Archaeologists Unearth 4,000-Year-Old Ceremonial Temple in Peru [View all]

Archaeologists Unearth 4,000-Year-Old Ceremonial Temple in Peru
The structure appears to predate Machu Picchu, the country’s best-known archaeological site, by 3,500 years

Ella Feldman
Daily Correspondent

July 12, 2024 1:03 p.m.

Researchers in Peru say they have found the remains of a 4,000-year-old temple and theater, a discovery that could enrich historians’ understanding of ancient religious practices in the region.

“We still know very little about how and under which circumstances complex belief systems emerged in the Andes,” says Luis Muro Ynoñán, an archaeologist from Peru’s Pontifical Catholic University who led the team, in a statement. “Now we have evidence about some of the earliest religious spaces that people were creating in this part of the world.”

The ruins appear to predate Machu Picchu, the Inca settlement that is now Peru’s best-known archaeological site, by roughly 3,500 years. The researchers say they also predate pre-Inca cultures such as the Moche and Nazca.
“We don’t know what these people called themselves, or how other people referred to them,” Muro Ynoñan adds. “All we know about them comes from what they created: their houses, temples and funerary goods.”

Last month, researchers began excavating a 33- by 33-foot plot of land located near Zaña, a town in coastal Peru. Just six feet below the surface, they found evidence of ancient walls made of mud and clay.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-unearth-4000-year-old-ceremonial-temple-in-peru-180984696/