By:Lic. Ilder Cruz Mostacero
INTRODUCTION The results of the scientific research in the Pallka Archaeological site, allowed to define the cultural sequence, determine its function and understand the funerary contexts, whose evidence shows that the funerary practices carried out served to legitimize the role and justify the power of a local elite, during the Middle Horizon, a period marked by continuous cultural interactions. The complexity of the funerary architecture, the arrangement of the offerings and the iconographic content of the ceramics found in the tombs, represent the personal and spiritual prestige of the buried individuals and the processes of political, economic and ideological integration that took place in the Casma Valley. , this during a period marked by ideological mechanisms that promoted intense regional interaction and integration. Likewise, these contexts demonstrate the formation of political leadership legitimized in local cultural traditions and foreign ideological beliefs, which allowed innovations in the social order and in the interzonal economic control that occurred in the Casma Valley during the Middle Horizon.
In the study of funerary contexts, it is not only about studying the techniques, forms and construction materials of the tombs, but it also shows us the understanding of the attitudes of a society towards certain individuals or groups of individuals, and therefore capture the roles of these within the social group. From very early times the Andean man had a great reverence for his dead to whom they attributed magical powers, that is why in pre-Hispanic societies they had the idea that the dead regained life in the afterlife, that is why they had the creation of specific spaces for the deposition of the dead.
PALLKA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE.
1.- Political and geographical location. Politically, the archaeological site of Pallka is located in the District of Yaután, Province of Casma, Ancash Region. Geographically, it is located on the left bank of the Casma River and is located at the coordinates UTM – WGS - 84:N/ 8944226 E/170410 and at a height of 712 meters above sea level, it appears on Sheet 20-h (Huaraz) of the Geographic Map. National. The site extends over a space approximately 2.4 km long (from East to West) by 0.7 km wide (from North to South); area that appears to be made up of elevated terrain, sloping to the north and with a regularly uneven relief dominated by rocky slopes and the bottoms of small ravines and runoffs (see annex n° 01). Annex 01:Map of the Casma Valley with the location of the Pallka archaeological site (Chávez:2011). The archaeological area comprises three main sectors:
Sector I: It comprises the eastern part of the settlement and is characterized by a monumental architectural complex, made up of a main platform (60 meters long, 40 meters wide at the base and 12 meters high), a sunken circular plaza (of 15.50 meters in diameter), several side rectangular plazas and superimposed terraces. These buildings date from the Formative Period (1500-500 BC), presenting walls made with cut stones, parallelepiped or irregular, settled with mud mortar. To the northwest of these constructions, a pre-Hispanic funerary area was located, depredated since the beginning of the 20th century and which currently has abundant fragments of Formative ceramics, from the Middle Horizon and Casma style. In this part of the site, Tello (1956) recorded a carved bone artifact from the Formative Period with the representation of a supernatural zoomorphic character. Another main component of this sector is an architectural complex (covering an area of ​​70 meters by 50 meters). mts.) made up of adjoining enclosures, orthogonally planned and made with irregular stones settled with mud mortar. This assemblage was partially excavated by Chávez (2011) and Suarez (2008), who reported the record of predominantly Formative ceramic materials associated with spaces of residential and administrative function. This sector is crossed from West to East by a pre-Hispanic road, whose chronology would be contemporary with the previously mentioned buildings. This road has a line adapted to the irregularities of the terrain, measuring between 4 and 7 meters. Wide. (See Annex No. 2).

Annex 02:Panoramic photo of the monumental sector of the Pallka archaeological site . Sector II: It shows heads of walls of circular and quadrangular enclosures, made with irregular stones, in addition to the presence of funerary cists. Concentrations of ceramic fragments have been recorded on the surface, ranging from the Formative period (1500-500 BC) to the Late Intermediate (1100-1450 AD), as well as concentrations of bones and lithic artifacts. The pre-Hispanic road also crosses this area. Petroglyphs with anthropomorphic and geometric designs are also recorded in this area.
