11-12-2007, 03:02 PM
Dont know where to post. So here, though not directly related to Indian History.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='color:red'>Archeologists excavate ancient temple in Peru</span>
Lima (Peru) (AP): Carbon dating tests and excavation of a colourful pre-Incan temple indicate that it was built thousands of years ago by an advanced civilisation, a prominent archaeologist said in comments published on Monday by a Peruvian newspaper.
Unearthed in Peru's archeologically rich northern coastal desert, the temple has a staircase leading to an altar that was used for worshiping fire and making offerings to deities, Walter Alva, who headed the three-month excavation, told El Comercio.
Some of the walls of the 2,500-square-metre site - almost half the size of a football field - were painted, and a white and red mural depicts a deer being hunted with a net.
Alva said the temple was apparently constructed by an "advanced civilisation" because it was built with mud bricks made from sediment found in local rivers, instead of rocks.
"This discovery shows an architectural and iconographic tradition different from what has been known until now," said Alva, who discovered and is the museum director for another important pre-Incan find, the nearby Lords of Sipan Moche Tombs.
The carbon dating tests, conducted in the United States, indicate that the site is 4,000 years old, he claimed.
The oldest known city in the Americas is Caral, also near the Peruvian coast, which researchers dated to 2627 BC.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001...120941.htm
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='color:red'>Archeologists excavate ancient temple in Peru</span>
Lima (Peru) (AP): Carbon dating tests and excavation of a colourful pre-Incan temple indicate that it was built thousands of years ago by an advanced civilisation, a prominent archaeologist said in comments published on Monday by a Peruvian newspaper.
Unearthed in Peru's archeologically rich northern coastal desert, the temple has a staircase leading to an altar that was used for worshiping fire and making offerings to deities, Walter Alva, who headed the three-month excavation, told El Comercio.
Some of the walls of the 2,500-square-metre site - almost half the size of a football field - were painted, and a white and red mural depicts a deer being hunted with a net.
Alva said the temple was apparently constructed by an "advanced civilisation" because it was built with mud bricks made from sediment found in local rivers, instead of rocks.
"This discovery shows an architectural and iconographic tradition different from what has been known until now," said Alva, who discovered and is the museum director for another important pre-Incan find, the nearby Lords of Sipan Moche Tombs.
The carbon dating tests, conducted in the United States, indicate that the site is 4,000 years old, he claimed.
The oldest known city in the Americas is Caral, also near the Peruvian coast, which researchers dated to 2627 BC.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001...120941.htm
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->