Pourtant, la capitale Peruvienne a ete construite sur le site d'une ancienne cite... On dit ici que la majorite de la ville de Lima repose sur des ruines...
Miraculeusement, deux endroits ont survecus au passage des siecles et a l'avenement de la ville moderne. Un de ces endroits a entierement ete restaure (mais je ne l'ai pas visite), et l'autre est un site archeologique en cours d'excavation, que l'on peut visiter.
Ce site, qui s'appelle Huaca Pucllana, est un des rares (le seul?) sites restant de la civilisation Lima. La culture Lima est a peu pres de la meme epoque que la culture Mochica au nord, i.e. entre 100 et 650 de notre ere.
Si on ne sait que peu de choses sur la culture Lima, on sait toutefois que l'on ne parle pas ici de reelle civilisation (encore moins d'empire), mais bien de culture, car leur territoire d'influence n'a guerre eu le temps de prendre de l'expansion avant l'arrivee des Wari, puis des Incas.
Voici quelques photos de Huaca Pucllana (qui, en Quechua, veut dire "Lieu de jeu"), un site d'environ 7 hectares, alors que la cite elle-meme, du temps des Lima, couvrait au moins 20 hectares.
A part une couche de protection contre l'erosion, disposee sur le dessus des murs existants, et a part un plancher de conservation installe la ou les visiteurs peuvent deambuler, ainsi que quelques rampes, l'ensemble du site est original. On peut meme voir ici et la des traces de pigmentation jaune sur certains murs. Le site est constitue d'une gigantesque pyramide tronquee de 7 palliers, de trois patios et d'un ensemble de secteur domiciliaire et/ou administratif.
Les ruines de la pyramide. On remarque une des caracteristiques propres a la culture Lima; Cette construction en placant des briques verticalement, et en laissant un espace entre chaque brique, en plus d'alterner les portions pyramidales et pyramidales inversees. Cette maniere de construire est dite "anti-seisme", et elle a permis a la pyramide de resister au fil des siecles a plusieurs tremblements de terre, l'ensemble etant concu pour absorber les seismes...
Un regard au loin et on apercoit que malgre l'etrangete du site, nous sommes en plein coeur de la ville de Lima. En fait, Huaca Pucllana est situe aux limites de Miraflores et San Isidro, les deux quartiers huppes et commerciaux de Lima! (Derriere moi, sur cette photo)...
Si "L'homme de Lima", de 1m50 a peine, est une reconstitution evidente... ses empreintes de doigts, sur cette photo, sont absoument authentiques! J'au aussi vu sur le site de Huaca Pucllana des empreintes de pieds d'enfants datant de plus de 1300 ans... Les Lima ont laisses tout de meme quelques artefacts aux archeologues (ils ont ete gentils d'y penser quand meme :)... et parmi ces artefacts (la collection habituelle de poterie, vase, bols, etc, mais avec leurs dessins particuliers), on retrouve des mandibules de requin de quatre types de requins differents (dont le grand blanc). Or, meme si la mer n'est pas si loin de Huaca Pucllana, on n'a jamais retrouve de lances ou d'armes assez evoluee pour capturer/tuer un requin, dans les ruines de la culture Lima... Enfin, d'apres ce que l'on en sait, il est tres rare que les grands blancs se trouvent dans le secteur de Lima... J'ajouterais que le requin n'est pas un hasard ici, puisque sur deux grande cruches ceremoniales, ainsi que sur un morceau de tissage, on retrouve un joli dessin de requin, comme quoi, l'animal faisait partie de la culture Lima d'une maniere ou d'une autre.
On a beau etre dans la capitale, a environ 15 minutes de marche du plus proche Starbucks :-), il y a toujours un cactus quelque part pour nous rappeler que Lima est situee tres pres des zones desertiques du Perou...
