Chavin de Huantar

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Site Description

Black and White Gate, Building A

Chavin de Huantar sits at an elevation of 3,177m (10,425ft) above sea level in the Peruvian Andes and is located at the confluence of the Mosna and Wacheksa rivers. Aside from the river junction, it was also at the intersection of several major trade routes through the mountains, making it a strategically located capital for the Chavin cult. The site covers 12,000 sq m (129,167 sq ft). The site's topography includes several terraces, squares, and two sunken plazas, all having been constructed with stone. Its mountainous location has made it susceptible to destructive landslides (as recent as 1945) and earthquakes (as recent as 1970) over the centuries.
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History

Circular Plaza and staircase up Building B

The site of Chavin de Huantar in the Peruvian Andes was first inhabited around 1500 BC, during the Initial Period. However, the site's most illustrious era was from 800 - 300 BC, during the Early Horizon (750 - 250 BC), when its prestige reached a climax so great that the entire period of its "reign" is now attributed as the Chavin Horizon.
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Project Narrative

Black and White Staircase, Plaza Mayor Terrace

In July 2005, a group of students from the University of California at Berkeley traveled to Chavin de Huantar in Ancash, Peru for an archaeological 3D laser scan documentation project. The project's goal was to support and supplement the archaeological activities and research being conducted at the site by Stanford University with the intent of the new data becoming the base data set for executing a conservation plan for the site. The students implemented HDS, panoramic photography, HR photography, traditional survey, time-lapse photography, and close-range 3D scanning. The subject of the project was all above-ground structures and selected subterranean galleries. The venture was funded jointly by Stanford University and the Kacyra Family Foundation.
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Preservation

Video of Tenoned Head, 3D Point cloud image with photo texturing

Chavin's state of preservation is poor, but gradually improving. In 1998, Peru's National Institute for Culture (INC) asked for emergency assistance to stabilize and protect the site from the upcoming El Nino weather pattern. During the assistance, which improved drainage and stabilized the galleries, it was noted that the site had never been subject to a specific conservation or preservation effort and the state of conservation of the major structures was extremely poor as a result of climate, structural instability, topography, the materials used in construction, and badly managed tourism. A new access road was recently constructed, but before construction began, Stanford University performed excavations of the location known as "La Banda" in order to secure any archaeological remains and help assure the damage done by the road is minimal. UNESCO has urged Peru to develop a site management plan.

The new Chavin Conservation Partnership (CCP) is developing plans to protect the site from the coming onslaught of tourism due to the planned construction of a highway to the remote, mountain-top area. The CCP trained a new conservation team in 2004/2005 and the team has begun working on the preparation of 600-800 artifacts for consolidation, conservation, cataloguing, and interpretation. Artifacts are also being prepared from the collections in the site museum and Lima's National Museum for the new National Museum of Chavin, slated for construction in 2006. Through support and donations a conservation lab and storage facility were purchased in 2004 and the development and enforcement of a site Master Plan is underway.
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Area Descriptions

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Building A Description:

Commonly known as the Castillo, this is the main temple of the site and contains the largest number of galleries as it is nearly 1/3 hollow (this includes the Lanzon Gallery); it is the location of the Black and White Portal, and the bearer of the tenoned heads. The temple is believed to have "roared" with the implementation of flushing water through a network of drains and venting the sound out.
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Black & White Portal Description:

This elaborate portal is made half in black granite and half in white limestone, just as the Black and White Staircase is. The portal precedes the front of Building A (the Castillo) although no frontal entrance existed here. The columns and lintel of the portal are intricately decorated with carvings.
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Doble Mensula Description:

Doble Mensula is located in the south-central area of Building A's interior. The gallery was built in two separate stages, first being the construction of the lower gallery. Later, with the addition of the upper portion of the gallery, the lower portion had to be modified to accommodate the joining of the two parts. The modifications to the lower gallery would have required great skill.
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Building B Description:

Building B, constructed over three building phases, lies between Buildings A and C and west of the Circular Plaza Atrium. Its five galleries include the Lanzon Gallery and connecting Gallery VIII. However, the top of the building, along with Gallery VIII and the top of the Circular Plaza Staircase, was destroyed in a 1945 alluvion.
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Lanzon Gallery Description:

The Lanzon Gallery, a subterranean gallery that houses the Lanzon stele at the head of an elongated cross-shaped hall, is at the center of Building B. The gallery was built over 3, possibly 4, construction episodes that transformed an open and free-standing rectangular structure housing the Lanzon stela into cruciform, internal gallery.
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Building C Description:

Building C was likely as tall as parts of Building A, yet during the 1945 alluvion much of the top of the structure was destroyed, including a modern-day chapel. Interestingly the galleries of Building C do not align to the galleries of the other buildings. The south wall of the building is also the north wall of the Circular Plaza Atrium.
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Building D Description:

Little information is attainable about the construction of Building D as its only two known galleries are at different levels and are not 90 degrees to each other and so little can be deduced. The building is dilapidated and little of the exterior walls remain. It does not align to the "Black and White Axis" formed by the Black and White Portal that the other plazas and buildings align to; this suggests it was possibly built later or, more likely, earlier.
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Building E Description:

