Update on the Cerro Mejia site in Peru
Mike R
Archaeology Magazine has an update on the Cerro Mejia site in Peru. It
was settled at 600 CE by the Wari to irrigate very dry land and to
perform terrace farming to prevent soil erosion and to build a 13 mile
canal system. It is 300 miles from the Wari capital. The site is near
Cerro Baul and is 8000 feet above sea level. Work has been ongoing at
the two sites since 1999 and Cerro Baul is very different with large
decorated homes for state officials with fine pottery and the state
elite dined on llama meat and ocean fish and had servants. The people
at Cerro Mejia lived in a less complex way and the archaeologists
suspect that the Cerro Baul people were from the Wari heartland and
those from Cerro Mejia are from elsewhere. Many artifacts have been
found in burial chambers and these artifacts lead the archaeologists
to believe that the inhabitants may have been forcibly moved here by
the Wari or maybe it was built as a settler colony. The artifacts
uncovered are from a variety of places.
The report details the specific finds and many more years of research
and excavation will be undertaken to find out more details about the
inhabitants and their reasons for being in this spot on behalf of the
Wari empire.
Archaeology Magazine has the detailed report here with many photos;
http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/cerro_mejia/
Mike Ruggeri
Mike Ruggeri's Andean Archaeology News and Links
http://tinyurl.com/d92x3n