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On a beau etre dans la capitale, a environ 15 minutes de marche du plus proche Starbucks :-), il y a toujours un cactus quelque part pour nous rappeler que Lima est situee tres pres des zones desertiques du Perou...--
Ce billet est le dernier entierement consacre aux cultures pre-Incas... Il me reste bien Pachacamac a visiter... un site Wari, celui-la... donc egalement pre-Inca, mais comme les Incas ont agrandi et modifie le site - et y ont meme construit un temple - nous verrons alors le passage d'une culture a l'autre... avant de penetrer reellement au coeur de l'Empire Inca.
a suivre...
Hello!
RépondreSupprimerSorry, my French is just basic, so I have to respond in English. Nevertheless I quite well understood what you wrote about Pre-Inca Cultures in Lima and I'm a little bit shocked.
Not being an expert, but living in Lima, running around with open eyes and reading a lot I think you should probably inform yourself a little bit more detailed.
First: Around 200 AD a local culture arose in the zone of Maranga. This so called Maranga or Lima Culture lived at their beginnings in the area of today’s Callao, La Punta, Bellavista and La Perla. Having adapted the agricultural and irrigation knowledge of the Chavín, these antique limeños brought great progress to the region. They constructed the first canals upriver the Rimac to irrigate the dessert lands at the outskirts of Callao and the eastern parts of the valley. Even today part of these canals still exists. This irrigations system was a striking achievement of engineering. To maintain it and distribute the water evenly to the people an advanced social organization was required.
Because the Lima Culture didn't make war on everybody and couldn't extend their influence like the Wari or Inca does this mean they weren't a 'real civilization'?
In addition the ‘marangas’ left behind many huacas that were adapted and added to by later cultures. The main ones are the Huaca Maranga and Huaca Tres Palos, both located in the Parque de las Leyendas, the Huaca Huallamarca in San Isidro and the Huaca Juliana in Miraflores. It is believed that these huacas were used by the expanding population of the Maranga as administrative centers for their different irrigation zones. The Lima Culture built as well the first temples of the religious center of Pachacamac.
Second: much more than only two huacas survived here in Lima. Probably Huaca Pucllana in Miraflores and Huaca Huallamarca in San Isidro are the best known. You should really come back to Lima, wander around town and the surroundings and visit all the other sites.
Third: Lima is not situated close (!) to the arid zone! Lima is located directly in the desert stripe between Pacific Ocean and the Andes!
Dear "sunflower",
RépondreSupprimerFirst of all, thank you for your comments, and all the interesting information it gives for the reader of my blog, I appeciate that, I can assure you.
It took some times before I've published it since it seems to me it needed a reply and I didn't have much time to do so. Besides, I don't usually publish anonymous comments on the blog, especially when the writer is criticizing something that I at least had the courage to sign :-)
You don't have to apologize for writing in english, any language is welcome here :-)
I think you're shocked because you gave me pretention that I don't have. I'm just a traveler who's on a discovery trip in South America and this is my travel journal. I write it to inform my readers and friends, and to share my experiences as I move along the road. I don't pretend - never did, and never will - to be an expert on the subjects I'm covering on this travel journal. And since I just travel for a few months and the continent is large and full of interesting stuff to see, I certainly don't pretend to see all of it!
That could explain why I didn't gave more details about the Lima culture, and why I didn't have time to visit all the sites around Lima. Also, as a traveler, sometimes, you look for different things to do or visit, and sometimes, also, you just don't find out that some other stuff is out there, especially if you just have a couple of days to visit an area as complex as Lima.
As "civilisation" is concerned, we just don't draw the line at the same place, but that's ok with me. Once again, I never meant to offend anyone here, but even the biggest city of all time, if its contend to itself, doesn't represent for me a civilisation, which need (from my humble point of view of non-expert) at least to be spread out and develop some kind of communication system between many sites to be so.
Same thing about the desert. I know whee is Lima... :-)
But since the human civilisation had terraformed the landscape to create a huge city, there's no way you're in the desert anymore while in Lima. Even if you're right about the climate, Lima is no more a desert than Las Vegas is, if you follow my line of thoughts.
And that's pretty much it.
Once again, thanks for the infos you've added, and I invite you to comment again, if you just want to sign it next time, I'll be pleased to publish it.
Hugo.