The coastal deserts
of Peru were home to
elaborate civilizations
long before the Incas arrived.
Ah, that would
be something,
you know if they
found something.
Treasures from the
colossal to the minute
can still be found
as well as ancient traditions
that are still in practice.
Funding for
The Desert Speaks
was provided by
Desert Program Partners,
representing concerned viewers
making a financial commitment
to the education about and
preservation of deserts.
And by the
Stonewall Foundation.
Additional funding provided by
The Nature Conservancy.
♪ music ♪
Along much of the coast
of northern Peru,
it rains only in El Niño years.
The landscape is dry and
barren but it's dotted
with prehistoric cities
whose architecture is
monumental on an
international scale.
The pyramids of adobe
tower over the countryside
and conceal treasures of
gold and silver
equaled only in ancient Egypt.
This is possible because
of the emergence of
hydraulic societies
governed by complex
and powerful bureaucracies.
These ancient
civilizations are
clustered along rivers
running down from the
Andes of northern Peru.
No one knows their
history better than
my archeologist friend
Axel Neilsen.
Our first stop is at the
eroded pyramid city of Túcume.
One of the distinctive
characteristics of
developments in the
coastal valleys of the
Andes is the concentration
of population in urban center.
And this is related to the
high circumscription
And this is related to the
high circumscription
of resources in these areas.
The development of life in
this area depends on the
exploitation of the sea
and the exploitation of
agriculture through
intensive irrigation.
Hey, Axel, why'd you
bring me up here?
Well, you know, the city
is so big that unless we
go up a hill like this
one, we won't be able to
appreciate the size of it.
Well, and it's the
only hill around.
Yeah.
Well, all the other
elevations you see are
artificially made, are
adobe mounds and pyramids.
The Chimú, this is the
kingdom that developed
right before the expansion
of the Inca in the
northern coastal valleys
of Peru, took irrigation
to the highest
level of complexity.
They developed canals that
would bring water from
one valley to the next.
And imagine at the time
there were more people
around so probably the fields
were even larger than today.
And the whole thing,
probably the landscape
then resembled what
it is now, right?
Yes, probably very similar.
These mounds and pyramids
were used as the sites of
palaces and burial
grounds for the rulers.
The city flourished
around 1300.
The site was probably
abandoned by the time the
Spanish conquered the area,
which was around 1532 or 33.
Tradition has it that
Túcume was founded by one
of the 12 grandsons
of Naylamp.
This is a mythical
character that arrived
from the sea on a raft.
And he commanded all his
12 grandsons to found a
city, each one of them,
and this sort of parallels
archeological evidence
that shows that the polity
of Lambayeque developed
out of several, probably
10 or 12, independent
city states.
And looking at the
intensity of agriculture
around here, you
can realize why the
construction and
coordination of irrigation
systems must have been a real
important political concern.
Yeah, the life comes from
the people who run the water.
I've heard that before.
In addition to pyramids
Túcume has grand mesquites
and living representatives
of an ancient race
of medicinal dogs.
This gnarly old mesquite
here maybe one of the
ancestors of our mesquites
in the southwest.
In the central and
southern Andes there are
more than 30 species of
mesquites, most of them trees.
And none of them have any
straight lumber just like
ours, but all of
them have character.
That's the way
mesquites are.
Chala!
Ven!
(whistling)
Chimú dogs.
Chala.
Aren't these amazing dogs?
But these are apparently,
these are pre-Columbian breed.
Yeah, they are
called Chimú.
Like Chimú, which was the
name of the civilization
that was here at the
time of the conquest.
They're amazingly
affectionate.
Look at that.
Look she's got a Mohawk.
She's, and then they
got this one little bit.
They are the
most loving dog.
Yeah, that's my ear.
She likes to be in
laps, she's a lap dog.
The same people who built
Túcume constructed a host of
pyramids throughout the area,
including one at Sipán.
Inside that pyramid,
huaqueros, or grave
robbers, discovered a
trove of gold and silver
artifacts that exceeded
anyone's imagination.
You know, David, I think
that the royal tombs of
Sipán are the most
fantastic discovery in the
history of Peruvian
archeology.
Well, I think I the
history of the New World.
I don't think there's
anything like it.
Yeah, I think that
would be fair to say.
The whole building here,
and it's a huge investment
by both Peruvian
government, I think
international funds too,
dedicated to the discovery
of one tomb.
Yes, actually a series of
tombs, you know, it's the
Lord of Sipán and
his predecessors.