Sector III: This Sector shows as the most outstanding element the presence of semi-subterranean structures in the form of galleries and funerary chambers, made with stone and adobe walls, large stone slabs were used for the ceilings of the galleries. On the surface, the presence of ceramic fragments from various cultural periods was recorded, predominantly fragments with stylistic features from the Formative period (1500-500 BC), Middle Horizon (800-1100 AD) and Late Intermediate (1100-1450). AD). Likewise, concentrations of bones were recorded on the surface. The entire sector is crossed by the pre-Hispanic road. In addition, in this part of the site the presence of petroglyphs with stylized anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and geometric designs was recorded, some elaborated in the bedrock and others in stones that are on the surface of regular size
2.- The excavations carried out in sector III. The excavations were carried out in the so-called Excavation Unit No. 14 and began with the surface drawing and the altimetric record, registering collapsed architectural structures, later the removal of the rubble material was carried out, taking into account the presence of the architectural elements in surface. After this activity was carried out, the architectural structure could be defined, which consisted of a burial chamber in the central part and a delimiting wall forming corridors whose width measurement between this and the burial chamber is variable between 1.10 meters and 1.35 meters. For a better description of these "corridors", they were subdivided according to their cardinal location. (See annex 03).
Annex 03a:Photo of Excavation Unit 14, sector III of the Pallka Archaeological site, from the southeast corner.
In the “Corredor Sur” only fragments of diagnostic ceramics were found and the presence of some burnings and very close to the Southwest corner, disturbed human bones associated with a small wooden figurine were found. In the "West Corridor", 5 lithic objects were found among the loose earth (01 hammer and 04 complete projectile points, made of andesite and quartzite; three of which had pedunculated shapes and the last one in a triangular shape with a thinning in the base and worked on both sides). (See annex 04).
Annex 04:Photo of the lithic points recorded during the excavation process in the “ West Corridor.” The presence of fabric burning and balls of cotton thread were also recorded. In addition, the burial of a character was found that was missing the pelvis, the lower extremities, presenting an arm and forearm but not the hands. This character had no offerings. (See annex 05).
Annex 05:Photo of the burial with the pelvis and lower extremities missing. In the Northwest corner of the wall that forms the burial chamber and very close to the surface, a black ceramic with iconographic motifs associated with the Middle Horizon was found (see annex No. 6)


Annex 06:Vessel with iconographic motifs from the Middle Horizon, where the presence of an upright central character with phytomorphic representations.





The iconographic analysis allowed us to identify that on one side of the ceramic there are four well-defined ears of corn (Zea Mays) and two motifs that would be two tubers (Manihot Esculenta), these motifs are located in the upper middle part of pottery. On the other side of the ceramic, it presents the main motifs considering the size and location and consists of a male figure with an upright posture (standing), with his arms outstretched holding corn plants in both hands, on both sides of his face there are ears of corn. of corn Phytomorphic iconographic motifs emerge from both armpits of the character that have possibly been associated with Yuccas (Manihot Esculenta). Very close to the spike of both maize plants there are other phytomorphic motifs that have been identified as a probable chili pepper (Capsicum Boccatum). The character presented a headdress (Cap) with 04 points with zigzag lines, a necklace, an Unku with geometric motifs and a belt with representation of snakes. According to Carrión (2005), he would be the God of fertility. “Among the gods of the highest theogonic rank in the Peruvian pantheon is the god of fertility or agricultural god, who synthesizes the cosmic forces favorable to the production of the soil; he controls the fertilizing rains, the heat and the generating power; and assumes dominion over the plant world. Different attributes or symbols characterize his various functions, these being able to be identified by the emblems he bears. (...), He is presented as a sowing god of seeds, as a solar god, as a dispenser of rain or as a protector of the main food fruits, carrying exuberant plants in his hands or protecting the abundant harvest. Its attributes are:the symbolic serpent of the rains, the two-headed belt, which when shaken in the firmament unleashes the waters, the scepters or sacred rods charged with germinative power, the seeds that possess the generating force that will animate the plants and the scepter which has various forms alluding to its fertilizing or fertilizing power” (Carrión:2005, 78). In the same Northwest corner, formed by the north wall and the west wall that forms the corridors, a second burial was found, male, in a flexed position (legs towards the chest and head between the legs) that had a knife as offerings. copper and 2 ceramic pyrides, was protected by a circular stone slab. In the "North Corridor", an annexed funerary architectural structure (cist) was recorded, which had already been disturbed when the excavations were carried out, Only in the sifting process were copper needles and a large number of turquoise beads found. Throughout this corridor, a large number of disturbed, disarticulated camelid bones and from different parts of the body were recorded, in addition they are intentionally crushed with worked stones, so they do not belong to burials of complete individuals, which suggests that only the bones and would belong to secondary burials. Associated with these bones, 04 simple-made vessels without decoration were found (02 pots and 02 bowls).
