In pre-Colonial times, the upper Marañon river was an important route that connected different cultures inhabiting the eastern Andes and upper Amazon regions. This was particularly true during the second millennium BCE, a time that saw the emergence of complex societies over a broad swath of the Central Andes. To this end, our presentation describes a recently discovered monolith from the Chingas region of eastern Ancash. Visual analysis and regional comparison of the of the sculpture indicates that many of the images represented were widespread in the coastal, highland, and tropical forest regions of Peru during the late third and second millennium BCE. We conclude the presentation with a discussion of the Chingas Monolith and its importance for understanding long-distance connections prior to the emergence of the “Chavín Phenomenon” (c. 1000-500 BCE).
Lunch Talks invite guest speakers to host seminars at MARI on a wide variety of topics related to the archaeology, history, and ethnography of Mesoamerica and other world areas.
