 This past summer, Dr. Brian Billman, founder of MOCHE and Associate Professor of Archaeology, visted the Chimu site of Cerro La Virgen. This was scheduled as a normal site visit, intended to survey any damage that the site may have sustained over the past few years. When Dr. Billman, and fellow Archaeologist Julio Rucabado-Yong arrived at the site they found that a large area of the Chimu city was missing. They realized that a few different companies were using the site as a quarrying site for sand, rock and gravel. The companies were removing large swaths of the gravel and sand beneath the city to sell to construction companies in Trujillo. The picture above shows an arial image of the city and the destruction at Cerro La Virgen.
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MOCHE's Response |
 After realizing how extensive the destruction was, Dr. Billman and Mr. Rucabado filed a denuncio against the quarrying companies with the local authorities, notified the INC (Instituto Nacional de Cultura) and the local and national press. Within the week, reporters from the La Industria and El Comercio news agencies and an INC agent visted the site with MOCHE archaeologists and volunteers. The news agencies released stories about the destruction of the INC protected site and MOCHE, with INC approval, began salvage excavation of the site to document what was left and what had happened. MOCHE also hired a site guard to hault any future destruction.
MOCHE works hard to protect the patrimony of Peru and we hope that our efforts at Cerro La Virgen, and elsewhere int he Moche Valley, will go a long way to preserving the past for future generations.
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