The ancient Chavn de Huntar temple complex has a hidden passageway and galleries. The network of chambers may have been used in religious rituals.
Some of the dark and isolated chambers may have been used for sensory deprivation, while some of the larger galleries may have been used for the worship of idols.
He told Live Science that the stone-lined passageways, corridors, rooms, cells, and niches are big enough to walk through. All of the galleries are related to ritual activity.
Rick said that the passageways weren't strictly tunnels because they hadn't been dug. They were built inside the mass of the temple complex in stages between 1200 and 200 BCE.
He said that some of the chambers were originally rooms that were kept accessible for a time with heavy-duty roofs. Many of the passageways are twisting with right-angled corners and multiple levels.
Over the course of 15 years of excavations, a total of 36 galleries and their associated passageways have been found at Chavn de Huntar, but this latest network was only discovered a few years ago.
The temple complex at Chavín de Huántar. (Qpqqy/CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons)
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the mysterious Chavn people lived in the northern and central parts of what is now Peru between 3,200 and 2,200 years ago.
The largest of several Chavn religious sites has been located in a mountain valley at a height of more than 10,000 feet.
Rick said that the latest passageways were first discovered with a remote controlled camera.
In May of this year, archaeologists were able to enter the passageways for the first time since they were sealed off.
One of the stone bowls was decorated with the symbolic head and wings of a condor, a large bird of prey. The gallery's name has been changed to the Condor Gallery.
Rick said that they have documented the gallery, but still have a lot to do. Excavations will begin next year.
He said that the gallery was deeper and older than before. There are many lines of evidence pointing to an age of at least 3,000 years since the gallery was built.
Two stone bowls, one with Andean Condor features, found in a gallery. (John Rick/Programa Chavin)
The newly discovered passages and gallery seem to have been used for a religious purpose, similar to other chambers found in the past at Chavn de Huntar. Rick said that the galleries have a variety of functions.
There are several small chambers that could have been used for sensory deprivation.
The famous carved ornamental trumpets that were unearthed at Chavn de Huntar in large numbers are said to have been used in ceremonies there.
Rick said that the passageways and galleries found at religious sites in the Andes are smaller and simpler than the ones found in Chavn.
The caves beneath the pyramids of Teotihuacan in central Mexico are the most similar passages in the New World. Chavn is unique in the number of galleries.
Anthropologist and archaeologist Richard Burger, who was not involved in the latest research at Chavn de Huntar, said the two bowls in the Condor Gallery may have been used to grind up drugs.
He said that there was a tradition of inhaling hallucinogenic snuff. He believes it was made from the seedpods of the vilca tree, which have a powerful hallucinogenic substance.
The latest tunnels present a rare opportunity for archaeologists to study the passageways with new techniques, according to an anthropologist who worked with Rick at Chavn de Huntar.
He said that the temple complex at Chavn included several sealed networks of passageways. Nobody knew that it was there until now.
He said that many of the passageways were sealed off as the complex was raised over the centuries. There is a gallery with a stone monolith.
There is a strong argument that this was an open plaza. As the temple was built, they kept access to the plaza, but it was now an enclosed space.
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The original article was published by Live Science. The original article can be found here.
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