The Temple of The Shark Hunters - Peru

Just uncovered. Totally fresh news so no english sources yet. So glad to bring it here my friends. I walked that area when I was a kid and bath in those beaches. Walking in Peru, you never know what could be under your feet.

RAW PARTIAL TRANSLATION :

Recent excavations have uncovered the temple where the first fishing village Gramalote 3,500 years ago, settled at the ocean front Huanchaquito, officiated their mysterious rituals.

It is a stone building made ​​in the highest part of town. It has in the center a ceremonial patio, tiered and what could be some sort of stand. There are still traces of a fire that possibly prevented the villagers will kill for years.

Were also found private rooms at the back of the temple. What is special about these spaces is that a large corridor connecting them and the floor was made ​​of stone.

Until recently it was thought that these people engaged in fishing of sharks walking hours to the middle of the valley to pay tribute to their gods in the pyramids known today as Dead Horse and Huaca de los Reyes in Laredo. But this finding has shown that in Gramalote had their temple and perhaps even their deities.

The center of the square was covered with reeds supported by four posts. Even the holes dug to hold and these archaeologists found three corpses of children are observed. Presumably were sacrificed, a practice that was then repeated in the Temples of the Sun and Moon and, centuries later, in Chan Chan.

Is it possible for three millennia ago and has been the figure of the governor or the priest or person in charge of leading the rites? And if there was, where he lived and where his body is buried?

This is very interesting :

THE RED MEN.

A proven fact is that these fishermen body dyed red. Although still difficult to determine for what purpose, it is believed that they used to go fishing.

Last year, Franco Regulus archaeologist discovered a mine in Cerro Campana. They thought it was cinnabar, but the specialist pigments of the French Institute of Andean Studies Veronique Wright determined that it was hematite.

This coincided with stones, the mills, ceramics, shells and even dyed red bodies that were found in Gramalote. Mineral analysis is conclusive. The material they extracted from this mine and then processed by grinding and mixing it with fat sea lion.

Just one of the seven bodies found in the tombs of the temple had chest bones red and next to it a small ceramic bowl with traces of pigment.
"There is evidence that sharks have a developed sense of smell. Maybe this pigment prevented these animals flee warned by the presence of humans, "said Prieto.

Despite these findings, it remains to solve who had access to the temple, how long did the construction, what was its true purpose and what other secrets will remain buried in the unexplored area.

elcomercio.pe...

Very nice. It seems like they had a very unique culture, not seen in the later Inca/Quechua people, although some aspects were carried over. Finding the corn in the ears of some of the remains of the fishermen and realizing it was how they protected their ear drums while diving is intriguing, as is the use of red dyes to mask their smell from the prey they were hunting.

S+F, cool find.

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

One of the comments at the source, explains that the red color is dispersed in the deep ocean, so the sharks at depth could not distinguish the hunters. If true, how the hunters knew that? Sharks are color blind anyway.

www.nbcnews.com...

Interesting little culture especially for that time period. Thanks for the thread. Do you know where they published their paper on this?

I'm interested in the dye too, Hematite was mined in Peru, an ore they used for pottery as well as textiles. I think it was considered to have been used around 2,000 BC forward, that Peruvians used organic dyes prior to that, such as Cochineal dyes. Dyes have a long tradition of use in the Andes.

Pumping iron in Peru (geotimes.com)

Ancient civilizations in Peru mined silver, gold and copper long before the Spanish arrived, smelting the metals to create ceremonial knives and breathtaking adornments. They also gathered iron ore, but for a different purpose: to color their clay pottery. Now archaeologists have uncovered the source of some of that pigment — a 2,000-year-old hematite mine in the foothills of the Peruvian Andes.

Organic dyes: Cochineal

The cochineal (/kɒtʃɨˈniːl/ koch-i-NEEL or /ˈkɒtʃɨniːl/ KOCH-i-neel; Dactylopius coccus) is a scale insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha, from which the crimson-coloured natural dye carmine is derived. A primarily sessile parasite native to tropical and subtropical South America and Mexico, this insect lives on cacti in the genus Opuntia, feeding on plant moisture and nutrients.

I suppose it was used to mask the smell of the fishermen from sharks, rather than obscure their eyesight. AFAIK sharks hunt by smell and other senses than sight.

a reply to: Hanslune

Very hard to get more information about this one for the moment, but here is a link to the infographics and some more interesting data, you'll need to translate it anyway :

elcomercio.e3.pe...

Also here is another link to a 2011 article (with some photos), when they started the excavations. Also need translation :

cinabrio.over-blog.es...

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

Interesting theory and I wouldn't be surprised if confirmed. That could be useful today.