Archive for the ‘Archaeology’ Category
Friday, February 8th, 2008
Authorities in northern Peru have confirmed the finding of a religious complex from the pre-Inca Vicús culture, known for producing unique ceramic and gold work from 100 BC to AD 400. With an area of 3,500 square-meters, the site was initially uncovered by construction workers on Jan. 22. Archaeologists from the National Culture Institute, INC, in Piura Department later confirmed the site’s authenticity, daily El Comercio reported.
The religious center includes two large structures surrounded by four smaller ones. Archeologists say the site was likely used for religious ceremonies or as a cemetery for Vicús elite. It is located in the Morrópon Province, in Piura Department. (more…)
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Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
A team of Peruvian and American archeologists has uncovered a 2,000-year-old mine in the foothills of Peru’s Andes in the southern department of Ica. The leader of the expedition and assistant professor at Purdue University, Dr. Kevin Vaughn, says the Mina Primavera is the only pre-Hispanic hematite mine registered in South America and the first evidence of iron ore mining in the Andes.
According to a report by the archeologists, the mine was used by at least two pre-Inca civilizations, the Nazca and Wari, in order to extract hematite, the mineral form of iron oxide which was likely used as a pigment for painting pottery. The study finds some 3,710 tonnes of hematite was excavated from the mine, “suggesting regular and extensive mining prior to Spanish conquest.”
Inside the 500-square-meter mine, archeologists found pottery fragments, stone and shell beads, botanical remains, cotton textiles suitable for storing and transporting ground pigment and fragments of spondylus shells, suggesting the site was also used to make offerings linked to agricultural fertility and water. (more…)
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Saturday, January 19th, 2008
Heavy rains are causing widespread damage to ancient ruins in Peru’s normally arid northern coast, says a regional director from the National Institute of Culture, INC.
Enrique Sánchez, the INC chief in La Libertad department, told Enlace Nacional the rains are damaging the adobe walls in the Chan Chan site, the largest city in pre-Columbian America and the capital of the Chimu Kingdom, which reached its peak in the 15th century before being conquered by the Inca Empire.
About 300 miles northwest of Lima, Chan Chan was a 28-square-mile city that was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage Site in 1986. UNESCO described it as “an absolute masterpiece in terms of town planning,” and “a unique testimony to the ancient Chimu Kingdom.”
However, the same year the site was also added to UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger due to its exposure to natural erosion from wind and rain.
“Naturally, we always have conservation work,” said Sánchez “but it rains and that produces drips and the drips break the walls, they break the frieze murals… it’s uncontrollable.”
Sánchez added that workers are covering Chan Chan structures with plastic tarps in order to protect it from the rain. “Plastic tarps are put on the monument so they won’t be affected too much, and the next day we take them off.” (more…)
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Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
The co-director of the Condesuyos Archeological Project, archeologist Mariusz Ziólkowski, announced a possible tourist circuit that would include 20 archeological sites in Peru’s southern Arequipa department. Ziólkowski, also a professor at the Center for Pre-Columbian Studies of Warsaw University, said the sites include ruins from different periods, including cave paintings from the archaic period and Catholic churches that were constructed shortly after the conquest, reported Agencia Andina.
Seventeen of the sites have pottery and architecture with features similar to those of the Incas, Ziólkowski said. “We’ve evaluated their importance, their potential to attract tourists, and their aesthetic features.” He added, “among these sites, there are five that could be centers for a new tourist circuit.”
An oracle dedicated to the Coropuna mountain, which was a major religious site of the Incas, could be one of the prime tourist attractions on the circuit. According to Ziólkowski, the shrine is located in the Maucallacta complex, which includes 300 structures and 4.5-meter walls. (more…)
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Friday, January 11th, 2008
A lost archaeological fortress buried beneath thick, jungle vegetation has apparently been rediscovered in southeast Peru. The Manco Pata fortress was uncovered in Kimbiri, a remote district in Cusco department and part of the Apurímac and Ene river valleys, VRAE, according to the mayor, Guillermo Torres.
Torres told Agencia Andina an expedition came across the fortress on Dec. 29, uncovering perfectly carved stones forming the base of immense walls that covered an area of 40,000-square meters.
He said the Manco Pata fortress would immediately be declared a cultural heritage site, an ecotourism reserve and promoted as part of a tourist circuit — contentions that a spokeswoman for the National Institute of Culture (INC) in Cusco declined to immediately confirm. (more…)
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Wednesday, December 12th, 2007
Peruvian Police recovered 64 antiquities yesterday during an undercover operation in Lima’s Barranco district. One of the artifacts was a pre-Inca shawl dating back to the Paracas Culture.
Officials say the 2.5-meter-by-1.5-meter shawl is worth $500,000 on the black market. It was offered to the undercover officer at a bargain price of $150,000. According to Police, the shawl was stolen Oct. 15, 2004, from the Adolfo Bermudez Jenkins Regional Museum in Ica.
Also included among the recovered items was a colonial painting of Saint Rose of Lima, 30 books from the 17th century, pottery from the Nazca culture and numerous sculptures. Police Officer Walter Rivera told daily La República the total value of the collection is over a million dollars. The two men arrested in the operation reportedly face up to four years in prison if convicted. But in fact, that amounts to hardly a slap on the wrist. Under Peru’s penal code, any sentence of four years or less is automatically suspended.
Looting of archaeological sites and thefts from museums and religious centers is common in Peru. According to the National Culture Institute, INC, Peru recovered more than 436 artifacts in 2006 and 2007. Its largest recovery since the 1970s was in September 2007 when the United States Department of Homeland Security returned hundreds of pre-Columbian artifacts recovered in Miami from 66-year-old Ugo Bagnato.
In an attempt to prevent illegal art trafficking and irreparable losses to Peru’s rich cultural heritage, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) presented The Red List of Peruvian Antiquities in Danger in November 2007. Included in the list are pre-Columbian fabrics, metals objects and ceramics as well as colonial and early Republican paintings, sculptures and documents.
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Monday, November 26th, 2007
Peruvian geologists date stone blocks used in Machu Picchu’s construction to 250-million-years-old. The study’s co-author and geo-scientific director at the Geological Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (INGEMMET), Víctor Carlotto, told Agencia Andina the stones were formed three to six miles below the earths crust.
“Through the process of uplifting in the Andes, the rocks reached the surface as fractured granites. Over thousands of years they were formed into ‘chaos blocks’,” which were unstable and difficult to work with, said Carlotto. Thousands of people, using terraces and platforms, were needed to move the blocks in order to construct buildings and the drainage system. (more…)
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Monday, November 12th, 2007
Radiocarbon tests announced on Nov. 10 date a multicolored mural excavated in northern Peru to 4,000-years-old. This makes it the oldest mural in the Americas and part of the late preceramic period – 3500 to 1800 B.C. The mural depicts a deer trapped under a multicolored net. Deer hunting was an ancient ritual among the areas pre-Columbian people. (more…)
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