Mysterious Animal-Shaped Structures in Peru Are Oldest Known

[ellisonz]

Orcas hunted off the Peruvian coast 1,640 feet (500 meters) away until recently when industrial fishing removed their prey. This orca-shaped mound dated to approximately 5,000 years ago.
CREDIT: Google Earth Pro

Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 29 March 2012 Time: 04:11 PM ET

Manmade mounds shaped like orcas, condors and even a duck may be the oldest evidence of animal mounds outside of North America, according to former University of Missouri anthropologist.

Writing in the magazine Antiquity, Robert Benfer, a professor emeritus, describes a series of mounds, some more than 1,300 feet (400 meters) across, in coastal valleys in Peru. Archaeological evidence at the sites pegs some at more than 4,000 years old.

"It's going to shake everybody's views," Benfer told LiveScience. "The previous oldest animal figures were at Nazca and they're 2,000 years old."

The Nazca Lines are simple stone outlines of animals decorating the Nazca Desert in Peru. Like the newly discovered mounds, they may have had ritual significance. In addition, the shapes likely coincided with the constellations these ancient people saw in the Milky Way.

More: http://www.livescience.com/19372-animal-mounds-peru-nazca.html