Researchers in Peru say they have found the remains of a 4,000-year-old temple and theater, a discovery that could enrich historians’ understanding of ancient religious practices in the region.
“We still know very little about how and under which circumstances complex belief systems emerged in the Andes,” says Luis Muro Ynoñán, an archaeologist from Peru’s Pontifical Catholic University who led the team, in a statement. “Now we have evidence about some of the earliest religious spaces that people were creating in this part of the world.”
The ruins appear to predate Machu Picchu, the Inca settlement that is now Peru’s best-known archaeological site, by roughly 3,500 years. The researchers say they also predate pre-Inca cultures such as the Moche and Nazca.
“We don’t know what these people called themselves, or how other people referred to them,” Muro Ynoñan adds. “All we know about them comes from what they created: their houses, temples and funerary goods.”
Last month, researchers began excavating a 33- by 33-foot plot of land located near Zaña, a town in coastal Peru. Just six feet below the surface, they found evidence of ancient walls made of mud and clay.
The structure appears to have been a section of a larger temple, which may have been built into the mountainside. The team also found the remains of a small theater, which “could have been used to perform ritual performances in front of a selected audience,” per Muro Ynoñan.
The archaeologist tells Reuters’ Marco Aquino that he is still waiting for the results of radiocarbon testing, which will confirm the site’s age. In the meantime, he is estimating the date based in part on an elaborately carved image found along one of the theater’s staircases. The carving, which depicts a mythological bird-like creature, resembles other artworks from the Initial Period (around 2000 to 900 B.C.E.)—or about 4,000 years ago.
“The Initial Period is important because it’s when we first start to see evidence of an institutionalized religion in Peru,” says Muro Ynoñan in the statement. “The bird creature at this temple resembles a figure known from the Chavín region, nearly 500 years later. This new site could help reveal the origins of this religion.”
The team also unearthed large murals painted on the walls. Muro Ynoñán collected pigment samples, which he plans to analyze back in the lab. He hopes to determine where the paints came from, which would shed light on which groups the ancient site’s builders were trading with.
Additionally, the researchers found the skeletal human remains of three adults inside the temple, per Reuters. One was buried alongside offerings and appears to have been wrapped in some kind of cloth.
According to a statement from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, archaeologists also discovered a second ceremonial temple nearby. This site is considerably older, dating to between 600 and 700 C.E., and is likely connected to the Moche culture.