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Rise of Peru’s Divine Lords

Rise of Peru’s Divine Lords

In the early first millennium A.D., a new class of rulers from different cultural groups claimed authority in northern Peru’s region of Ancash by highlighting their wealth and status as warrior lords and casting themselves as living embodiments of their divine ancestors. These leaders settled in easily defensible hilltop sites in the Andes Mountains, where they resided in large family compounds that also functioned as locations for ritual activity and ancestor veneration. Recent excavations at two sites in Ancash—Pashash, in the northern highlands, and the coastal settlement of Cerro San Isidro—have uncovered early examples of the emergence of divine lordship, a form of leadership that would endure in Peru for more than 1,000 years.

  • At the site of Pashash, archaeologists have investigated monumental buildings (left) and excavated a large residential compound on a hilltop (right) called La Capilla. (George Lau)
  • A stone slab found at Pashash is carved with an image of a two-headed mythical creature with feline and serpent characteristics. (Museo Arqueológico Zonal de Cabana/Mirko Brito)
  • A ceramic effigy vessel in the shape of a condor, which contained two miniature camelid figurines, was unearthed in an offering cache at Pashash. (Mirko Brito)
  • In the same offering cache at Pashash, researchers discovered this pair of hammered gold earspools inlaid with turquoise and greenstone felines, ornaments that were made by the Moche people who lived along Peru’s northern coast in the first millennium A.D. (George Lau)
  • The site of Cerro San Isidro occupies a hill overlooking the Cordillera Negra range of the Andes to the east. (D. Chicoine)
  • This aerial photo shows the summit of Cerro San Isidro, where archaeologists excavated offerings and other evidence of ritual activity. (D. Chicoine)