Chimu

expand_more Description

The Chimu tradition lasted from 1000–480 BP (AD 900–1520), the last fifty years under Inka domination, and was located along the northern coast of Peru from the Piura to the Huarmey valleys and inland to the Andean piedmont, with its heartland and principal city of Chan Chan in the Moche Valley. Chimu was a state society, probably with a dualistic political system, and a rigid class system. Late in the tradition it became a militaristic expansionist state, although most settlements are not defensively located and there are few forts. Settlements range from cities with populations of 40,000–60,000 down to rural hamlets. The subsistence economy was based on irrigation agriculture and fishing. There were full-time specialists, some attached to royal or noble households. The power base of the elites seems to have depended on craft production. The Chimu were master metallurgists, but few examples survive due to tribute exacted during the Inka and Spanish conquests.

Identifier

Region

• South America

Subregion

• Central Andes

Subsistence Type

• intensive agriculturalists

Samples

• SRS

Countries

• Peru