Cahuachi, in Peru, was a major ceremonial center of the Nazca culture, based from about in the coastal area of Peru's central Andes. It overlooked some of the Nazca lines. The Italian archaeologist Giuseppe Orefici excavated at the site for the past few decades. The site contains over 40 mounds topped with adobe structures. The huge architectural complex covers (1.5 km²) at 365 meters above sea level. The American archeologist Helaine Silverman has also conducted long term, multi-stage research and written about the full context of Nazca society at Cahuachi, published in a lengthy study in 1993.
Scholars once thought the site was the capital of the Nazca state but have determined that the permanent population was quite small. They believe that it was a pilgrimage center, whose population increased greatly preceding and during major ceremonial events. New research has suggested that 40 of the mounds were natural hills modified to appear as artificial constructions. Support for the pilgrimage theory comes from archaeological evidence of sparse population at Cahuachi, the spatial patterning of the site, and ethnographic evidence from the Virgin of Yauca pilgrimage in the nearby Ica Valley.
Looting is the greatest problem facing the site today. Most of the burial sites surrounding Cahuachi were not known until recently and are tempting targets for looters.
Geographic and environmental overview The Cahuachi site is located near the south coast of Peru, and found in the Nazca Valley. Within the Nazca Valley is the Río Grande de Nazca drainage system and is where the Nazca culture developed. The area is ecologically classified as “pre-mountain desert formation.” There is a very important ecological transition going on within the Río Grande de Nazca drainage system, transitioning from pre-mountain desert zone of the coast, to chuapiyunga (meaning "between hot and cold") up towards the highlands, and east of the town Nazca the transition to true yunga begins. Yunga refers to the Quechua Yungas meaning "warm valley". The site itself can be found on the southern side of the Nazca River, one of ten major tributaries that form the Río Grande de Nazca drainage system. The greater Nazca Valley drainage area is very dry in the summer and extremely hot. Precipitation varies between none and 125 mm; daytime summer temperatures average 21.3 °C.
To the north and south Cahuachi faces two pampas, or flat plain-like terrain: Pampa de San José and Pampa de Atarco, and on these plains is where the famous ground-drawings of the Nazca desert are found. The Río Grande region's soils are available for irrigation agriculture with limitations. Cahuachi is located off of the valley bottom of the treeless hills and terraces beneath Pampa de Atarco, and has been known to be subject to strong winds that are capable of becoming sandstorms. It is on these treeless hills that formed the core majority of artificial constructions at Cahuachi. There is, also present, sporadic rains and cyclical floods which result in water erosion of the terrain, which made some parts of the valley uninhabitable, which influenced the settlement pattern of Cahuachi.
Cahuachi lies over brown barren river terraces that are characterized by hills, above the bottom of the valley. Hills were modified in various ways to create civic or ceremonial centers.
History of research at Cahuachi Frabee was the first to actually acknowledge and excavate the site of Cahuachi in the Nazca region in 1922. The following researchers have also studied and interpreted the site: Kroeber (1926), Tello (1927), Doering (1932), Strong (1952–1953), Robinson (1954–1955).
Among the most extensive research done at Cahuachi was the excavations conducted by archaeologist William Strong. Strong was one of the only archaeologists who took a broad approach to the site, contextualizing it within Nasca society and south coast prehistory. He set out to find stratigraphic evidence that would resolve the gap between Paracas and Nasca styles in the region. He also did settlement pattern studies in order to find out the kinds of activities that went on at Cahuachi. William Duncan Strong's excavations in the early Nasca site of Cahuachi from 1952–1953 found that the site was composed of temples, cemeteries, and house mounds. Following his findings, other scholars within Peruvian archaeology interpreted the site to have been an urban settlement with residential structures. However, more recent excavations and experiments suggests this to be unlikely.
In the early 1980s, American archaeologist Helaine Silverman and Italian architect Giuseppe Orefici conducted intensive and extensive archaeological excavations in several areas of the site. This new research was aimed towards finding and clarifying the real character of the site and of Nasca society. Orefici's excavations in 1983 had revealed the evidence ceramic production in the form of an oven; however he has recovered various burial sites, ceremonial drums, and pottery which suggests that the site is indeed a ceremonial center.
Cahuachi is where Helaine Silverman began her dissertation fieldwork on early Nasca society in 1983. She later inferred from her data and analysis how Cahuachi would have functioned as a ceremonial center and its role in state formation and urbanism, within a regional and pan-Andean scope. Silverman's data from the excavations and experiments in 1986, strongly support the claim that the site was indeed a ceremonial centre. Through her work and research, Silverman found no evidence of inhabitants or domestic and residential structures indicating it to be an urban settlement. She suggested that the site was used as a ceremonial center where people periodically performed religious activities. By examining the remains of pottery, Silverman also suggested that pottery was taken and was broken at the site as a part of the activities and rituals taking place at that time. The vegetal and faunal remains also indicated that food was brought to the site and immediately consumed there. Later research also indicated the consumption of hallucinogenic beverages at the site.
