We travel south to Peru and Chile, stopping at five famous archaeological sites along the way. We visit the pyramids of Tucume near Chiclayo, the pyramids of the Sun and Moon near Trujillo, the huge ruined city of Chanchan, the Pyramids of Sachin near Casma, then Paramonga and finally, the great pyramid of Pachacamac, to the south of Lima. Along the way we explore the creation stories of the indigenous peoples, many of who claim that their founders arrived from the West in fleets of great ships, setting up cities and settlements, before departing as suddenly as they had arrived.
Examples of Oriental influences in art, customs and cultures, architecture, linguistics and more, can be seen to permeate these old civilisations and draw us to conclude that there must have been a significant Asian influence in the development of the founding civilisations in South America too.
The great extent of Chinese trade on the Pacific coast of Peru is illustrated by exhibits in Lima’s Museo Arqueologico Rafael Larco Herrera. Huge rooms are filled with shelves containing thousands of exhibits from graves starting from 1000 BC, through to the 1400’s. Here we find distinctive paintings of Chinese merchants from Moche, Chanca and Nasca graves, along the whole coast of Peru from north to south, and spanning the past two thousand years. Evidence from the graves is corroborated by Chinese customs and games which are found in Peruvian and Chilean society to this day.
Further reading:
Chan Chan archaeological zone: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/366
Tucume- http://www.roughguides.com/destinations/south-america/peru/trujillo-and-the-north/the-northern-desert/tucume/
Sechin – Similarities between Chinese and Peruvian culture: http://www.taringa.net/posts/paranormal/12625247/Sechin-relacion-entre-cultura-china-y-peruana.html
Museo Larco, Peru – http://www.museolarco.org/
Mochica ceramics with Oriental influence – http://www.museolarco.org/catalogo/ficha.php?id=2041
Solís, Ruth Shady. The Caral Supe Civilisation: 5,000 Years of Cultural Identity in Peru. Lima: Instituto Nacional de Cultura, 2005.
Burger, Richard L. Chavin and the Origins of Andean Civilization. London: Thames & Hudson, 1992.
Reinhard, Johan. “Peru’s Ice Maidens: Unwrapping the Secrets.” National Geographic, June 1996.
