Pacatnamu, Pre-Incan archaeological site in Jequetepeque Valley, Peru.

Pacatnamu is a pre-Incan site in the Jequetepeque Valley on Peru's northern coast, featuring multiple pyramid complexes, ceremonial structures, and defensive walls spread across rocky terrain. The settlement includes dozens of truncated pyramids called huacas, with Huaca 1 serving as the main center for governance and religious practice.

The site was occupied during the Moche period around 600 AD and later by Chimu people until roughly 1370 AD. Scientific excavations starting in 1937 revealed the layered history of occupation and use across these periods.

Pakatnamú means "common father" in the Muchik language, a name linked by the chronicler Antonio de la Calancha to a mythical warrior who ruled the Jequetepeque Valley for the Chimú. The site holds the largest number of Moche textiles found to date, and weaving was dominated by elite families. Llamas appear in many burials, and black vulture bones lie with mass burials from ritual killings.

The site covers about 92 hectares on a small peninsula, with roughly 50 truncated pyramids, so plan for a long walk between sectors. Rocky cliffs and earthen walls enclose it; access is from the Panamericana Norte near kilometre 702, about 14 km from Pacasmayo. The climate is dry with little rain but can turn very humid, and windblown sand covers many structures.

At Pacatnamu the right-hand entrances are wider and easier to reach, while the left ones are often choked with debris and lead toward kitchens. Archaeologists read this right-left split as a sign that the right side served ceremonial or administrative ends and the left domestic ones, a pattern also found at other Chimu sites.