Viru culture

The Virú culture (alternatively known as the Gallinazo) was a pre-Columbian, pre-Inca culture that flourished at the Virú Valley on the north west coast of Peru. It marks the start of the Early Intermediate Period of Peru, dating roughly around 200 BC. This North Coast culture was based in the Virú Valley and extended into the Moche and Santa Valleys as well. The Virú Valley is on a coastal landscape which consists of a narrow land strip boarded by the Andes Mountains to its east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The capital of the Virú valley during this time period was an urban area called Gallinazo Group site.

The Gallinazo group site was the primary center of the valley during this time and most likely the seat of regional leadership. The Early Intermediate period in Virú Culture was marked by import social (increase in population size), economic (increase in population size), and political (creations of a unified valley command) transformations. These include an increase in the overall number of settlements in the valley, the extension of the total area under cultivation, the construction of new irrigation canals, and the establishment of four-tiered administrative system.

Huaca Gallinazo is the largest mound of the Gallinazo Group in the Virú Valley occupied from as early as the 1st century BC until as late as the 7th century AD. This space was occupied by a number of architectural compounds. These architectural compounds had a compact network of multiroom residential units with living and storage spaces as well as patios. Also, there were a variety of architectural buildings found, which ranged from modest dwellings to imposing houses with courtyards. Nonresidential building dominated some of the mounds, pointing to the existence of a consolidated power with the mean, resources, and vision to commission monumental projects for civic or ceremonial use.

The largest civic building is located at the core of Huaca Gallinazo. This large structure has in-filled chambers and building columns made of thousands of piled adobes. The columns are leaning against one another but not connected. It is dominated by a towering platform and an adjacent terrace (Southern Terrace) that fronts a wide plaza-presumably used for large public gatherings and ceremonial activities as well.

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