Random Peru

Some random pics from San Jose de Moro

Every morning the cows walk by the site San Jose de Moro Area 35 pit.  It is a bit unnerving to look up at see a cow above your head.

And an occasional pig. No llamas though.

The main building (above) is where the bioarchaeology field school works with the skeletons.  It also is the home for Julio, who takes care of the building and the site.  It is also home to his workshop.  He has learned to make replicas of the Moche fineline pots using the methods they would have used. Here he is taking several out of the kiln. 

He has several of the young men who work with him.

Here is several of us eating lunch in one of the homes near the San Jose site.  The Field School contracts with 6 or 7 women, some wives of the workers, to feed us in there homes near the San Jose de Moro site.  We eat well!

Here I am taking pics in the lab of ceramic pieces.  I worked in the lab for a week.  It was very interesting and I liked it a lot.  Seeing all the fabulous ceramics from all the sites made the job not boring.  You'll notice there is laundry drying behind me and ceramic pieces drying on the ground behind me also.  I am on the roof.  I think I'm over any fear of heights.

And Natasha taking pictures creatively because she is shorter.

Writing on the each ceramic before they are photographed.  I did this also.

A pic of our multipurpose kitchen room, lab, laundry, etc.  We eat our suppers in the main hotel open air dining area where we have internet (previous post) but breakfast is served here and after the dishes are done and tables cleared off lab work begins. 

The kitchen is at the end behind the mat. 

 

And here are some of the papayas they make our morning juice from. Azucar is sugar and it is larger grain and browner than our sugar. 

The multi use sink.  It washes dishes, ceramics, and laundry and must be operated by humans.

Climbing the Mountains of Peru, Part 2

There is another late Moche defensive site about 45 minutes away that we visited last week that is even more impressive and grand than Cherro Chepen called San Ildefonso.  It is just beginning to be studied.  The entire area is protected by walls and “guard stations” where piles of rock used to sling at the enemy are still sometimes found.  We climbed this mountain for 2 hours and 40 minutes.  I must say I was impressive like the energizer bunny.  I can’t begin to tell you how up and down it was.  If I knew I would be doing climbing like that I wouldn’t have come!  It was so worth it though.  Everyday we learn something new about the Moche and how sophisticated their culture was. Pics from San Ildefonso:

Here is our group with our leader Ari at far left:

Daniel decided to get into a looter's hole:

The desert drive to the mountain:

Rock wall built by Moche:

Rocky climb:

More rock walls built for defense by the Moche around 600-800 AD

Our policeman rode on top of the van part of the way.

We always have a policeman accompany our teams to the sites.

Moche ceremonial site, see platform in the middle.

Moche terracing:

Climbing the Mountains of Peru

Sorry for the absence of e-mails, blog posts, etc.  Our internet was out several times and you really can't complain because we don't have hot water very often so why should we be privileged to have internet all the time. The students got into playing board and card games in the dining area. 

I'm writing today about my mountain climbing experience.  Here is a program transcript from a BBC special you might want to read to become super smart about the Moche.  It touches on why the Moche were in the mountains.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/peru_prog_summary.shtml
You can also Google Youtube The Lost Civilisation of Peru BBC to watch the show.  On the above link you'll see a picture of our field school director, Luis Jaime Castillo. 

Our hotel is in the town of Chepen.  The main archaeological site is in the small town of San Jose de Moro about 10-15 minutes from our hotel.  Between our hotel and San Jose de Moro is a mountain called Cherro Chepen.  On this mountain the Moche developed a defensive site and now it is being studied and excavated.  In these pics if you look carefully you can see the rock terraces and walls that the Moche made.  At the top are the big walls. 

Yes I climbed that - but only halfway to a household site we dug.

The top fortress wall built by the Moche.

The view of Chepen from our worksite.

Stone tools found at our household site.

Katie, our grad student leader, standing on the household site I dug for two days to bedrock.

Peru and The Digging. There is always Digging!

