Andean and Chavin Civilizations

The Andean civilizations were complicated societies of numerous cultures and peoples mainly developed in the river valleys of the coastal deserts of Peru. They extended from the Andes of southern Colombia southward down the Andes to Chile and northwest Argentina. 

Archaeologists presume that Andean civilizations primarily developed on the narrow coastal plain of the Pacific Ocean. The Caral or Norte Chico civilization of Peru is the ancient known civilization in the Americas, dating back to 3200 BCE.

The Chavín culture is an extinct, pre-Columbian civilization, named for Chavín de Huántar, the principal archaeological site at which its artifacts have been found. The culture developed in the northern Andean highlands of Peru from 900 BCE to 200 BCE. It stretched its influence to other civilizations along the coast.

This page discusses the Andean and Chavin civilizations article, which covers the Caral Norte Chico civilization and in detail about the Andean Civilization Timeline.

Chavin Culture - Ancient South American Culture

The Chavín people (whose name for themselves is still not known) were located in the Mosna Valley where the Mosna and Huachecsa rivers merge. This area is 3,150 metres (10,330 ft) above sea level and encompasses the Quechua, suni, and puna life zones.

Stages of Development: Andean and Chavin Civilizations

Urabarriu lasted from 900-500 BCE, and only a few hundred people lived at Chavín de Huantar. Ceramics were prompted by different cultures, and the humans grew a few maize and potatoes. Chakinani, from 500-400 BCE, was a transitional time, while residents migrated to the ceremonial center. From 400-250 BCE, Jarabarriu noticed an exponential boom in population, with an urban/suburban sample of settlement.

Society

Chavín had a small, effective elite that was legitimized via a claim to divine authority. These shamans have been capable of manage and impacting residents (probable in part via the use of psychotropic drugs), and were capin a position to devise and perform the production of temples and stone-walled galleries.

Architecture

The chief example of Chavín architecture is the Chavín de Huántar temple. The temple’s layout indicates complicated innovation to evolve to the highland surroundings of Peru. To prevent flooding and the demolition of the temple during the rainy season, the Chavín people created a successful drainage system with canals under the temple structure; the rushing water in the course of the rainy season feels like one of the Chavín’s sacred animals, the jaguar.

Economic Activity

The Chavín people confirmed superior expertise in acoustics, metallurgy, soldering, and temperature manage to house the wet season. The Chavín were additionally skilled in growing subtle goldwork and used early techniques of melting metal and soldering.

The Chavín people domesticated camelids, consisting of llamas, which were used as percent animals, and for fiber and meat. The Chavin produced ch’arki, or llama jerky, which was usually traded by camelid herders and was the main monetary useful resource for the Chavín people. They additionally successfully cultivated numerous crops, such as potatoes, quinoa, and maize. They evolved an irrigation system to help the growth of these crops.

Art

Chavín artwork represents the primary widespread, recognizable artistic fashion in the Andes, and may be divided into phases: the primary phase corresponds to the development of the “Old Temple” at Chavín de Huántar (c. 900-500 BCE); the second one phase corresponds to the development of Chavín de Huántar’s “New Temple” (500-200 BCE). 

The Old Temple featured the Lanzón, which was housed in an important cruciform chamber in a labyrinth of underground passages. The Lanzón works as an axis Mundi, or a pivoting factor linking the heavens, earth, and underworld.

Chavín artwork adorned the walls of the temple and consists of carvings, sculptures, and pottery. Artists depicted exotic creatures found in different regions, consisting of jaguars and eagles, instead of local plants and animals. The tomcat figure is one of the most vital motifs seen in Chavín's artwork. 

It has a vital religious meaning and is repeated on many carvings and sculptures. Eagles also are commonly visible throughout Chavín's artwork. It was deliberately hard to interpret and understand as it was supposed to be examined by the excessive priests alone.

The Tello Obelisk is a large sculpted shaft adorned with pictures of plants, animals, such as caymans and birds, and humans, which can be portraying an advent myth. Tenon heads are massive stone carvings of fanged jaguar heads, found on the tops of indoor walls in Chavín de Huantar.

Influence

Chavín had a wide-ranging influence, with its artwork and architecture styles spreading for miles around. There is little proof of war in Chavín relics; instead, residents were probably managed by an aggregate of religious pressure and environmental conditions.

Andean Civilization Timeline

• 3000 BCE

The llama and the alpaca, two South American members of the camel family, are domesticated.

Complex societies, with sophisticated temple architecture, develop at sites such as Aspero and Caral in the Norte Chico region of Peru.

• 2500 BCE

At Huaca Prieta, the earliest known farming community in South America, squash, gourds, and chili are cultivated.

• 2000 BCE

Medicine men in Peru practise trephination, cutting holes in the skulls of brave or foolhardy patients.

• 900 BCE

Chávin de Huántar becomes the centre of the first civilization of south America.

• 300 BCE - CE 100

The people of Paracas, a coastal region of central Peru, create extremely sophisticated fabrics of woven cotton or vicuña wool

• 200 BCE

The earth drawings of the Nazca people, known now as the Nazca Lines, are some of the largest works of art ever created.

The Mochica develop a civilization, in the north of modern Peru, known for its realistic pottery sculpture.

• 200

The potato is cultivated in the Peruvian Andes.

• 700

The quipu is used in the Wari culture and becomes the standard recording device of the Andean civilizations.

• 800

Batán Grande, in northern Peru, becomes a great pilgrimage centre in the Sican culture.

• 900

Chan Chan, today the largest of the ruined Andean cities, dominates the entire length of Peru.

• 1000

The Inca ethnic group migrates into the region of the Cuzco valley in Peru.

• 1438

After a decisive victory over the Chanca people, a young Inca prince seizes the throne in Peru and takes the name Pachacuti.

