Skip to main content

Chavin de Huantar, Ancash, Peru

Chavin de Huantar is an archaeological site in Peru, containing ruins and artifacts constructed as early as 1200 BCE, and occupied until around 400–500 BCE by the Chavín, a major pre-Inca culture.

The site is located in the Ancash Region, 434 kilometers (270 mi) north of Lima, at an elevation of 3,180 meters (10,430 ft), east of the Cordillera Blanca at the start of the Conchucos Valley.

The Chavín civilization was centered on the site of Chavín de Huántar, the religious center of the Chavín people and the political capital.

Entering the Chavín de Huántar Archaeological Site
During its heyday, Chavín de Huántar was used as a religious center for ceremonies and events, perhaps a home for an oracle.

  • The site contains a number of major structures, including Temples A, B, C and D, and areas and buildings designated as the Major Plaza, the Circular Plaza, the Old Temple and New Temple. But the latter two designations are no longer accurate in light of recent research advances.

Chavin de Huantar Plan
Plan Legend:

  1. Entrance
  2. Scale model
  3. Tello Obelisk
  4. Square Plaza
  5. Altar of Choque Chinchay
  6. Building A (New Temple)
  7. Snake straircase
  8. Portal of the Falcons
  9. Circular Plaza
  10. Building B (Old Temple)
  11. Tenon head

Scale model of Chavin de Huantar (Plan No. 2)

Tello Obelisk (Plan No. 3)
The Obelisk features, in two representations, a zoomorphic figure dominated by cayman attributes. Caymans are found in the low tropical forests. The carvings convey a single composition in several narrative units.

  • Lathrop referred to the figures as a primordial deity and the "overarching cosmological symbol in the culture of Nuclear America." The cayman is an important component in the "Tree of Life" figure in Middle American iconography, where it is usually depicted in a descending, or partition posture, as the base of the tree and with its tail replaced by vegetation.
  • Campana believes the Tello Obelisk narrates a cosmological myth.
  • Wheatley sees the Obelisk as a very complete and detailed model of the cosmos.
  • The Obelisk was discovered by Julio C. Tello during excavation of the site and thereafter moved to Lima, Peru.
  • It is currently housed in the Chavin National Museum.

Panorama of the entrance square

Panorama of Square Plaza (Plan No. 4) seen from the east.
The Square Plaza, a rectangular plaza, 85 m by 105 m (279 ft by 344 ft) and the sunken courtyard, 50 m2 (538 ft2), belong to Building A.

  • Within this courtyard has been found three stone ashlars, which show a front-faced deity, a howler anthropomorphized howler monkey, and either a bat or butterfly.
  • In the southwest region of the Building A plaza, there was found a 10 ton limestone slab with seven circular surface depressions. It is called the Altar of Choque Chinchay and is interpreted as a calendar for planting cycles and a tool in predicting the outcome of the harvest.

Panorama of Square Plaza seen from the southwest

Altar of Choque Chinchay (Plan No. 5)
Called "The Altar of Choque Chinchay," this 10-ton limestone slab contains seven small circular pits that have been argued to form the pattern of the astronomical cluster called the Pleiades.

  • The "altar" might suggest that this star cluster, which is used in modern times for monitoring agricultural planting and harvesting in the Andes, played a significant role in Chavín times.

Panorama of the west side of Square Plaza

Panorama of Building A (Plan No. 6) from the southeast
Building A (formerly known as New Temple), constructed between 500 and 200 BCE, is based on a gallery and plaza design and contained many relief sculptures.

  • The Lanzon deity is shown here, holding a strombus shell in the right hand, while the left hand holds a Spondylus shell, considered to have sacred properties.

Snake straircase (Plan No. 7)
The snake staircase features the relief of a snake and allows us to climb up to Plaza Menor.


Information poster for Building A
The major part of this building was finished about 800 BCE and was the product of successive architectural projects that included the oldest known building at Chavin, as constructed of different phases of construction. The entrance way stands before de Square Plaza and it is adorned by the decorative Black and White Portal and in the upper part are found two small well finished structures. The majority of the characteristic galleries of Chavin are located in the interior of this building.


