LIMA, PERU — Carbon-dating tests and excavation of a colorful pre-Incan temple indicate that it was built thousands of years ago by an “advanced civilization,” a prominent archaeologist said in comments published Sunday by a Peruvian newspaper.
Unearthed in Peru’s northern coastal desert, the temple has a staircase leading to an altar that was used for worshiping fire and making offerings to deities, Walter Alva, who headed the three-month excavation, told El Comercio.
Some of the walls of the 27,000-square-foot site were painted, and a white-and-red mural depicts a deer being hunted with a net. Alva said the temple was constructed by an “advanced civilization” because it was built with mud bricks made from sediment found in local rivers, instead of rocks.
The carbon-dating tests, conducted in the U.S., indicate the site is 4,000 years old, he said.
