Left: Detail of a woven textile. Center: Merly Rosas holds an excavated spindle whorl used in spinning thread. Right: Paper fragment of a print of St. Martin of Tours.
We found a great number of artifacts in our excavations and other research. Because of severe looting of the site, many artifacts have been found on the ground surface. We have not conducted a systematic surface collection of the site although we have plotted important finds on our map when we have encountered them. We have processed our materials but detailed analysis awaits future study. For now, we present information on major artifact categories and provide basic information. In future years we plan to offer detailed information on artifacts, how and where they were recovered at the site, and inferences regarding life at Magdalena de Cao made from them. In addition, plant, animal, and human remains also were recovered. Web pages devoted to these studies will be placed at this site at a later date.
The great preservative qualities of the Peruvian desert have maintained
organic materials that would have long vanished in other places. Added
to inorganic materials, the main categories of our artifacts are: ceramics,
metals, wood, textiles, paper, and miscellaneous other items.
Read more on each specific category: