Huaricoto Temple-Mound (Callejón de Huaylas)
Huaricoto · Huaricoto temple · Wari Koto · Callejón de Huaylas Huaricoto
Initial Period to Early Horizon (Kotosh–Chavín)·Kotosh / Chavín (highland)·🇵🇪 Áncash, Callejón de Huaylas — Huaricoto village near Marcará, Cordillera Blanca foothills, Peru
About
About Huaricoto Temple-Mound (Callejón de Huaylas)
Initiatory Cotoc–Chavín temple mound in Callejón de Huaylas — oval stepped mound 30×20 m base, 5 m high, with layered temples from 2100 BCE (Kotosh tradition) through Chavín horizon (900 BCE) with U-shaped courts, hearths and Kotosh-like chamber. Built of fieldstone with clay plaster, successive burnt offering layers (Burger-Salmon stratigraphy 2100–500 BCE). Excavated by Richard Burger & Lucy Salazar (Yale) 1978–86. Provides earliest highland temple sequence linking Kotosh, La Galgada and Chavín.
Why it mattersLongest continuous highland hearth-temple sequence (2100–500 BCE) linking Kotosh mythology to Chavín; initiation theory.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Function of succession — chiefly initiation or shrine
- 02Link to Kotosh crossed-hands
Theories
- 01Huaricoto shows Chavín ideology grew from Callejón highland fire temples
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c. 2100–500 BCE (Initial Period to Early Horizon)
- Period
- Initial Period to Early Horizon (Kotosh–Chavín)
- Culture
- Kotosh / Chavín (highland)
- Builders
- Highland Callejón community
- Purpose
- Fire temple with successive hearth/burnt offerings for initiation ritual
- Abandoned
- c. 500 BCE
- Rediscovered
- 1978 (Burger-Salmon Yale Peruvian highlands project)
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c. 2100–500 BCE (Initial Period to Early Horizon)
Initial construction
c. 1415 CE
Rediscovery
On the ground
Structures & features
9.5783° S · 77.6278° W · 2750 m · 2 mapped features
Huaricoto mound court
pyramidU-shaped court atop 30 m mound
9.5783° S · 77.6278° WHearth chambers
hearthLayered burnt offering hearth inside
9.5782° S · 77.6276° W