FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UNEARTHING ANCIENT PERUVIAN HISTORY: INTERNATIONAL, WOMEN-LED TEAM OF ARCHAEOLOGISTS AND CONSERVATORS RELEASES FINDINGS FROM EXCAVATIONS AT PAÑAMARCA
Continuation of project to reveal more about the life and times of the Moche people
CONTACT IN PERU
Jessica Ortiz Zevallos
jeoz86@gmail.com
CONTACT IN U.S.A.
Julio Poletti
Julio.Poletti@dmns.org
1 (917) 783-6760
March 7, 2023 – Clues to better understanding the religious rituals, political life and societal hierarchy of the Moche people are coming into view as a multi-year excavation continues at Pañamarca, led by a team of women archeologists and conservators, including a local Denver resident and Denver Museum of Nature & Science scientist.
Online Media kit: 45 Multimedia elements about Pañamarca
Construction of Pañamarca, an architectural complex that sits upon a rock outcrop in the Peruvian Ancash region’s lower Nepeña Valley, is estimated to have occurred between 550-800 CE.
So far, teams have uncovered what they estimate to be less than 10 percent of extensive paintings created on the adobe walls of the architectural complex at Pañamarca. Work to piece together the narratives revealed by these ancient murals is ongoing. Researchers plan to return to the site in 2023.
The Archaeological Research Project (PIA) “Paisajes Arqueológicos de Pañamarca” is collaboratively led by the international team of Jessica Ortiz Zevallos, Lisa Trever of Columbia University and Michele Koons of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS). The team presented a digital poster detailing their recent findings at the January 2023 meeting of the Institute of Andean Studies in Berkeley, California.
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Columbia are exploring ways to formally support the PIA’s excavation and research in 2023 and into the future. Continual work to uncover, document and preserve the site will enable Peruvians, South Americans and the rest of the world to know and appreciate this important period in human history.
“We are adding significantly to a body of work that lends insight into the perspectives and priorities of the people who walked this landscape long before us,” said Jessica Ortiz Zevallos, the Peruvian director of the archaeological research project. “These murals are beautiful windows into our past which we’ve never seen before. It’s exhilarating to be leading this work.”
Recent discoveries at Pañamarca and previous findings at the site over the last century have manifested a more complete throughline for Peruvian history and culture. These findings will be made more publicly accessible than ever before through digital photography, photogrammetric modeling and virtual reality simulation.
A resurgence in national and regional pride is evident through contemporary artwork, political campaigns, and brand marketing that are all borrowing from the imagery and motifs found on the walls at Pañamarca.
“Pañamarca was a place of remarkable artistic innovation and creativity, with painters elaborating on their knowledge of artistic canons in creative and meaningful ways as the people of Nepeña established their position in the far southern Moche world,” said Lisa Trever, Lisa and Bernard Selz Associate Professor of Pre-Columbian Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University. “Our project has the potential to inaugurate a new period of understanding and appreciation of Moche art, including by contemporary artists who use these ancestral works as inspiration in their own practice.”
The complementary disciplines of archaeology and art history make this creative and cultural exploration possible. The team has been carefully documenting every detail exposed in the murals and has compared findings to related materials. Together, artifacts and the murals at Pañamarca can tell us more about what the Moche people believed and how they lived.
“We are eager to return to Pañamarca and continue to share our findings,” said Michele Koons, DMNS Curator of Archaeology. “It is an absolute honor to work at this important monument of the ancient world. We are only beginning to comprehend the mysteries revealed by these murals.”
Although Moche burials and other sites have been found farther south, there are no Moche structures that match the scale of Pañamarca beyond Nepeña. The Pañamarca murals, therefore, hold the potential to reveal much more about the collective identity and aspirations of the Moche people, who lived long before the formation of the Inca Empire. The team has proposed that the mural paintings — together with the evidence of highland-style textiles and tropical feathers found alongside locally-made ceramics and material culture in the excavations — suggest multicultural relationships and long-distance economies.
