More than three thousand years ago, five geoglyphs appeared on the territory of present-day Peru, which probably depict the constellation of the Southern Cross.
We are talking about geoglyphs formed by five angular rocks in the Valle Chao - a region in the northwestern part of Peru, La Libertad. Archaeological excavations indicate that the area has been inhabited since about 1200 BC. Remains of such ancient cultures as Kupisnik, Salinar, Mochika (Moche), Sikan, Chachapoya and Chimu have been preserved here.
There are stone doorways in the rocks. According to archaeologists, the ancient inhabitants of these places entered them to participate in some kind of ceremonies or ritual rituals that were carried out in geoglyphs.
These five geoglyphs are part of a much larger ceremonial area now called Pampa de las Salinas and is made up of over 20 archaeological sites, including paths, plazas and a massive mound called Los Morteros. Morteros), which consists of the ruins of ancient buildings, as well as the remains of flora and marine fauna.
According to Ana Cecilia Mauricio, associate professor at the Pontifical Catholic University in Peru, scientists operate exclusively with versions and build chains of hypotheses, without fully understanding for what purpose these buildings were erected in Pampa de las Salinas …
The first two geoglyphs were discovered in the 1970s, while the remaining three were discovered by Mauricio and a team of archaeologists under her leadership. All geoglyphs were built from a pile of small dumps of rocks that form "round marks of different sizes on the ground." Geoglyphs are located “inside large rectangular rooms 50 by 50 meters, or maybe more, with doorways to get inside,” the Live Science web magazine quoted Mauricio as saying.
This sprawling, immense composition can represent heaven. One of the geoglyphs, recorded in the 1970s, depicts the Southern Cross (Crux) constellation of the southern hemisphere of the sky, and "it is likely that other geoglyphs are associated with constellations, although we have not yet decided on such an explanation, since we are still keeping records.", says Mauricio.
Until now, experts are not sure of the exact dating of the appearance of these geoglyphs. Most likely, they appeared more than three thousand years ago, because, the professor suggests, by that time they had stopped building anything in Pampa de las Salinas.
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Even an approximate dating of geoglyphs is complicated by the simple fact that archaeologists from her team have not been able to find any artifacts that would make it possible to make even an approximate reference to time.
This gave the researchers the idea of thermoluminescent dating. This method of dating objects of mineral origin takes place by measuring the energy emitted as a result of heating the sample (thermoluminescence).
Thermoluminescent dating method is based on the ability of some crystals to accumulate the energy of ionizing radiation, and when heated, give it in the form of light radiation (flashes of light). The older the material, the more flares there will be.
The oldest archaeological site in Pampa de las Salinas is the Los Morteros mound, which is at least 6,000 years old.
Thanks to the research of the team led by Mauricio, it became known that in the distant past, during the construction of Los Morteros, an embankment was formed by the accumulation of organic debris - the remains of representatives of the marine fauna and rotted plants, in places alternating with layers of clay and stone-built hearths.
Later, according to Mauricio, first brick, then stone architecture appeared in Los Morteros, which served both monumental and ceremonial purposes. During the years of the beginning of the construction of Los Morteros, a certain number of aborigines already lived there.
However, "later, when monumental buildings were erected here, there is no evidence that people live in Morteros or in the entire Pampa de las Salinas region," says Mauricio.
In the end, the temple of Los Morteros ceased to exist about five thousand years ago, "and religious activities were concentrated elsewhere" in the Pampa de las Salinas region.
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