Chanquillo

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Chankillo
Chankillo
ThirteenTowersOfChanquilloFromFortress.JPG
Thirteen Towers of Chankillo, viewed from the fortress
Peru physical map.svg
Archaeological site icon (red).svg
Shown within Peru
Alternative nameChanquillo
Location Ancash Region, Peru
Coordinates 09°33′24″S78°14′09″W / 9.55667°S 78.23583°W / -9.55667; -78.23583
TypeFortified sanctuary
Part of Casma/Sechin culture
Area4 km2 (1.5 sq mi)
History
Founded250 BC
Site notes
ArchaeologistsIvan Ghezzi
OwnershipMinistry of Culture of Peru
ManagementUnidad Ejecutora Chankillo
Official nameChankillo Archaeoastronomical Complex
CriteriaCultural: (i)(iv)
Designated2021 (44th session)
Reference no. 1624

Chankillo [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] or Chanquillo [3] [6] [7] [8] is an ancient monumental complex in the Peruvian coastal desert, found in the Casma-Sechin basin in the Ancash Department of Peru. The ruins include the hilltop Chankillo fort, the nearby Thirteen Towers solar observatory, and residential and gathering areas. The Thirteen Towers have been interpreted as an astronomical observatory built in the third century BC. [6] [9] The culture that produced Chankillo is called the Casma/Sechin culture or the Sechin Complex.[ citation needed ] The site was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in July 2021. [10]

Contents

The site covers about four square kilometres (1.5 square miles) and has been interpreted as a fortified temple. [7]

The Thirteen Towers solar observatory

The regularly-spaced thirteen towers of Chankillo were constructed atop the ridge of a low hill running near north to south, forming a "toothed" horizon with narrow gaps at regular intervals. To the east and west investigators designated two possible observation points. From these vantages, the 300m long spread of the towers along the horizon corresponds very closely to the rising and setting positions of the sun over the year, [9] albeit they are not all visible. On the winter solstice, the sun would rise behind the leftmost tower of Chankillo and rise behind each of the towers until it reached the rightmost tower six months later on the summer solstice, marking the passage of time. [11] The Thirteen Towers of Chankillo could be the earliest known observatory in the Americas. Inhabitants of Chankillo would have been able to determine an accurate date, with an error of a day or two, by observing the sunrise or sunset from the correct tower. [12] A contemporary site in Chincha Valley, Peru, of the late Paracas culture, which also marked the solstice, has recently been examined. [13]

The towers had been known to travellers for 200 years but were not determined to be an astronomical site until 2007 by Iván Ghezzi and Clive Ruggles. [14]

Chanquillo Fortaleza (remains).jpg
Panorama of Chanquillo

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casma–Sechin culture</span>

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References

  1. Peru 1:100 000, La Caleta Culebras (20-g). IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional - Perú).
  2. Jenkins, Dilwyn (2003). The Rough Guide to Peru. Rough Guides. p. 295. ISBN   9781843530749.
  3. 1 2 Pozorski, Shelia; Pozorski, Thomas; Pozorski, Thomas George (2006). Early Settlement and Subsistence in the Casma Valley, Peru. University of Iowa Press. p. 95. ISBN   9781587294624.
  4. Gerster, Georg (2005). The Past from Above: Aerial Photographs of Archaeological Sites. Getty Publications. pp.  197. ISBN   9780892368754.
  5. "SITIO ARQUEOLOGICO CHANQUILLO" (in Spanish). MINCETUR. Retrieved 2017-06-01.
  6. 1 2 Ghezzi, Ivan; Ruggles, Clive (2007). "Chankillo: A 2300-Year-Old Solar Observatory in Coastal Peru". Science. 315 (5816): 1239–1243. Bibcode:2007Sci...315.1239G. doi:10.1126/science.1136415. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   17332405.
  7. 1 2 Ghezzi, Ivan (2006). "Religious Warfare at Chankillo". In Isbell, William H.; Silverman, Helaine (eds.). Andean Archaeology III . Springer US. pp.  67–84. doi:10.1007/0-387-28940-2_4. ISBN   9780387289397.
  8. DK (2010-06-21). Space: A Visual Encyclopedia. Penguin. p. 209. ISBN   9780756666286.
  9. 1 2 BBC/Open University documentary, Broadcast March 2011, Downloadable demonstration of Towers at sunrise.
  10. Collyns, Dan (28 July 2021). "'No parallels': 2,300-year-old solar observatory awarded UNESCO World Heritage status". The Guardian. London, United Kingdom. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  11. "Archaeoastronomy".
  12. "Chankillo".
  13. Stanish, C.; Tantaleán, H.; Nigra, B. T. & Griffin, L. (2014). "A 2,300-year-old architectural and astronomical complex in the Chincha Valley, Peru". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 111 (20): 7218–23. doi:10.1073/pnas.1406501111. JSTOR   23774157. PMC   4034249 . PMID   24799703. S2CID   21842863.
  14. Atwood, Roger. " "Solar Observatory at Chankillo, Peru." Archaeology. Volume 61 Number 1, January/February 2008. https://www.archaeology.org/0801/topten/solar_observatory.html.