Recent and planned excavation, conservation and documentation efforts at Pañamarca build on previous work there by Trever and her former team; interventions by Lorenzo Samaniego in the 1970s; research by Donald Proulx in the 1960s and 70s, Hans Horkheimer and Duccio Bonavia’s discovery of a fragment of a painted wall in 1958, and earlier work by Richard Schaedel in 1950.
The segment found by Horkheimer and Bonavia depicted a female supernatural being, or “Priestess,” participating in the presentation of a goblet in the company of attendant beings and bound captives. This “Sacrifice Ceremony” became a famous, canonical example of Moche art — comparable in its imagery to fineline ceramics made in the Moche heartland.
The current PIA began in 2018, directed by Hugo Ikehara Tsukayama, with the goal of documenting and analyzing the environmental and architectural history of Pañamarca and its surroundings. The project recommenced in 2022, under the direction of Jessica Ortiz Zevallos, to continue investigation and expand the excavation, conservation and documentation of Pañamarca’s pillared hall begun in 2010 by the Proyecto Arqueológico Pañamarca-Área Moñumental.
When the team returns to the site in 2023, they will continue the work of excavation, conservation and documentation begun last year. The timing of return to the site has been carefully planned for winter in Peru when the weather is most predictable and dry. At the end of the next field season, everything will be reburied for its protection because, left exposed without maintenance, the ancient earthen art will perish.
While on site, the team will add to its existing digital collection of photos, visual renderings and virtual reality assets, part of which will be made publicly accessible online. For now, interested individuals can follow @paisajespanamarca in real time on Instagram.
Tourists can visit the monument by purchasing a ticket at the site entrance booth. The surrounding Nepeña Valley is known for its scenic landscapes, agriculture (including sugar cane, avocados, mangos and asparagus), and production of honey and pisco.
About Paisajes Arqueológicos de Pañamarca
Paisajes Arqueológicos de Pañamarca is the official name of the archaeological project at Pañamarca permitted through the Ministry of Culture of Peru. The objective of the project is to study the archaeological site of Pañamarca and its landscape through time, from the oldest detectable occupations to the present. The 2022 season focused on obtaining stratigraphic and constructive sequences of the monumental zone and the opening and conservation of architecture with murals.
About Columbia University Department of Art History and Archaeology
Columbia University’s Department of Art History and Archaeology was founded in conjunction with special resources in archaeology and architecture at the Avery Memorial Library, as inspired by great European traditions of archaeology, connoisseurship and iconology. Since the 1930s, however, the Department’s curriculum has expanded radically to include study of the arts and architecture of Africa, Oceania, the Americas and Asia. The department’s large faculty is encyclopedic in its range of expertise and the National Research Council (US) has rated it foremost in the United States for art history scholarship. For decades, Columbia’s Department of Art History and Archaeology has been a leader in research and pedagogy on ancient American art in particular. Learn more at https://arthistory.columbia.edu.
About National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society, which funded the team’s work in 2022, is a global nonprofit organization that uses the power of science, exploration, education and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world. Since 1888, National Geographic has pushed the boundaries of exploration, investing in bold people and transformative ideas, providing more than 15,000 grants for work across all seven continents, reaching 3 million students each year through education offerings, and engaging audiences around the globe through signature experiences, stories and content. To learn more, visit www.nationalgeographic.org or follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
About the Denver Museum of Nature and Science
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is the Rocky Mountain Region’s leading resource for informal science education. Its mission is to be a catalyst and ignite the community’s passion for nature and science. The Museum envisions an empowered community that loves, understands and protects our natural world. A variety of engaging exhibits, discussions and activities help Museum visitors celebrate and understand the wonders of Colorado, Earth and the universe. The Museum is located at 2001 Colorado Blvd., Denver, CO, 80205. To learn more about the Museum, visit dmns.org or call 303.370.6000. Many of the Museum’s educational programs and exhibits are made possible in part by the citizens of the seven-county metro area through the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). The Museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Connect with the Museum on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.