San Jose de Moro, Peru

We are working two sites right now of Moche civilization.  The Moche were before the Inca civilization that most people are familiar with.  The Moche were from 100-800 A.D.  The Incan civilization only dates back to about 1300 A.D. The sites we are working are 3 pits at San Jose de Moro and 3 areas of the mountain Cherro Chepen.  The Moche were known at the Greeks of South America.  I had read a lot about the Moche but being here in Peru and seeing the San Jose, Cherro Chepen, Sipan, Pacatnamu, and Dos Cabezos sites already I can’t begin to tell you how impressive the Moche were.  They are best known for their pottery.  One type of pottery has what is known as “fineline drawings”. Here is a piece of the pottery and a scene drawn out on the pottery so you can see how beautiful it is.  Well, except for the bottom middle where they're slashing the prisoner's throat.

 

There is no language written for the Moche and no written record for their civilization so these fineline drawings and the friezes at some of the Moche sites are all that is available to reconstruct how they lived, their social lives, etc..  One amazing thing that all of us are so surprised is that the ground is covered with broken pottery.  It feels like it all should be picked up and cataloged but there is so much it is just ignored.  Is anybody besides Gary Carter land Dr. Fuertes listening to this spiel about the Moche that I just described? Sorry if I'm boring you.  You have to be here. HAHA.

One of the fineline drawings depicts a sacrifice and presentation scenes that have different characters always drawn the same.  In recent time (20 years) some of the Moche burials uncovered have matched these characters and changed how archaeologists and anthropologists view these pottery drawings.  It is now thought that the scenes were real events and not necessarily mythologic events. 

One of the characters is a priestess and 5 priestess’ have been found at the San Jose de Moro site since evacuation started 20 years ago.  San Jose was the site of a brewery and elite burial ground.  Many large paicas (large pots) have been recovered including one I got to uncover last week.  I had such goosebumps uncovering something that hadn’t been touched since for 1500 years. 

It seems to the professionals that San Jose was a place people gathered, not lived as regular households.

The other site being worked is Cherro Chepen.  It is a mountain we can see from our hotel.  There are many, many walls built up on the mountain and it is believed that the Moche moved to the mountain later in their history for possibly having a defensive position. 

I worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at San Jose, Area 35A picture of our worksite.  Yes those are homes, some of them our Peruvian worker’s homes complete with the outhouse out back, in the background.  There is a little shaded area for our things.  Cows come by every morning and cross by the pit.  The townspeople come and go and walk through the complex.  They stand and watch us.  I saw goats herded through on Friday. 

and then I am working 6 days at Cherro Chepen.  I will then go back to San Jose.  Everyone works a rotating schedule on the mountain with three different grad students.  I work with the one that is lower on the mountain.  I’m pretty sure I can’t make it all the way to the top of the mountain.  It gets more difficult.

Here is our team leader Vanessa on the first day explaining the burials that have been uncovered in Area 35 at San Jose.

We have a ramp to walk into our site instead of a ladder!

Here are the two of the four Peruvian workers in our area: Richard and Dario.  The regular workers are excellent archaeologists and have been with the program for many years.  Some were previous looters before working permanently with the program.  I worked for the first time on this skeleton after watching Richard and Dario for about 20 minutes.  The dry air here makes it possible to find textiles such as the shroud on this skeleton still intact in some places.

See the textile pattern.

Random: My Peruvian tan after only 3 days and 50 sunscreen:

Last Wednesday 4 of us students, under close supervision of course, uncovered this skeleton complete with beautiful Moche pottery and copper pieces.  Much of the shroud textile was intact and we were able to see the weaving pattern. 

The two pots on bottom right are a man and a woman.  The pots are stunning and perfect.  The green is copper.  There was also a handmade weaving tool on top of the skeleton.  I didn't take my camera and someone e-mailed me these photos so I'll see if I can get some of the pics from others with their cameras with all of us around the burial.  I'll write about Cherro Chepen later.

Peru - You Won't Starve

Here is all of us at the open air dining at the hotel. 

