“Año del Buen Servicio al Ciudadano”

UNIVERSIDAD PRIVADA “SAN JUAN BAUTISTA” FILIAL ICA

FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS DE LA SALUD

ESCUELA ACADEMICA PROFESIONAL DE MEDICINA HUMANA

INVESTIGACIÓN FORMATIVA

PARACAS CULTURE

CURSO

INGLÉS

AUTORES

REBAZA MATEO, ALFREDO JESÚS

GUTIERREZ MITACC, ESTEFANIA MILAGROS

PACHECO SOTIL, MARIA VALERIA

PIMENTEL RAMOS, LUCIA DE LOS ANGELES

RAMOS HUAMAN, LUIS GUILLERMO

LEVANO CARLOS, BRAYAN HAROLD

QUINTANILLA ZEGARRA, EDUARDO

CICLO II
SECCIÓN: MA
ICA-PERU
 PARACAS CULTURE

This culture dates back to around 600 BC and expanded on the south coast of the
Chincha Valley in the department of Ica, 200 km south of Lima. They developed
advanced agricultural techniques and one of their most important crops was cotton.
Using cotton, vicuna and alpaca wool they wove fine tapestries and multicolored
blankets and dyed their creations with natural dyes of which they created more
than 190 different shades. The size of the textiles was on average 2.5 meters long
and used geometric, anthropomorphic and animal designs, such as birds and
felines. Textiles were considered a symbol of status and wealth, many mummies
have been found wrapped in many layers of the best embroidered tapestries that
symbolize a person of power in the Paracas society. Its textile is considered the
best produced in pre-Columbian America.

Their knowledge of medicine was advanced, just as they demonstrated, the

remains of surgical operations to the brain (craneal trepanations) with the patients'
survival. These people used to deform their skulls while still alive, givenig them a
'lengthened head’.
GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION

It was developed in the Paracas peninsula, located in what is now the Paracas
district of the province of Pisco, in the Ica Region, located 18kms from the city of
Pisco.

DISCOVERY OF PARACAS CULTURE

This culture was discovered by Julio Cesar Tello in 1925
The place of the findings was Cerro Colorado, in the south of the country, where
Tello installed a camp. It is an arid and very hot zone, which is why it is believed it
was not inhabited.
However, Tello discovered some caverns where he found 39 burial bundles. In
these bales were the corpses of important people of the civilization.
In 1927 the archaeologist found another cemetery, near Cerro Colorado with 429
mummified bodies.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAN ORGANIZATION

The Paracas culture was very influenced by the Chavín culture, this influence was
reflected above all in their religious life and in the theocratic government that were
in the hands of the priests who implanted an oppressive system, likewise there is
the existence of a chain of centers ceremonies in charge of these priests.
The social organization was divided by priests, warrior nobility and the people.
In the Paracas culture there was a group of military priests who, due to their
knowledge of the stars and the control of irrigated water, maintained the political
and technological religious domain.
The population of the Paracas culture was composed mainly of peasants who
accepted everything the priests said because they feared the punishment of the
gods if they did not obey. The settlers accepted that the priests would govern in the
name of the Gods.
MUMMIFICATIONS
The techniques were secret and magical, but they probably extracted the brain, the
gastrointestinal mass, and then exposed the body to the sun to dry it, and when it
took the color of the wood, it was burned.

The art of mummification was developed in paracas necropolis. The corpses

before being buried had to go through a process of mummification. In this process
they got rid of the organs and body parts of the corpse, they also burned them and
reduced them to a minimum size to be buried. Which must have been related to
beliefs from beyond the grave. The Paracas thought there was life after death. The
dry desert climate is an ideal environment for the conservation of these mummies.
Generally, they placed the corpse in a fetal position and then wrapped it in many
cloaks until it became a funerary bundle. They placed feather fans, shell collars,
obsidian mirrors, headbands, weapons, plumes, canes, nose rings, clothing,
foodstuffs. and even small animals stuffed like monkeys, parrots or dogs. When the
person was important they wrapped it with more colorful textiles and more textiles.

In conclusion, the Paracas believed a lot in life after death and prepared for that.

PERIODS OF THE PARACAS CULTURE:

In the Paracas culture, according to the eminent archaeologist Julio C. Tello, two
cultures or successive phases are distinguished, taking into account the way they
buried their dead: Paracas-cavernas and Paracas-necropolis.
 PARACAS CAVERNS
The Paracas Cavernas stage is 700 years old a.C. The main population of the
Paracas culture at this time was developed in Tajahuana, on the banks of the Ica
River, in the Ocucaje sector.
The name Paracas Cavernas is due to the way in which the Paracas were buried
in fetal form. This is proved by the findings of the burial bundles found in Cerro
Colorado.

The tombs found in the Paracas Cavernas culture were underground dug into the
rocks, with a shape that looks like an "inverted cup", or bottle with a high neck, in
whose bottom of about 6 meters in diameter, they placed the funerary bales.

They were communal graves, although it is not known if the burials corresponded
to the same family.

The bodies are mummified, due to the climatic conditions and the terrain. Some of
the corpses show trepanations and cranial deformations, probably due to motives

ECONOMY
The Paracas economy in this period depended basically on intensive agriculture
and fishing (given its proximity to the sea, were skilled fishermen aboard their reed
horses) Agricultural advances were developed include the construction of
aqueducts in the deserts, which gave them the ability to produce artificial sources
of water, and the use of guano as a fertilizer.

TEXTILE
In the Paracas Cavernas period the fabrics were characterized by being geometric
and rigid, where the double-cloth technique predominated. In the textile industry of
this period there is influence of the Chavín culture, since they represent
anthropomorphic, feline beings. The fabrics or mantles of the Paracas caverns
culture are characterized by being geometric and rigid, predominantly the double-
cloth technique. In them there is still a strong evocation in the representation of
feline or geometrized anthropomorphic beings with hair in the form of serpent
(serpentiform).

