Археологичид ЮНЕСКО-гийн Дэлхийн өвийн жагсаалтад бүртгэгдсэн Чан Чан цогцолбороос Чимо иргэншлийн язгууртны булшны хөндөгдөөгүй танхимыг олж илрүүллээ.
Перу улсын хойд хэсэгт орших Чан Чан хотын Утз Ан цогцолборт явуулсан малтлагаар найман футын гүн шатаар дамжин ордог, 600 орчим жилийн турш битүүмжлэгдсэн байсан булшны танхимыг олжээ. Энэхүү олдвор нь дээрэмчдийн гар хүрээгүй, агуулга нь бүрэн бүтэн хадгалагдсан анхны тохиолдол гэдгээрээ онцлог юм. Судлаачдын үзэж байгаагаар энэхүү байгууламж нь XV зууны үеийн Чимо иргэншлийн язгууртнуудад зориулагдсан байх магадлалтай байна.
Малтлагын явцад нийт 38 хүний шарил олдсон бөгөөд тэдгээрийн дунд гол булшны эзний гавлын яс гүн улаан өнгөтэй байв. Перугийн Соёлын яамны археологич Хенри Гайосо Руллиерийн тайлбарласнаар, энэхүү өнгө нь тухайн бүс нутагт өргөн ашиглагддаг байсан мөнгөн усны сульфид буюу синнабар пигмент бөгөөд шашны зан үйл болон нас барагсдын маскыг будахад ашигладаг байжээ. Олдворуудын дунд алт, зэс эдлэл, үнэт чулуун чимэглэл, нэхмэл эдлэл болон металл зэвсгүүд илэрсэн нь тухайн хүмүүс нийгмийн дээд давхаргад хамааралтай байсныг гэрчилж байна.
Чан Чан хот нь МЭ 900-аас 1400-аад оны сүүл хүртэл оршин тогтнож байсан Америк тивийн өмнөх үеийн хамгийн том шавар хот юм. Вандербилтийн их сургуулийн антропологич Ари Караманикагийн дүгнэлтээр, энэхүү булшны танхим нь амьд болон үхэгсдийн зан үйлийн төвлөрсөн цэг болж байсан язгууртны талаарх бүрэн дүр зургийг гаргаж өгч байна. Зарим шарилын яс дутуу байгаа нь тухайн үед нас барагсдын ясыг хадгалж, хүндэтгэх зан үйл байсныг илтгэж байгаа аж.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Archaeologists at Chan Chan, in northern Peru, have opened a funerary platform and its central chamber, which stayed sealed for roughly 600 years. Inside the Utzh An walled complex, they found human remains and grave goods that likely belonged to Chimú elites. Looters, who reached earlier elite burials at the site first, never got to this one.
Chan Chan has been excavated for more than a century, so you’d think there would be few surprises left. Yet the team behind this dig found something the looters missed: a gold-laden platform dating to the 15th century that probably held Chimú royalty.
The site is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the largest city of pre-Columbian America, ruled by successive Chimú kings. A find like this stands out even there, because it arrives with its contents largely unaltered.
A Chamber Looters Never Reached
Elite burials had been found at Chan Chan before, but looters always arrived first, particularly after the Inca conquest of the city. This platform is different. According to the BBC, lead archaeologist Jorge Meneses said it was the first time Peruvian archaeologists had come across an almost intact platform with unaltered contents, and that its main chamber had stayed sealed for almost 600 years.
“The first time that Peruvian archaeologists have been able to come across an almost intact [funerary] platform, with unaltered contents, a platform that was designed for an elite individual, whose main chamber has remained sealed for almost 600 years.”
The central chamber measures four feet wide and 16 feet tall, and you reach it by going down an eight-foot staircase. Meneses added that the discovery’s importance lies not only in that intact chamber but also in the exceptional information the funerary platform provides.
38 Ancient Burials Reveal a Mysterious Red Skull
The team recorded 38 sets of human remains across the funerary area. They were split nearly evenly between one of two rooms flanking the central tomb and the larger platform. The main tomb held a single individual, and that skull was stained a deep blood red. As reported by The Art Newspaper, Peruvian Ministry of Culture archaeologist Henry Gayoso Rullier said that:
“This pigment, likely mercury sulfide, known as cinnabar, is present across the Central Andes,”he said. “It was used in pottery, murals, on warriors’ bodies, in sacrifices, and on funerary masks covering the bodies and faces of the deceased.”
Some remains show signs of reburial, including missing bones. That was a common practice in the region, where the living often held onto and worshipped the bones of the deceased. The grave goods include gold, copper, jewelry, beads, colorful textiles, and metal weapons. As Gayoso Rullier put it:
“What is clear to us so far is that these people were part of the elite or were associated with the elite.”
The Ancient Tomb That Hid an Entire City
Chan Chan was a key city in northern Peru from around 900 C.E. to the late 1400s C.E. It reached its height in the 15th century, before it fell to the Incas. It is the largest adobe city in the pre-Columbian Americas, and it survived in one of the driest places on Earth by pulling water across the desert through a network of canals.
Each Chimú king is thought to have built his own walled palace compound, and many of those compounds contained funerary platforms like the one just excavated.
Vanderbilt University anthropologist Ari Caramanica said the discovery provides a nearly complete picture of “a context of intense meaning centered on an elite individual.” That person was the node of power around which choreographies of the living and the dead would have been directed.
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