Likewise, a bottle was found, which presents on both surfaces the representation of a character in an upright position, slightly bent, in profile, in an attitude of walking, with the left hand close to the body and the right hand close to the chest that is holding a baton over the shoulder; It wears a hat tied to the back of the head, which ends in a fan shape, it also has a belt decorated with a motif known as "chevron". The body and head of the character is completely surrounded by rays with phytomorphic projections (it looks like a baton in the shape of a corn) that come out like flashes, arranging themselves in a large disk in the shape of an "S" (which would be related to the sea waves or with lightning). The same character is registered on the other side of the vessel with slight variations in the headdress. According to Carrión (2005), it would be a variation of the Solar deity or an agent of it. “The god of fertility takes on the appearance of a solar deity, adorned with rays arranged in a circle that symbolize the flashes of the luminous star when he assumes the role of protector of the plant world. In this form he embodies the fertilizing power of the sun on Earth, materialized by rays that transform into fruits (...). These rays end in almost all cases in corn fruits, which through a process of idealization become scepters or germinative rods, symbolic of their generating power; and in batons whose fist has the shape of said fruit. The scepter is a more important attribute because it is provided with numerous rays that end in vegetable germs or in corn fruits, that is, they are charged with generating power”. (Carrión:2005, 91 – 95).
Between the northeast corner of the wall that forms the burial chamber and the wall that forms the corridor, 03 burials were recorded. The first burial is of an adolescent who is in a sitting position with his legs drawn up to his chest and his head flexed between his legs, his spine fractured to allow for the position, and his right hand flexed and placed at ear level. Among the offerings, 03 pyruros (two metal and one ceramic) have been registered that were inside his right hand, which was at the level of his ear, a copper knife, two tweezers that were wrapped in cotton fabrics and a ceramic that presents two decorative motifs on the neck whose representations are facial features. (See Annex No. 11 and 14).
nexus 11:Photo of a burial that is in a sitting position with legs bent forward his chest
and his head flexed between his legs, his spine fractured and his right hand flexed and placed at ear level. The second burial that belongs to a child, placed in the same position as the previous burial and has only 02 ceramic pyruros that were also inside his hand and at the height of his ear. Finally, the last burial consists of a newborn whose position could not be defined due to its state of preservation and among its offerings it only had a ceramic pyruro.
Annex 14:Knife, tweezers, needles and pyruros that were part of the offerings of the previous burial In the "East Corridor", a large number of disturbed camelid bones was also recorded and the presence of a complete camelid that was associated with two lithic artifacts (a circular club and a worked object) stands out and the most outstanding is the presence of a diadem made of silver and copper, decorated with geometric motifs made with the embossing technique. Likewise, during the excavations, 10 domestic vessels were found, with a predominance of undecorated bowls. In this corridor it was also possible to determine the entrance to the tomb, which is 1.24 meters wide.
