Churajon

The Churajon were the pre-Inca people of the Arequipa region in southern Peru, thought to descend from Aymara-speaking groups who moved from the highlands into the warm coastal valleys in search of farmland. Between roughly 600 and 1400 they settled the Chili and Tambo river valleys and spread into Moquegua and Tacna, building towns and canals and terracing the slopes.

Their development ran from an early phase (800–1200) contemporary with Wari through autonomous rule (1200–1400) to a late phase under Inca influence. They were farmers and herders who grew maize, potatoes and quinoa, and their globular or cylindrical pottery was painted in white, black and red with geometric motifs. Their stone towns housed the cylindrical burial towers called chullpas.

The type site is the ruins of Churajón below the Choquellampa hill. Around 1450 Inca expansion brought the Churajon communities into the empire.