Excavations and surveys conducted by Giuseppe Orefici indicate that the site was not a permanent domestic habitat. The site contains around 40 archaeological mounds and progressive excavations of the area found that most of these mounds were not used for habitation, but that it was more likely a religious ceremonial setting.
Chronology and Nasca style pottery There is a major emphasis on Nasca style pottery at Cahuachi. Recognized as a discrete style first by Adolf Bastian, Nasca style is a polychrome pottery and is generally noted as having a “south coast” provenance and is named Nasca for its focal regional distribution in the Nasca valley. There are two principal modalities in the decorative style of Nasca pottery: “Monumental” and “proliferous” (coined terms by Rowe).
Monumental refers to the types of Nasca pottery with so-called realistic designs, while Proliferous describes more “conventionalized motifs” with volutes, rays, and points. Gayton and Kroeber established three categorizable characteristics-shape, color, and design- and based on the relationships between these attributes came up with four chronological phases or “substyles” of Nasca pottery: {| class="wikitable" |+ Nasca pottery classifications |- !colspan=2| Gayton & Kroeber !! Dawson !! Rowe |- |align=center| (A) || the earliest ||align=center| 1–4 || “Monumental” |- |align=center| (X) || transitional ||align=center| 5 || “Proliferous” |- |align=center| (Y) || miscellaneous, ||align=center| 6, 7 || |- |align=center| (B) || latest ||align=center| 8, 9 || |} Later, came the Dawson seriation which subdivided the Nasca style into nine phases. These are then associated into certain periods and epochs. Monumental includes Nasca 1–4 and Gayton and Kroeber's Nazca A, while Proliferous encompasses the innovation of Nasca 5; and Nasca 6 and 7 pottery and corresponds to Gayton and Kroeber's Nazca Y.
Because of the frequency of Nasca 3 pottery and its association with architecture at the site, the conclusion is that Cahuachi is early Intermediate Period of the Ica (south coast ceramic periods). Nasca 1 and 2 are represented at a lesser degree, but are still significantly present as well. One of Strong's goals in his research at Cahuachi was "to resolve the temporal relationship between Paracas and Nasca" style pottery, which was still stratigraphically unproven. Stong's conclusions were that the ceremonial structures at Cahuachi date to the "middle Nazca culture phase" (Nazca 3), and not late Nazca. Instead, late Nazca dates were only found to be associated with graves. According to , all later scholars are in basic agreement with Strong.
Agriculture and economy Cahuachi is considered a non-urban ceremonial center, meaning that it was never densely occupied and people did not actually live there long-term, this is evidenced by perishable and temporary “wattle and daub-like” structures (not unlike the ones made today) excavated on site. It was more of a pilgrimage or religious destination. So, although for the extensive evidence of Nasca pottery that is used to date the site, and considering the massive specialized culture that goes with it, the evidence for craft specialization and intensive trade and agriculture is understandably limited than if the site were a permanent residence of a large population.
Agriculture – edible food materials present At least 15 species of shellfish remains were found at Cahuachi, as well as one type of echinoderm, and four types of fish. Interesting to note as well, is that the most abundant types of botanical remains found at Cahuachi were also most easily transported such as peanut, and were also locally and seasonally available like the huarango fruit native to the area, and more importantly, Cahuachi. The reason for why there is a limited amount of edible plant remains found here is because Cahuachi was not a permanently inhabited place, so any food that was brought there was kept in small storage and quickly consumed. Other edible foods found at Cahuchi include potato, sweet potato, manioc, beans, squash, and achira. Excavations at the unit 16 wall revealed loose earth and some windblown organic remains found within postholes that had been excavated down to sterile soil. Materials recovered include: Huarango seed, pacae leaf, guayaba seed, and llama excrement. Another excavation at the unit 16 wall of five circular and roughly circular depressions contained, among other things, guinea pig hair, and gourd fragments.
A special food preparation area evidenced by the presence of a corn popper and the ritual importance of corn in the Andes was also found at Cahuachi. Small storage facilities and vessels that would have contained food and drink only sufficient for short visits to the ceremonial center both support the fact that Cahuachi was not permanently inhabited at all times and therefore most likely did not have intensive agriculture at the site itself. That being said, all these remains had to come from somewhere, and so they can be used as evidence that indicates the types of food most popular and abundant in this area at the time. The presence of the food materials and the absence of most of their cultivation within the site of Cahuachi can also be indicative of trade networks within the surrounding communities.
Agriculture – ritual food materials present