Annex 16:Photo of the diadem made of silver and copper, decorated with geometric motifs associated with the burial of the camelid.
In the central part of the funerary structure, the funerary chamber is discovered whose dimensions are 1.26 meters long and 1.28 meters wide and was built with edged stones and mud mortar forming walls with "exposed face", the roof was built with stone slabs and the floor was paved. On the four sides of the walls it had niches, and in them only human bones corresponding to maxillae were found. At a depth of 2.12 meters from the Datum and on the south side of the burial chamber, the presence of 05 human heads painted with cinnabar and in different positions and some jaws was recorded (see annex 18).
Annex 18:Photo of the 05 human heads painted with cinnabar and in different positions and some jaws. Among the offerings, only the presence of a large number of turquoise and shell beads and a domestic vessel (bowl) stand out, which were registered very close to the floor, with these beads, during the cabinet work, necklaces could be formed. Abundant ceramic fragments were also recorded; Once in the cabinet, many of these fragments had the same characteristics as the pastes, so these fragments were joined, allowing a vessel to be obtained, the same one that on one of its sides presents the representation of a character in an upright position and facing forward. with outstretched arms holding a cassava plant (Manihot Esculenta) in the right hand and a maize plant (Zea Mays) in the left hand. (See annex 20).
Annex 20:Vessel with the representation of a character in an upright position and facing forward
with outstretched arms holding phytomorphic motifs in both hands. Likewise, fragments of worked bones (musical instruments, textile instruments and objects very similar to buttons), worked malacological remains and some in the process of being made and copper needles were recorded.
FINAL COMMENT The tomb identified in Excavation Unit 14, sector III, of the Pallka archaeological site within the framework of the “Pallka – Yaután Research and Conservation Project” (PICAP), contained 4 complete burials recorded in the northern corridors (with offerings of ceramics, copper and bone objects), a burial whose bones were not complete in the west corridor without offerings and 05 heads of individuals painted with cinnabar inside the chamber with jaws that did not belong to the registered heads and with a single ceramic offering and beads made in turquoise and spondylus. Likewise, the presence of large burnings and a large number of disturbed bones of camelids associated with ceramics of simple manufacture and 3 well-made ceramics with an iconography loaded with religious significance stand out. All this allows us to infer that the heads present in the central chamber would correspond to secondary burials, which were transferred exclusively to be buried together, which would be a family clan, which administered the different areas of the Casma Valley, with the help of a very spread during the Middle Horizon (700 – 1100 AD).
To analyze these funerary practices, it is necessary to consider the perception of death, from the perspective of the Andean cosmovision, and according to the Spanish chroniclers (16th century), the death was conceived as a journey to another dimension of life, it was to descend to the underworld and was understood as a mysterious, dangerous and eternally dark place, made up of a multitude of paths where the deceased wandered and could easily get lost, for which it was necessary to provide him with everything a human being would need for this long journey. Therefore, it was important to bring enough food, drinks, clothing, companions, animals and other useful objects, all according to the investiture and importance of the deceased. It should also be noted that many times in funerary paraphernalia, symbolic elements were incorporated that could protect or help the individual. (Vargas, 2014). It is also necessary to remember that each society has its own funeral ceremonies, rites and practices, which have repercussions on the treatment of the body of the deceased. Funeral practices and ceremonies carried out due to the death of any individual, whatever their social scale, involve a series of decisions, investment of effort and work, and above all the existence of an established and materialized ideological order, entering at stake factors of status, function, sex, age, place and circumstance. Thus, the archaeological importance of funerary contexts lies in the fact that they reveal the existing social structure at the time of the death of the buried person and/or persons, taking into account that their discovery is only one episode of a whole sequence of events. ritual activities started long ago, and continued after the burial of the body. However, it is undeniable that the tomb itself is a valuable source of information due to its intentional nature, each element associated with it had to go through a selection process; the way and arrangement in which these elements were located inside the tomb was the consequence of decisions designed and established with a specific purpose, forming part of an ideological language shared by a group of people who in one way or another had some kind of relationship with the buried individual (DeMarais et al. 1996).
