Excavations at Huaca Herederos Chica, Moche Valley, Peru

• Published in: Journal of field archaeology Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 233 - 250
• Main Authors: Chauchat, Claude, Guffroy, Jean, Pozorski, Thomas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, MA Routledge 2006; Boston University; Maney Publishing
• Subjects: Adobe; Adobe buildings; Archaeology and Prehistory; Architecture; Bone industry; Brick buildings; Buildings; Ceramic materials; Europe; Excavations; Field archaeology; Field Reports: Excavation and Survey; France; Generalities; Humanities and Social Sciences; Methodology and general studies; Organisation and history of research; Palaeolithic and mesolithic; Plasters; Prehistory and protohistory; Rooms; Typology, technology and attribute analysis; American culture; Early; Late; South America; France; Peru; Europe; Nord; America; Building; Site; Construction; Research organization; Tradition; Tumulus; Excavation; Burial; Profession; Mound; well; Small round; Dating
• ISSN: 0093-4690; 2042-4582
• DOI: 10.1179/009346906791071927

Detailed results of excavations from 1970 to 1973 at the site of Huaca Herederos Chica in the lower Moche Valley, Peru are presented. This now partially destroyed monumental site belongs to the Caballo Muerto Complex, a series of mound sites that span both the Initial Period (2100-1200 CAL B.C.) and the Early Horizon (1200-200 CAL B.C.). The existing mounds were constructed sequentially over a period of some 1000 years; some mounds, like Huaca Herederos Chica, are the result of the superposition of several phases of occupation and building over that long time period, each separated by phases of abandonment. The older remains, dating from the Initial Period, testify to the presence in this coastal region of Peru of architectural features such as small quadrilateral rooms with rounded corners and somewhat circular rooms reminiscent of similar features of the Kotosh Religious Tradition at the highland sites of La Galgada and Huaricoto as well as in the coastal Casma Valley. Huaca Herederos Chica was abandoned from 1200-400 CAL B.C. only to be reoccupied and rebuilt in the late Early Horizon (400-200 CAL B.C.). Architectural changes seen at the site and at the Caballo Muerto Complex as a whole probably reflect important social and political changes along much of the Peruvian north coast.