LinkLIMA (Nov. 11) - A 4,000-year-old temple filled with murals has been unearthed on the northern coast of Peru, making it one of the oldest finds in the Americas, a leading archaeologist said on Saturday.
Photo Gallery: 'Oldest in the Americas'
Ignacio Alva, Handout / Reuters
A clay temple built about 2,000 years before Jesus Christ's time was discovered in Lambayeque, Peru, archaeologists announced Saturday. The mural paintings inside the ruins fascinated experts.
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The temple, inside a larger ruin, includes a staircase that leads up to an altar used for fire worship at a site scientists have called Ventarron, said Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva, who led the dig.
It sits in the Lambayeque valley, near the ancient Sipan complex that Alva unearthed in the 1980s. Ventarron was built long before Sipan, about 2,000 years before Christ, he said.
"It's a temple that is about 4,000 years old," Alva, director of the Museum Tumbas Reales (Royal Tombs) of Sipan, told Reuters by telephone after announcing the results of carbon dating at a ceremony north of Lima sponsored by Peru's government.
"What's surprising are the construction methods, the architectural design and most of all the existence of murals that could be the oldest in the Americas," he said.
Lambayeque is 472 miles from Lima, Peru's capital.
Discoveries at Sipan, an administrative and religious center of the Moche culture, have included a gold-filled tomb built 1,700 years ago for a pre-Incan king.
Peru is rich in archaeological treasures, including the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in the Andes.
Until the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500s, the Incas ruled an empire for several centuries that stretched from Colombia and Ecuador in the north to what are now Peru and Chile in the south.
"The discovery of this temple reveals evidence suggesting the region of Lambayeque was one of great cultural exchange between the Pacific coast and the rest of Peru," said Alva.
Ancient Temple Unearthed in Peru
Moderators: Alyrium Denryle, Edi, K. A. Pital
Ancient Temple Unearthed in Peru
Obviously, the "fire worship" was how they were able to commune with the Greys and learn the secret of the Philadelphia Experiment before it happened.
Only Cortez, arriving with the Pope's newly sanctioned SuperAIDS virus could stop the upstart Incans and their Grey allies from discovering the secret of the Ancient Egyptions, which was, of course, the location of the Allspark.
Only Cortez, arriving with the Pope's newly sanctioned SuperAIDS virus could stop the upstart Incans and their Grey allies from discovering the secret of the Ancient Egyptions, which was, of course, the location of the Allspark.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know...tomorrow."
-Agent Kay
-Agent Kay
