MINOR PUBLIC PYRAMIDAL BUILDING C4, “RESIDENTIAL AND PUBLIC BUILDING TO ACCESS THE CORE AREA”

Located in the southern area of the “Integración Social (Social integration) street”, which would have connected the inhabitants of the residential sub-complex of the city outskirts with the residents of the core area. With Major Public Pyramidal Building C1, the Minor Public Pyramidal Building C3 and the residential sub-complexes D1 and D2, defined the “Integración Social street”, one of the main streets to access the city. With the elite residential complexes B6-B9 defined the Main Street.

It is a building of stepped pyramidal volume, with a quadrangular plan, which size varied as a result of continuous refurbishments and the adaptation to the land topography. The main staircase, used to access the top of the building –where the hall and other ceremonial rooms were-, is oriented towards the Integración street. The main façade is 6.7 m high, while in the southern façade is 12 m long because of the land slope.

Urban Role

It is located in a space that articulates the main buildings of the Urban Center and the peripheral populations. This location provided its operators with visual and effective control over people entering the archaeological site from the lower part of the valley and the coastline.

Use

Considering the base of the building’s design and its architectural components, we infer that it was used for public, ceremonial and administrative activities.

SIZE

Height: 6.70 m in the northern side and 12 m in the southern side

N-S: 54.38 m / E-W: 77,75 m / Surface: 4,228 m2

Building Technique

In the space, there was a group of residential rooms that were distributed and covered with “shicras” –reed and totora bagswith stones and gravel. Over it they built the public building with cut stone masonry joined with gray clay mortar. In the façade walls they attached great carved and polished stones, placed vertically in the corners. They plaster the building over time with several layers of beige, gray and yellow clay, and they painted the walls in white.

FINDINGS IN THE MINOR PUBLIC PYRAMIDAL BUILDING C4