Recuay culture

Vessel in the form of a palace with a wall frieze, Recuay, 200 BC-500 AD, De Young Museum

The Recuay culture was a highland culture of Peru that flourished in 200 BC-600 AD and was related to the Moche culture of the north coast. It is named after the Recuay District, in the Recuay Province, in the Ancash Region of Peru.

Territory

This culture developed in the Callejón de Huaylas valley, so this art style is also known as 'Huaylas'.

The Recuay area is very close to the earlier Chavin culture centre of Chavin de Huantar that lies just to the west. Thus, the Recuay originally occupied much of the territory of the Chavin, and were greatly influenced by them. Such influence is seen in architecture (use of underground galleries), and in stonework, such as in sculpture and stelae. Their ceramics were also influenced by the Moche.

While the Peruvian coastal cultures of that time, such as the Moche, the Lima, and the Nasca, are much better known, the high sierra also saw the emergence of powerful cultural polities. These were the Cajamarca in the north, the Huarpa in central highlands, and the Pukara in the Titicaca highlands.[1]

The relationship between the Recuay and the Moche state in the north must have been rather tense because they shared borders and competed for the same water sources. There is evidence of considerable warfare, and of the warrior-oriented society as reflected in their fortified buildings and iconography. In fact, the Recuay are associated with the earliest emergence of fortified centres and towns in the Peruvian Andes.[2]

Recuay peoples built box-shaped tombs.

The culture especially flourished in the Callejón de Huaylas region, and along the Marañón River. It also spread to the valleys of the Santa, Casma and Huarmey rivers. To the north, it reached the area of Pashash, in Pallasca. Willkawayin was one of their important settlements.

Ceramics

A vessel with musicians, 21,5 cm high; Recuay area, 100 BC–300 AD, Kloster Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen, Switzerland

Recuay culture features a distinctive pottery with decoration in three colors (black, red, white). Recuay potters also modelled small figures of men, jaguars, llamas, and other animals, which they attached to the vessel. This pottery is related to Viru culture type pottery (also known as Gallinazo). The Viru Valley is just to the north of Recuay area.

Recuay ceramics used kaolin clay, which involved highly complex work; the ceramics acquired a white colour after baking. One of the central figures in Recuay art is the so-called 'moon animal', a foxlike or feline animal with a long, toothy snout and head crest.[3][4]

Recuay textiles were of very high quality, and used similar decorative motifs as the ceramics.

Recuay stone carvings are called Aija are found throughout the Peruvian Highlands. They are related to those of the Pukara and Tiwanaku cultures.

Pashash culture

Engraved stone from Cabana. Belongs to the Pashash culture, around 500 AD

Pashash culture (500-1000 AD) is seen as a later development of Recuay culture. It developed in the northern Sierra de Ancash (Cabana) region. Its remains are found in Chacas, a town located in the east-central region of Ancash, in Cabana, Peru, also in Ancash, and in other places.

Metallurgy was also advanced at this time. At Pashash, very fine Recuay style jewelry of gilt arsenic bronze were excavated, as well as fine pottery; the dates are between AD 300 and 600.[5]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Recuay culture.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pashash culture.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ George F. Lau, Andean Expressions: Art and Archaeology of the Recuay Culture. University of Iowa Press, 2011 ISBN 1587299747 p13
  2. ↑ George F. Lau, Andean Expressions: Art and Archaeology of the Recuay Culture. University of Iowa Press, 2011 ISBN 1587299747 p11
  3. ↑ The Recuay Culture Tampere Museum
  4. ↑ Recuay art metmuseum.org
  5. ↑ Terence Grieder, The Art and Archaeology of Pashash. University of Texas Press, 2014 ISBN 0292773099

References

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