By 3 News online staff
Huge mounds in the shapes of animals have been discovered in Peru.
Hidden in plain sight, the enormous structures are best viewed from the skies – like the infamous Nazca lines to the south – raising questions over just what the ancient Peruvians were trying to achieve.
There's a condor, an orca, a puma, a duck and even a "crouching monster" that shares a likeness with rock carvings found throughout Peru.
The study, published in the journal Antiquity, dates the structures to between 3500BCE and 5000BCE – around the same time as Egypt's pyramids. In contrast, the Nazca lines are only believed to have been drawn around 1500 years ago.
“The finding of animal effigy mounds where there were none before changes our conception of early Peruvian prehistory," says Dr Robert Benfer of the University of Missouri.
He says the structures may be earthly representations of constellations, as the mounds align with key stars and astronomical dates.
For example the condor’s charcoal eye lines up with the Milky Way when looked at from a nearby temple, and a mound the shape of a puma aligns with the June summer solstice when viewed from the same temple.
"Knowing that December 21 had passed was very important," says Dr Benfer. "If there was no sign of an El Niño by then, fishers would know they would have another good year, and farmers would face neither drought nor floods."
Dr Benfer discovered the formations when studying satellite images of archaeological sites. What had been misidentified as ancient irrigation canals turned out to be the enormous puma's teeth.
Debates over what the Nazca lines were for have raged for years, including suggestions they were used as calendars, irrigation canals or even messages to alien visitors. Most scholars however believe they had religious significance.
The discovery of ancient, enormous mounds that appear to have been deliberately shaped will only add to the mystery.
3 News
source: newshub archive
