Farewell to the Gods
Farewell to the Gods
Interpreting the Use and Voluntary Abandonment of a Ritual Building at Pachacamac, Peru
A pre-Columbian building decorated with polychrome mural paintings was recently discovered at the site of Pachacamac, near Lima. Hundreds of offerings were scattered across the rooms and corridors of the building. They included extremely diverse objects from across the Andean region: parrot feather adornments and seeds from the Amazon; black stones from the mountains, chosen for their unusual shapes; unmodified and sculpted shells from the Equatorial region; ornate cups inlaid with mother-of-pearl in the style of the Northern Coast; metal; Inca ceramics, etc. In this chapter, the use of this peculiar building—probably a kind of sanctuary—and its links with pilgrimage, healing practices, and ancestor cult are discussed. Most of the offerings were placed within and around the structure at the moment of its abandonment following the Spanish invasion. The possible meanings and causes of such an unusual ritual are reviewed and discussed.
Keywords: Pachacamac, Andean region, Inca ceramics
Florida Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
