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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO The Identification of Cahuachi as a Ceremonial Center Excavation and survey at Cahuachi have conclusively negated the site's alleged urban nature (versus Rowe 1963: 10-11; Lanning 1967: 116-117; Proulx 1968: 96; Lumbreras 1974a: 123-124). Cahuachi's mounds are ceremonial constructions, not habitation mounds. Missing from the archaeological record at Cahuachi in Strong's, Orefici's, and my excavations are extensive zones of dense, permanent habitation and quotidian activity areas corresponding to epoch 3 of the Early Intermediate Period, Cahuachi's apogee. It has been empirically demonstrated that the dearth of surface material in the unlooted open (unconstructed ) areas of the site corresponds to minimal domestic refuse in the underlying strata (chaps. 9-12). Nevertheless, items of a domestic nature were found in the construction fills of mounds, although only rare hints of stratified kitchen middens were encountered during the program of excavations. In addition, Orefici and I both recognize the unusually high presence of ritual objects in these construction fills (chap. 2). I argue that the quotidian and ritual objects in Cahuachi's construction fills are the result of frequent pilgrimage episodes at the site. The nonurban character of Cahuachi is seen in other patterns as well. Few vessels appropriate for food storage were found, suggesting only a limited need to store large quantities of food for long periods at the site. The only formal storage facilities identified at the site appear to be the agglutinated room complexes of Unit 2 (Strong's Great Temple) where ritual paraphernalia-in the form of panpipes-has been recovered (chap. 5; see below). 300 Ritual paraphernalia and sacrificial and offering items are found elsewhere at the site as well. The pattern of ceramic remains also confirms the site's nonordinary nature, since iconographically elaborate pottery far outnumbers utilitarian ware during the period of Cahuachi 's main occupation (see tables 16.1-16.4). Indeed , even Cahuachi's spatial organization (chap. 6) is congruent with the identification of the site as a ceremonial center with a pilgrimage function, for Cahuachi is composed of some forty ceremonial mounds of greater and lesser size in association with kanchas-plazas where pilgrims congregated. Cahuachi was a sacred focus in a natural and artificially constructed sacred landscape . Even after its apogee, Cahuachi remained a sacred place, appropriate for burials and the leaving of offerings . The evidence in support of these contentions and identifications has been presented in the preceding chapters. It is summarized below. The Nature of Habitation at Cahuachi Cahuachi appears to have been a habitation site in epoch 1 of the Early Intermediate Period, for at Unit 6 Strong found a Nasca 1 habitation zone underlying Nasca 3 ceremonial constructions (chap. 4). The size of the Nasca 1 settlement (area and population) is unknown at present . Cahuachi was not, however, an exclusively domestic site at that time. Contemporary with its Nasca 1 residential occupation are monumental constructions of a manifestly ceremonial nature, such as the Step Motif Temple at Unit 8 discovered by Orefici (1987). Further- more, the special or primate nature of Cahuachi in epoch 1 of the Early Intermediate Period is indicated by the large amount of fancy Nasca 1 pottery recovered by Strong (1957: figs. 9, 10). What remains to be elucidated is what caused the atrophy of Cahuachi's domestic function in favor of the hyperdevelopment of its ceremonial aspects to the point that, by epoch 3 of the Early Intermediate Period, Cahuachi had become the greatest Nasca ceremonial center but with apparently few permanent residents-certainly nowhere near the 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 inhabitants proposed for undisputed Andean cities (see, e.g., Schaedel 1978; Parsons 1966; Topic and Moseley 1983: 157)-even though 125 hectares of unconstructed space were available. Temple Mounds The modified hills of Cahuachi did not grow, tell-like, through superposition and filling-in of domestic components . They are not habitation mounds. Rather, they are temple mounds-natural hills that were architecturally elaborated to serve as the loci of religious/civic activities . Ceremonial function can be ascribed to the majority of the mounds at Cahuachi on the basis of their architecture and associated material remains. Strong's Great Temple (Unit 2), for instance, had an abundance of panpipes-a musical instrument used in the Nasca cult-as well as feathers, fine pottery, and llama remains . Archaeological, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic evidence identify the Room of the Posts at Unit 19 as a temple and Unit 19 as an...

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