Chimú culture
The Chimú culture established itself in the period from 1250 to 1470 in northern Peru in the area around the city of Trujillo . At the time of greatest expansion, their influence reached in the north to the border of Ecuador and in the south to Lima . Its capital, Chan Chan, is said to have housed over 100,000 residents at its peak and was the largest city on the South American continent .
Around 1470 the last king Minchancaman was defeated by the Inca ruler Túpac Yupanqui , the Chimú empire was conquered and incorporated into the Inca state.
Language / religion
The Chimú language, Quingnam, was a variant of Muchik (Mochica) and died out in the Trujillo area in the 18th century. In Etén ( Lambayeque department ), however, the Muchik lasted until the beginning of the 20th century.
Although the sun was also of great importance, the Chimús worshiped the moon as the most important god because it was able to cover the sun. Solar eclipses were therefore always the occasion for large celebrations. The Chimú attributed the growth of plants , the crops and the tides to the moon. The father of stones and rocks with their supernatural powers, on the other hand, was the sun. Sacrifice played an important role. A popular object for offerings, but also in handicrafts, was the Spondylus mussel, native to the warm Ecuadorian coastal waters , whose shiny shell was highly valued and traded on a large scale. It was considered a symbol of the sea and the rain and thus a symbol of fertility.
The Chimú traced their origins back to a legendary ruler named Taycanamo. He supposedly came from the north on a balsa wood raft into the Moche valley. There he married local women and founded his extremely successful dynasty. It is a beautiful legend that was still in circulation during the Spanish times.
A mass grave from around 1450 near Chan Chan with 140 ritually killed children and over 200 lamas testifies to a sacrifice probably to appease the rain gods.
Culture / technical development
Due to the huge crowd - for the time - the Chimú were forced to invent new techniques . They used work slaves to mine the abundant ore deposits and to mine river gold . From Bolivia was tin brought in so bronze alloys could be produced. In the manufacture of ceramic and gold objects, they developed series production . To supply the population with water , they built canals that caught the water from the rivers in the mountains and led them over mountain slopes to branches. Some of these canals carried the water to destinations up to 100 kilometers from the place of origin. In this way, even dry valleys could be cultivated and the inhabitants could be fed. With the increase in people, an order also developed. Classes and hierarchies arose : craftsmen , traders , administration and the military .
A huge structure, the Mayao Wall , was discovered through aerial photography in 1932 . It was about 3 m high and 4.5 m wide and reached from the Pacific coast to the mountain slopes 65 km away. It was guarded by 50 built-in fortresses. It is believed that it limited the Chimú's first expansion area.
The Chimú developed a special technique for the production of ceramic objects. Towards the end of the fire, the furnace was hermetically sealed to prevent oxygen from entering. The remaining smoke clouds the surface of the object and gives it a shiny, black color. Today this technology is called reduction fire . There were no paintings on ceramic objects, in contrast to the Mochica culture. Series production was more important than handicrafts .
The Chimú used the wool of alpaca and vicuna to make textiles . They were easy to dye and work with. The clothes of higher-ranking people were made from alpaca and vicuna wool, as well as carpets and even tents .
The Chimú developed the goldsmith's trade , which they probably took over from the Mochica, much further. They mastered casting, soldering , gold plating and could also produce various alloys . Not much of this has survived, however. It is said that the Incas brought the best goldsmith's work to Cuzco after the conquest of the empire . Most of the works of art were melted down by the Spanish during the Conquista .
See also
literature
- Victor Wolfgang von Hagen : The desert kingdoms of Peru . Paul Zsolnay, Vienna 1964.
Web links
- Literature about the Chimú in the catalog of the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Flindell clear: Peru. Society and Nationhood in the Andes. Oxford University Press, New York NY et al. 2000, ISBN 0-19-506928-5 , p. 11.
- ^ Children's mass grave discovered in Peru science.orf.at, March 6, 2019, accessed March 6, 2019.
- ↑ Victor Wolfgang von Hagen: The desert kingdoms of Peru . Paul Zsolnay, Vienna 1964, p. 100.