Kuntur Wasi, Cajamarca, Peru

Kuntur Wasi (Quechua kuntur condor, wasi house, "condor house") is the name given to the ruins of a religious center with complex architecture and stone sculptures, located in the Andean highlands of Peru.

It is thought to have been constructed around 1000 - 700 BCE, during the Initial Period. The architecture consists of a hill-top temple, quadrangular platforms, a sunken courtyard, and series of rooms.

Lithosculptures have been found, carved with serpent and feline designs that are similar to the Chavín style. Those to be found at the site are reproductions, with the originals having been moved to museums.

Entrance

Kuntur Wasi seen from the northeast

Archaeological investigations
Kuntur Wasi is located 30 km west of the city of Cajamarca in the Province of San Pablo, at an altitude of 2300 m above sea level.

It is one of the most important ceremonial centers of the Formative Period (3000 BCE - 50 BCE) in the northern highlands of Peru, and has been studied by important researchers.

Plan of Kuntur Wasi
Plan Legend:

Entrance
First terrace
Front plaza
Main frontis
Main platform
Nothwest plaza
Main staircase
Quadrangular plaza
Central platform
Circular plaza
East monolith
Archaeological excavations

Panorama of the First Terrace (Plan No. 2) from north

First terrace (Plan No. 2)
In the middle of the photo we can see the Main Front (Plan No. 4) and in the center the Main Staircase (Plan No. 7).

Panorama of the Front Plaza (Plan No. 3) from northwest

Front Plaza (Plan No. 3) from north
In the middle of the photo we can see the Main Front (Plan No. 4) and in the center the Main Staircase (Plan No. 7).

Main Staircase (Plan No. 7)

Main Front (Plan No. 4)
The great ceremonial center began to be built in the Kuntur Wasi Phase. The front or facade of the Main Platform is composed of three retaining walls (stones carved with mud mortar) and a Central Staircase with two lateral water channels.

At the top, a complex system of underground channels was built, the exit of which is found in the front in the form of rectangular niches.
Between 2000 and 2003, at the request of UNESCO, the Japanese Archaeological Mission developed the “Kuntur Wasi Temple Conservation and Restoration Project”.
The work was concentrated on the Main Front, the Front Plaza and the Central Plaza located at the top of the site.
Thanks to the efforts of Peruvian and Japanese archaeologists together with local residents, we can now appreciate the imposing architecture of the Kuntur Wasi Temple and learn about its history.

Panorama of the Main Front from northeast
In the center of the photo we can see the Main Staircase (Plan No. 7).

On the far right of the photo we can see the guardhouse where the Entrance (Plan No. 1) is located.

Climbing the Main Platform (Plan No. 5)

Panorama of the Northwest Plaza (Plan No. 6)

Panorama of the First Terrace (Plan No. 2) from southwest
This panorama is taken from the top of the Main Staircase (Plan No. 7).

On the left side of the panorama we can see the guard's house where the Entrance is (Plan No. 1).

Panorama of the Main Platform (Plan No. 5) from northeast
This panorama is taken from the top of the Main Staircase (Plan No. 7).

In the center of the panorama we can see the Quadrangular Plaza (Plan No. 8).

Reproduction of monoliths at top of Main Staircase (Plan No. 7)

Panorama of the Quadrangular Plaza (Plan No. 8)

Engraved stone
Engraved stone on the southwest wall of the Quadrangular Plaza (Plan No. 8).

Panorama of the Central Platform (Plan No. 9) from north

Development Stages
The Kuntur Wasi Temple is 3000 years old and is made up of 5 terraced platforms on La Copa Hill.
Research carried out both in the field (excavations) and in the laboratory (analysis of recovered materials) has allowed us to reconstruct its stages of development:

Idol Phase: 950 BCE - 800 BCE

The modification of the hill began by building a series of ceremonial platforms, whose stone walls were plastered white.
A clay idol (75 cm, 29.5 in) with human and feline features, painted red (cinnabar), green (malachite), black and pink, was found without arms or legs.
Brown and orange ceramic bowls with geometric and anthropomorphic designs.
They also used red, yellow and white paint.

Kuntur Wasi Phase: 800 BCE - 550 BCE

The old structures were destroyed and covered, then a new monumental architectural complex was built.
Two sunken plazas (square and circular) as meeting centers.
The monoliths with iconography that combines the features of felines and snakes stand out.
Ceramics with designs of felines, snakes and birds; evidence of a strong interaction with the “late Cupisnique” culture of the northern coast.

Copa Fase: 550 BCE - 250 BCE

The ceremonial function of the structures was maintained, with new plazas, platforms, courtyards and enclosures being built.
The walls of the Quadrangular Plaza had friezes and polychrome mural painting, while the enclosures were plastered in white.
The ceramics were characterized by red and white paint, as well as brown pots.
At the end of this phase, the process of abandoning the temple began.

