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Cerrillos is an Early to Middle Paracas civic-ceremonial site located in the upper Ica Valley of Perú. The site is known for its finely plastered adobe architecture, beautifully decorated ceramics, and complex textiles, many of which are decorated with camelid hair. Cerrillos was located in a strategically important place where the mountains meet the coastal desert and the Ica River bends south, a likely intersection in a road system that connected Cerrillos to contemporary sites in the Paracas region and beyond. This paper focuses on several early textiles, ceramics, and other artifacts, including ceramic palettes used for gold working and wooden earspools, that suggest that Cerrillos was involved in a cultural phenomenon or interaction sphere that linked sites as far away was Chavín de Huántar through the interchange of goods, beliefs, and practices. The paper presents a complete description of the textiles excavated at Cerrillos between 1999 and 2002, focusing on two fabric fragments with images of the Staff Deity and one with an abstract Chavín-like design. The ceramics discussed in the text demonstrate the wide variety of styles found at Cerrillos, including some that resemble the Janabarriu of Chavín de Huántar and several others that are either not Paracas or an Early Paracas style that has never been previously described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apart from the materials and archaeological contexts excavated at Hacha in the Acarí Valley, until now evidence for the Initial Period along the southern coast of Perú were limited to some isolated findings that lacked well-defined contexts, e.g. from sites like Erizo in the Ica Valley, Mastodonte in the pampa of Villacurí (Ica) and Disco Verde on the Paracas Peninsula. There were no reported findings from the Río Grande of Nasca region. Only very recently, with the development of the Nasca-Palpa Archaeological Project, were sites and evidence for the Initial Period in the Palpa Valleys encountered. These provide new insights into and new perspectives on the process of cultural development for this part of the south coast. In this paper we present and discuss the numerous finds and findings of the Initial Period that have been recovered in the excavations at Pernil Alto, which include architectural structures, ceramics and other associated materials. The analysis of these findings indicates that already in this moment in time the conditions for the stable and permanent development of the populations settling in the Río Grande drainage were given. Twenty radiocarbon dates confirm the chronological position of the contexts excavated in Pernil Alto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]