Paracas culture

Localization of the Paracas culture in Peru

Artificially deformed skulls of the Paracas culture in the Museo Nacional de Arqueología Antropología e Historia del Perú

The South American Paracas culture existed from 900 to 200 BC. In the area of ​​today's Ica region in Peru .

Finds

Finds of this culture were first discovered on the Paracas peninsula on the south coast of Peru in 1925 by the Peruvian archaeologist Julio Tello . The desert-like climate of the peninsula offered favorable conditions for the preservation of organic materials. As a result, artfully woven fabrics and the mummies wrapped in them were found in the shaft graves of the Cavernas and Necropolis sites.

The mummies show trepanations and striking skull deformations . Such artificial deformations were common in various cultures in South America in order to make tribal affiliations visible. The Paracas culture brought it to some perfection in this. There are three basic shapes: flattened on both sides, conical and cylindrical.

The ceramics of the Paracas culture were polychrome and had features of an individually manufactured production. It showed influences from Chavín de Huántar .

The Paracas culture strongly influenced the Nazca culture , of which the Nazca lines in particular have gained notoriety. In April 2018, more than 50 new desert lines were discovered, which, however, cannot be assigned to the Nazca culture, but to the Paracas and Topará cultures (a transitional culture between Paracas and Nazca cultures). They show people much more often than the Nazca Lines.

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  Paracas culture woven goods

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  Trumpet of the Paracas culture

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  Paracas culture woven goods

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  Skulls in the Museum of Ica , found in a Paracas necropolis

Web links

Commons : Paracas Culture  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• La Historia del Peru: Cultura Paracas (Spanish)
• German Archaeological Institute: Nasca-Palpa, Peru. Archaeological Project Nasca-Palpa, Peru
• Angelika Franz: Peru: 2300 year old geoglyph calendar discovered ; Spiegel Online, May 6, 2014

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Elsa Tomasto-Cagigao, Markus Reindel and Johny Isla: Paracas Funerary Practices in Palpa, South Coast of Perú . In: Peter Eeckhout and Lawrence S. Owens (Eds.): Funerary Practices and Models in the Ancient Andes. The Return of the Living Dead . Cambridge University Press, New York 2015, p. 69.
2. ^ Rolf Seeler: Peru and Bolivia. Indian cultures, Inca ruins and the baroque colonial splendor of the Andean states. DuMont, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-7701-4786-3 , p. 161, ( available from Google Books).
3. ↑ New desert lines discovered in Peru spiegel.de, April 11, 2018.