Discovery of the Chavín culture in Perú

In 1919, while exploring the basin of the Mariash or Pukcha River, one of the upper Amazon affluents, I found in Chavin de Huantar evidence of a culture that, up to then, had not been given due recognition. I proved that certain buildings and other products of aboriginal art found there belonged to a quite distinctive cycle of culture—that of the Chavin stone culture. Monolithic figures of serpents and felines, representing human heads, and stelae, obelisks, sundry utensils, and other objects decorated with incised or carved figures in plane, high or low relief, representing grotesque felines, serpents, fish, lizards and birds are the main features of this culture, whose area of diffusion had then been reconnoitered only in the provinces of Huari and Pomabama. Subsequently to 1919, I recognized in collections of Peruvian antiquities, in Peru and abroad, a few examples of pottery and gold-work decorated with Chavin motifs; such as a jug in the Elias y Elias collection made at Moropón in the Piura Valley; another in the Ramón Muñoz collection from Cajamarquilla, Department of Ancash; a gold plate in the Dalmau collection at Trujillo; two jugs in that of Lizandro Velez López at Trujillo; a jar in the Máximo Neira Collection in the same city; a jug in the Antonio Raymondi Collection, now in the San Carlos University Museum; a picture of a jug published in the well- known works of Charles Wiener, Arthur Baessler and Max Schmidt; a broken jug found by Max Uhle in one of the graves opened by him in front of the Huaca of the Moon in Moche; and various specimens, for the most part published by me, in the Trujullo Collection of the brothers Victor and Rafael Larco Herrera. I also recognized clear evidence of Chavin art in various gold pieces discovered by the Galloso brothers at Chongoyape, and in a specimen of the Strombus conch recovered by Abraham Pickman during work near the Chiclayo air base.

• Hlavní autor: Tello, Julio (author)
• Médium: book
• Jazyk: eng
• Vydáno: 1941
• Témata: CULTURA CHAVÍN; PERÚ; ÍNCAS DE TAWANTINSUYO
• On-line přístup: http://www.dspace.uce.edu.ec/handle/25000/18119