Lambayeque (culture)

Lambayeque - or Sicàn - recovers a flourishing cultural expression in the valley of Licks It on the northern coast of the Peru, around the year 700 and 1300 Apr. J. - C enters the end of the culture Mochica and the splendor of the empire Chimú. It is historically related to the phase of expansion Tiahuanaco-Huari of which it could be a local development. It is a pre-incaique civilization.

Origin

Between 900 and 1100, Batan Grande (near the current city of Chiclayo) became the political and religious center of the Lambayeque culture. The latter occupied a geographical surface located at the north of current the Peru between the people dominating the Ecuador in north and the vast kingdoms of the Chimú and the Chancay in the south. At that time, the people of Lambayeque thrived as a community of sailors and tradesmen travellers.

The etymology of the word Lambayeque would come from the Muchik or Yunga, languages disappeared at the time of the colony, and which were spoken since unmemorable times on the Northern coast about the Peru. According to the version of the chronicler Cabello de Balboa (1586), Lambayeque would be a derivative of the name NampaIlec, in other words the mythical character of Naymlap

Structure and culture

Description in 1979 by the Japanese archeologist Izumi Shimada - university of Harvard - during excavations concentrated around the site of Batan Large, the culture of Lambayeque will produce more the beautiful pieces of goldsmithery of old Peru. Several of its inhabitants worked metal with address. The tombs of the lords of Batan Grande contained goblets of gold and money (keros), emeralds, pearls and “fardos funerary” containing gold masks decorated with semi-precious stones, shells and feathers. Other artefacts, facts of clay, wood encrusted with shells and textiles represent marine birds, fish and scenes where plungers fish the Spondyle shell, which was gathered more in north, in Ecuador. The writings of the Spaniards who colonized the area indicate that a person in charge of the more high level was to create a red carpet, fact of shells of Spondyle pulverized under the steps of the sovereign. The textiles and many objects out of ceramics and metal coming from the valley of Lambayeque are a combination of local elements, Moche and Huari including the characteristics like the eyes, the cover-chiefs in form of crescent, the marine reasons and the tapestries with slits. The representation of the mythical character of Naymlap, with its exaggeratedly attached eyes, returns regularly like reason for decoration. This one was found in many archeological sites of the cultural sphere of Lambayeque in particular at the time of archaeological excavations in the valley of the Rio Saña on painted walls of red, white, black. Characters identical to the eyes out of almond and carrying a large cap in half-moon were similar to the effigy of Naymlap. Naymlap was also represented on the famous Tumi of Lambayeque of the Museo de Oro of Lima - sacrificial knife, generally out of gold and crimped invaluable stones, used in the cultures Mochica and Lambayeque, - like on various objects out of ceramics or fabric.

Principal Sites

Each pyramid is governed by a hierarchical company at the top of which seat a lord, considered as a demigod. The pyramids, in the Lambayeque culture, play a quite particular role: they are used to the lord to borrow the capacities of the gods of the mountain. The recent discovered ones indicate that each site would have been abandoned following a natural disaster of great scale. Indeed, the weather phenomena which had with the El Niño, are particularly violent one in this part of the world. But these phenomena are then justified in a religious way, like the expression of the anger of the gods: the capacities of the pyramids thus failed to protect the population. The pyramids then are regarded as cursed and are set fire to in a ritual of purification.

Batàn Large in the close valley of the river Licks It is located. It is a whole of pyramids, known under the names of Huaca of Cruz, Huaca del Oro, Huaca Colorada and Huaca of los Ingenios, among others. These constructions were raised in Adobe (brick) adobes (clay dried with the sun and mixed with straw, which one makes bricks known as " bricks crues") and out of stones, their walls covered with coatings. Following a flood, the site of Batàn Grande abandoned and would have been set fire to around 1100 Apr. J. - C. and a new site was created with Túcume. The expansion of the kingdom Chimú - having for capital Chan Chan - will have as a consequence the conquest of the lambayèque people towards 1350 Apr. J. - C.

Túcume is located in the valley of Leche, near to the current villages of Mochumi and of Lambayeque, this vast archaeological complex is also known under the name of El Purgatorio. It occupies a surface of 220 ha including/understanding 26 pyramidal structures undoubtedly going back to 600 to 1000 after J. - C. It constitutes the apogee of Lambayeque architecture, influenced by the cultures Chimú and Tiahuanaco-Huari. It was to be a question of a city built with the foot of a mountain, the Cerro Striped it, and whose circular plan includes/understands remainders of dwellings, pyramids devoted to the worships, terraces and patios. The site present of the traces of occupation going from the initial culture of Lambayeque until the occupation INCA, as the two most remarkable buildings testify some: Huaca Larga, with colossal dimensions (more than 700 m length), built in adobes covered with a painted coating and small Templo with Piedra Sagrada, excavated by the archeologist Alfredo Narváez, who delivered many information on the religious practices of the time of Lambayeque. The site of Túcume would have been abandoned when with the news of the approach of the Spanish armies on the extraordinary back of animals (they had never seen horses), the population was taken of panic. Indeed, these invaders would have been taken for mythological gods. During the summer 2005,119 bodies found were doped and decapitated, offered in human sacrifices. In front of the failure of their offerings, the site fur given up and purified.

Caption of Naymlap

The existence of Naymlap, legendary founder of the dynasty of the sovereigns of the valley of Lambayeque - to which the famous " would belong; Lord of Sipan" - will be consigned by the chronicler Cabello de Balboa to the 16th century. Naymlap would have appeared on the shores of the coasts of Lambayeque, sailing on a boat of braided reeds, accompanied by a continuation by forty noble and many women and servants. It came doubtless from the Pacifique. Certain historians, in particular Thor Heyerdahl with the Kon-Tiki, will put forth the assumption of a migration océanienne towards the Peru. Naymlap will seize the valley of Lambayeque and will become the king about it. In the artistic expression of the culture of Lambayeque, Naymlap often appears on the tumis (sacrificial knife) out of gold. It is represented with wings of a bird of sea, which would prove the maritime source of the Mythe. The former Culture of Chavin privileged the representation of the cat-like ones.

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