When it comes to the ancient civilizations of America, one usually immediately recalls the bloody rituals and sacrifices of the Incas and Mayans, vividly presented in films and books: the priests tearing out people's hearts, the severed heads rolling down the steps of the temples.
How do we know that similar rituals were performed in the New World before the arrival of the Europeans? Yes, the ancient Indians themselves left us a lot of evidence: frightening drawings on the walls of ancient buildings with images of bloody masses.
In 1937, in the Sechin river valley, near the modern city of Kasma, archaeologist Julio Cesar Tello, as part of a group of Peruvian and German scientists, discovered the ruins of several complexes of ancient buildings. This archaeological site was named Sechin, after the nearby river, and was considered the same age as Caral, another ancient Peruvian complex (built between 2627 and 2100 BC).
But what was the surprise of the researchers when, during excavations, under the remains of a round stone square (plaza), another one was discovered - more ancient, and under it there was more and more. In total, presumably, in the depths were hidden 4 or 5 similar squares, built one above the other.
Apparently, the builders of these structures erected a new one over the old plaza about every 100-300 years. And after conducting radiocarbon analyzes, modern scientists came to the conclusion that the earliest construction of Sechin is about 5500 years old. It turns out that Caral and the Egyptian pyramids are at least a millennium younger than Sechin!
No other part of Peru has so many temple complexes located close to each other. For casual tourists accustomed to the "wonders of architecture", these monuments, however, are not remarkable at all. Time has changed them almost beyond recognition. The ancient pyramids could not withstand the unhurried work of natural forces. Wind and water turned out to be stronger than the calculations of the builders.
The oldest building here is Sechin-Baho. The overall dimensions of the Sechin-Baho complex are approximately 200x140 m. As noted by the German archaeologist Renata Patschke, “the people who built this sanctuary were undoubtedly brilliantly versed in architecture”. The temple complex was built mainly of large stones brought from the surrounding mountains and then hewn.
It is not known what kind of people they were who built this complex, why he left these places and where he went. Perhaps the answer can be suggested by the walls of another complex - Cerro-Sechin, located about a kilometer from Sechin-Baho. 7 buildings have survived in this place, and the degree of their preservation cannot but rejoice archaeologists.
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Complex Cerro-Sechin.
The Serro-Sechin temple was not destroyed by the warlike tribes, it was not plundered by the conquistadors, and the peasants from the surrounding poor villages were not dismantled for building materials. Around 1300 BC e. the temple was covered with an avalanche and remained buried until Peruvian and German explorers came here.
The earliest construction here is considered to be a plaza with a diameter of 14 m, where ancient inhabitants held meetings and ceremonies. Subsequently, a rectangular adobe temple was built over it. The building rests on a stepped platform built between 2400 and 2200 BC. e. The central part of the temple is decorated with images of creatures that resemble predatory cats.
Later, the sanctuary was expanded, and colored reliefs appeared on both sides of the entrance portal, depicting 5-meter-high fish, which open a terrible mouth. They seem to be struggling to swallow the severed heads of the people above them.
And even later, around 1900 BC. e. - the building was additionally surrounded by a wall of 400 stone slabs up to 4 m high with images engraved on them.
It is these drawings that tell us about Sechin's builders in horrifying detail. Tourists are amazed at the sight of the severed heads, arms and legs depicted on the bas-reliefs, torn out eyes, bones, spinal columns, gushing blood …
And above all this, sometimes warriors, or priests with weapons brought up to strike, rise. According to many researchers, in this way the Sechins made sacrifices to their gods. Almost all victims are missing eyes in the drawings. It is possible that the Sechin priests deliberately pulled them out before quartering a man so that he could not later observe from the world of the dead at his murderer.
Over time, this temple also lost its former significance and was neatly fenced off up to the level where the slabs with reliefs ended. “It was still possible to enter the temple from the back - so it was only half closed,” comments Peter Fuchs.
Obviously, this was done in order to hide the scene of a cruel, murderous revelry from visitors. “But they did not destroy the reliefs,” the researcher notes. "Maybe they were just afraid to do it, because what the hell is not joking, as they say."
But there is another version of the origin of the bloody pictures - a more peaceful one. Thus, Dr. Victor Paredes Ruiz, one of the researchers of the ancient ruins, believes that this place does not testify to the cruelty of ancient people, but to the level of their knowledge in the field of medicine. Sechin is not at all a temple in which human sacrifices were made, but just a hospital.
The priests here did not quarrel people, but on the contrary - healed. On the walls there were not images of massacres, but only teaching aids, with the help of which the Sechin people passed on knowledge to the next generations.
After all, if we imagine that after thousands of years our very distant descendants suddenly discover the ruins of some medical academy, they will see stands there with images of people without skin and their organs, containers with body parts in formalin, pictures of operating doctors …
Perhaps the people of the future, where medicine, for example, will be built on completely different principles, will also be horrified by what bloody rituals the priests in white robes performed in the incredibly distant 21st century?
“On the walls we see not only images of severed limbs, but also internal organs: the esophagus, stomach, kidneys, small intestine (and with the exact observance of its bends), - said Dr. Ruiz. - Engravings of the pelvis, spine, sacrum - everything is done with amazing perfection!"
In his opinion, Sechin was a school and, undoubtedly, the oldest medical institution in the world. Surgeons studied the anatomy of the human body there. Perhaps this explains the absence of images of gods on the walls. After all, if it were a temple, the gods would occupy a central place in it.
Intestines.
Proof that the ancient Americans had a colossal knowledge of medicine, we find in the same Incas. They recognized over 70 different diseases, and their anatomical vocabulary included about 60 terms.
It is also known that the Indian priests knew how to perform craniotomy operations, remove fragments of bones from broken heads and close these holes with gold plates.
Of the 411 skulls discovered by archaeologists at the sites of Inca settlements, 66 have holes of clearly medical origin. As the main surgical instrument, the Indians used the tumi knife, although they also had obsidian knives, needles, scalpels, and tweezers. Perhaps the Incas adopted these secrets from their ancestors - the Sechinians?
From the book "Atlantis and Other Lost Cities"