Caral-Supe at Cerro Lampay
Cerro Lampay was occupied during the Late Archaic period, ca. 2400-2100 BC. The settlement measures approximately 2.4 hectares, and includes a five meter high mound measuring 38x31 meters. A square courtyard (47 x 47 m) contains a sunken circular court measuring 21 meters in diameter, and a 190-meter long platform. Several trash middens were also identified.A distinctive type of architectural compound, composed of two rooms with built-in benches connected to a sunken court, was identified at Cerro Lampay; this type of compound has also been identified at three places within the main Caral site, and two other sites of the Caral-Supe tradition. Further, this type of compound was used to build apparently public architecture.
In this case, a massive square platform at Caral-Supe was built using the two-room compound in a ritualized fashioned. First, a two-room structure was constructed, expanded and buried. On the top of the previous structure, a new two-room structure was built, improved and buried; and finally a third two-room structure was built, improved, and buried.
Living at Cerro Lampay
Midden (trash) deposits at Cerro Lampay contained evidence of fish and shellfish, and the pods, skins, seeds, and rhizome fragments of a range of vegetables such as beans, squash, corn and maybe manioc. Fiber mats, cotton rope and pottery were also found in the middens, along with large quantities of ash and charcoal.Cerro Lampay Abandoned
At the time of abandonment (ca. 2200 BC), the complex of rooms and compounds was purposefully burned and buried in rubble. Preservation of plants and animal remains was exceptional, and included a range of nonedible materials, as well as gourd fragments, ground stone, fire-cracked rock, small pieces of textiles, cotton and fiber ropes. Evidence for several feasts was discovered in the rubble, leading excavators to believe that feasts were held during the construction of the buildings. Feasts signify an emerging leadership; the purposeful burial of the architectural compound several times implies a cyclical ritual.Excavations were conducted at Cerro Lampay during the 2000s by Rafael Vega-Centeno Sara-Lafosse, as part of his dissertation research at the University of Arizona.
Sources
Vega-Centeno Sara-Lafosse, Rafael 2007 Construction, labor organization, and feasting during the Late Archaic Period in the Central Andes. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26:150–171.
Vega-Centeno Sara-Lafosse, Rafael. 2005. Ritual And Architecture in a Context of Emergent Complexity: A Perspective From Cerro Lampay, a Late Archaic Site in the Central Andes. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona.
