Looters help team uncover 4,800-year-old ruins
Submitted by coldrum on Monday, 03 July 2006 Page Views: 1339
DiscoveriesCountry: Peru Japanese researchers said they believe they have discovered--with the unintended help of looters--the ruins of a temple at least 4,800 years old that could be one of the oldest in the Americas. The temple was likely built before or around 2600 B.C. when Peru's oldest known city, Caral, was created, the researchers said.The discovery was made in the ruins of Shicras located in the Chancay Valley about 100 kilometers north of Lima. The team started full-scale excavation work on Monday.
There are two 10-meter-high pyramid-shaped structures made of stone running north to south for about 50 meters and east to west for about 30 meters, according to Tetsuya Inamura, professor of cultural anthropology at Aichi Prefectural University who is part of the excavation team.
Experts said they hope the discovery will shed light on the origins of ancient civilizations of Latin America.
"It can be regarded as a structure built using organized labor," Taiken Kato, professor of cultural anthropology at Saitama University, said. "If the excavation could confirm urban developments in a wide range of coastal areas in Peru, it would contribute to unraveling the formation of the Andes civilization."
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