A Photographic Collection of Ceramics from Chimú, Lambayeque and Chimú-Inca Periods of North-Coastal Peru:

The Carol J. Mackey Archive

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About the Archive

This collection includes more than 5800 photographs of ceramic vessels and other objects from museums, private collections, and archaeological sites on the north coast of Peru made from the 1960s to 2000s. A trailblazing archaeologist, Carol J. Mackey has made her photographic archive open for the benefit of students and scholars worldwide.


Navigating the Carol J. Mackey Archive:

To find a specific image or object in the archive, use the search bar on the home page to query the database by keyword. To browse by culture, material, box, or box theme, select the desired options from the column on the righthand side of the page. You can select multiple criteria from each list to further narrow your search.

Once you have found your desired image, you can click on the object name to view other images of the same piece, or the theme name to view other images that were grouped together in Dr. Mackey’s original slides. Selecting the thumbnail of the image will open a larger view, and once opened, you can navigate through the selected images by using the arrows under the image or the arrow keys on your computer’s keyboard.

Each image was captured from Dr. Mackey’s slide collection, and many times presents one of multiple views of a single object. In cases where multiple views are available, these images have been grouped according to the information provided in Dr. Mackey’s slide notations (primarily focused on their origin in specific collections or texts), and in the absence of this information, are titled by theme or simply as their titles (Mackey, 001, 001). Box themes were additionally taken from the groupings of the slides, and original notations have been transcribed from the slides in the following column.

While many entries have been completed, there is still room for additions and adjustments. Researchers are invited to leave comments below any entries of interest, including updates on the work’s location, cultural affinity, or relevant research. The comments also allow for further discussion between archive contributors. Register for an account here.

To see recent research completed with the help of this archive, please see the dissertation of Amanda Voss Gannaway, a major contributor to the creation of the digital archive: https://doi.org/10.7916/D8F76BKH


About Carol J. Mackey

Carol J. Mackey is Professor Emerita of Anthropology at California State University, Northridge. She earned a PhD in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. From 1969 to 1975 she was codirector, with Michael Moseley, of the Chan Chan–Moche Valley Project in Peru. Carol continued excavations at the Chimú and Inca administrative centers of Manchan, co-directed with A.M. Ulana Klymyshyn, in the Casma Valley, and El Algarrobal de Moro and Farfán, the latter co-directed with César Jauregui, both in the Jequetepeque Valley. In addition to many articles on north-coastal Peruvian art, archaeology, and ethnography, she is the author of Twenty-Four Architectural Plans of Chan Chan, Peru (with Michael Edward Moseley; 1974), Ancient Burial Patterns of the Moche Valley, Peru (with Christopher B. Donnan; 1978), and—most recently— Life, Death and Burial Practices during the Inca Occupation of Farfán on Peru’s North Coast (with Andrew J. Nelson, 2020). Carol has been a generous mentor to generations of Peruvian and US archaeologists and art historians who she has trained in the field.

Acknowledgments

Dr. Mackey would like to expresses her gratitude to the many people who made this archive a reality by their contributions:

--Nancy Porter, a research assistant in the archive for many years. She was instrumental in organizing the collection and initiating the thematic approach to the photos,

--To the numerous volunteers who helped with the archive over the years while the archive was at California State University, Northridge,

--To Amanda Gannaway who first received the archive at Columbia University, for her dedication to its initiation,

--To the Media Center for Art History at Columbia University for their involvement and contribution in giving the archive its present form,

--To Katherine McCarthy for her research and interest in the archive,

--And special thanks to Lisa Trever for her commitment and generous support in seeing the archive published online.

--Spanish translation by Gabriela Cervantes Quequezana

Selected Bibliography

Mackey, Carol
1987       Chimú Administration in the Provinces. In: Origins and Development of the Andean State, edited by Jonathan Haas, Shelia Pozorski, and Thomas Pozorski, pp. 121–129. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mackey, Carol and A. M. Ulana Klymyshyn
1990       The Southern Frontier of the Chimú Empire. In: The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and Statecraft in Chimor; A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 12th and 13th October 1985, edited by Michael E. Moseley and Alana Cordy-Collins, pp. 195–226. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.

Mackey, Carol
2001       Los dioses que perdieron los colmillos. In: Los Dioses del Antiguo Perú, vol. 2, pp. 111–157. Lima: Banco de Crédito del Perú.

Mackey, Carol
2002       The Continuing Khipu Tradition: Principles and Practices. In: Narrative Threads: Accounting and Recounting in Andean Khipu, edited by Jeffrey Quilter and Gary Urton, pp. 321–347. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Mackey, Carol
2006       Elite Residences at Farfán: A Comparison of the Chimú and Inka Occupations. In: Palaces and Power in the Americas: From Peru to the Northwest Coast, edited by Jessica Joyce Christie and Patricia Joan Sarro, pp. 313–352. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Mackey, Carol
2009       Chimu Statecraft in the Provinces. In: Andean Civilization: A Tribute to Michael E. Moseley, edited by Joyce Marcus and Patrick Ryan Williams, pp. 325–349. Monograph 63. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California.

Mackey, Carol
2010       The Socioeconomic and Ideological Transformation of Farfán under Inka Rule. In: Distant Provinces in the Inka Empire: Toward a Better Understanding of Inka Imperialism, edited by Michael Malpass and Sonia Alconini, pp. 221– 259. Iowa: University of Iowa Press.

Mackey, Carol
2011 [2016] The Persistence of Lambayeque Ethnic Identity: The Perspective from the Jequetepeque Valley, Peru. In: From State to Empire in the Prehistoric Jequetepeque Valley, Peru, edited by Coleen M. Zori and Ilana Johnson, pp. 149–168. BAR International Series S2310. Oxford: BAR Publishing.

Mackey, Carol J., and Joanne Pillsbury
2013       Cosmology and Ritual on a Lambayeque Beaker. In: Pre-Columbian Art & Archaeology: Essays in Honor of Frederick R. Mayer, Papers from the 2002 & 2007 Mayer Center Symposia at the Denver Art Museum, edited by Margaret Young-Sánchez, pp. 115–141. Denver: Denver Art Museum.

Pillsbury, Joanne, and Carol J. Mackey
2020       Lambayeque Silver Beakers: Further Considerations. Ñawpa Pacha 40(2):223–247. Open Access link

Mackey, Carol J. and Andrew J. Nelson.
2020       Life, Death and Burial Practices during the Inca Occupation of Farfán on Peru’s North Coast. University of Maine Digital Commons, Andean Past Publications. Open Access link