Pashash
Pashas · Cabana Pashash
Early Intermediate – Middle Horizon (c.200 BCE–800 CE) Recuay – Wari·Recuay (Pashash) – Wari·🇵🇪 Ancash, Pallasca Province, Cabana, Peru
About
About Pashash
Pashash crowns a defensible mesa above Cabana in the northern Callejón, Ancash, at 3,225 m. As the,type-capital of the Recuay-Pashash culture (200 BCE–800 CE), its stone palace-fortress encloses patio-groups, D-shaped rooms and two-storey tower dwellings with corbelled galleries and painted plaster. The Caserón citadel and subterranean mortuary galleries housed lineage mummies and Spondylus offerings. Recuay ceramics with negative-resist white-on-red, kaolin effigy vessels and stone tenon heads define the style.
Later Wari occupation capped the galleries. Excavations by Hernán Amat and Terence Grieder revealed stratified mausolea and early Andean underground architecture that anticipates Wari.
Why it mattersPashash crowns a defensible mesa above Cabana in the northern Callejón, Ancash, at 3,225 m. As the,type-capital of the Recuay-Pashash culture (200 BCE–800 CE), its stone palace-fortress encloses patio-groups, D-shaped rooms and two-storey tower dwellings with corbelled galleries and painted plaster. Type-site defining regional sequence.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Chronology and phasing of construction
- 02Function of elite vs communal architecture
Theories
- 01Regional capital coordinating irrigation and exchange
- 02Ritual-ceremonial amphitheatre aligned to astronomy
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.200 BCE–500 CE floruit, Wari reuse c.600–800 CE
- Period
- Early Intermediate – Middle Horizon (c.200 BCE–800 CE) Recuay – Wari
- Culture
- Recuay (Pashash) – Wari
- Builders
- Recuay (Pashash culture)
- Purpose
- Hilltop fortress-palace and mausoleum complex with subterranean galleries and tower-chullpas
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.200 BCE–500 CE floruit, Wari reuse c.600–800 CE
Initial construction
c.1200 CE
Major occupation / refurbishment
c.1000–1532
Late horizon / Inca incorporation where applicable
On the ground
Structures & features
8.0110° S · 78.0400° W · 3225 m · 2 mapped features
Caserón Palace-Fortress
palaceMulti-storey stone palace 50×40m with corbelled upper floor and patio-groups
8.0107° S · 78.0398° WSubterranean Mortuary Galleries
tomb20m long rock-cut galleries under citadel with chullpa-like burial chambers
8.0112° S · 78.0401° W
Gallery