CERAMICS
The most characteristic of Paracas Caverna, are its ceramics modeled with a
variety of decorative shapes. The designs were made with incised lines. They were
baked and painted with colored pigments mixed with vegetable resin.
The motifs of the ceramics of the Paracas culture show the repetition of the jaguar
or other felines along with the snake. It seems that these animals were considered
Paracas divinities.
The type of vessel is globular with double peak and bridge handle that is used for
the first time in this culture and that would use later cultures in the area, such as
the Nazca Culture.
The Paracas ceramics are dark in color but the pigments used were of a wide
range of colors. This, together with the adornments and anthropomorphic and
zoomorphic sculptural vessels, make the Paracas Cavernas pottery one of the
most specialized in pre-Hispanic Peru.
The polychrome pottery consisted of complexes decorated with various colors,
such as red and yellow, black and white, associated with religious representations.
The ceramics were finished with two peaks and joined by a bridge handle, these
ceramics were painted post-cooking (therefore, the colors were not preserved for a
long time).

MANTLES
These ancient weavers used threads of white cotton, brown cotton, camelid wool
(llama, alpaca, vicuna) and in some special cases, human hair. One of these
supernatural characters, the most important of the pantheon Paracas Cavernas, is
the "oculate being", named for his eyes exaggeratedly large and without eyelids.
The pottery of the Paracas Caverna is very colorful and is characterized by being
decorated with drawings of supernatural beings, especially the "flying feline". They
used the colors green, yellow, red and black.Designs of mythological beings
represented in the textiles of Paracas Cavernas

MEDICINE
Trepanation: trepanation is a medical practice that consists in piercing the skull.
Formerly it was carried out with the aim of eliminating diseases considered to be of
cerebral origin, while at present it is used as surgical access in some neurosurgical
operations, as it is the case of brain tumors or to treat the subdural hematoma
(accumulation of blood on the surface of the brain) or when they present with
intracranial hypertension (medical term that defines an increase in the hydrostatic
pressure inside the cranial cavity).
 PARACAS NECROPOLIS

Culture Paracas Necropolis comprises its beginning from the years 200 years BC
to the first years d.C. was discovered by the Peruvian archaeologist Julio Cesar
Tello and his disciple Toribio Mejía Xesspe, occurred in the year of 1920. It was
Julio C. Tello who called "Paracas Necropolis", this belongs to another culture
which is called "culture will stumble", located in the north of Chincha.
The Paracas culture emerged from another culture, which was "the Nazca culture"

A great cultural affinity, some specialists have argued that the end of the Paracas
culture for were the beginnings of the Nazca culture.
Its development area found in the Pisco River, the gorge of Topa and the Paracas
Peninsula. One of the most highlighting features of this era was the rectangular
form possessed by its cemeteries, where dozens of funerary bales could be
accommodated, which were buried a few meters high. These graves consisted of
large burial chambers, consisting of several rows of subterranean rooms.
is considered to be necropolis like the city and the dead since etymologically
comes from the Greek "Necro" which means death and "polis" that means city.
This term has generally been used to describe cemeteries belonging to large cities.

It has been considered that there were categories in terms of burials since those
powerful characters were very adorned unlike the rest. Another activity that
characterized this epoch was the realization of its ceramics, since these did not
have the perfection that if they possessed those ceramics of the time of Paracas
Caverns.

Paracas culture practiced high quality textiles made of (wool and cotton), also
practiced pottery and basketry very elaborate, were responsible for making
trepanation cranial, this issue is still strongly discussed, to achieve understanding
its end Specific.
PARACAS CAPITAL NECROPOLIS

His discoverer was Toribio Mejía Xesspes, is the capital of Paracas Necropolis,
was a pre-columbian culture of ancient Peru, this arose in the current province of
Chincha of the Department of Ica, was extended to Cañeta, north; and the Paracas
Peninsula, to the South. This has been developed between the year 200 and 100
A.D., it was known as intermediate early, after the decline of the Chavín culture,
influenced the initial stage of the Nazca culture.

They will meet them practicing textiles based on (cotton and camelid wool); These
were of varied colors and very intense, all had decorative purposes of high
complexity (Paracas mantles).
the manufacture of its ceramics consisted of being monochrome and very little
decoration.

PARACAS CULTURE AND PHILOSOPHY

• Religion: In this part it is considered that the Paracas could have worshipped the
same gods as the Chavín, they have made representations of the god of the staff,
these were less frequent.
One of his practices of the Paracas was that of the trophy heads, the men wore
belts, from where they hung the heads of the enemies; these had their lips sewn;
this was one of his most representative rituals.

• Philosophy: Each element plays an essential role in the whole, so diversity of

beings are used in mythology as symbols of situations, manifestations of power or
for purposes of socialization.

Political-Economic Organization

It became a militaristic state. They had a political-military chief in charge of leading

the people. The settlers maintained continuous stuggles to secure their territory.
Ocucaje is considered as te center-capital. In this period the warrior nobility
stenghened its power lo the destrimed of the priests “specialists” who take second
place in te paracas society. Priests lose power. More gods appear.

Ceramics

Its ceramics did not reach a remarkable development. The aesthetic forms of the
cavernas period were manteneid , but his painting was precooked and became
monochrome, the decorations were of animals (especially fish), plants and people.

Textile

His textile art is considered as the best of all pre-Columbian cultures. They used
vicuña and cotton wool; His textiles were harmonious and with many colors, they
use drawings of animals, anthropomorphic and geometric in their designs.