Gallinazo Group

Situated in the North Coast of Peru, about five kilometres from the ocean, Gallinazo Group is a 70 hectare site, which was occupied between 50 BC and 650 AD. The nearest modern settlement is Puerto Morin, a fishing community.

The site is made up of 30 mounds. The smallest are the size of a mansion and the largest are the size of an apartment block. Archaeologists have found that these mounds are made up of adobe brick platform structures. Many of these platforms were used as residences. They were overcrowded and people were “living on each other’s feet,” said archaeologist Jean-Francois Millaire of the University of Western Ontario.

The site is largely unexcavated. In 2008 a Canadian team, led by Professor Millaire, resumed excavations at the site. Before that it hadn’t been touched in over 50 years.  

It was built by a people that some archaeologists refer to as the “Gallinazo Culture.” It’s a culture known for its pottery. They used a technique we refer to as 'negative pottery painting' to decorate their pots.

Archaeologist Garth Bawden described how negative pottery painting worked in his book The Moche. He said that areas on a pot that are going to be decorated are “shielded by wax during firing” and afterwards “highlighted with carbon colouring.” They also produced pottery in effigy figures such as monkeys and warriors.

A curious thing about this city is that the mounds are spaced apart with fields in between. When the Canadian team tried to find out what architecture was between the mounds, they found, to their astonishment, “absolutely nothing.” The fields were empty.

This means that the people at Gallinazo Group chose to live in overcrowded mounds and leave the area between them empty. Why they would choose to do this is a mystery.

One possibility is that the people may have used these empty spaces for growing crops. If that is the case the city would have had a very unique look indeed. The people living at the top of the mounds could get a birds-eye view of what they sowed.

The university has purchased land in Puerto Morin that will be used to construct a research centre.