There is about 60 students over 2 programs and separated at 2 sites.  The students are undergrad, grad, and post grad students from many universities.  Yale, Harvard, Berkeley, Brown, Colombia, Auburn, Holy Cross, Texas State, University of Texas, University of Kansas (WooHoo), Ohio State, Iowa, etc.  Also from Sweden, Belgium, Canada, Spain, etc.  The dining room is also where we have internet access so  it is always occupied when we are at the hotel.  A typical plate of food served at the hotel.

Rice at every meal.  Sometimes it is in the shape of a pyramid, on our bus from Lima we received a meal with rice in the shape of a donut.  Evidently northern Peru is known for the rice.  We have bread, giant slice avocado and papaya juice for breakfast.  Sometimes bananas.  For lunch if we are at the San Jose site we eat with the families of the workers.  The wives contract with the field school to feed us.   Everyone except the tall young men (like my Conner) feel that it is way too much that we are served.  Typical is a bowl of soup, some type of rice and chicken and they drink chichi a purple drink made from purple corn.  Very good..  They have wonderful sauces and potatoes.  For the 4^th of July we had a big cake with an American flag and they BBQ’d hamburgers with French fries.  Delicious!  You can buy a banana for 10 cents so you won’t starve.  No Diet Coke in sight but you can get Coke Zero!  There are two little snack bars here at the hotel compound also for sweets and water.   Several have gotten sick.  So far so good for me though even though I’m having carb overload with all the potatoes and rice.  I WANT A SALAD ok and a COOKIE!

FOR GEORGE:

Miss you.  Thanks for helping me have this opportunity.

FOR CONNER AND CAM:

Hey e-mail me you guys! Your mom’s outta the country remember. HAHA!

FOR GARY AND LISA AT BAYLOR:

Things I can’t live without in Peru:  my hat from Gary and bandanas from Lisa.  The wind in the afternoon sends pure sand everywhere.  We look like a bunch of cops and robbers with our bandanas around our faces.  Already given one away.  My 50 sunscreen is gonna run out!

FOR JAN AT BAYLOR:

I’m the mama first one up in the morning, every morning!  There is another “non-traditional” participant, Rhonda, who is my age.  She is a traveler extraordinaire and much fun to be around.

FOR LYNNETTE AT BAYLOR:

Children’s gifts a hit.  I messed up and didn’t take even candy one day.  Oops.  Dulce (candy) is popular word here. 

FOR SUZANNE AT BAYLOR:

I can’t find the skirt.  Do you think when my suitcase was lost they stole the skirt? HAHA

FOR KATHY NORDT AND DEAN AT BAYLOR:

Dean, the hot water works sometimes and I have learned about stratiagraphy (spelling?).  Kathy LOVE the snacks.  You are so good.

FOR ROBYN AT BAYLOR:

You should come run here no humidity!

FOR MY MOM:

You know how you do my laundry every time you come to see me.  Well I found a woman here who did a whole week’s worth of my horrible dirty laundry and it was only $7!!!  She even ironed my t-shirts.

FOR MY DAD:

They grow sugarcane and corn and cotton around here.  On a trip up one of the mountains you could see a large white area.  When I inquired what it was I was told it is chicken feathers on the ground.  As you can see below a huge area.  Another group had taken that route up the mountain.  It smelled like chickens but they never saw a live chicken while they tramped through the feathers.

FOR LISA AND ELIZABETH:

Hope you don’t want a big surprise from Peru.  Elizabeth how 'bout a guinea pig.  There are lots.  We ate at a ladies house and she had 60 of them, but not for pets.  I’ll let you know when I have it to eat.

TO MY CHURCH BUDDIES:

Love you all and thanks for the warm send-off.  Still staying with me.  Can’t wait to share the experience.

TO LORI NEWTON:

Definitely keep Peru on bucket list.

Peru At Last! Part Two

Here is another place we visited in Lima - San Martin Plaza.  San Martin helped liberate Peru.  All the buildings are white, all signs are black.  Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken are in the square but as you can see they are required to conform their signs

Ok now here's some words about my accomodations which are actually quite nice - for Peru anyway.

 View from our second floor door

 The always empty pool

 Third floor lab and kitchen and laundry area.  I think there could be cross contamination.  It is open air also.