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Human Sacrifice
Image courtesy Carlos Wester La Torre
January 28, 2010—A thousand-year-old temple complex (including a tomb with human sacrifice victims, shown in a digital illustration) has been found under the windswept dunes of northwestern Peru, archaeologists say.
The discovery of the complex, excavated near the city of Chiclayo (map) between 2006 and late 2009, has injected a dose of reality into the legend of Naylamp, the god who supposedly founded the pre-Inca Lambayeque civilization in the eighth century A.D., following the collapse of the Moche civilization.
That's because evidence at the Chotuna-Chornancap archaeological site indicates the temple complex may have belonged to people claiming to have descended from Naylamp—suggesting for the first time that these supposed descendants existed in the flesh.
The sophisticated Lambayeque culture, also known as the Sicán, were best known as skilled irrigation engineers until being conquered in A.D. 1375 by the Chimú, a civilization also based along Peru's arid northern coast.
Archaeologists have been "trying to decode the legend's mystery" for a century, said dig leader Carlos Wester La Torre, director of the Brüning National Archaeological Museum in Lambayeque. "The goal was to understand the possible relations between the oral legend and archaeological evidence."
Within the newfound temple complex is a pyramid-shaped tomb, called Huaca Norte, which was filled with the skeletons of 33 women.
(Related: "Mummy of Tattooed Woman Discovered in Peru Pyramid.")
Two skeletons still have their original hair and some (top row) are mummified. All of them show cut marks, meaning they were likely tortured as part of human-sacrifice rituals.
"Women are traditionally associated with fertility," La Torre said. "They are offered in religious ceremonies in return for more fertility [and other beneficial events]—like rain, for instance."
(Related: "Tombs of Pre-Inca Elite Discovered Under Peru Pyramid.")
—Sabrina Valle in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
January 29, 2010
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Fit for a Founding God?
Photograph courtesy Carlos Wester La Torre
Part of the newfound complex, a temple with a throne (pictured against far wall) suggests that people claiming to be descendants of Naylamp, the mythical founder of the Lambayeque civilization, actually existed, archaeologists said in January 2010.
That's because "the creation of the building matches in time with the legend's emergence," dig leader La Torre said.
Also, in Lambayeque folklore "only in the Naylamp legend [is] a throne ... used by high-ranking characters to reinforce power and authority."
According to legend, after the Moche civilization had collapsed in northwestern Peru, Naylamp arrived from the ocean with a huge fleet of rafts and warriors to begin a new empire.
(See more temple and tomb pictures.)
January 29, 2010
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Legendary Seat of Power
Photograph courtesy Carlos Wester La Torre
The most important discovery in the thousand-year-old Lambayeque temple in Peru was the throne (pictured), thought to have been used by Naylamp's supposed descendants.
From this perch, a ruler would impose and reinforce his political, religious, and military power. The small recess in front of the throne was used for offerings, archaeologists say.
Up to a hundred workers excavated the two new buildings, which had been untouched for more than a thousand years.
January 29, 2010
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Return to Glory
Image courtesy Carlos Wester La Torre
Archaeologists and historians combined forces to recreate scenes that may have taken place during the Lambayeque culture's heyday, around A.D. 1000. In a computer-generated image, a ruler seated at the throne is flanked by officials.
(Also see: "'Spider God' Temple Found in Peru.")
January 29, 2010
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Lord of Sicán
Photograph courtesy Carlos Wester La Torre
An ancient ceremonial knife called a tumi (pictured in the Brüning National Archaeological Museum) shows a Lambayeque figure sitting on a throne—just like the throne recently discovered at the Naylamp temple in Peru, archaeologists said in January 2010.
These crescent-shaped knives used by the Lambayeque culture bore the likeness of a deity called the Lord of Sicán. The richly clothed figure is generally shown with winged shoulders and holding a sphere, representing the moon, and a knife, which is associated with power and sacrificial rituals, archaeologists say.
January 29, 2010
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Trappings of Power
Image courtesy Carlos Wester La Torre
The presence of a throne—used only by the god Naylamp in Lambayeque folklore—and other indicators in the newfound temple, such as an adjacent room for religious ceremonies, suggest that the Lambayeque people viewed their rulers, thought to be Naylamp's descendants, as semidivine figures.
Based on input from Lambayeque experts, the digital illustration above shows how a Naylamp descendant may have appeared on the throne—surrounded by symbols of natural and supernatural power.
The ruler's garments and accoutrements—including "wings" and a knife—evoke the Lord of Sicán. The ball in his hand and white disks on his throne represent the moon, sacred to the Sicán.
His clothes are detailed with multiple iterations of the roughly diamond-shaped Andean cross, representing the Southern Cross constellation and symbolizing the heavens, Earth, and the underworld.
Like the Lord of Sicán on the knife in the previous picture, this man too is imagined with a stylized arc of ocean waves on his headdress.
"The legend says this divine figure, Naylamp, came from the sea and inaugurated the Lambayeque culture," dig leader La Torre said. "So the sea is very associated with power and strength" among the ancient Lambayeque.
January 29, 2010
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Under Naylamp's Temple
Image courtesy Carlos Wester La Torre
The tomb found in the newfound complex has three levels. In the third, underground level–difficult to photograph and so represented here by an illustration—women's skeletons were found in groups.
"DNA tests being run [in] the United States will determine if they all belong to the same family," which could lead to new understanding of the ancient practices at the site, dig leader La Torre said in January 2010.
Already the temple-complex discovery is shedding new light on the ancient Lambayeque people, whose descendants still live in Peru, and on Naylamp himself.
"Today Naylamp is very alive in the Lambayque region," said dig leader La Torre, referring to the god whose self-professed descendants are thought to have sat on this throne. The name has graced schools, streets, parks—even children, he said.
January 29, 2010
