PAMPA GRANDE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT
Photo by J. Dietler, 2005
The site of Pampa Grande is four square kilometers of dense urban settlement and was home to tens of thousands of inhabitants at its height during the Late Moche Period (AD 600-800). The site is best known for its large civic-ceremonial sector, towering mud-brick pyramid, and dense urban habitation. Recent excavations were carried out in the Southern Pediment of Pampa Grande, which was home to a large urban populous residing in modest dwellings and performing daily household activities. This project explored the development of urbanism and the associated changes in social organization that occurred, as people from the surrounding valley aggregated into a rapidly colonized center. Perhaps most interesting to this study, is the presence of large domestic complexes suggesting new types of social organization beyond the household level.
Our investigations shed light onto the types of communities that developed among the middle and lower class inhabitants of Pampa Grande in prehistory. This research also adds insight to a poorly understood cultural region. The Moche culture consisted of many dynamic polities that rose and fell through time. Pampa Grande is key to our understanding of Moche prehistory because it was one of the largest and final centers before the collapse of Moche culture and artistic tradition. Research on the lower and middle class members of society is valuable to our understanding of social and political changes that occurred in early cities and states. The broader impact of this research is an anthropological understanding of the social changes and stratifications that developed in urban cities as a response to new physical, social, and cultural surroundings.
PROJECT DIRECTOR: ILANA JOHNSON