La Galgada (archaeological site)

The archaeological site of La Galgada in Peru is an example of a ceremonial monument built within the Kotosh Religious Tradition during the preceramic, or Late Archaic period of Andean history.

[2] The archaeologists who excavated at the site in the late 1970s and early 1980s decided to call the monument "La Galgada" after the nearest town, a coal-mining settlement about 2 kilometres to the north, although local people instead referred to it as "San Pedro".

[3] It is the latter of these features that remains the most visually obvious characteristic of the Pre-Ceramic amongst archaeologists, and indicates that by this time, Andean society was sufficiently developed that it could organise large building projects involving the management of labor.

[4] The Pre-Ceramic Period also saw a rise in the population of the Andean region, with the possibility that many people were partially migratory, spending much of their year in rural areas but moving to the monumental ceremonial centers for certain times which were seen as having special significance.

[6] Archaeological surveys have established that during the Pre-Ceramic Period, at least 11 settlements had grown up throughout the Tablachaca Canyon, being concentrated on both sides of the river for at least 8 km near to the modern village of La Galgada.

[7] This led one of the head excavators, Terence Grieder, to comment that the La Galgada site must be seen as "one of the most important ceremonial and burial areas in a larger, well-populated district, which in Pre-ceramic terms must be considered virtually a metropolitan center".