[Aztlan] MORE ON MYSTERIOUS CHACHAPOYA RUIN

[michael ruggeri]

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Peru ruin find may hold clues to lost civilization

By Andrei Khalip

Wed Jan 17, 6:16 PM ET


An unusual archeological site discovered in Peru's mountains may hold  
clues to the history of the Chachapoya people, known as "cloud  
warriors," who fought the Inca Empire before the Spanish conquest.

Keith Muscutt, a British-born Chachapoya researcher with the  
University of California Santa Cruz, said on Wednesday the site was  
"strikingly anomalous" because of its size, shape and remote location  
in the dense forest full of spider monkeys and toucans.

The unfortified, possibly ceremonial structure is located in an area  
previously considered on the periphery of the Chachapoya domain in  
the upper Amazon region.

"What it is showing is that we don't really know what their territory  
was," he told Reuters. The place where the ruins were discovered had  
been considered a buffer zone between the highland Chachapoya and the  
tribal cultures of the Amazon basin.

"It is certainly not a fortress, so either the Chachapoya's territory  
extended further East, or they relied more on cooperation than  
conflict with their neighbors," he said.

The Chachapoya civilization, which flourished between 800 and 1475,  
is known for its mountaintop citadels like Kuelpa and Vira Vira and  
well-preserved mummies found in tombs at the Lake of the Condors.  
Conquered by the Incas just before the Spanish conquest, they allied  
with the Spaniards after 1532, but fell victim to diseases brought  
from Europe and vanished.

This ruin, dubbed Huaca la Penitenciaria (Penitentiary Ruin),  
consists of a large ceremonial platform, a plaza and a number of  
rectangular and circular buildings.

The heavily overgrown site was discovered by the Anazco family of  
Peruvian explorers at a plateau in the mountains between the Rio  
Verde and Rio Huabayacu in the Department of San Martin, about 560  
miles north of Lima.

In August, Muscutt, 60, took part in an Anazco-led expedition that  
made a preliminary survey of the site.

"My goal at this point is to notify the appropriate Peruvian  
authorities," Muscutt said. He is also talking to archeologists to  
evaluate the find.

Although additional research is needed to confirm that it is a  
Chachapoya structure, Muscutt said it had an ornamental frieze and  
dry masonry very typical of the Chachapoyas.

"Also, all the walls have a slight bulge to them like the side of a  
barrel, which I think is a fault in their engineering that they  
adopted and made a feature -- an aesthetic choice resulted from  
engineering accident," Muscutt said.

The site had been abandoned for at least 400 years. "It is a very  
interesting archeological time capsule," he said.


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