Chanquillo
Coordinates: 9 ° 33'24 " S , 78 ° 14'9" W.
Chanquillo (or Chankillo) is a pre-Columbian complex near the city of Casma , in the Peruvian desert about 300 kilometers north-northwest of the capital Lima . The area covers about four square kilometers. It is the oldest known system of this type of pre-Inca cultures .
Mountain fortress
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The complex includes a fortress on the hilltop made of ring-shaped structures, in which ceremonies may also have taken place. There are numerous finds that are related to this. It appears to have been an old ceremonial center. Several buildings and squares, as well as a ring-shaped fortified temple complex, have been found so far.
In order to produce such elaborate and complicated buildings, one can assume a ruling elite or priestly elite endowed with great power.
Thirteen towers
The Thirteen Towers found here were interpreted as a solar observatory according to recent investigations by Ivan Ghezzi from the Catholic University in Lima and Clive Ruggles from the University of Leicester. The dating initially indicated a construction period around 300 BC. BC, a good 600 years before the Moche culture , which was previously considered the oldest high culture in the region . The towers are up to six meters high and have stairs that lead to viewing platforms. The distance between the structures is approx. 5 meters. They form a comb-like line with regular intervals. As the archaeologists found out, they can be used to determine prominent positions of the sun such as winter and summer solstices or favorable times for sowing for the period around 300 BC. Read. Two artificially constructed observation points were found on both sides of the row of towers during excavations. Viewed from these vantage points, the very precise possibilities of observing the sun emerged. In the extremely dry climate of the Peruvian Pacific coast, precise knowledge was essential for the survival of an agricultural society. According to Ivan Ghezzi, the basic astronomical findings are much older than the ruins that still exist today.
literature
- Ivan Ghezzi, Clive Ruggles: Chankillo: A 2300-Year-Old Solar Observatory in Coastal Peru . in: Science 315, March 2, 2007
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peruvian citadel is site of earliest ancient solar observatory in the Americas . physorg.com. March 1, 2007. Accessed March 2, 2007.
- ^ Ancient Solar Observatory . Scientific American. March 1, 2007. Accessed March 11, 2013.
- ↑ Towers point to ancient Sun cult . BBC. March 1, 2007. Retrieved March 5, 2007.
- ↑ 13 Towers for the Sun , report from March 18, 2007 on Telepolis