Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a temple dating back around 5,000 years in northwestern Peru, a Peruvian researcher announced Friday, saying the building was used to celebrate religious rituals.
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The discovery took place several weeks ago at the archaeological site of Los Paredones de la Otra Banda – Las Animas, near the town of Chiclayo. It was only announced on Friday in order to protect the place from treasure looters.
“It is possible that we are facing a 5,000-year-old religious enclosure,” researcher Luis Muro said in a video released by Peru’s Ministry of Culture. The “architectural space is delimited by walls” made of clay, he added.
Among what remains of the temple, archaeologists have identified friezes with anthropomorphic figures in high relief, including a human body with a bird’s head, representations of felines and even reptile claws.
The team of archaeologists also found the remains of what “would have been a central staircase through which one could climb onto a sort of platform in the central part” of the temple, Muro said.
The burial of a child of about five or six years old was also identified during this archaeological research, funded by the Catholic University of Peru and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
