Researchers have uncovered another secret of the famous idol of Pachacamac is an ancient wooden statues found in the archaeological complex of Pachacamac. It is located close to Lima the capital of Peru.
Europeans first learned about this idol is still in 1533. In that year the Spanish Conquistador Hernando Pizarro ordered his supporters to destroy it. According to history, he was asked to destroy the temple that housed the statue, and in front of everyone to break the idol. I must say that to do this would be not so easy: the height of the artifact is 2.3 meters.
the Incas worshiped the idol of Pachacamac, and believed that he could predict the future. They kept the statue in the temple, located in the same archaeological complex.
a Few centuries later, in 1938, archaeologist have discovered a miraculously surviving statue. So it became clear that the orders of the Conquistador was not executed. However, then nobody could say with certainty whether this wooden artifact is thus an idol or not.
Idol was created around the 760-876 years.Photo Marcela Sepulveda/Rommel Angeles/Museo de sitio Pachacamac.
To find out for sure, sepúlveda, Marcela (Marcela Seplveda) of the Paris Sorbonne University and her colleagues conducted radiocarbon Dating of the artifact and found that it was created between 760 and 876 years.
interestingly, this period belongs to the so-called middle horizon, when Huari culture. It existed approximately 700 years before the rise of the Inca Empire.
in Other words, it is the representatives of the culture Huari created this amazing wooden artifact. The discovery also indicates that Pachacamac was an important place even before the Incas seized power here, the researchers note.
Analysis of the statue has also helped clarify some other issues associated with the idol. Thus, according to one of the assumptions in the past, the idol was red, andyour color, he was allegedly obliged the blood of the victims.
the Researchers studied the artifact using two types of x-ray fluorescence spectrometry. This analysis allows us to identify certain elements in the structure without destroying the object of study.
“We were very excited to find that [the sample] has traces of dyes”, says sepúlveda.
it turned Out that the teeth of the idol had once been white, and some of his headgear was covered with yellow pigment. And, most interestingly, he did have red. But, despite the terrifying legends, such a color artifact gave not blood and mercury-containing mineral called cinnabar.
Probably, said Sepulveda, the people of the time deliberately gave idol this color to show economic strength and political power of their culture.
it is Curious, that sources of cinnabar are 400 kilometers away from Pachacamac, in the Andes, at high altitude. This discovery provides new evidence that among the tribes there was an exchange of minerals. And they were transported over long distances and with the goal of staining valuable ritual objects, says in an interview with Live Science Patrick Ryan Williams (Patrick Ryan Williams), head of the Department of anthropology at Valdovska the Museum of natural history in Chicago. Scientist specializiruetsya on pre-Columbian civilizations.
Further analysis could help clarify where they were mined these materials.
“But it’s a great starting point to understand the origin of this important idol which the people worshipped hundreds of years before the conquest of the region by the Spaniards,” adds Williams.
According to sepúlveda, the current work has helped to verify the authenticity of the artifact. “We found a new argument proving that this wooden statue is the original idol of Pachacamac,” notes the study’s author.
Scientific article on the results of work presented in the publication PLOS ONE.
By the way, earlier archaeologists discovered in the ancient lake Titicacae ritual offerings.
in addition, the authors of the project “News.Science” (nauka.vesti.ru) told why the Incas were necessary “trophy” skulls.
Text: To.Science
