URBAN CENTER PIEDRA PARADA

Location

Piedra Parada (standing stone) archaeological site is accessed taking the exit at kilometer 181 of the Pan-American Highway, and continuing towards El Porvenir Town Center.

Political location:

Department: Lima / Province: Barranca / District: Supe

Geographic location:

Area: 18S

Reference system: WGS84

UTM coordinates: 206 874.96 E / 8 799 032.12 N

Average altitude: 65 m a. s. l.

Urban center area: 37.54 ha

Geographic Aspects

The Piedra Parada settlement is located on the left bank of the lower section of the Supe Valley, 2.5 kilometers from the coastline. It was built on low rocky promontories of the Tutumo formation, which has spaces covered by dunes. The river and its riverine forest, sandy soils and agricultural fields are to the north of the site; towards the west, there are wetlands with totora and reed, and the coastline for fishing and collecting shellfish.

Background

Carlos Williams and Manuel Merino (1979) recorded the first references of the site in the Supe valley register. Later, the site was deemed as older than the Era de Pando and Chupacigarro settlements, and it was considered to date back to 2000 BC. (Williams 1982). Robert Feldman codified it as As25 and claimed that the design of the built space had been the work of a formalized authority (Feldman 1980). For her part, Elzbieta Zechenter extracted from the site a sample whose radiocarbon dating showed 1867 to 1546 cal BC. (1 sigma). The report on the Supe Valley, prepared by the team that studied the valley, led by Ruth Shady between 1994 and 1995, included Piedra Parada as a settle- ment of the Initial Formative period.

In recent years, nineteen hectares of the site were squattered by a group of farmers, who even obtained authorization from the municipality.

In response to this, in 2012, ZAC started activities to raise awareness on its Cultural Heritage value among local authorities, members of the

New Progress Farmers’ Association of Piedra Parada, and residents of “El Porvenir”.

That same year, ZAC began the enhancement works on the site, to recover the social history to benefit the population, at local, regional and national level. These tasks included efforts to relocate the farmers and residents that occupy the squatter.