SOLID DIRT the adobe pyramid at Huaca Pucllana
adobe | peru by gerald forseth
reinforcement layers platforms mass simplicity
Huaca Pucllana, not far from Lima, is an extensive adobe complex. Its pyramid rises 22m in seven platforms, and is surrounded by a variety of courtyards with 3m high walls. This large ceremonial and administrative site was constructed around 200 AD by the Lima culture and was occupied by another pre-Incan culture, the Huari, around 600 AD. The Lima had readily available soil, straw, water and hot sun in this coastal region made lush by the Rimac River flowing towards the ocean from the high Andes. The river valley offered the perfect environment for settling and building, for domesticating animals, for developing superior grain-growing practices, for fishing in a most prolific part of the Pacific Ocean and for producing a sophisticated ceramic and weaving culture. The rulers of Huaca Pucllana grew powerful through expansion in trade and government, in religious ritual and ceremony, and in competitive games. Unusual for adobe construction, the pyramid and courtyard walls were constructed with courses of adobe units laid vertically, then topped with a thick horizontal layer of clay before adding the next vertical course. The finished pyramid was a solid mass of reinforced mud capable of being carved into; there are three known funerary sanctums for rulers and priests at Huaca Pucllana. After burial, entrances were sealed and concealed using the same material and construction method as the pyramid. The horizontal topping between vertical courses reinforces the structure. It holds the dead weight of the seven platforms, and keeps it all intact during the frequent earthquakes of the region. And of course the topping provided workers with a flat and safe construction site for laying the next courses. When archaeologists and anthropologists examined formerly untouched portions of the horizontal topping, they found signs of modelling activity in the form of imprints of workers’ hands and feet. n
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Gerald Forseth
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