This is the first time
that the royal tomb of the
Moche was found intact by
archeologists before the
looters got there.
And what a discovery.
Can you imagine
finding this?
Wow, that would
be something.
You know if I found
something like this I would
know I'm close to a king
because this was the crown.
This was his crown.
Solid gold.
Yes.
And this is another
important emblem
of the Lord of Sipán.
These were worn
by warriors only.
These are like a
coxal protector.
This was hanging from the
waist of every warrior.
So they had a king warrior
and that was the key
that this was the top?
Yes.
There was nobody
higher than this.
Exactly and warrior
emblems were very
important as
signs of power.
As you see in this staff
the image you have there
engraved represents a
warrior with a prisoner who
is naked and you know deprived
of his weapons and uniform.
When they found all these
emblems they knew this was
a king and the most
important thing, I mean
for a long time these
emblems have been known
from murals and
paintings and pottery.
In other things that
they had found.
Exactly and archeologists
thought these were
mythical characters, but
when they found the tomb
of the Lord of Sipán, they
suddenly realized that
these were the emblems
of real people.
Wow, in other words this
isn't just a story,
this is the real guy.
Yeah, this was one of the
keys of this discovery.
Apart from the
astonishment of this
discovery, what were the
archeologists finding out
when they saw this?
Well, I think one of the
most eloquent expressions
of the power of the Lord
of Sipán is that when he
went to the grave he took with
him several people.
For instance, they found
eight people that were
sacrificed to go to the
tomb with the Lord of Sipán.
One of them, the first
was a, a soldier that was
scarred in the tomb.
He had amputated his two
feet so he wouldn't leave
his post guarding the tomb.
That'll slow
him down, yeah.
Yeah, this is one of the
finest pieces they found
in the tomb.
Gold on one side and
silver on the other.
Silver.
And they say this
represents a duality, you
know, gold associated
with the sun, and silver
associated with the moon.
Look at this.
This is was one of the
chest pieces that the body
was wearing in the coffin.
Look at the thousands and
thousands of pieces of shell.
Spondylus from Ecuador?
Yes, and malachite
probably.
Yeah.
These are the ears posts
that the priest
was wearing in the grave.
And a nose, I don't know,
what would you call that?
A narigara.
Yeah, but there's not a
good English word for it,
but that would cover
his nose real well.
Yeah, it would insulate
the Lord and his mouth
from all the mortals.
And here he is.
That's him.
This is him.
That's his actual remains.
Well, he's less impressive
in death than he was in life.
Yeah, I guess we're
all similar in death.
This painting is a
reconstruction of how the
funeral of the Lord of
Sipán could have been.
Here you see the visitors,
the old people, directing
the ceremony, the new lord
already appointed that is
directing the funeral and
you see the coffins there
with the sacrificed women
and soldiers and servants
that went into the tomb
with the Lord of Sipán.
One of the things that the
Moche represented in their
pottery were the
different stages of life.
For instance, they have
pots where they show
sexual relations, they
show pots were they show
birth, they show children,
they show young people,
warriors for instance,
they show adults, farmers,
they showed old people,
and they also show the
afterlife in the
form of skeletons.
The Moche were in my
opinion among the best
goldsmiths of the history
of Peru and this is one
of my favorite pieces.
These are spiders.
Yes.
Each one of them
represents a spider in its
web and each one of these
pieces has more than
100 points of welding.
This section shows
recovered loot from Peru
all over the world.
Yeah, that's actually how
the archeologists found
out that there was an
important tomb in Sipán
because the looters didn't
agree on their share of
the loot so one of them
went to the police and
reported the other ones
and that's how they police
traced the existence
of the tombs.
There's just no
honor among thieves.
But this was worth
apparently $600,000 on the
international market
in Philadelphia.
The FBI recovered it.
Yeah, this is one of the
pieces they, they sold
before the archeologists
got to the site.
You know the pieces were
so valuable that during
the excavations the
archeologists had to be
guarded the entire time by
the army and the police
to keep the looters away.
(music playing)
100 miles away from Sipán a
different culture,
the Moche, constructed
pyramids 500 years
earlier, even more vast
than those built
later in the north.
The notion that the world
is made of the interplay
of opposites, and that
opposite poles are
necessary for the
reproduction of life was a
very important concept
in Andean culture.
You can see it here at
Moche in the existence
of two main temples.
Huaca del Sol is a temple
devoted to the sun and
Huaca de la Luna, a temple
devoted to the moon.
In the funerary office of
the Lord of Sipán where
they combined silver,
which was related
symbolically to the moon
and gold, symbolically
related to the sun.
