For several centuries, the Chimú town of Cerro la Virgen lay in the rural sustaining area of Chan Chan (Figure 10.1), the capital of the Chimú Empire (AD 1000–1460) on the north coast of Peru (Campana 2006; Keatinge and Day 1973; Moseley and Day 1982; Moore and Mackey 2008; Ravines 1980). Cerro la Virgen has long been viewed as a community whose primary purpose was the provisioning of Chan Chan, an urban center with a population of 20,000 to 50,000 people (Topic and Moseley 1985), and the political economy of the empire (Keatinge 1974, 1975). The settlement covers 14 ha and originally consisted of hundreds of large masonry-and-quincha household compounds clustered along the Great Northern Road, which connected Chan Chan to the Chicama Valley (Figure 10.2). In the latter part of the Late Intermediate Period (LIP, AD 1000–1470) and Late Horizon (LH, AD 1470–1532), Cerro la Virgen was probably the thirdlargest settlement in the Moche Valley and the only significant settlement on the three-pampa area (Pampas Esperanza, Milagro, and Huanchaco). The site lies just 6 km from the urban core of Chan Chan at the terminus of a vast complex of relic fields that covered much of the three pampas. These fields were reclaimed during the peak of Chimú power (Moseley and Deeds 1982; T. Pozorski 1987). They were watered by the Vinchansao Canal, a massive labor project possibly completed in the AD 1200s, which originated 30 km inland in the foothills of the Andes (Moseley and Deeds 1982; Ortloff et al. 1983; T. Pozorski 1987). Cerro la Virgen also lies a short 3 km