The Chimu civilization of the Andes mountains survived and resided on the western cost of south america, in present day Peru Their capital city, Chan Chan,though originally replaced with Trujillo, was about twenty square kilometers around 1200 c.e. During this time, the city housed one hundred thousand people living in adobe structures from 850 c.e. to 1470 c.e. this area, unfortunately is know for floods and tornadoes which have not stopped the ruins from persisting. The city developed in the Moche valley which is south of present day Lima and stretching to northeast of Huarmey and into present day Trujillo and eventually gained land near Arequipa. Appearing around 900 c.e. the city of Chimor now called Chan Chan between Trujillo and the ocean. It is said that Taycanamo founded the kingdom here and his son Guacricaur took over the lower part of the valley in which it sits. He then was succeeded by Nancen-pinco who conquered not only the city of Chimor but adjacent valleys such as Sana, Chicama, Viru, and Pacasmayo. At the height of the empire, it stretched to Jequetepeque valley to the north, and southern Carabayallo. The city was composed of nine complexes which include temples and such that were arranged in open spaces. These walls and building being built were highly decorated. This city inspired the flourishing of and housed production centers for weaving wood and metal work as well as high productive agricultural areas and irrigation systems. This system being aided by a river of about eighty kilometers long that helped them survive as long as they did. The city was a triangular city composed of ten citadels and walls over 50 feet high.
Throughout the capital city there were mere displays of their beliefs, their connection and worship to the ocean and mythological beliefs and ideas. As monotheists this civilization saw the moon and the sea as the providers of life and knew they had a correlation. They made offers to the moon. Their city adorned with sea creatures, fishing tools and depictions of ocean scenes. Their religious offerings usually consisted of fruits, animals birds and even their children in hopes that they would become a deity. The naked Peruvian dog was worshiped as the son of the moon and used in rain rituals. A structure called the rainbow temple in the city of Chan Chan, is evidence of these practices because there are murals in the temple that depict mythological creatures and human sacrifice.
The Chimu empire being the largest until the arrival of the Inca, took shape in the early fourteenth century. The society was a very stratified society consisting of many peasants under nobility The wealthiest lived closest to the center while most of the population lived on the out skirts oft he city. There were over twelve thousand artists that decorated the walls lived in a cluster of houses. the city of Chan Chan was a major producer of textile goods, gold, silver, and copper. Their structures being mostly made of mud, a solid structure for the climate.
"The Chimú society was a four-level hierarchical system, with a powerful elite rule over administrative centers. The hierarchy was centered at the walled cities, called ciudadelas, at Chan Chan. The political power at Chan Chan is demonstrated by the organization of labor to construct the Chimú's canals and irrigated fields.
Chan Chan was the top of the Chimu hierarchy, with Farfán in the Jequetepeque Valley as a subordinate. This organization, which was quickly established during the conquest of the Jequetepeque Valley, suggests the Chimú established the hierarchy during the early stages of their expansion. The existing elite at peripheral locations, such as the Jequetepeque Valley and other centers of power, were incorporated into the Chimú government on lower levels of the hierarchy. These lower-order centers managed land, water, and labor, while the higher-order centers either moved the resources to Chan Chan or carried out other administrative decisions. Rural sites were used as engineering headquarters, while the canals were being built; later they operated as maintenance sites. The numerous broken bowls found at Quebrada del Oso support this theory, as the bowls were probably used to feed the large workforce that built and maintained that section of canal. The workers were probably fed and housed at state expense.
The state governed such social classes until imperial Sican conquered the kingdom of Lambayeque. The legends of war were said to have been told by the leaders Naylamp in the Sican language and Tacayanamo in Chimú. The people paid tribute to the rulers with products or labor. "
Politically, the empire had a hereditary monarch. The head chimukapak organization acted as king of the Great Chimu.
Their society was compared of different classesEmperor;
called great Chimu, was the top political, religious and militaristic authority. They lived in the palace in the city of Chan Chan.
The Great Curcas;
the warriors emerged from nobility or ruling class
the Upper Middle class;
people of great privilege compared to peasants.Peasants;
worked on the land and were lead by chiefs
Servants(Yana);
prisoners of war who were forced to do the architectural jobs, they lived in slave like conditions.
The Chimu produced ceramics which were used as containers and as ceramics for burial purposes. Chimu pottery was produce in mass amounts Some monochrome, usually made with black metal and other variation of this. these were then polished and decorated with patterns. These ceramic depicted realistic animals and characters and mythological scenes. These Chimu artisans worked in separate sections of the workshops that were divided by the specification of the metallurgy They worked with plating, gliding, embossing wax casting and several other techniques to produce objects like spoons forks, knives figurines and jewelry and so on. The resources to create the alloys to make these objects were found naturally obtained from mines and caverns in which to retrieve silver, copper, gold and tin.
The economic and social system operated through a network of rural towns that collected taxes administering Chan Chan. The state then managed, monopolized production, storage, redistribution, and consumption of the goods of the city. Their dedication to the moon was because its influence the growth of plants due the the tides created by the pull of the moon .
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Chucuito
After the twelfth century, for example, the kingdom of Chucuito dominated the highlands region around Lake Titicaca, which straddles the border between modern Peru and Bolivia at about 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) of elevation.
depended on the cultivation of potatoes and the herding of llamas and alpacas—camel-like beasts that were the only large domesticated animals anywhere in the Americas before the sixteenth century. In elaborately terraced fields built with stone retaining walls, cultivators harvested potatoes of many colors, sizes, and tastes. Like maize in Mesoamerica, potatoes served as the staple of the highlanders' diet, which revolved around a potato-based stew enlivened by maize, tomatoes, green vegetables, peppers, chiles, and meat from llamas, alpacas, or tender, domesticated guinea pigs.
Apart from meat, llamas and alpacas provided the highlanders with wool, hides, and dung, widely used as fuel in a land with few trees. In exchange for potatoes and woolen textiles, the highlanders obtained maize and coca leaves from societies in lower valleys. They used maize to enhance their diet and to brew a beerlike beverage, and they chewed the coca leaves, which worked as a mild stimulant and enhanced stamina in the thin air of the high Andes. (When processed, coca leaves yield a much more powerful stimulant with addictive properties—cocaine.)
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