Ornate wooden sculpture found at Chan Chan in Peru

At a ceremonial center located close to Chan Chan, Trujillo in the northern part of Peru, an exquisitely well-preserved piece of Peruvian Chimu culture sculpture in the form of an unusual wooden figure has been discovered. 

Ornate wooden sculpture found at Chan Chan in PeruCredit: Decentralized Directorate of Culture of La Libertad / Peruvian government .

The well-preserved wooden sculpture has a form and art style that are characteristic of the early Chimu culture period. This was a prosperous pre-Hispanic civilization that had a capital city named Chan Chan. The sculpture’s age has been estimated to be between 850 and 1500 years old.

Chan Chan got its name from the Quingnam word Jiang or Chang, which means “sun.” Before it was conquered and incorporated into the Inca Empire in 1470 CE, Chan Chan was the largest mud-brick city in the pre-Hispanic Americas.

Peru’s Ministry of Culture reported the find last Tuesday, as part of excavation work in the third stage of the “Recovery of the Huaca Takaynamo of the Chan Chan Archaeological Complex” project.

Huacas are natural artifacts or monuments, such as large rocks or even hills, that have been given significance and reverence by Peruvian peoples and may be found all over the country. 

The recently unearthed Chimu sculpture was 46 x 16 centimeters in size (18 x 6.2 inches). It is a human figure wearing a trapezoid-shaped headdress, most likely a ruler’s ceremonial bearer of ritual artifacts. According to reports, the statue is “ornate,” which seems a bit of a stretch. But all of this is relative to time and place.

César Gálvez Mora, director of the Chan Chan Archaeological Complex Special Project, said, “The find adds to substantial evidence confirming the ceremonial function of Chan Chan’s peripheral.”

Related Posts

Copper Age infant discovered in Italian well reveals rare genetic origins

Copper Age infant discovered in Italian well reveals rare genetic origins

Archaeologists in northeastern Italy have discovered a remarkable find in a well near Faenza, close to Ravenna: the highly degraded remains of an infant who lived 4,000…

Fisherman uncovers remarkably preserved medieval sword in Warsaw’s Vistula River

Fisherman uncovers remarkably preserved medieval sword in Warsaw’s Vistula River

In an unprecedented and rare find, a sword dating back to the medieval period was pulled out of the bottom of the Vistula River by a fisherman…

Ancient sloth bone from Uruguay shows signs of possible human-inflicted trauma 33,000 years ago

Ancient sloth bone from Uruguay shows signs of possible human-inflicted trauma 33,000 years ago

Researchers have discovered evidence of human interaction with megafauna considerably earlier than the widely accepted arrival of humans in South America. A 33,000-year-old right calcaneus (heel bone)…

Forgotten Indigenous child slaves of New France revealed in new studies

Forgotten Indigenous child slaves of New France revealed in new studies

Historical accounts between 1632 and 1760 show a chilling reality: 734 Indigenous children were enslaved in France’s North American colony. These children, torn from their families and…

Exceptionally preserved Roman wicker well with ladder unearthed in Norfolk

Exceptionally preserved Roman wicker well with ladder unearthed in Norfolk

Archaeologists at Oxford Archaeology have uncovered an astonishingly well-preserved Roman-era well in Norfolk, England, that offers rare insight into the lives of people in Roman Britain some…

Ancient Egyptian genome reveals 4,500-year-old genetic ties to Mesopotamia

Ancient Egyptian genome reveals 4,500-year-old genetic ties to Mesopotamia

For the first time, scientists have successfully sequenced the complete genome of an individual from ancient Egypt, offering unprecedented insights into early Egyptian ancestry and revealing a…