The Chavin were an empire in the Andes which flourished from 900 BCE to 200 BCE – it was b

The Chavin were an empire in the Andes which flourished from 900 BCE to 200 BCE – it was building cities and conquering its neighbors more than two thousand years before the more famous Incan Empire set foot outside the Cuzco valley. They are rightly remembered today for their spiritual practices. You see, to get closer to their gods, or nature, they practiced human sacrifice and used hallucinogenic drugs. They also left behind underground tunnels which make animal noises when the wind rises. While we do not know much about the Chavin because they had no form of writing, what we have pieced together from the archaeological evidence is fascinating.For instance, the Chavin were the first widespread, recognizable artistic style in the Andes. They used metallurgy, and since objects with melted metal begin to appear around this point, it may have been the Chavin who discovered it. They also seem to have little military culture. Chavin cities lack defensive structures. vidence of warfare has been found only in contemporaneous sites that were not influenced by Chavín culture, almost as if those other civilizations were defending themselves via warfare from Chavín cultural influence. All these add up to an intriguing, but still mysterious picture of a dominant culture with vibrant art and religious practices which held sway over its region of the Andes for hundreds of years. “Of all of the ancient cultures I admire, that of Chavin amazes me the most. Actually, it has been the inspiration behind most of my art.” – Pablo Picasso.  -- source link

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