GREAT WALL OF PEEU SHIPPEE 465 



ORIGIN OF THE WALL 



We were unable to come to any conclusion concerning the origin 

 of the wall. As Dr. A. L. Kroeber remarks, that will require careful 

 examination by an archeologist familiar with different types of con- 

 struction and able to interpret potsherds or other fragments that 

 may be found in association with the wall. If we had had time to 

 carry our ground explorations farther and to investigate the forts, we 

 might have found more definite indications as to its history ; but we 

 had already spent eight and a half months in Peru instead of the 

 five months orginally planned. 



Further exploration to determine how far the wall extends into 

 the Andes would be especially worth while. We estimate that when 

 we finally lost sight of the wall we were in the neighborhood of 

 Corongo. Wiener ^ mentions strongly fortified hills in the Corongo 

 region. We have, therefore, the possibility of a defensive wall 

 joining the fortifications of the Corongo region with those at the 

 mouth of the Santa River. 



Clearly the wall with its double line of forts was erected as a 

 defensive barrier. If it is true that the fortified hilltops at Para- 

 monga, some 50 miles farther south, mark the southern limits of 

 the domain of the Great Chimii, there are many guesses that can 

 be made as to the origin and purpose of the wall. It may be an inter- 

 tribal defense that antedates the consolidation of the Chimu kingdom. 

 Or it may be a secondary line of defense erected by the Chimii against 

 the Inca invader. If the latter is the case it may explain why, as 

 tradition says, the Inca abandoned his invasions of the Chimii 

 kingdom from the south along the coast and finally conquered it by 

 advancing his armies through the Andes and laying direct siege to 

 Chan-Chan, the Chimii capital. 



The suggestion has been advanced by Dr. R. L. Olson, of the 

 University of California, that the wall may represent one of a series 

 of defense structures built by the Chimii as they extended their 

 territory to the north and south.^ While engaged in field work in 

 this part of Peru two years ago Doctor Olson noted a number of 

 walls in the Chao Valley, about 20 miles north of the Santa Valley, 

 mostly fragmentary and running for short distances only. He de- 

 scribes a larger wall cutting across the pampa between Trujillo 

 and Chicama that was built presumably for the defense of Chan- 

 Chan. 



' Charles Wiener, P^rou et Bolivia, Paris, p. 177, 1880. 



* From a preliminary statement sent to the American Geographical Society at the in- 

 stance of Dr. A. L. Kroeber. 



