>>10719785

(Please read from the start)

Our next Andean culture is the Chavin culture:

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andean_civilizations)

“Chavín

The Chavín culture is thought to have been primarily a religious movement. The culture apparently began in the Peruvian highlands and then spread outward throughout the country. The Chavín culture has very distinctive art styles, particularly in effigy pots, a number of which were in feline shapes. Chavin de Huantar was an important ritual centre for Chavin Culture, dating to around 1,500 BCE.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav%C3%ADn_culture

“The Chavín culture is an extinct, pre-Columbian civilization, named for Chavín de Huantar, the principal archaeological site at which its artifacts have been found. The culture developed in the northern Andean highlands of Peru from 900 BCE to 200 BCE. It extended its influence to other civilizations along the coast.[1][2] The Chavín people (whose name for themselves is unknown) were located in the Mosna Valley where the Mosna and Huachecsa rivers merge. This area is 3,150 metres (10,330 ft) above sea level and encompasses the quechua, suni, and puna life zones.[3] In the periodization of pre-Columbian Peru, the Chavín is the main culture of the Early Horizon period in highland Peru, characterized by the intensification of the religious cult, the appearance of ceramics closely related to the ceremonial centers, the improvement of agricultural techniques and the development of metallurgy and textiles.

The best-known archaeological site for the Chavín culture is Chavín de Huantar, located in the Andean highlands of the present-day Ancash Region. It is believed to have been built around 900 BCE and was the religious and political center of the Chavín people.[3] It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.”

>> I wish I could have found out the altitude of Norte Chico site just I did for the Chavin one. It’s very, very important, mostly if there is a 5000 + m high mountain close in the area.

“Achievements

The chief example of architecture is the Chavín de Huantar temple. The temple's design shows complex innovation to adapt to the highland environments of Peru. To avoid the temple's being flooded and destroyed during the rainy season, the Chavín people created a successful drainage system. Several canals built under the temple acted as drainage. The Chavín people also showed advanced acoustic understanding. During the rainy season water rushes through the canals and creates a roaring sound and creates a noise like a jaguar, a sacred animal. The temple was built of white granite and black limestone, neither of which is found near the Chavín site. This meant that leaders organized many workers to bring the special materials from far away rather than use local rock deposits. They also may have been traded from different civilizations in the area.”

>> This is absolutely incredible. They didn’t just master architecture and drainage system but they also used “souds”. Fascinating. I’m also very intrigued by the white granite and the black limestone used for the construction of the temple, mostly how they were transported there. Why? Just look where the temple is located and the altitude. It must have taken great man power and great means of transport to get the building stones there. This is remarkable.

“The Chavín culture also demonstrated advanced skills and knowledge in metallurgy, soldering, and temperature control. They used early techniques to develop refined gold work. The melting of metal had been discovered at this point and was used as a solder.

The people domesticated camelids such as llamas. Camelids were used for pack animals, for fiber, and for meat. They produced ch'arki, or llama jerky.[5] This product was commonly traded by camelid herders and was the main economic resource for the Chavín people. The Chavín people also successfully cultivated several crops, including potatoes, quinoa, and maize. They developed an irrigation system to assist the growth of these crops.”

>> No need for the old man to point how advanced these knowledge are.

“Language

There is an absence of written language,[7] so the language spoken by the Chavín people is not known, but it is likely now extinct.[8] Some anthropologists have proposed that it was a form of Proto-Quechuan, reasoning that the Quechuan languages' highly regular morphology and syntax compared to surrounding languages would have been useful for allowing intelligible communication between communities separated by mountain ranges, as some Chavín groups were.[9] On the other hand, Alfredo Torero dates the Proto-Quechuan languages to around the beginning of the first millennium CE.”

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>>10730578

(Please read from the start)

“Architecture

Chavín de Huantar was the place of origin of the second large-scale political entity in the central Andes, and this is mainly due to the extensive architecture at the site[10] as well as the architecture being considered an engineering accomplishment.[7] The site uses both internal and external architecture. Internal architecture refers to galleries, passageways, rooms, staircases, ventilation shafts and drainage canals. External architecture refers to plazas, platform mounds and terraces.[11] Construction of the "Old Temple" took place from around 900 to 500 BCE, and construction of the "New Temple", the structure that was constructed and added on to the "Old Temple", took place from around 500 to 200 BCE. The lack of residential structures, occupational deposits, generalized weaponry and evidence of storage further make the site's architecture more interesting, as it focuses mainly on the temples and what lies inside of them.

The monumental center at Chavín de Huantar was built in at least 15 known phases, all of which incorporate the 39 known episodes of gallery construction. The earliest known construction stage, the Separate Mound Stage, consisted of separate buildings[11] and do not conform, necessarily, to the U-shaped pattern seen in the Initial Horizon Period and the Early Horizon Period. During the Expansion Stage, construction integrated stepped platforms and created contiguous U-shaped form by connecting the buildings, which now surround open spaces. At this stage, galleries are elaborate in form and features. During the Black and White Stage, all known plazas (the Plaza Mayor, Plaza Menor and the Circular Plaza) were constructed. As construction came to an end, galleries took on a more standardized look.[11] By the end of the growth process, buildings become plazas with a U-shaped arrangement and an east-west axis bisecting the inclosed space. The axis also intersects the Lanzón.”

>> This orientation of the axis east-west is very interesting. It usually follows the sun.

“Modifications were done during all stages of construction to maintain access to the internal architecture of the site.[11] There was a high level of interest in maintaining access to internal architecture and sacred elements of the site. Internal architecture was constructed as part of a single design and was intricately incorporated with the external architecture.[11] Including lateral and asymmetrical growth allowed for these sacred elements to remain visible, including the Lanzón.

The Lanzón Gallery was created from an earlier freestanding structure that was then transformed into a stone-roofed internal space by constructing around it. The Lanzón was possibly present before the roofing, as it is likely that the Lanzón predates the construction of mounds and plazas.[10] In general, galleries follow construction patterns, which indicates a massive effort in design and planning. Maintaining these galleries over time was important to architects.[11] The galleries are known to be windowless, dead ends, sharp turns and changes in floor height, all of which were designed to disorient people walking in them.”

>> This is very interesting and amazing in the same time. It sounds like we have a labyrinth on our hands here. Wonder why such a thing was built under the temple? Was it done as a safety measure against thieves? Or does it have a ritual, astronomical or religious meaning?

“A combination of symmetry and asymmetry were used in the design and planning of the site construction, and in fact guided the design. There were centered placements of staircases, entrances and patios, all of which were consistently prominent. In the last stages of construction, due to constraints, centeredness was no longer possible, so architects shifted to constructing symmetrical pairs. Externally, buildings were asymmetrical to each other.”

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