Huaca La Florida is an important archaeological site on the central coast of Peru. Its founding dates approximately to 1700 BC. This period in the Ancient Andes history is called the Initial Period (2000-700 BC), and it is important in the history of ancient Peru. It marks the period when pottery is produced for the first time and when increasingly elaborated ceremonial buildings began to be constructed.
Origins of the U-Shaped Pyramids
Huaca La Florida is an example of these new ceremonial buildings. These are constructed with a typical architectural style called by archaeologists U-shaped pyramids. There are at least 20 of these U-shaped pyramid complexes on the central coast of Peru. Archaeologists think that these pyramids began to be constructed when people living on the coast fishing and collecting mollusks changed their life style and became farmers. People moved inland far from the coast and settled on lands close to rivers, land favorable for cultivation. Researchers think that the U-shaped pyramids, like Huaca la Florida, are related to the diffusion of ceremonies and ritual connected to agriculture and water management.
The Ceremonial Center of Huaca La Florida
Huaca La Florida lies in the Rímac river valley in the central coast of Peru. The term "huaca" means sacred, and it is used to refer to ritual objects, places and spiritual beings as well as to artificial buildings related to ritual ceremonies. The site is composed of a huge platform (840 feet long and 180 feet wide) made with stone blocks and river cobbles. This central platform is 100 feet high and it is reachable by a steep stairway. Two long platforms on the east and west sides of the pyramid form the arms of the U-shaped complex and together they enclose a central plaza.
Excavations at La Florida have shown that these pyramids were not single-phase constructions, like, for example, the pyramids of Egypt meant to be tombs for the Pharaohs. Rather, these pyramids were built over earlier constructions, with the result of a continuous growth and expansion of the ceremonial center. They probably served as public gathering spaces as well as for rituals related to the success of farming activities.
La Florida and Social Ranking
Much discussion appears in the literature concerning whether the pyramid constructions of La Florida are evidence of the control of a ruling class (social ranking) or a communal effort by neighboring villages.
It has been estimated that the construction of such complexes would have taken a thousand people working every day for over 16 years. The massive size of the construction, the amount of effort invested in the recovery of the building materials, leveling the terrain, and the preparation of the plaster which covered the structures speak for activities organized at a regional level. The size and complexity of these buildings, some archaeologists think instead that these complexes were actually the result of a regional state with a ruling class.
However, some archaeologists think that the pyramids were not ordered to be built by a ruling class controlling and mobilizing labor, but instead a communal effort by many people from the surrounding villages. People from these villages lived a quite simple life made of farming activities and trade and exchange between the coast and the highlands.
One piece of evidence suggesting an egalitarian effort is the absence of noble tombs or residential areas at La Florida. People were buried in the pyramids and in the houses, but without a great differentiation in personal ornaments, or burial goods. Also, few people seem to have actually lived at Huaca La Florida. This was mainly a ceremonial site with impressive spaces used for public gathering.
Whether the construction of Huaca La Florida was ordered by a ruling class or planned by a group of neighbor villages is hard to say. However, the diffusion of these U-shaped pyramid complexes seems to reflect important changes in the socio- economic organization and religious beliefs of the ancient inhabitants of coastal Peru
Sources
Burger, Richard. L. 1995, Chavín and the Origins of Andean Civilization, Thames and Hudson
Fagan, Brian, 2004, People of the Earth. An Introduction to World Prehistory. Twelfth Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall.
Patterson, Thomas. C., 1999, The development of Agriculture and the Emergence of Formative Civilization in the central Andes. Pp 181-188 In Pacific Latin America in Prehistory: The Evolution of Archaic and Formative Cultures, Michael Blake ed. Washington State University Press. Pullman, WA
Pozoroski, Sheila and Thomas Pozoroski, 1987, Early Settlement and Subsistence in the Casma Valley, Peru. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.