there's several thumbnail photos of the mural(s) & ec
REUTERS
LIMA (Reuters) - A 4,000-year-old temple filled with murals has been unearthed on the northern coast of Peru, making it one of the oldest finds in the Americas, a leading archaeologist said on Saturday.
The temple, inside a larger ruin, includes a staircase that leads up to an altar used for fire worship at a site scientists have called Ventarron, said Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva, who led the dig.
Peru - The objectives of the current campaign of excavations at Sipàn
In a long interview exclusively for the Sunday Walter Alva explains what are the main objectives of his team. After seven years of paralysis, he said, in the first place we study the architecture of the platform where they were found the tombs so far discovered. Then we limited interventions in pyramids 1 and 2, which are the most important Sipán. Fortunately, something that has never happened in the past, today we can count on 35 workers and think of the excavations continue uninterrupted until December.
Ancient temple has the look of sophistication
The sophisticated design and colorful artwork found in a 4,000-year-old temple unearthed near Peru's northern desert coast suggests that early civilization there was more complex than originally thought, archaeologists said.
Ventarron, a 7,000-square-foot site -- a bit larger than a basketball court -- with painted walls and a white-and-red mural of a deer hunt, points to an "advanced civilization," said the lead archaeologist who excavated the site this month.