Archaeological Investigations at Catalina Huanca, a Late Lima Settlement

Abstract

This work introduces the site of Catalina Huanca and presents the results of research conducted on its Monticulos 6 and 7 between 2006-2008. Archaeological intervention has permitted the identication of the scope of local political
processes that developed there in prehistory. Around 550 AD, Lima society began the planned construction of this extensive public center in the middle Rimac Valley, representing an enormous investment of work and organization. An analysis of the architectural sequence of Monticulo 7 has illustrated that during the course of 150 years, the settlement’s buldings were continually renovated, reproducing original architectural schematics and therefore the same ideological principles that sustained local power. Later, towards 700-750 AD, the site’s buldings were buried and abandoned following a number of human sacrices, above which was recorded a thick strata of silt. After 750 AD, one of the mounds of the settlement (Monticulo 6) was reutilized as a cemetery for a population whose material culture was found to be associated with the Huari phenomenon.