Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Ventarron: the 4,000 years old temple in Peru

The temple has been recently unearthed at a place about 470 miles from Lima, Peru. The murals are the oldest known in Cemanahuac (American Continent) to this date. Carbon dating performed in the US, dated the temple at about 2,000 B.C. That's roughly the time Egypt's pyramids were presumably built.
Notice the level of detail of the paintings, and the variety of colors. It has an impressive level of artistry for the time. Just how they manufactured the paints, which are still intact is still a mistery.
They also found Amazonian parrots and monkey bones, which must have been brought by traders from hundreds of miles away. The temple is made of river sediment bricks (not rocks) which hints at a higher level of knowledge. The building harmoniously points to true north, according to the lead archeologist, which is consistent with the majority of ancient buildings of the area.
One of the paintings depicts a deer being hunted with a net, which again points to a higher level of tool knowledge for the time. They certaily were not cave dwellers, nomadic hunter-gatherers but probably an agrarian society with knowledge of farming.
Its fair to regret the Europeans' despising of the Native Amerindians as a group of "savage" people. Nothing is further from the truth.

National geographic:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/photogalleries/Peru-pictures/index.html

The associated press:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqVny7Ylhq-1TruZdhU0Z9n-B6CwD8SSFE7O0



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