Lost civilization found in Peru
Lost civilization found in Peru
mongabay.com
January 19, 2007
Explorers have found ruins of a little known civilization deep in the cloud forests of the Peruvian Amazon. The Chachapoya, as the group is known, was a fierce tribe that battled the mighty Inca empire before the arrival of European conquistadors in the 16th century.
“This is an exciting development for Chachapoya archaeology. The main building is a stepped, rectangular structure made up of three tiers. This building is about two-hundred feet long, a hundred feet wide, twenty-four feet high, and oriented to the cardinal points of the compass. As far as I can tell, apart from some drainage shafts, it’s completely solid. I imagine it served as a ceremonial platform — a stage for Chachapoya rituals,” said Keith Muscutt, an explorer who lead the August 2006 expedition.
 “The Penitentiary,” a Chachapoya ruin in Peru. Photo courtesy of Keith Muscutt and the Discovery Channel |
The Chachapoya worked metal and built stone citadels high in the Andean cloud forests. After falling to the Inca, the Chachapoya allied with the Spanish conquistadors in an attempt to recapture their lands. Instead they succumbed to disease introduced by the Europeans.
“It’s totally unexpected that such a massive monument would show up on the periphery of Chachapoya territory, in an area that has usually been thought of as a buffer zone between the highland Chachapoya and the tribal cultures of the Amazon Basin,” added Muscutt. “But La Penitenciaría was definitely not a fortress — so either their territory extended further East, or the Chachapoya relied more on cooperation than conflict with their neighbors. Compounding the puzzle, there don’t seem to be any other buildings in the immediate vicinity. Unlike most ceremonial platforms in the Americas, it doesn’t seem to be the nucleus of a population center. It just sits there in the middle, or the edge, of nowhere. Like London Bridge in Arizona — it’s really there, but very hard to fathom. Someone put a tremendous amount of energy into Huaca La Penitenciaría de la Meseta’s construction, but exactly who, why, and when is anybody’s guess. My own guess is that it had something to do with ancient coca leaf production at La Meseta. But for the time being it’s an architectural and archeological enigma — one that promises to open a new chapter in the history of the Chachapoya.”
The discovery will be featured in the Discovery Channel’s new series, CHASING MUMMIES, premiering January 2008.
This article is based on a news release from the Discovery Channel.