That's Huaca del Sol.
This is the largest adobe
made monument in the
entire New World and what
you see now is only one
fifth of what it
was originally.
It kind of breaks
your heart.
It was deliberately
destroyed by Spaniards
placer mining it for gold.
Yeah, they diverted the
Rio Moche, you know the
Moche River, to erode
this side of the monument.
It took a lot of bricks
to build these huacas.
Well, they have estimated
that for Huaca del Sol,
which is the biggest one,
they used 100 million bricks.
100 million bricks.
Just in that building.
So they got 500 workers,
each one has to make 200,000.
That's, that's right.
That's a big task.
Yeah, that's
a lot of work.
Each brick has a different
distinctive mark and they
have detected about a
hundred different marks,
which probably means that
different communities were
contributing their labor
to the construction of the
monument and they left
their distinctive mark
for it to be remembered.
They had already paid
their taxes, you see?
You recognize
this character?
Looks like a jaguar?
So, yeah.
It is a jaguar?
Like human and
feline traits.
They call it Ai Apaec.
This is the first state to
arise in the ancient Andes
and it integrated between
around 600 kilometers off
the coastal valleys of
Peru for over 600 years.
.it's an iguana.
It's an iguana, huh?
And it's, look, it's
holding a trophy head.
So it's, yeah, a head
that's been decapitated
from the body.
Yeah, decapitation is
one of the major icons
throughout Andean history.
It looks like a
octopus on the mural.
Well, you know, I think
that's again the god
Ai Apaec which is represented
sometimes fused,
as a human fused with
different animals.
In this case it's an
octopus, sometimes it's
a feline, a fox, a vulture.
God, this gives us a
little idea what
the original outside
looked like.
Yeah, look.
Iguanas on the top.
And then spiders.
Spiders, yeah.
Just like, you remember
the gold necklace of one
of the lords of Sipán?
Yes, yes.
And then there are these
guys doing some kind of
ritual dance
all in a line.
Yeah, and they are carrying.
Look, it goes all the way
around here.
Yeah, they are carrying
maces so they,
they had to be warriors.
While the Moche pyramids
stressed verticality,
20 miles away and more than
500 years later the Chimús
built on a horizontal
scale unequaled
anywhere else in the world.
Chan Chan was the capital
of the Chimú kingdom.
It was the second largest
state in the pre-Hispanic
Andes, second only
to the Inca Empire.
Axel, I can hardly
conceive how vast this
complex called
Chan Chan is.
I heard it's 14 square
kilometers and you can
see, this for instance,
this is just one plaza of
one of the nine palaces
and that doesn't count
the commoner residence area.
Where all the, all the
working folk lived?
Yes, mostly specialized
artisan like goldsmiths
and potters and weavers.
What's most confusing is
that as vast as it is,
there's no high point that
we have today where
you can see your way out.
It's like a maze
that never ends.
Yes, that's a, that's
a sharp contrast
with the Moche architecture.
Yeah, those huge pyramids.
Pyramids.
And it was inhabited by
near 40 or 50 thousand people.
All of them were rulers
or nobility or part of the
courts of the rulers or
servants and specialized
artisans that lived in special
quarters within the city.
It is all made of adobe
and it has characteristic
wall decorations
made of mud.
Chan Chan has these miles
of walls with these sort
of embossed three-dimensional
designs on them.
Amazing!
I would say this is the most
famous characteristic
of the city.
Uh-huh.
All the palaces are decorated
with this kind of technique.
And if you look at the motifs,
most of them refer to the sea.
You see fish for instance
and this step-like motif
is a representation
of water.
So there would be
fish in the waves.
In the waves.
And this friezes here
represent not wafers
but nets, fishing nets.
Fishing nets.
Well, it makes
sense, yeah.
I'd have figured it out
sooner or later but,
yeah, you're right.
The economy of Chan Chan,
like most states in the
Peruvian coast, was
based on a combination of
maritime resources, which
it's clearly reflected in
the emphasis that the
iconography of Chan Chan
puts on the sea and fish
and, and sea fowl and
in intensive agricultural.
And the Chimú developed
the most ambitious
irrigation projects to be
carried on the coast of Peru.
The city of Chan Chan
got its water from the aquifer.
They built these wells
and there are more than a
hundred of these spread
throughout the city.
At some point they run
out of low ground, in the city.
At that point they built
these inter-valley canals
that would bring water to this
valley from other valleys.
And that not only allowed
them to expand their
agricultural fields but
also by feeding more water
into the valley, they
raised the water table.