Located south of Plaza Mayor its two staircases align symmetrically to those of Building F directly across the plaza; Building F has three staircases and this suggest that Building E also did when it was constructed. Building E has undergone considerable damage as a result of a temporary course change in the Mosna River which eroded much of the building's eastern side and one of its two galleries. The top of the structure exhibits evidence of more galleries beneath. The building also appears to have been built over an older, smaller structure.
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Building F Description:

Located north of Plaza Mayor, Building F has three staircases that run up the building side from the plaza terrace. Its staircases are aligned symmetrically with those of Building E, which is located directly across Plaza Mayor Terrace. This building aligns to the Black and White Axis created by the Black and White Portal.
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Circular Plaza Terrace Description:

The Circular Plaza Terrace was built up around the Circular Plaza in order to make the plaza artificially sunken. Located within the Circular Plaza Atrium it appears that the terrace and the other components of the Atrium (the plaza, the terrace, a staircase, and three galleries) were constructed contemporarily.
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Campamento Description:

The Campamento Gallery is located in the northeast side of the Circular Plaza Terrace. It may have originally connected to the near-by Caracolas Gallery, although it is inconclusive as Campamento is in poor condition. The gallery currently boasts modern supports, its original entrance is unknown, and two segments are filled with collapsed materials. The stonework near the collapses suggest the gallery extends beyond them and so its original scope is unknown. The accessible portions of the gallery show now seams in the stonework which imply it was built in one phase of construction.
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Circular Plaza Atrium Description:

The area between the north wall of Building A, the south wall of Building C, and the east wall of Building B comprises the Circular Plaza Atrium. It includes the Circular Plaza, the Circular Plaza Terrace, three galleries, and the lower portion of the Circular Plaza Staircase. The Atrium and its individual components appear to have been constructed in the same phase.
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Plaza Mayor Terrace Description:

Plaza Mayor Terrace is the location of Plaza Mayor and the Black and White Staircase and is flanked by Buildings E, F, and G. Below the terrace and the Plaza Mayor is the Rocas gallery system in which four drainage canals intersect. These subterranean drains and galleries indicate the terrace was built up from at least the floor level of Plaza Mayor.
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Black & White Staircase Description:

The stairway used to reach Building A (the Castillo) and Plaza Menor from the main plaza; one side is made from black granite and the other from white limestone.
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Plaza Mayor Description:

The main square plaza located below Building A which is 48 sq m (517 sq ft) in size and aligns to the Black and White Axis of the site created by the Black and White Portal. The eastern staircase of Plaza Mayor has a marker that aligns to the center of the Black and White Portal. The plaza's floor is the lowest formal level of Chavin de Huantar.
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Plaza Menor Terrace Description:

From the Plaza Mayor Terrace the Black and White Staircase leads to the smaller, elevated Plaza Menor Terrace, where the smaller Plaza Menor sits before the Black and White Portal of Building A (the Castillo). The top surface of Plaza Menor is level with the base of Building A and below the plaza's surface is a system of stone-lined drains and canals, part of the Rocas galleries.
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Rocas Description:

Rocas comprises several subterranean galleries that have been called drains and/or drainage canals, although evidence now supports a more elaborate use. Some of the Rocas drains are the size of the numerous vents throughout the buildings of Chavin de Huantar, however, several are large enough for a person to stand in and walk through and stairs have been found in one location that appear to have lead up to Plaza Mayor. Located beneath Plaza Mayor and the Plaza Mayor Terrace and extending west beneath Building A and as far east as the Mosna River, their construction would indicate they were built at the same time as the plaza and its terrace with the terrace being built up by being filled around these galleries and drains.
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References:

• ICOMOS. "World Heritage List, No 330." Advisory Body Evaluation. 23 August 1984. UNESCO World Heritage Center. 24 January 2006 <http://whc.unesco.org/archive/advisory_body_evaluation/330.pdf>.
• "State of Conservation Report: 1998." Decisions of the 22nd Extraordinary Session of the Bureau of World Heritage Committee. 1998. World Heritage Committe. 24 January 2006 <http://whc.unesco.org/archive/repcom98a4.htm#sc330>.
• "Decision 28COM 15B.104." Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. 28 June - 7 July 2004. World Heritage Committee. 24 January 2006 <http://whc.unesco.org/archive/2005/whc05-29com-07BReve.pdf>.
• "Heritage Sites: Chaving de Huantar, Peru." Global Heritage Fund. 24 January 2006 <http://www.globalheritagefund.org/where/chavin_scroller.html>.
• Moseley, M. The Incas and their Ancestors: The Archaeology of Peru. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2001.
• Darvill, T. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Kembel, S.R. "Architectural Sequence and Chronology at Chavin de Huantar, Peru." Diss. Stanford University, 2001.
• Kembel, S.R. and J.W. Rick. "Building Authority at Chavin de Huantar: Models of Social Organization and Development in the Initial Period and Early Horizon" in Andean Archaeology. W. Isbell and H. Silverman, eds. New York: Plenum, 2002.

External Links:

• Stanford - Exploring Chavin de Huantar
• Wikipedia - Chavin de Huantar

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