THE FORTRESS OF CHANQUILLO

THE FORTRESS OF CHANQUILLO
Aerial View - Casma Regional Museum

THE FORTRESS OF CHANQUILLO

It is a sample of the architecture of the stage Moche or Mochica, which is known for its adobe pyramids and its bloody ceremonies where prisoners and warriors were slaughtered to the gods.

The stage Moche reached a fairly significant breakthrough in the construction of fortifications. According to research done by Gordon R. Willey, there are five types of fortified buildings: 1. Mountain refuge.
2. Mountain platforms.
3. Fortresses.
4. Great walls.
5. Villages organized in summits of mountains surrounded by fortifications.

One of the most widely used systems was the construction of artificial overlapping platforms built with adobe blocks or sun-dried mud blocks (due to the dryness of the environment, such structures are very convenient). Starting from these platforms, it was added sets of parallel walls and towers, used both for observation and launching of all sorts of projectiles against attackers.

As the war techniques and the power of the Moche state increased, these fortifications were combined with large fortified walls with towers and fortified villages preventing invaders from accessing their territory.

One of the best examples of this period is the "Castle Tomaval" a fortress formed by a series of overlapping platforms clustered around a steep hill, these defenses were supplemented with walls and towers.

Another interesting fortress is Chanquillo, whose main elements can be seen in the image: Two parallel circular walls that surround the hill, towers distributed along the walls and a central walled compound with rectangular and circular rooms.

Chanquillo was visited in the nineteenth century by George Squier, who made a good survey. Also Ernst Middendorf, Antonio Raimondi, Julio C. Tello explored it. Research work has been carried out by Dr. Rosa Fung Pineda with Arql. Victor Pimentel Gurmendi, and the Arql. Ivan Ghezzi.

To reach Chanquillo, take the road through the valley of Casma, the benchmark being the area of San Rafael; or take the branch road at Km. 361 of the Panamerican highway north.

DESCRIPTION

It consists of three constructive units and occupies a large area.

At the top of a mountain, outlines a building of three ovoid walls, concentric, with strategically arranged accesses giving way to well-developed corridors, whose roofs are made with thick wooden carob, properly leveled and that still bear the weight of the wall that runs on top.

The last wall encloses two circular buildings and southwards, a group of rectangular rooms. All buildings in Chanquillo are made with stones from the same place, quarries are visible; the mud used for mortar and plasters was brought up from the valley. Indeed, the walls were painted in various colors and within the corridors on the walls engravings were made, Rosa Fung found and registered some in 1967, of which only a few strokes remain.

Facing this voluminous construction, in the bottom on a rocky spur, there is a set of 13 cubic buildings aligned, each have two side staircases leading to the top, explaining his role and relationship with the walls-building in front of helm.

Behind the said rocky spur there is a preserved large building, with a large courtyard surrounded by various rooms and passages, suggesting this unit was the Palace. Instead, the building of the walls is a fortress and also served for astronomical observations or similar studies.

A C-14 analysis fixes the age of Chanquillo at 342 + / - 80 years a.n.e. The sample for radiocarbon analysis was collected from one of the wooden roofs of a passage access.

This monumental architecture has traits of Culture Santa, at the extreme south, for this type of architecture is found in the basins of Santa-Lacramarca and Nepe?a.

Source: Archaeological series N? 12

Page translated by courtesy of: Carlos Dextre.