Robots help find new underground galleries in Peru's Chavín de Huántar
The use of high technology in the form of small, all-terrain robots has made it possible to shed light on possible human sacrifices as many as 3,000 years old in the temple of Chavin de Huantar in Peru, the first major religious and pilgrimage center in South American history.
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Credit: Juan Ponce/El Comercio
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These robotic four-wheel-drive vehicles, guided by remote control and equipped with cameras and lighting systems, played a leading role in the first discovery of burials from the Chavin period, graves of the same men who built the temple and which are still intact after thousands of years.
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Credit: Juan Ponce/El Comercio
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The archaeologist was intrigued by the position of the bodies, buried face down under piles of rocks, which he considered "not very honorable" treatment for the departed.
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Credit: Juan Ponce/El Comercio
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The specialist is convinced he can find at least another three burial sites because he has located galleries similar to these, situated between the left side of the main temple and the round plaza of the complex, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985.
Up to now, some 36 underground tunnels and passageways have been identified that connect with one another, but the map of this labyrinth is incomplete and for the director of excavations there remain centuries of work in these ruins, where approximately every 300 years new passageways were constructed.
Source: EFE [August 21, 2018]
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