Sipan

Sipán is a Moche archaeological site in northern Peru in the Lambayeque Valley, that is famous for the tomb of Lord of Sipán (El Señor de Sipán), excavated by Walter Alva and his wife Susana Meneses beginning in 1987. The city of Sipán is dated from 50-700 AD the same time as the Moche Period. Sipán is an archaeological site where royal tombs were discovered and excavated between 1987-1990,[2] a fairly recent find in the last 30 years, and is considered to be a very important archaeological discovery. Many of the tombs were looted, yet the artifacts that remained and were discovered by archaeologists play an important role in understanding the Moche rulers and tradition. Tombs have been found also in Sipán's Huaca Rajada, an area near Chiclayo. The tombs in the area are of adobe construction, of pyramidal shape, and have now show erosion which could have been exacerbated overtime by successive El Niño events. There is very little research on the commoners of Sipán, yet it is well known that the commoners often paid a tax through labor which allowed for the creation of the burial platforms for the Lords of Sipán.[3] These platforms and other adobe structures are often made with marked adobe bricks which tracked this labor in order to pay off taxes.[4] Other than providing labor for the Lord there is very little known specifically about Moche commoners from Sipán.

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