Sotera Fase: 250 BCE - 50 BCE

Almost all the buildings were destroyed or intentionally buried.
Only a few ceremonial dwellings were built, which indicates that Kuntur Wasi was no longer considered a temple.

Tombs of the Wasi Kuntur phase (800 - 550 BCE)

In the Kuntur Wasi Phase, 6 special tombs were placed (with gold objects), 4 on the Central Platform and 2 in Annex Areas.
Underground tombs, most of them “boot” shaped, consisting of a cylindrical shaft, 1.5 m (5 ft) in diameter and 2 m (6.6 ft) deep, and a side chamber, 1 m (3.2 ft) wide and 1 m (3.2 ft) high.
The figures were buried in a flexed position, with very valuable offerings: gold ornaments, ceramic vessels, necklaces with stone beads and seashells.
All of them have red pigment (cinnabar) in their skulls, and some also have intentional cranial deformation, both characteristics of high social status.

Tombs of the central platform

Tomb of the 5-Faced Jaguar Crown: 60-year-old man crouching.
Tomb of the Golden Earmuffs: Man between 30 and 40 years old squatting.
Tomb of Sacrifice: Simple tomb where a middle-aged man was placed, with a perforation on the left side of the skull caused by a strong (fatal) blow.
Tomb of the Chaquiras: Woman aged 60 years and approximately 1.44 m (4.7 ft) tall. More than 6,000 beads of sodalite, jasper, chrysocolla and Spondylus sp. shell.
Tomb of the Crown of 14 Human Faces: Man between 50 and 60 years old and 1.54 m tall squatting.

Tombs of annexed areas

Tomb of the Frog Pottery: Adult male bent over and lying on his right side.
Tomb of the Snake Earrings - Jaguar: 40-year-old man, 1.54 m tall, lying face down.

Tombs of the Copa phase (550 - 250 BCE)
Two special tombs (with gold objects) were placed in the southwestern part of the Main Platform. The new constructions were built with a different architectural axis than the Kuntur Wasi Phase.

Tomb of the Golden Pincer: Unfortunately, the original shape and size have not been determined, since the tomb was destroyed to make way for the installation of a later grave. Man in a bent position facing west, with the skull pigmented red (cinnabar).
Tomb of the Gold Necklaces: Circular pit measuring 1.13 m (3.7 ft) in diameter and 2.45 m (8 ft) deep. Woman in a flexed position, lying on her left side facing southeast, with her skull pigmented red (cinnabar).

Panorama of the Circular Plaza (Plan No. 10) from northwest

Territory and society
Land management:

The ceremonial centers of the Formative Period between 1000 and 50 BC, such as Kuntur Wasi, Layzón and Pacopampa, are located on the tops of the hills associated with water sources. The rivers were the natural paths to the coast.
Kuntur Wasi is located in the basin of the Jequetepeque River, which rises in Cajamarca and flows into La Libertad; exercising control over the territory and its natural resources.

Cultivation and breeding:

Analysis of human bones indicates consumption of corn, cassava and potatoes.
Analysis of animal bones indicates breeding of camelids such as llamas and their use as cargo transport.

Exchange:

The provenance of some findings is evidence of long-distance exchange relations of raw materials and artifacts.

Late Cupisnique style pottery from the north coast.
Strombus sp. pututos and Spondylus sp. beads from Ecuador.
Bolivian sodalite beads.

Kuntur Wasi and other temples:

Research into various ceremonial centers has shown that 2,800 years ago, social classes were consolidated with elite groups, without the intervention of wars.
Although there was interaction between the formative temples, each one had economic and political autonomy.

Religious beliefs:

Religious ideology in pre-Hispanic Peru was a means of integration and leadership of populations.
It is expressed and transmitted from generation to generation through architecture, funerary rituals, artifacts used in ceremonies and the iconography expressed in them.
The three mythical animals most used in iconography were: the jaguar, the snake and the bird; mixing their features with the human figure.
Cinnabar was a very important element in the typical funeral ritual of elite figures.
The shape, location, quality and designs of the jewellery and special tomb offerings in the Kuntur Wasi Phase suggest the possibility that they were transported from the northern coast.

Panorama of the First Terrace (Plan No. 2) from south

East Monolith (Plan No. 11)

Panorama of the First Terrace (Plan No. 2) from east

Retaining wall of the First Terrace (Plan No. 2)

Area of ongoing archaeological excavations (Plan No. 12)

Panorama of ongoing archaeological excavations

Professor Yoshio Onuki shows us the latest items found
Professor Yoshio Onuki is in charge of the ongoing excavations. Yoshio Onuki is professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo.

Professor Yoshio Onuki is a Japanese archaeologist who has been working in Peru for 51 years.
In 1988 he began working at the Kuntur Wasi ceremonial center in Cajamarca. In 2010 he was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universidad Mayor de San Marcos.
In 2011 he presented a book to the Congress of the Republic, co-authored with the Japanese anthropologist Kinya Inokuchi: Pristine Twins. The Treasure of the Temple of Kuntur Wasi.