Secret passages used in ancient Andean culture may have been used in ceremonies, including psychedelics.
Archaeologists have uncovered a complex of passages and galleries hidden deep within the ancient Sitio Arqueols in the Andes Mountains of Peru. Researchers believe that the network of rooms and galleries was probably used in religious ceremonies, including psychedelic drugs.
It is the first time in about 3,000 years that these particular hidden structures have been investigated. Archaeologist John Rick of Stanford University, who leads the study, said that some of the dark and isolated rooms may have been used for sensory deprivation, and some of the larger galleries were used for idol worship. Said that.
“These are stone-lined walkways, corridors, rooms, cells, and niches, large enough to pass through and covered with stone beams,” he told Live Science in an email. .. “The gallery has many features that we can say. [but] Everything is related to ritual activities. “
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Rick explained that the newly discovered walkway wasn’t exactly a tunnel because it wasn’t dug into the ground. Instead, it was built in stages between 1200 BC and 200 BC, so it was deliberately built in a mass of huge temples.
He said some of the rooms were originally near the surface, which had been kept accessible for some time with a sturdy roof and an extended entrance walkway. The passages are up to 300 feet (100 meters) long, but are often winding, with right-angled corners and multiple levels.
A total of 36 galleries and related corridors were found in Chavín de Huántar during a 15-year archaeological survey, but this latest network was discovered only a few years ago and was not investigated until this year, Rick said. ..
Ancient temple
Archaeologists believe that Chavin de Wantal was the religious center of the mysterious Chavin people who lived in the northern and central parts of what is now Peru 3,200 to 2,200 years ago. I am. According to the Britannica Encyclopedia (Opens in a new tab).. Located about 270 miles (430 km) north of Lima, in a mountain valley over 10,000 feet (3,000 m) high, the complex is the largest of the few Chavin religious sites found so far.
According to Rick, the latest walkways deep inside the complex were first detected in 2019 and first explored with remote control cameras.
COVID-19 (new coronavirus infection) He said the restrictions hindered further exploration until May of this year, when archaeologists were apparently blocked about 3000 years ago and were able to enter the passage for the first time.
The corridor led to the main gallery, which contained two large ceremonial stone bowls. One of them was adorned with the iconic head and wings of the Andean bird of prey, the Condor. As a result, the gallery is now known as the Condor Gallery.
“The gallery has been documented, but there is still room for consideration,” Rick said. “Large-scale archaeological excavations will begin next year.”
He added that the gallery looked deeper and older than most of what was previously found. “The Condor Gallery shows a lot of evidence of at least 3,000 years of age since the gallery was built, and perhaps officially sealed,” Rick said.
Mysterious religion
Little is known about Chavin’s beliefs, but the newly discovered walkways and galleries appear to have a religious purpose, like the other rooms found in the past at Chavin Defantal. “The gallery has a lot of features, from what we know,” Rick said.
He said they contained several small chambers that could have been used for sensory deprivation or ritual visual, auditory and tactile disorientation.Other rooms were used to store worship and ceremonial equipment, including famous sculptures. Decorative trumpet made from giant snail shells (Opens in a new tab) He said it was heavily excavated at Chavín de Huántar and appears to have been used in rituals there.
Several passageways and galleries have been found in Andean religious sites of the same age, but they are usually much smaller and simple — “there is no such thing as the abundance found in Chabin,” Rick said. Told.
“The most similar passage in the New World may be the cave under the Teotihuacan Pyramid in Central Mexico, but the difference is still clear,” Rick said. “Chabin is virtually unique in the number and nature of the galleries.”
Richard Berger, an anthropologist and archaeologist who was a South American prehistoric expert at Yale University and was not involved in the latest research at Chavin de Juantal, said that the two bowls of the Condor Gallery are probably for religious ceremonies. Said that it was the mortar used to grind the psychedelic drug of.
“Chabin had a tradition of inhaling hallucinogen snuffs,” he told Live Science.He Insisted (Opens in a new tab) Made from Birka tree seed pods containing a potent hallucinogenic substance containing dimethyltryptamine (DMT).
The University of Florida anthropologist Dan Contreras, who was not involved in the discovery, has collaborated with Rick at Chavin de Wantal, but the latest tunnels are valuable for archaeologists to study passages with new techniques. Said to provide an opportunity.
The Chavin temples contained a network of several sealed passages, but “this remains completely unknown,” he said. “Until now, not only was it not included, but no one even knew it was there.”
Many of the passageways seemed to have originally been near the surface of the earth, but he said they were blocked as the complex was built higher over the centuries. One of the most famous is the gallery with a stone monolith near the center.
“There is a compelling argument that this was originally an open plaza,” Contreras said. “Then, as the temple was built around it, they maintained access to what was a square, but it was now a completely enclosed space.”
Originally published on Live Science.
Secret passages used in ancient Andean culture may have been used in ceremonies, including psychedelics.
Source link Secret passages used in ancient Andean culture may have been used in ceremonies, including psychedelics.