• 1440

Cuzco, the city of the Incas, grows rapidly in power after Pachacuti ('transformer of the earth') becomes emperor.

• 1450

The massive architecture of the Incas, consisting of finely dressed irregular blocks of stone, becomes a feature of Cuzco.

The most sacred of the Inca divinities, Punchao, is symbolized by a great golden disc representing the sun.

• 1463

The Chimu empire in Peru is conquered by the Incas under the leadership of Pachacuti's son Topa.

• 1471

Topa succeeds his father, Pachacuti, as emperor of the Incas.

• 1487

The Inca empire is extended to the north, and a second capital is established at Quito.

• 1493

On Topa's death, his son Huayna Capac succeeds to the throne as Inca emperor.

• 1500

Even the remote city of Machu Picchu, on its peak above the jungle, is built in the massively precise Inca style of masonry.

The female mamakuna and the male yanakuna are selected in childhood to serve the Inca state.

The Inca empire has about 25,000 miles of well-serviced roads, designed for caravans of llamas.

In Cuzco's great temple, the sacrifices are usually of llamas, occasionally of humans.

• 1525

The Inca emperor, Huayna Capac, dies in an epidemic of a western disease, smallpox.

Ruling respectively from Cuzco and Quito, Huáscar and Atahualpa compete for the empire of their father, Huayna Capac.

• 1530

Francisco Pizarro sails from Panama to attempt the conquest of Peru.

Atahualpa defeats and kills his half-brother Huáscar, thus winning control of the entire Inca empire.

• 1531

Francisco Pizarro leads 168 men, with about 30 horses, into the territory of the Inca empire.

• 1532

Pizarro and his tiny force ambush and massacre the Inca court in Cajamarca, capturing Atahualpa himself alive.

Atahualpa agrees to buy his freedom from the Spaniards with a room full of gold and another of silver.

• 1533

Although the ransom has been paid, Atahualpa is executed by the Spaniards - who ensure that he dies a Christian.

The Spanish conquistadors capture and sack the Inca capital of Cuzco, high in the Andes.

• 1536

Manco Inca begins a siege of the Spaniards in Cuzco that lasts for a year.

• 1537

With the end of the siege of Cuzco, and the flight of Manco Inca, the Spanish have full control of Peru.

• Mochica and Nazca: 200 BC - AD 600

After the decline of Chavín de Huántar, the Andean area develops numerous greater localised cultures. Of these, the two most or one of a kind is the Mochica in the north and the Nazca to the south.

The Mochica, focused upon Moche at the coast in northern Peru, is recognised specifically for brilliantly practical pottery sculpture - normally depictions of human heads (in all likelihood even portraits), functioning as jugs with stirrup-formed spouts rising from the top. The Mochica also are bold builders. The so-referred to as Temple of the Sun at Moche is a stepped pyramid with a top of 41 metres. It is built absolutely of unfired bricks, dried in the sun.

Contemporary with the Mochica, however inhabiting a barren region vicinity alongside the southern coast of Peru, are the Nazca. They are referred to for his or her brightly colored pottery and for classy textiles, with shiny embroidery.

The maximum high-quality thing in their way of life is so-referred to as Nazca Lines. These are drawings done on a huge scale at the coastal plain. Sometimes merely geometrical, every so often formal variations of chook or animal shapes, the photographs are completed via way of means of casting off the brown floor of the apparent to expose lighter soil beneath. The motive of those large drawings (excellent considered in a manner the Nazca in no way noticed them, from the air) stays unknown.

Did You Know?

• The renowned archaeological site for the Chavín culture is Chavín de Huántar is located in the Andean highlands of the contemporary-day Ancash Region. 

Also, it is assumed to have been constructed around 900 BCE and was the religious and political core of the Chavín people. Also, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Below you can see the image of the same:

(Image will be uploaded soon) (Image will be uploaded soon)

The Chavín way of life eventually spreads via a great deal of the Andean vicinity. This stone sculpture has notable beasts, of which serpents, birds, and jaguars regularly offer the factor details.

The major Chavín ceremonial site, the amazing Chavín de Huántar, is set 10,000 toes above sea stage in Peru's Cordillera Blanca. Its temple architecture, all started in approximately 900 BC is characterised by massive raised platforms. They are shaped from huge blocks of dressed stone, withinside the starting of a protracted Peruvian tradition.

• The Caral Civilization (additionally Caral-Supe civilization, or Caral Norte Chico civilization) was a complicated pre-Columbian-era society that included as many as thirty major population facilities in what is now the Caral region of north-central coastal Peru.

Below is the image of Norte chico civilization:

(Image will be uploaded soon)

Key Points on Andean and Chavin Civilizations Timeline

Below are the key takeaways on  Andean And Chavin Civilizations:

• The Chavín civilization evolved in the northern Andean highlands of Peru between 900-250 BCE.

•  There were 3 ranges of development: Urabarriu (900-500 BCE), Chakinani (500-400 BCE), and Jarabarriu (400-250 BCE).

• Chavín had a small, effective elite that was legitimized via a declare of divine authority.

• The leader instance of Chavín architecture is the Chavín de Huántar temple, the layout of which shows a complicated and innovative variation to the highland environment of Peru.

• The Chavín people confirmed superior know-how of acoustics, metallurgy, soldering, and temperature control. One of their principal economic resources was ch’arki, or llama jerky.

• Chavín artwork represents the first widespread, recognizable artistic fashion in the Andes, and may be divided into phases: the primary phase corresponds to the development of the “Old Temple” at Chavín de Huántar (c. 900-500 BCE); the second segment corresponds to the construction of Chavín de Huántar’s “New Temple” (c. 500-200 BCE).

• Significant portions of art encompass the Lanzón, Tello Obelisk, and tenon heads.