So they were able to expand the
city into higher ground.
Boy, they were. Think
of that project.
They were a hydraulic
society of the first rank.
Although more than a
century and a half of
research has been
conducted on the
archeology of Peru, the
archeological heritage of
this country is so rich
and so vast, that we still
know very little about the
complexity and the history
of pre-Hispanic
peoples in this area.
Unfortunately, although
there is a lot of
archeological research
being done in Peru, both
by Peruvian archeologists
and foreign expeditions,
the destruction of the
cultural heritage of this
country in the hands of
huaqueros or looters, is
so intense that I feel we
are going to lose a lot of
that evidence before we
can know more about the past.
(music playing)
The coastal people, like their
eco-successors, are still
with us along Peru's
coast, carrying on their
ancient traditions.
Their reed boats, which
they call caballitos del
mar, little sea horses, are made
from a reed called totora.
The caballitos and totora
were first developed by
the late pre-ceramic populations
of the coast of Peru.
This is about 5000 years
ago, the time right before
the introduction
of agriculture.
The exploitation of sea
resources was the key to
the economy of the
time and the caballitos
probably meant a very
important change in that
economy because a lot of
people do fish away from
the sea shore, and
therefore to tap into the
very rich sea resources
that are brought to this
coast by the
Current of Humboldt.
Barbudo, Lisa, Raya,
Tachema, Lisa, Idorna y Suco.
These are some of
the different kinds of fish.
My grandfathers were
fisherman,
my father
was a fisherman.
It's a lifestyle that gets
passed on from generation
to generation.
The Incas were
also fishermen.
It's passed on through
many generations.
They were very
important for sea trade.
They were very
important for sea trade.
They used caballitos and
totora and totora rafts to
trade all along the coast
of Peru up to Ecuador and
down the coast some 1000
kilometers away from here
where they controlled
several islands off the
shore of, of
Nazca and Paracas.
It is surprising that
the tradition of making
caballitos and totora has
survived with not many
changes for 5000 years.
And it still provides the
basis of subsistence for
many families in
northern Peru.
I brought the totora seeds
from Chan Chan
to plant my totoral.
Most of totorales in Chan
Chan are gone, but now
there are more
around here.
Many more totorales
than back in Chan Chan.
Each family in La Menchaca
has a plot or two or three
where they maintain their
supply of totora, which is
the reed from which
they make their boats.
They maintain these
very carefully and have
maintained them in the
family for generations.
They cut the reeds just
above the water line so
that they will grow back
into long strips that they
can then use to
make their boats.
Every few years, however,
they find it necessary to
dig out the plants by the
roots and plant shoots so
that they will have an
unending supply of the
caballitos del mar, the
little horse of the sea.
All the fishermen make
their own caballitos.
Right here, there are
35 fishermen working.
When the ocean's
calm, we fish all day.
When it's not, we don't.
It impossible to manage
the boat and fish at the
same time which
battling big waves.
Here it's our custom to share
the catch amongst families.
Some days I might not have
anything, but they do,
so they're help me out.
That's how related
families survive together.
It's our custom.
Of course, the Incas made
their own caballitos and
their patachos, sometimes
they went far out from
shore to the islands
because they couldn't
find fish along the coast.
That's the way it was.
♪ music ♪
The desert civilizations
of ancient
coastal Peru, rose and
fell over the millennia,
mostly as a result
of climate change or conquest.
Today we are learning more about
these brilliant empires.
The greatest impediment to
increased understanding is
the greed of international
art collectors and the
complicity of
the huaqueros.
Together they deprive
Peruvians of their
patrimony and the rest of
the world of some of its
greatest art treasures.
Only three gates that
cross the wall. In the
mountaintop cloud forests
of northern Peru lie
monumental remnants of
pre-Incan civilizations.
In the towns you can find
stunning artifacts that
testify to the complexity
of those societies.
And out on the streets you
can find peculiar hats.
Next time on The
Desert Speaks .
This drawing that is a
replica of one found on a
vessel represents a king
which has the emblems that
were found in the tomb of
what they call the Lord of
Sipán, the coxal protector
for instance or the crown
and this other person
which they called the
priest which is handing
a cup to the king.
They found the tomb of
this person too holding
a cup in his right hand.
And this is the cup he was
holding in his right hand.
Funding for
The Desert Speaks
was provided by
Desert Program Partners,
representing concerned viewers
making a financial commitment
to the education about and
preservation of deserts.
And by the
Stonewall Foundation.