In Peru a maze of galleries unexplored for 3000 years

In Peru, a maze of galleries unexplored for 3,000 years fascinates archaeologists Edition du soi

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Located 3,000 meters above sea level in the Andes Mountains of Peru, the famous pre-Inca archaeological site of Chavín de Huántar has concealed an extraordinary network of galleries and underground rooms for 3,000 years. After two years of waiting imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, archaeologists have finally been able to explore this mysterious labyrinth that appears to have been used for religious rituals.

(Map: Western France)

Peru is full of archaeological treasures. Not all of them have been discovered yet, and some of the gems of history that have already been unearthed still have mysteries to be revealed. This is the case of the famous pre-Inca site of Chavín de Huántar, located 430 km north of Lima and at an altitude of 3,000 meters in the Peruvian Andes. Archaeologists have just uncovered an extraordinary network of galleries, passageways and rooms underground. This labyrinthine complex hidden beneath the site had not received any visitors for 3,000 years, reports science news site Live Science.

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religious rituals

Stone-lined passageways, corridors, rooms, cells and niches large enough to be traversed and covered with stone beams… According to the researchers, this labyrinth, sealed for three millennia, would have had a variety of functions but all rooms seem to have been dedicated to religious rituals.

“Some of the dark, secluded chambers may have been used for sense deprivation, while larger galleries may have been used for idolatry.” details John Rick, the Stanford University archaeologist who directs this dig site. For his part, in Live Science, anthropologist and archaeologist Richard Burger, an expert on South American prehistory at Yale University, explains that the objects found were, in particular, two large bowls “Probably mortars used to grind psychedelic drugs during religious ceremonies”.

Exploration after two years of waiting

It is not the first time that researchers have discovered treasures at this point. A total of 36 galleries and associated passageways have been uncovered over the past fifteen years of archaeological exploration. First discovered in 2019, this new complex was first probed with a remote camera. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, scientists had to wait two years before they could finally enter these underground passages, which they dubbed the “Gallery of the Condor” in reference to the bird of prey that adorned a large bowl found at the site, according to the scientists Media.

The next expeditions and investigations to be carried out on site should lift the veil on other mysteries of this civilization that preceded the Incas. Given the various discoveries, archaeologists already believe that this site, the largest ever discovered, was the administrative and religious center of the Chavín civilization, an Andean people who lived in northern and central Peru between 3200 and 2200.

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