essay
Ciudadelas: their form and function
chan chan: andean desert city • Albuquerque • Published In 2010 • Pages: 55-66
By: Day, Kent C..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
The center section of Chan Chan covers an area of about six kilometers square, containing ten large rectangular enclosures called [i]ciudadelas[/i] that correspond to the ten historically recorded Chimu kings. The [i]ciudadelas[/i] are enclosed by adobe walls up to nine meters high, built in sections that probably represent labor units. Inside, the architecture includes U-shaped structures or [i]audiencias[/i], storerooms, entry courts, and burial platforms. Looting of the [i]audiencias[/i] and burial platforms indicate they contained dedicatory burials and other offerings. Other notable features at Chan Chan are elite compounds, SIAR (small irregularly agglutinated rooms), [i]huacas[/i] or sacred mounds, sunken gardens (that may have begun as borrow pits for building materials), and cemeteries. The author sees the U-shaped structures as administrative control points, indicating that the [i]ciudadelas[/i] were the administrative centers and bureaucratic headquarters of the Chimu empire.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Public structures
- Miscellaneous facilities
- Streets and traffic
- Building interiors and arrangement
- Warehousing
- traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Chimu
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2015
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- South America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Central Andes
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Archaeologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Sarah Berry; 2014
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- not specified
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1100-524 BP (AD 900-1476)
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Chan Chan, Huanchaco, Trujillo province (Moche Valley), La Libertad, Peru
- NotesAdditional notes
- Kent C. Day
- For bibliographical references see document 18:[Moseley and Day] (2010, References)
- Reprint of 1982 copy
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 80054567
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Chanchán (Peru)