A group of archaeologists found a temple about 4,000 years old on the central coast of Peru that treasures in one of its friezes an Andean cross that, if complete, as experts suspect, It would be the oldest evidence in South America of a “chacana”the name by which they are known.
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This U-shaped ceremonial center is located on the left bank of the lower valley of the Chancay River, within the Miraflores archaeological site, located in the coastal province of Huaral, about 95 kilometers north of Lima.
This thousand-year-old temple, which today it is buried by tons of stones and surrounded by cultivated fieldscovers about 70 hectares and is made up of a pyramidal structure and two elongated mounds that create a large ceremonial plaza in its center.
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The team of archaeologists that has been working on this site since January, led by Dr. Pieter Van Dalen Luna, from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, presumes that the temple would have belonged to the Andean formative period and would be one of the largest, “but the largest”, of the central coast of Peru, in the lower part of the Andes Mountains.
“We have found walls, passageways, stairways (…) cult elements, artifacts used as part of funerary rituals, and very early-style ceramics,” Van Dalen told EFE.
Most surprising, however, discovered by archaeologists a few weeks ago during the excavation of a wall of stones and adobe, three meters high, of an enclosure located in the upper and rear part of the main pyramid.
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There they found ageometric frieze that is representing a southern cross that would be the oldest evidence of a complete chacana found in the Andes”, according to Van Dalen’s account.
What is an Andean cross?
The chacana or Andean cross is a recurring representation in the native cultures of the Andes, which has a square and staggered cross shapewith twelve points, and a circular center.
Until now, Miraflores archaeologists have excavated half of the frieze that protects itbut they suspect that the cross will be complete and, if so, it will be the oldest ever found, not only in Peru but in the entire Andes mountain range.
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Also, this is the first time that a chacana has been found in an architectural context on the central coast of the country“which would show that her cult is taking place not only in southern Peru but throughout the Andean area,” says Van Dalen.
The archaeologist insists that this discovery would show that this symbol was not exclusive to the altiplanic altitudes, but rather even reached coastal areas like the lower valley of the Chancay river.
EFE
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