MAJOR PUBLIC PYRAMIDAL BUILDING WITH SUKEN CIRCULAR PLAZA E1, “MAJOR PYRAMIDAL BUILDING”

Major Pyramidal Building

E1, located in the upper half of the city, in a dominant position in the urban layout of Caral. Together with the Amphitheater temple, public building of extended architecture with circular plaza, they defined the two halves of the city. From the top, where they built up to three ceremonial halls and their corresponding auxiliary rooms, they had visual control over the activities conducted both in the city and in a great part of the Capital Zone of the Supe valley.

Research in former years was focused on the south façade, the top and the side components. Lately, the excavation of the north façade has started, which stands out due to its monumentality and can be seen from any point of the Capital Zone of Supe.

Size

Height: 29.88 m in the northern facade and 19.27 m in the southern façade

N-S: 149.69 m

E-W: 170.80 m

Surface: 25,567 m2

Use

It was the center of the political and administrative power of the ruling class of Caral’s Urban Center; and of the relationship among social groups of the city and the valley. The different architectural components of the building were also associated to differentiated activities.

They conducted public ceremonies in the external part of the Building; on the top, ceremonies and activities were restricted to a selected group of people.

Urban Role

The design and impressive building volume of this building stood out in the culture and natural landscape of the capital area.

In the space built, this building with the Major Public Pyramidal Building C1, La Cantera Public Pyramidal Building B10 and La Galería Public Pyramidal Building H1, defined the four cardinal axis of the urban layout of Caral’s upper half.

From the tip, the building’s operators had visual control over people circulating on the streets of Caral’s Urban Center.

Building Sequence

A building sequence of the building’s last periods has been established through archaeological excavations.

In the Middle building period, the architectonic design was a quadrangular plan, with stepped pyramidal volume, and a main staircase located in the southern side of the building, which connected the monumental quincha rooms on the top of the building with the sunken circular plaza at the bottom. It also had a smaller architectural component, as an annex, in the western side.

In the Late building period they expanded the building; they kept the design and its orientation but they moved the building’s axis towards the east. On the top they built ceremonial halls, and other secondary rooms, all with stonewalls.

Components

Sunken circular plaza

Frontal platforms

Side platforms

Main staircase

Secondary staircase

Ceremonial hall with fire pit and benches

Main room in the back of the Ceremonial Hall with secondary rooms

High room with niches

Eastern Ceremonial hall

Control room

West wing

Residential unit

Secondary rooms

Altar with underground duct and fire pit

East wing

Building Technique

In the Middle period they built quincha rooms on stone platforms joined with clay mortar. They obtained the stones from quarries, gullies and the riverbed. They made quincha of different sizes according the room use: for the Ceremonial Hall and ceremonial rooms they built with quincha of a monumental size, and for other rooms that had a secondary use, such as those in the back of the building, quincha was made in smaller sizes.

In the Late period they massively used stones from quarries to build retaining walls and double-face walls. To a smaller extent, and only in the last minor architectonic refurbishments, they used pebbles. They joined the stones with clay mortar of different colors and tones: yellow, with, red and beige.

They used “shicras” for all building deposits; and they placed large stones vertically in the walls of the main façade, at the corners of the platforms and in the stairs of the circular plaza.

Findings On The Major Public Pyramidal Building With Sunken Circular Plaza E1