Building A’s water drainage system

Panorama of the facade of Building A
Most of the decoration is on the exterior in the form of cornices, tenons, and ornamental facing.


Portal of the Falcons (Plan No. 8)
The main portal to Building A (former New Temple) is called the Black and White Portal or Entrance of the Guardian Figures.

  • At the top of a large staircase, a large carved lintel, over 10 m (33 ft) long, is supported on each end by two circular columns, one of white granite and the other of black limestone, leads into subterranean galleries.
  • The white column is possibly a representation of a hawk that can be interpreted as male, while the black column can likewise be argued to be the representation of a female hawk.
  • Furthermore, the lintel is also carved half black and half white, and depicts a procession of alternating hawks and harpy eagles. This further emphasizes duality schemes found elsewhere in the site.

Information poster for the Portal of the Falcons
The columns and lintels of the Gateway are part of the most important iconographic ensemble at Chavin. On top of the columns notice two beings, feminine and masculine, with notable zoomorphic features and heads raised toward a black and white lintel on top of which are carved 16 falcons that converge in the center. The Portal of the Falcons was the end of a ceremonial circuit that began in the Square Plaza and next entered the high areas of Building A.


Close view of the Portal of the Falcons

Panorama of the Circular Plaza from southeast (Plan No. 9)
The circular court of Building B (former Old Temple) is a subterranean plaza with two staircases.

  • The walls have a series of engravings on the top and bottom.
  • The top is a procession of mythical figures holding the hallucinogenic cactus of San Pedro and the bottom is a carving a jaguar figure.
  • Notice the characterictic Chavin style snake hair, fangs and claws.

Panorama of the Circular Plaza from west

Information poster for the Circular Plaza
This plaza was found decorated with a group of anthropomorphic personages arranged in a procession towards the staircase that leads to the Lanzon Gallery. In the lower part, a line of felines also directed toward the staircase. The Circular Plaza served as a private and selected ritual space, where the ceremonies of the priests included the consumption of hallucinogenic substances and the sound of shell trumpets.


Entering Building B (Plan No. 10)
Building B (formerly known as the Old Temple) consists of a number of rectangular structures up to 12 m (39 ft) in height which appear to be platforms of solid masonry.

  • These structures are honeycombed with interior passages and small rooms, roofed with large slabs of stone and connected with each other and with the open air by an effective system of ventilating ducts.

Entrance to the Galleries of Chavin
On the left side of the facade of Building B is the entrance to the Galleries of Chavin.

  • The internal spaces were constructed according to a plan complete with a system of ventilation and illumination. In most cases, the principal role of the galleries was to serve as a setting for private ceremonies to which only the privileged were admitted. In other cases the galleries served as places of storage for offerings and ritual objects like shell trumpets, which were used continually in the diverse rituals that were carried out at Chavin.

Entrance to the Lanzon Gallery
On the right side of the facade of Building B is the entrance to the Lanzon Gallery.

  • The Lanzon Gallery, located at the very center, contained a sculpture of the Lanzon, which is assumed to be a supreme deity of Chavin de Huantar.
  • The figure is anthropomorphic, with a feline head and human body.
  • Mortars, pestles, conch-shell trumpets, and many other items have also been found.
  • Many of these artifacts have an anthropomorphic design or decoration and are thought to be associated with Chavin rituals.

The Lanzon

Information poster for the Lanzon
Sculpted in granite, the Lanzon represents the principal deity of the Chavin people. It is an erect personage with the combined features of human and animals, holding its left arm down and the right hip. The first structure of the Lanzon has a rectangular form similar to the compounds seen at Kotosh (Huanuco) and later the space was modified to a gallery in the form of a cross as it is now.


Tenon head (Plan No. 11)
One of the most aspects of Chavin is the presence of an important group of stone sculptures representing human faces with feline features, placed in the upper part of the buildings and protected with a decorated cornice. Together these “tenon heads” represent the process of transformation from being human to feline, the transformation that was symbolically achieved through the ingestion of hallucinogenic substances.


See also

Source

Location

Location: Museo de, Chavín de Huantar 02395, Peru