📋 Tender Overview
Restoration of the perimeter walls of the Utzh An walled complex is 46% complete. The Ministry of Culture, through the Chan Chan Archaeological Complex Special Project (Pecach), is investing 2 million 593 thousand 211 soles in the restoration work on the perimeter walls of the largest walled complex in Chan Chan: Gran Chimu. It is planned to restore 595 meters of the eastern perimeter wall and 120 meters of the western perimeter wall (central west sector) of the Utzh An Walled Complex, considered the largest enclosure in the Chan Chan Monumental Zone. The restructuring work on the perimeter walls, which began in April and is projected to be completed at the end of November of this year, is 46% complete.
Reoccupation of spaces
To understand the reoccupation of Chimu architecture, we can consider as an example the reuse of spaces in our grandparents house, which, over time, is transformed according to the needs of its occupants, thus varying its original architecture. A room is converted into a kitchen, to cite one example.
A similar action occurred in the Chimu period, in which older walled complexes were reoccupied by the new generations. In this context, Pecach researchers have managed to determine that the southern sector of the eastern perimeter wall, close to the Chan Chan Site Museum, has been dismantled and reoccupied, since small adobe walls, floors and/or surfaces have been recorded that correspond to the Chimu-Inca cultural period, reported David Calderon De Los Rios, director of Pecach.
The first theories maintained that the walled complexes were not originally built for domestic activities, but for other purposes, such as ceremonial and administrative.
The recent archaeological intervention of the Chan Chan Research Program seems to confirm this idea. Although domestic architecture has been found in these complexes, it appears in a later phase, once the Great Chimu Walled Complex had ceased to have its genuine or primary use. This suggests that, after the decline of the main use of the site, these spaces could have been reused for housing or domestic activities, but this was not their original function.
According to the Chan Chan researchers, the Great Chimu Walled Complex shows a late reoccupation, mainly in the southern sector, of the Chimu-Inca cultural period.
The archaeological contexts recovered this season report an occupation with a domestic character, the small walls made with reused adobes, many of them extracted from the perimeter wall, form quadrangular and rectangular environments associated with surfaces of use, with remains of burning, ashes and fragments of ceramics, they stated.
The works of restructuring of walls have allowed to define their function, use of construction techniques, define architecture associated with the walls and recover movable cultural material from this walled complex, which contribute to the research and historical knowledge of our ancestors.
Recent findings
It should be remembered that, in June 2024, disarticulated bone remains of 11 individuals and ornaments associated with a high administrative rank of the Chimu period were found during recent restoration work on the perimeter wall.
The director of the project for the Restoration of the perimeter walls of the Utzh An walled complex, Sinthya Cueva, explained that the remains are linked to 3 pairs of ear ornaments and 2 necklaces of beads (chaquiras) and Spondylus shells, which would be from individuals of a high administrative rank of the time.
