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Ancient History in the Middle of Miraflores

Today I visited an ancient religious and administrative archeological site called Pucllana - city of play - that is in the middle of Miraflores and around the corner from the cafe we frequent .  It is odd to see a 1400 year old pyramid with sky scrapers in the background! 

The site was just found in 1980 so it is still under excavation.  Unfortunately, a lot of it has been destroyed due to people living on top of it as well as the site being used for soccer and motor cross (even when they knew it was there!).  It was originally 20 hectares in size, but only 6 hectares has survived. 

The site was built by a civilization they call Lima - 'cuz it is found in Lima, not because there is an actual civilization by that name.  It appears that it was a matriarchial society that was run by both priests and priestesses. The site was used for religious ceremonies and purposes as well as for all the administrative operations needed for the surrounding communities.  The pyramid is made out of mud bricks that were individually made and placed in a "library" style by hand (you could even see hand prints in the mud bricks).  It's called library, because the bricks are placed vertically with spaces between them making it look like books on a book shelf.  This was done to withstand the earth tremors felt in this area - pretty wise for 1400 years ago!  Also, because Lima never gets rain (it is always overcast with mist, but no rain for 35 years), they were able to use sun baked mud. 

Each floor was built one on top of the other until a pyramid shape was created.  Each floor was made of small rooms that were totally filled in with offerings to the gods.  The offerings included ceramics, food, textiles, animal bones (alpaca, llama, guinnea pig, ducks) and women sacrifices.  Only women bodies were found and they were all found horizontal, face down.  Some were decapitated.  Of course, in those days, they are sure it was an honor to be chosen as a human sacrifice!  Glad I didn't live then!  Then the rooms were filled in with river rock and a new floor with brick walls was created.  It took about 300 years to build. 

They also had some floors that were only a foot or so high.  They think that when a new priestess came into power, they may have had to put in new floors.  Leave it to a woman to want her own place!  

They also had a small farm on the premises to show you the crops and animals of the time.  They had llamas, alpacas, pacllama (cross between alpaca and llama), guinea pigs, and ducks.  They had a new little alpaca - only 6 days old - darling!  They also had an original Peruvian dog they used for a watch dog.  It was completely hairless except for a mohawk for orange hair.  It has a very high body temperature so is often used by people with rhuematism for warmth. 

Quite an amazing place!

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