A 3,000-year-old temple in Peru that influenced later Andean cultures hosted intricate rituals that have long intrigued researchers.
The Lanzón stela has sat among tunnels under ancient ruins in the Peruvian Andes for more than two millennia. This 15-foot, humanlike stone sculpture was installed under the temple of Chavín de Huántar. It appears to feature arms and legs — along with snakes for hair and massive fangs.
It’s unclear what exactly transpired within the temple, which sits at more than 10,000 feet in elevation, but archaeologists believe ceremonies involved everything from human sacrifice to the ritualistic consumption of powerful psychedelic drugs. And some elements of Chavín culture likely influenced subsequent Andean civilizations, including the Wari, Tiwanaku and Inca, for centuries afterwards.
“He cut off the legs of a bunch of animals and he dipped them in blood,” Burger says. “He put the hoof and footprints of the animals around the walls of the perimeter of the site so that people would think supernatural forces were at work.” “In Chavín you don’t have any of those things,” Burger says, adding that people clearly traveled from long distances to reach this temple, which is often thought of as a center of pilgrimage.
The settlement surrounding Chavín held at least 3,000 people, and it had signs of social stratification in which some had access to rare goods and technology that others lacked. “It was urban by the criteria of the time,” Burger says. Snuff spoons likely used for inhaling hallucinogenic powders and mortars for grinding such substances have been found at the site. Burger alsotree, and it’s still used today for the beans’ hallucinogenic properties.
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