According to Saxe (1970) the excavated funerary contexts are not merely buried individuals, but each one of them contains a coherent social personality, which is not only linked and related to other social personalities, but was built according to rules and structural norms dictated for a larger social system. To study and understand these contexts, Binford (1971) considers that there are two essential components:the first is the social personality of the deceased, which must be a composition of the social identities maintained in life and recognized at the time of death. These facets of social personality are symbolically represented in the funerary rite, the objects placed in the tomb become elements of judgment that can indicate social identities such as sex (through male, female artifacts), age (artifacts of cyclical position of life), personal qualities and status (characteristics, quality and quantity of artifacts and offerings), religion (totems, symbols), among others. Likewise, diversity in the form of funerary treatment may reflect differences between social personalities within a group, or differences between various groups. The second component considered by Binford (1971) is the composition and size of the social unit involved; the form of the funeral rite, the place where it takes place and the number of people included in the funeral activities are determined by the relevance of the social personality. At this point we can contribute that said social personality can be that of the buried individual or of the person or group of people related and interested in the organization of this event. The greater the degree of importance, rank and status of said character or characters, the greater the number of people involved in the funeral acts, as well as the greater the degree of alteration of the daily proceedings of the community; and vice versa. However, Binford (1971) himself considers that in many cases the complexity of funerary practices is conditioned not so much by the social position of the buried individual, but by the complexity of the organizational characteristics of society itself. Likewise, Castillo (2000 :104) states that "the form that funeral treatment takes, in each case is conditioned and determined by economic and social factors, by the cost that the relatives can assume, by the functions that the deceased had in life (...) by sanctions that dictate the appropriate uses and customs”. The funerary practices identified in Pallka, have allowed us to understand a system of beliefs and collective representations of identity and cohesion of local groups, by affirming their rights over certain spaces, entrenched in an ideology maintained, spread and justified, whose purpose was to ensure agricultural production through oracles based on careful astronomical observations and environmental information, as well as precise calendar calculations. The Andean man was always linked to the observation of natural phenomena, and through this he could recognize his environment, and by recognizing it, understand it and then look for his inherent attributes or powers in them. The wise men or leaders developed a social structure that became complex when collective thought transformed them into gods or deities, and they discovered tools to be able to interact with these forces. Thus, magic appears with the rite and societies were growing and interacting with each other:they exchanged food, objects and also ideologies; which were expressed in conventional images or symbols embodied in objects of various materials, thus allowing their ideas to perennialize in the group. (Vargas, 2014). CONCLUSIONS
1.- The funeral treatment received by the individuals, registered in the funerary architecture, of excavation unit 14, in sector III, of the Pallka archaeological site, reveals certain aspects about the ideological conception and policy that the living had around death, the same ones that are complemented with funeral rites and practices, since it is the need to give a social and religious character to a biological fact, because the death of an individual also affects the order social and political of a social group. 2.- The individuals buried in sector III, of the Pallka archaeological site, correspond to primary burials, which are located in the corridors, while the heads buried in the main chamber correspond to secondary burials, which were moved exclusively to be buried together, which would be a family clan, which administered the different areas of the Casma Valley, with the help of a widespread ideology, maintained and justified during the Middle Horizon (700 - 1100 AD). 3.- The analysis of the materials recovered in the excavations indicates the presence of malacological remains, botanical remains and camelids, which reveals that the inhabitants of these territories had a complementary and balanced diet, for which they must have had access to different ecological niches. 4.- The presence of skeletal remains of camelids allowed us to reaffirm that they formed an indispensable part of the offerings to important characters, which leads to the inference that the human skeletal remains found were local elites who promoted intense interaction and regional integration, legitimized in local cultural traditions and foreign ideological beliefs, which the interzonal economic control occurred in the Casma Valley during the Middle Horizon.

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