- News>
- Travel
Archaeologists claim Andean religion older than believed
Peru, May 17: A team of U.S. and Peruvian archaeologists has discovered a religious artifact which they say may push back the origin of worship of the Andean region`s most important ancient deity by 1,000 years.
Peru, May 17: A team of U.S. and Peruvian archaeologists has discovered a religious artifact which they say may push back the origin of worship of the Andean region's most important ancient deity by 1,000 years.
In the remote coastal valley of Peru's Pativilca River, where many experts believe Andean civilisation originated, a team of archaeologists made an unexpected discovery which they claim may push back the origin of worship of the Andean region's most important ancient deity by 1,000 years.
A team from the Archaeology Project of Norte Chico, located 195 kilometres north of Lima, unearthed a tiny shard of a bowl in July 2002, which they say may be the earliest depiction of the most important ancient religious deity in the Americas.
The 7.6-centimetre tall fragment shows what the archaeologists say appears to be the Staff God, acknowledged by experts as the principle Andean deity from 1000 B.C. until the Europeans arrived in 1532.
The small painted and incised shard appears to be part of a gourd bowl according to the team's co-director Alvaro Ruiz. It was recently radiocarbon-dated to 2200 B.C., making it some 4,000 years old. That date places the depiction some 1000 years earlier than the archaeologists had previously thought worship of the Staff God began.
"The figure of the Staff God, according to the dates that we have obtained, gives us an age of 2200 years B.C., that is, more than 4,000 years ago, which means going back 1,000 years before what was thought to be the appearance of religion or the appearance of the following of this deity, the Staff God," explained Ruiz.
The find could be significant because of the Staff God's importance in Latin America throughout the first millennium, according to the archaeologists. The Staff God was the principle deity of pre-Incan and Andean cultures, originating among the Tiahuanacos, a tribe from the Lake Titicaca region which was conquered by the Incas. The Staff God is represented in the Puerta de Tiahuanaco on Lake Titicaca and Lima's Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology also houses several depictions of the deity.
"What we can now understand is that the same society, this ancient culture was also worshipping a god that endured in the central Andes for 3,500 years - this area of Norte Chico could be the origin of the Central Andean civilisation," said Ruiz.
The image discovered in Norte Chico last July shows a fanged creature with splayed feet whose left arm appears to end in a snake's head and whose right hand seems to hold a staff, according to the archaeologists.
However, not all experts are convinced that the discovery is actually a depiction of the Staff God. According to Manuel Merino, who heads the division of Ceramics in the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, the gourd fragment discovered in Norte Chico may not show the icon bearing a staff.
"Well, in reality, looking at the figure, it seems to me that it is not a figure that is grasping a staff. It seems to be that the 'staff' is the mark of a panel of the figure, because one of the characteristics of the ancient representations was to make panels and in each panel to mark a figure - a figure that could be repeated or could be followed by another. Therefore, I have my doubts that this is the Staff God," Merino explained.
However, despite his scepticism, Merino thinks the find could be important due to its age, as established by the radiocarbon dating.
"This shard seems similar to the later representations - much, much later, but of course, evidence exists of the date and that seems to me a thing worth taking into account," he said.
The team discovered the piece as they were conducting surface collections of looted cemeteries in Norte Chico.
The region was densely populated between 2600 and 2000 B.C. and is believed by many experts to be the ancestral home of the Andean civilisation, which culminated 3,500 years later with the Incas.
Bureau Report
"The figure of the Staff God, according to the dates that we have obtained, gives us an age of 2200 years B.C., that is, more than 4,000 years ago, which means going back 1,000 years before what was thought to be the appearance of religion or the appearance of the following of this deity, the Staff God," explained Ruiz.
The find could be significant because of the Staff God's importance in Latin America throughout the first millennium, according to the archaeologists. The Staff God was the principle deity of pre-Incan and Andean cultures, originating among the Tiahuanacos, a tribe from the Lake Titicaca region which was conquered by the Incas. The Staff God is represented in the Puerta de Tiahuanaco on Lake Titicaca and Lima's Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology also houses several depictions of the deity.
"What we can now understand is that the same society, this ancient culture was also worshipping a god that endured in the central Andes for 3,500 years - this area of Norte Chico could be the origin of the Central Andean civilisation," said Ruiz.
The image discovered in Norte Chico last July shows a fanged creature with splayed feet whose left arm appears to end in a snake's head and whose right hand seems to hold a staff, according to the archaeologists.
However, not all experts are convinced that the discovery is actually a depiction of the Staff God. According to Manuel Merino, who heads the division of Ceramics in the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, the gourd fragment discovered in Norte Chico may not show the icon bearing a staff.
"Well, in reality, looking at the figure, it seems to me that it is not a figure that is grasping a staff. It seems to be that the 'staff' is the mark of a panel of the figure, because one of the characteristics of the ancient representations was to make panels and in each panel to mark a figure - a figure that could be repeated or could be followed by another. Therefore, I have my doubts that this is the Staff God," Merino explained.
However, despite his scepticism, Merino thinks the find could be important due to its age, as established by the radiocarbon dating.
"This shard seems similar to the later representations - much, much later, but of course, evidence exists of the date and that seems to me a thing worth taking into account," he said.
The team discovered the piece as they were conducting surface collections of looted cemeteries in Norte Chico.
The region was densely populated between 2600 and 2000 B.C. and is believed by many experts to be the ancestral home of the Andean civilisation, which culminated 3,500 years later with the Incas.
Bureau Report