Peruvian Mail

CHASQUI PERUVIAN MAIL Year 13, number 25 Cultural Bulletin of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs July, 2015 Monolithic sandeel, drawing by Wari Wilka, 1958. Wari by Monolithic sandeel, drawing CHAVÍN DE HUÁNTAR, MYTHICAL ANCIENT RUINS/ CHRONICLER GUAMAN POMA / MARIANO MELGAR´S POETRY Huántar, where at least some evidence of the use of ceramics erty claims and specialized skills organic materials were preserved and the emergence of the earliest emerged in the Early Formative thanks to the rough dry desert Andean 'classic' civilizations, period (circa 1700-1200 BC.). WHAT IS CHAVÍN Museum. Larco climate. The artifacts found in i.e. the Nazca and Mochica, was At various sites, competition for the tombs of the Paracas civiliza- called Early or Formative period resources and arable land led to tion bear some resemblance to (circa 1700-200 BC.). the creation of larger and more the Chavín stone sculptures, and The authors of this catalog ostentatious ceremonial centers. DE HUÁNTAR? also provided the first reliable agree that it is time that the ar- In the next period, the Middle dating since organic material can cheology of the Central Andes Formative period (circa 1200-800 Peter Fux* be dated physically. During the transcends preconceived notions BC.), the distinctive artistic style second half of the twentieth cen- of the Old World and in order and iconography associated with Chavin was one of the most fundamental civilizations of ancient Peru. Its imposing ceremonial center is included in tury, archaeologists preferred not to reflect this trend they use new the later findings in Chavín de to speculate on the social structure words. After all, recent archaeo- Huántar developed-the one now UNESCO´s World Heritage list. The Lima Art Museum, in co-organization with the Rietberg Museum in Zurich or on finding an explanation and, logical discoveries show that the known as the "Chavin style." Here and the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, has put up an ambitious exhibit. instead, preferred to concentrate peoples in this region had built a number of supernatural mytho- on chronological or material type large ceremonial centers since logical creatures with human and questions. It is for this reason that 3500 BC, long before the earliest animal features become especially they talk of a "Chavín Horizon” or known evidence of pottery, i.e., important. In the Late Formative Woman breastfeeding her child. Ceramics “Early Horizon" to refer to the first during the Archaic period (to period (circa 800-400 BC.), the 22.6 × 14, 8 × 12.8 cm. Cupisnique style. circa millennium BC, when the Chavín use the old term). These events Andean world, and its current 1200-1500 BC. iconography and style were ad- are remarkably early compared system of meaning as expressed opted by different civilizations of to the cultural history of other and consolidated through its art the Andean Central region. The regions of the world, including and architecture, gained strength time known as “Early Horizon” is ancient Egypt. Collective plan- and supremacy. Amazon basin and that such ties were extremely primeval. Chavín de Huántar suddenly had become a key indicator of the local origin of the High Andean civilization and a center of such "cultural melting pot" of the Andes. The exhibition Fux. Peter Photo: in Lima of the monoliths known as "Estela Raimondi" (Raimondi´s Start) and "Tello Obelisk", two emblematic sculptures of Chavín, reinforced the hypothesis that there must have been a parent Chavín de Huántar Archeological Site civilization. he Chavin civilization de- Chavín de Huántar could well rives its name from the ar- have been used as a reference to chaeological site of Chavín trace the local origin of known T civilizations in Peru, but, in the de Huántar, in the Peruvian high- lands. The breathtaking ruins of same way, raised even more ques- this monumental complex are tions: where did the Chavín peo- located at 3180 meters above sea Ministry of Peru. of Culture Ministry of Peru. of Culture ples come from? This was a highly level, on the eastern side of the developed society and yet had no Cordillera Blanca. Remains of mas- clear ancestor. There simply was sive stone buildings in the Ancash no archaeological evidence to region, located in a narrow valley support the alleged links to the of the mountain called Callejón de Amazon basin. How old is Chavín? Conchucos, caught the attention of How did its society function? Was many early travelers and scholars. Chavín ever an empire that con- In the mid-sixteenth century, a trolled a vast territory from one chronicler reported seeing a huge powerful center, like Rome or the Cabezas Clavas (Stone Nail Head), Etched stone. fortress with faces etched on its Incas-who came much later? This walls, and in the early seventeenth was the obvious conclusion, at century, people talked about an