04:05Peru: 'Rewrite the history of Peru' – Archaeologists discover oldest ever Andean cross on country’s central coast
Archaeologists discovered the oldest Andean cross in South America at a 4,000-year-old temple located in the province of Huaral, 80 kilometres from the Peruvian capital Lima.
Footage recorded on Monday features workers at the archaeological site as well as the Andean 'chakana’ itself, which has the shape of a square, stepped, 12-cornered cross with a circular centre; a recurring symbol in Incan and pre-Incan Andean societies.
“This finding is going to break schemes (change minds), and it is necessary to rewrite the history of Peru because it is 2,000 years before Christ or 4,000 years before our era. So the evidence we have about the chakana in the Altiplano is a little late,” explained Wilber Yapura, one of the archaeologists involved in the discovery.
“Our Bolivian brothers have appropriated this iconography, this symbol, thinking that it was only present in the Altiplano or in the Circumlacustre zones. But, oh, it appeared here," he added.
According to Pieter Luna, another archaeologist involved in the excavations that began in January, the discovery of the Andean cross sparks several questions about the origins of the very first people to have lived in the area.
“The maximum exponent of these religious representations is in Tiahuanaco, where there are even buildings that are shaped like this figure. But nevertheless, the finding of this representation, we are talking about almost two thousand years before what was known as the oldest of the chakana in the Andes, and now here in the central Peruvian coast, leads us to reflect and ask ourselves several questions, such as, why is that?” he questioned.
The site of the discovery was reportedly a ceremonial centre for the worship of water, which explains why its structure faced the source of the Chancay River.
It is also believed to be the first time a chakana has been found at an archaeological site on Peru’s central coast.
04:05Archaeologists discovered the oldest Andean cross in South America at a 4,000-year-old temple located in the province of Huaral, 80 kilometres from the Peruvian capital Lima.
Footage recorded on Monday features workers at the archaeological site as well as the Andean 'chakana’ itself, which has the shape of a square, stepped, 12-cornered cross with a circular centre; a recurring symbol in Incan and pre-Incan Andean societies.
“This finding is going to break schemes (change minds), and it is necessary to rewrite the history of Peru because it is 2,000 years before Christ or 4,000 years before our era. So the evidence we have about the chakana in the Altiplano is a little late,” explained Wilber Yapura, one of the archaeologists involved in the discovery.
“Our Bolivian brothers have appropriated this iconography, this symbol, thinking that it was only present in the Altiplano or in the Circumlacustre zones. But, oh, it appeared here," he added.
According to Pieter Luna, another archaeologist involved in the excavations that began in January, the discovery of the Andean cross sparks several questions about the origins of the very first people to have lived in the area.
“The maximum exponent of these religious representations is in Tiahuanaco, where there are even buildings that are shaped like this figure. But nevertheless, the finding of this representation, we are talking about almost two thousand years before what was known as the oldest of the chakana in the Andes, and now here in the central Peruvian coast, leads us to reflect and ask ourselves several questions, such as, why is that?” he questioned.
The site of the discovery was reportedly a ceremonial centre for the worship of water, which explains why its structure faced the source of the Chancay River.
It is also believed to be the first time a chakana has been found at an archaeological site on Peru’s central coast.