which we have yet to decipher. The phases were created before the advent of carbon dating and today have some problems. While the general order did not change there is a great deal of overlap of the phases, and while the Nazca IX phase ends c. 600 AD, some of the pottery in that category was created at least as late as 755 AD.

Since the Nazca were a coastal people, who depended on the sea for their livelihood, archaeologists are fortunate that they portrayed aspects of their everyday lives in and on their pottery. The motifs generally seen on Nazca pots are those of animals and plants used and seen by the ancient people. These include sea birds, hummingbirds, whales, sharks, fish, snakes, seeds, flowers, and cacti. Also, more gruesomely, the Nazca portrayed disembodied heads, presumed to be trophy heads, on their pottery. This is supported in the archaeological record with the the discovery of caches of actual severed and ritually prepared heads. Over one hundred examples are known to exist. (Silverman)

Textiles

The Nazca are also known for their textiles. They began using llama and massive quantities of alpaca a thousand years before the north coast cultures began to esteem the camelid wool. The source of the wool is believed to be from the Ayacucho region. The motifs that appeared on the pottery appeared earlier in the textiles. Textiles may have been as important to other cultures in the region as to the Nazca, but the desert has preserved the textiles of both the Nazca and Paracas cultures and comprise most of what we know about early textiles in the region.

Original Source: Nazca culture - Wikipedia

The Chavín were an early civilization that existed in present-day Peru. This Early Horizon civilization is believed to have developed around 900 BC and died out around 200 BC. The Chavíns laid the cultural foundation for the other Peruvian civilizations to come.

Archaeological artifacts from the Chavín period include textiles, metalwork, pottery and religious items. The most well-known archaeological ruin of the Chavín era is Chavín de Huantar, located in the Andean highlands north of Lima. It is believed to have been built around 900 BC.

Achievements

Chavín metallurgy, soldering, and temperature control methods were advanced for their time. They also had a knowledge of textiles that allowed them to revolutionize cloth production.

The Chavín established a trade network and developed agriculture by 850 BC and lasted to 250 BC, according to some estimates and archeological finds. The Chavín peoples, much like all Andean groups, had no system of writing.

They learned how to tame llamas. Llamas had a spiritual significance and also were used as pack animals.

The Chavín culture represents the first widespread, recognizable artistic style in the Andes. Chavín art can be divided into two phases: The first phase corresponding to the construction of the “Old Temple” at Chavín de Huantar (c. 900–500 BC); and the second phase corresponding to the construction of Chavín de Huantar’s “New Temple” (c. 500–200 BC).

Stylistically, Chavín art forms make extensive use of the technique of contour rivalry. The art is intentionally difficult to interpret and understand, since it was intended only to be read by high priests of the Chavín cult who could understand the intricately complex and sacred designs, and thus their power. The Raimondi Stela is one of the major examples of this technique.

Religion

Chavíns had some sort of religious belief, supported by the many religious artifacts have been excavated. They used hallucinogens. Because small mortars, possibly used to grind vilca (a hallucinogenic snuff), have been uncovered, along with bone tubes and spoons decorated with wild animals which we associate with shamanistic transformations. Artwork at Chavín de Huantar also show figures with mucus streaming from their nostrils (a side effect of vilca use) and holding what is interpreted to be San Pedro, a hallucinogenic cactus.

The Chavín cult promoted fertility and abundant harvests. The deities were represented in stone carvings as features of humans and wild animals such as jaguars, hawks, eagles, and snakes. Its role in politics was extremely significant. Chavin cult first stimulated the use of techniques of producing elaborate cotton textiles, the manufacture of large, light, and strong fishing nets from cotton string, and the discovery of techniques of gold, silver, and copper metallurgy. These economic advancements led to the building of ceremonial centers and large settlements. It is possible that priests were part of the Chavin cult. However, priestly classes probably were not present, since complex societies and cities began to arrive only after the disappearance of the Chavín. The Chavín may have sacrificed animals and such to please the gods for abundance in harvest.

Original Source: Chavín culture - Wikipedia

The Paracas culture was an important Andean society between approximately 750 BCE and 100 CE that developed in the Paracas Peninsula, located in what today is the Paracas District of the Pisco Province in the Ica Region. Most of our information about the lives of the Paracas people comes from excavations at the large seaside Paracas necropolis, first investigated by the Peruvian archaeologist Julio Tello in the 1920s. The necropolis of Wari Kayan consisted of multitudes of large subterranean burial chambers, with an average capacity of about forty mummies. It is theorized that each large chamber would be owned by a specific family or clan, who would place their dead ancestors in the burial over the course of many generations. Each mummy was bound with cord to hold it in place, and then wrapped in many layers of incredibly intricate, ornate, and finely woven textiles. These textiles are now known as some of the finest ever produced in the history of Pre-Columbian Andean societies, and are the primary works of art by which Paracas is known. They had extensive knowledge of irrigation and water management.

Original Source: Paracas culture - Wikipedia