Batan Grande — Huaca La Merced (Sicán Capital)
Middle Sicán (Lambayeque), c.750–1050 CE, peak 900–1050 CE·Sicán (Lambayeque)·🇵🇪 Lambayeque, Batan Grande Sanctuary, La Leche Valley, Peru
About
About Batan Grande — Huaca La Merced (Sicán Capital)
Huaca La Merced (Huaca Sialupe) in Batan Grande — Sicán capital pyramid (c.750–1050 CE, Middle Sicán). 80 × 60 m base, 14 m high adobe platform supporting Sicán elite cemetery; Shimada 1978-2005 uncovered masked elite burials; Huaca del Oro nearby. Sicán capital predates Chimú and Inca; metallurgy workshops of tumbaga.
Why it mattersType Sicán pyramid; mass Sicán copper-gold; forerunner to Chimú.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Sicán collapse c.1050 — 30yr drought or conflagration
Theories
- 01Sicán as bridge Moche→Chimú metallurgy inheritance
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.850 CE
- Period
- Middle Sicán (Lambayeque), c.750–1050 CE, peak 900–1050 CE
- Culture
- Sicán (Lambayeque)
- Builders
- Sicán (Middle Sicán lords)
- Purpose
- Capital huaca — palace-pyramid of Sicán lords in Batan Grande capital strip (10 km pyramids row)
- Excavation
- Excavated
c.850 CE
Initial construction / foundation
c.800 CE
Major refurbishment / enlargement phase
c.1100 CE
Abandonment or conversion
1890–1930
Modern rediscovery and first scientific survey
On the ground
Structures & features
6.4630° S · 79.7830° W · 55 m · 2 mapped features
Summit funerary chamber and tumbaga mask deposit
chamberChamber with Sicán tumbaga mask burial assemblage
6.4629° S · 79.7829° WNorthern metallurgy workshop area
workshopCopper-arsenic and tumbaga workshop debris on north terraces
6.4631° S · 79.7831° W