Today, I cede my editorial chair willingly to Melissa Massat, a former Peace Corps volunteer and student of the world, who expresses her dismay at the destruction of one of Peru's national treasures, resulting from the conflicting demands of development and preservation, and pleas for your assistance.
I used to spend my Sundays in Peru surfing down a beautiful sand dune seemingly in the middle of nowhere but conveniently close to the coastal city of Trujillo where I worked long hours at the Alliance Française. After a sprained tendon from a fall, I started walking around the valley by my dune. Wandering along well travelled fox paths through the colourful red-rocky scenery, I revelled at tiny cactus flowers, whirring hummingbirds, and the total peace in this area sheltered from urban sprawl and pollution. Imagine my surprise when there on top of a hill I found a spiral formed of rocks. All of a sudden the entire landscape changed for me and I realized I was actually walking through the prehistoric origins of a zone where the well known Moche and Chimu cultures later established their capitals. With the help of a guide impassioned by archaeology, I discovered the valley was filled with thousands of structures, flakes from stone point workshops, and most amazing of all, literally covered with designs on the ground. How horrible to find, one Sunday ready to continue our exploration, a huge area of this fragile zone destroyed by a bulldozer.
Cradled by the colourful Cerro Colorado mountain range, the Quebrada de Sto. Domingo is a very scenic 32 square km dry river valley off the Rio Moche. Opening north across an impressive series of Saharian style moving sand dunes, it is strategically located between major archaeological complexes spanning thousands of years of human settlements. A long canal which brings water from the Andes to the arid coast cuts across the valley, leaving one side of it "protected" as national heritage by the Peruvian Institute of Culture. The north side is now occupied by chicken farms and sugar cane plantations.
Archaeological Research at Santo Domingo
The archaeological evidence in this valley indicates human ritual activity from the Lithic Period to the Intermedio Tardio Period (10,000 B.C - 1400 A.D.)and includes huacas, shelters, platforms, canals, ceremonial paths (one very long one of 10 meters wide), as well as many stone flake and tool workshops.
Most impressive and most fragile is a dense distribution of geoglyphs dating from 5000 B.C to 600 A.D. depicting zoomorphs, anthropomorphs, hunting scenes and complex spirals.
The archaeological structures, as well as the varied flora and fauna, were up until now, very well preserved because of their inaccessibility. However, in the past three years the local Chavimochic Irrigation Canal authorities have clandestinely organised the quarrying, bulldozing, and distribution - even sale - of lots of land in this so called intangible zone.
Strangely enough an inventory, photos or articles relating to this exceptional zone have never been published and the official archaeologist, when contacted two years ago, was very evasive. The national office of the INC has not responded to contacts and the bulldozers continue to plough through the zone preparing ditches for water to irrigate near-future crops. In the context of irreparable losses of archaeological treasures in Iraq and of the Bamyan Buddha I had the great fortune to see as a Peace Corps volunteer in the 70's, and in light of the discovery of an ancient city buried in Caral, I am adamant in efforts to save this site which the local Peruvian National Institute of Culture cannot. The intrepid guide who accompanied me on my many excursions into the valley, Victor Corcuera, muchics@hotmail.com is leading a brave campaign with limited resources to alert local authorities and the press - but the people who live in the area are accustomed to living on old tombs and finding prehispanic pottery on their land. They are obviously more concerned with just surviving rampant unemployment, dismal salaries, and few health facilities.
