Monumental Moche site discovered in Trujillo, Peru

A Moche monumental site some 1,200 years old and erected under the city of Trujillo, in La Libertad, was discovered by a group of archaeologists in Trujillo. The site dates back to the end of the Moche occupation (700-850 AD) and is located only six blocks from the city's Plaza de Armas and on private land that currently corresponds to the Torres Araujo urban development.

Credit: Jhonny Aurazo

The uncovered architecture includes the eastern and northern perimeter walls of a building. These have a maximum preserved height of 4.5 meters and were built under what is currently the fourth block of Panama Street, in the district of Trujillo.

The main access to the building was discovered on the eastern perimeter wall. It is 2 meters wide and leads to an intermediate corridor that should have allowed communication towards the internal part of the site. The location is also known as Huaca Panama.

Credit: Jhonny Aurazo

The director of the project, Feren Castillo Lujan, specified that the mochicas used the tapia technique for the construction of these walls. "That is to say, the humid clayish earth was compacted with a press, inside a casing called tapial", the archaeologist told El Comercio.

The walls, however, are not decorated as they are in the Huaca de la Luna, the main Moche temple. Nevertheless, "remains of adobe with ochre mural paint" were found. "This makes us suppose that in the internal part of the building there must be painted walls", added Castillo.

Credit: Jhonny Aurazo

The archaeologist suspects that the monumental site "contains a great treasure hidden inside". "So far the tomb of a great Mochica lord has not been found, as in Sipan, and discovering this site opens up the possibility that it might be here," he said.

The land covers an area of 2,836 square meters, but only 5% has been excavated. The work began three weeks ago with the authorization of the owners of the property. "The excavations have made it possible to identify that the site was much larger. There are many walls that extend below Panama Street and surrounding homes. In other words, the current urban fabric of this part of the city of Trujillo is built on a monumental site that is more than a thousand years old and that until now had not been explored," he added.

Credit: Jhonny Aurazo

Archaeologists also found the tomb of an adult individual "in a seated position, accompanied by copper plates and three cooking vessels. "The typology of these ceramic pieces suggests that it is a burial from the Chimu-Inca period (1,500 AD)," said archaeologist Lourdes Ramirez Campero.

"Possibly, after the Chimu occupation, the Incas used part of the [abandoned] huaca as a cemetery, something that has been seen in many pre-Hispanic sites and has been interpreted as the sacralization of ancestral spaces," he added.