Chimu Culture

The Chimú culture, or also called the kingdom of Chimor, arose on the north coast of Peru between the 12th and 15th centuries AD. With their capital at Chan Chan, the Chimú were the largest and most prosperous culture of the Late Intermediate Period and the second largest empire in the history of the ancient Andes. Their architecture, their approach to regional government, and their art would also come to influence their most famous successors, the Incas.

Geographic location

The Chimú Culture was established on the north coast of Peru, from 1100 to 1400 AD. The center of this culture was the city of Chan Chan in the valley of the Moche River. The ruins of the city cover almost an area of 20 square kilometers.

With the help of the conquests and wars of the people of the Chimú culture formed a state that during its glory days, ruled over a 1000 km coastal strip of land that almost reached the northern border of Peru. The state of the Chimú culture reached its maximum expansion during its last stage (1350-1450 AD), after having defeated the Sicán culture in the north. The state of the Chimú culture competed strongly with the Inca state, which suppressed it around the year 1450 AD.

Historical Overview

The traditional founding leader of the Chimú was Taycanamo, who was believed to have hatched from a golden egg and had come from the ocean. Other notable governors include Guacricaur, who expanded into the Moche, Santa, and Zaña valleys. Over time, the Chimú extended their territory even further south and in 1375, under the command of Nancinpinco, they conquered the Lambayeque (Sicán) culture by absorbing some of their cultural practices and artistic ideas. The La Leche valley also fell under Chimú control, so that, in its heyday during the reign of Minchanzaman, around 1400, the Chimú area of influence covered 1,300 km along the north coast of Peru.

The early prosperity of the Chimú was largely due to agricultural prowess, as they built extensive irrigation systems using canals. Later, their successful military campaigns and tribute policy ensured that they became the dominant regional power. Chan Chan became the capital of other administrative centers, such as Farfán, Manchan, El Milagro, Quebrado Katuay, and the place where the Paramonga fortress is located. This domination came to an end with the rise of the Incas who, led by Tupac Yupanqui, captured the eleventh Chimú ruler known as Minchanzaman in the year 1470. After that, the Chimú kingdom became a vassal state of the Inca Empire, which it maintained. permanently imprisoned the Chimú king in Cuzco to ensure compliance with the new order. The Incas also assimilated some aspects of Chimú culture, such as inheriting their governors' title, though not their property; the policy of allowing conquered rulers some autonomy; the idea of having groups of foreign artists working for the state, and certain characteristics of Chimú art. The Incas also kept records of the Chimú culture, and thanks to these, we have, albeit scant, information about their kings and their main gods. Among the latter we find the creator god Ai Apaec, the sea god Ni, and perhaps the most important deity of the Chimú pantheon, the moon goddess Si.

Chan Chan

The capital city of the Chimú was Chan Chan (known as Chimor by its original inhabitants) which, built at the mouth of the Moche River, covered about 20 square km and had a population of more than 40,000 at its peak. The city became the center of a vast network of trade and tribute, and was home to at least 26,000 craftsmen and women, often forcibly brought there from conquered cities to mass-produce high-quality goods of a wide range. of precious materials.

Chimú architecture is characterized by its monumental adobe brick constructions. Over the centuries they built ten palaces or royal complexes with a rectangular design, each with 10m-high double outer walls, labyrinthine interiors, and a single entrance. Of special mention are the U-shaped audience rooms that controlled access to the warehouses. The walls of the complexes, built to restrict access by commoners, were decorated on the inside with striking relief designs, usually of repeating geometric shapes, animals, and marine life, especially fish. The carved patterns may have been an imitation of those on textile wall decorations. The Chimú built similar adobe complexes in other places, such as the nine of Manchan and the six of Farfán.

Functional structures within each complex include administrative buildings and warehouses and mortuary platforms accessed by ramps containing mummified leaders. Over time, the new palaces became larger (the largest covers an area of 220,000 square meters) and had more space dedicated to storage, indicative of the Chimú policy of extracting tribute from conquered territories. Chan Chan also expanded overall with more residences for administrators and artisans, where the latter lived in modest bahareque dwellings with steep roofs and a single chimney. The city also had an extensive irrigation system that combined canals, shallow reservoirs, and wells.

Chimu Art

Influenced by the Wari and Moche cultures, the Chimú kingdom would continue and expand the artistic themes that have become characteristic of Andean art ever since. Chimú pottery is characterized by black or red ceramic items made in molds with sculpted decoration, which were given a highly polished finish. The most common form is the double-spout bulbous pitcher. The fabrics have natural colors and the most precious have a decoration of exotic feathers where these are sewn in rows on cotton and dyed to create different designs. Popular motifs include open-armed figures wearing headdresses (probably representing the ruling class) and two-headed "rainbow" serpents. Textiles could also be decorated by adding precious metals, and a tunic with 7,000 small gold squares individually sewn into the fabric survives.

Carved and inlaid spondylus shells, brought from Ecuador, were another popular medium for Chimú art with diamond-shaped inlays, creating striking pieces of jewelry. Precious goods could also be made using gold, silver, and imported amber and emeralds from Colombia. Many examples of wooden sculptures have been recovered from two pyramidal structures just outside Chan Chan (Huaca el Dragón and Huaca Tacaynamo). Most of these figures represent members of funeral processions.

Finally, it is interesting to indicate that the Chimú rulers were collectors of art from other cultures and their palaces were full of niches in which they placed objects and statues to display them. The Chan Chan artists themselves had such a reputation that the Incas forced thousands of them to move, along with their best pieces, to their capital at Cuzco, which was also an effective method of controlling the production of precious goods and thus limiting production. the resources to finance a rebellion.

Social and Political Organization

The inhabitants of the Chimú culture had a centralized expansionist state with clear class divisions and a highly complex bureaucracy. The economic and social system operated through a network of rural towns and the state was administered in the capital Chan-Chan.

Religion

The inhabitants of the Chimú culture worshiped the Moon due to their belief that it influenced the growth of plants, the tides and its use as a marker of time.

They believed they descended from four stars, the nobles descended from the two largest and the common people from the other two. They believed that the soul of the deceased went to the seashore, from where it was transported by sea lions to its last resting place on the islands.

Economic activities

he capital of the Chimú culture was Chan Chan. It is located in one of the driest deserts on the coast. Its peoples had devised a complex intelligent irrigation system that allowed them to irrigate cultivated fields and maintain gardens throughout the year. They were also skilled artisans, producing a range of pottery and a large number of intricate metal objects in gold, silver and copper, including knives, vessels and jewellery, as well as miscellaneous textiles, some decorated with colored feathers.

Agriculture was one of the main concerns, they built many kilometers of irrigation canals, including canals between valleys, to expand the cultivation area. A long canal was built from the Chicama River to the north in order to irrigate farmland near Chan Chan in the Moche Valley. The enormous area harvested in the Moche valley in pre-Hispanic times still exceeds the area currently cultivated.

Architecture

The archaeological site of the Chimú culture is characterized by very high walls, some of which are 26 meters high, which enclose each of the 11 citadels. Together with Huaca pintada, Huaca del Dragón, Chan Chan the largest stepped pyramid, which is located in the north of the city, they form the bulk of the monumental architecture on the site. Each of these palaces, most of which are arranged in a very similar fashion despite differences in size, are characterized by three types of structures: U-shaped audiences, storerooms, and wells. Generally speaking, the site's high walls, long corridors, winding and twisting passageways, and small entrances show how meticulously the regime controlled the flow of people within the compounds.

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