Archaeologists have recently unearthed the ruins of an ancient ceremonial temple in northwestern Peru, along with the skeletal remains of three adults hidden away between the walls.
The walls were the first feature uncovered by the archaeology team in Peru. The team then went on to discover a range of other structures and objects leading to the identification of the site as a temple.
“We may be facing a 5,000-year-old religious site that constitutes an architectural space defined by walls built by rammed earth,” Luis Armando Muro Ynoñán, director of the Cultural Landscapes Archaeological Project of Ucupe—Valle de Zaña, said in a translated statement from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture.
The most ancient section of the site does not only contain the 5,000-year-old walls but also several architectural features that define the site as a ceremonial temple.
“We have what would have been a central staircase from which one would ascend to a kind of stage in the central part,” Muro Ynoñán said, highlighting that the stage could have hosted ritual performances for audiences.
The ruins are adorned with friezes featuring pictures of cats, the claws of a reptile, and a human figure with the head of a bird. The works are preserved in “fine plaster,” which made it easier for researchers to determine the exact age of the site and origins of the religion.
Other discoveries in the temple in Peru
The research team will analyze the chemical composition of pigments in the murals painted on the walls to help confirm how old the site is.
However, structural finds were just one element of the overall discovery. The team came across human remains too. According to Reuters, the team found the remains of three adult bodies placed between the walls of the temple. There was also a bundle wrapped in linen nearby, which may have served as an offering.
“It was amazing,” said Muro Ynoñán, according to a statement from the Field Museum in Chicago. “This discovery tells us about the early origins of religion in Peru. We still know very little about how and under which circumstances complex belief systems emerged in the Andes, and now we have evidence about some of the earliest religious spaces that people were creating in this part of the world.”
Muro Ynoñán said that the ceremonial temple likely contains more information about a people that lived before the known inhabitants of the region. “We don’t know what these people called themselves,” he said, “or how other people referred to them. All we know about them comes from what they created: their houses, temples, and funerary goods.”
The excavation team was invited to the site after the local government observed looting in the area. “It was so surprising that these very ancient structures were so close to the modern surface,” Muro Ynoñán said.