least in the absence of any other the first period of the history of ning and engineering works like Chavín de Huántar was not the oracle comparable with those clear alternative. Andean civilizations in which this undoubtedly went hand in only set of temples of the time, of ancient Rome or Jerusalem, It was possible to close in a certain style and iconography hand with social and economic but it may well have been the which existed in this remote valley on an answer from a series of spread over a wide region. developments such as the use of biggest. Other centers like Kuntur Mountain range. findings, such as richly decorated To describe, sort, and prepare irrigation to increase crop yields, Wasi, Pocapampa, and Kotosh de- The existence of such massive pottery and textiles developed on diligently a typology of the various the formation of ever larger social veloped in this time too. We can stone building with gigantic, yet the coast, about one thousand discoveries made in the second units, and growing interdepen- even go as far as to say that despite strange, sculpted figures, in such kilometers south of Chavín de half of the twentieth century, dence: in short, the beginnings of their similarities and differences a remote and inhospitable place, researchers were able to identify a complex society. Thus, the au- and their sharing the same social proved irresistibly fascinating for several different civilizations thors have proposed to look back system and worldview, they were newcomers from the Old World. and styles, and nowadays studies at the beginning of the Formative rivals seeking to exert influence Nevertheless, it is not surprising talk about new developments period in the Central Andes in and gain followers. The fasci- that coming across such ruins, like the Cupisnique civilization, 3500 BC. nation that Chavín de Huántar newcomers interpreted its former Lima Art Museum. the Tembladera- and Chavín-style If we are to view Chavín not as still awakens in us and the long function in the light of the con- ceramics, or the Limoncarro style just a stylistic category of material history of its excavations have cepts they brought with them, not Acrobat. Ceramics. 25.4 × 15 × 20 cm. circa 1200-1500 BC. stone etchings. remains but as the social system opened a unique window into out of ignorance but because they Some of the Old World con- that produced such artifacts and the past, through which we can had no other alternative. cepts that were imported into lived with them, we must first learn to understand the way in When archaeological research important sculpture, measuring to hypothesize that the archeology of the Americas investigate the process through which this central Andean society began in South America in the more than four meters high and the deity worshiped in include the assumption that the which the oldest complex society functioned-and which is strikingly early twentieth century, researchers known as "El Lanzón" (sandeel) be- Chavín de Huántar was use of ceramics is an essential pre- of the central Andean region was different from what was originally hypothesized that the civilizations cause of its pointed shape, stands Wiracocha, the same condition for the highest degree formed, starting with the first expected. of the High Central Andes had in an extremely narrow and one the Incas would of complexity with which a society steps that led to its formation. is defined. Terminology follows Early ceremonial centers were * Archaeologist at the University of Zurich. He originated in Mesoamerica. dark side in one of the temple´s worship later, but in has worked in various archaeological projects, Julio C. Tello (1880-1947), a chambers, which is accessible only the form of a jaguar. this same premise: in the Cen- built in the fertile coastal oasis such as the one dedicated to Nazca-Palpa, pioneer in Peruvian archeology, through a long, narrow passage. This theory was based tral Andes, the long period that by agricultural-based societies. In sponsored by the German Archaeological elapsed prior to the dissemination addition, they served as a place for Institute. He is curator of pre-Columbian art made a crucial shift in the per- The anthropomorphic image, like on two assumptions: in the Rietberg Museum in Zurich and has spective people had on Chavín de many others, has fangs and claws. that the builders of of pottery (circa 1200-1700 BC) social encounter and to promote been in charge of the Chavin exhibit. The Huántar and again made the stone Other embossed figures show such site had had is known as the Archaic period, social cohesion through rituals. text above is an excerpt from the exhibition “Estela de Raimondi" [Raimondi’s Star]. Etched stone. Rodent. Ceramics. 20 × 10.5 × 15 cm. catalog. sculptures the spotlight. The most even more cats; all of this led Tello connections with the 1.98 m.

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