No other center in Peru dating to the second millennium BC has as many impressive stone carvings as Chavin de Huantar. The art style of the stone sculptures, like the architecture, was created to communicate the power of the esoteric knowledge embodied by the temple and its priests. The supernaturals represented draw upon the features of powerful and dangerous carnivores such as the jaguar, anaconda, harpy eagle and cayman, frequently combining these features to produce monstrous hybrids unknown in the natural world. Moreover, the natural habitats of these creatures were the forested eastern slopes and
Figure 35.8. Roll-out drawing of the Lanzon, a stone sculpture depicting Chavin de Huantar’s supreme deity. (Richard Burger)
Tropical lowlands far to the east, a world radically different from the intermontane valley environment in which Chavin de Huantar is situated.
The mysterious quality of these images is further enhanced by an artistic style that is replete with what Tello (1960) referred to as metaphorical substitutions or what Rowe (1962) called “kennings.” Feathers on a harpy eagle are shown as snakes and its ankles are shown as fanged jawless profile heads. These substitutions produce a density of imagery that is difficult to interpret for the uninitiated and some representations become even more challenging to read because of additional elements added so that the images can also be read upside down or rotated by 90 degrees. The iconography is thus inherently resistant to the novice viewer and their comprehension would have required specialized knowledge, perhaps conveyed during the rituals and religious training. Many of these conventions resonate with the sensibilities produced by psychotropic substances; based on ethnographic and experimental data, it is known that these facilitate the discovery of layers of previous unseen realities and produce out-of-body experiences that would have permitted sculptures to be viewed from any perspective.
The religious system underlying the ceremonial architecture remains poorly understood but the representations of their precepts, deities and myths in carved stones has provided some sense of its basic elements (Burger 1992; Campana 1995; Rowe 1962). An anthropomorphic deity usually shown with large fangs, long hair and elaborate ear ornaments was the principal supernatural and the focus of highest worship (Figure 35.8). This supreme deity may have been associated with the forces that control the weather, such as Illapa in later times, or with creation itself, such as Wirakocha in Inca times, but this cannot be demonstrated. This deity was charged with maintaining the harmony through the balancing of opposing forces. There were also other supernaturals associated with the celestial sphere, often with the features of harpy eagles or hawks, sometimes shown as the guardians or assistants of the principal deity. Worship also involved the supernatural forces present in the world inhabited by humans and animals; these were often depicted as jaguars. The forces associated with the underworld, and the water that circulated through it, were represented on the sculptures by fanged anaconda-like serpents or cat-snakes. Finally, there are representations of imaginary creatures such as a monstrous flying cayman that was apparently worshipped as the mythical source of food.
The forces at work in Chavin cosmology were conceptualized as being organized along dual principles in which dyads were seen as both opposing and complementing each other. This pervasive concern with duality was expressed both in the sculpture and the architecture. A good example of the former can be found on the depiction of the supreme deity in which it holds a male symbol, the Strombus shell in its right hand and a female symbol, the Spondylus shell in its left hand (see, e. g., Burger 1992: frontispiece). To underline the pervasiveness of dualism, this principle was made explicit in some of the architectural elements of the temple area. A fine example of the latter is the use of soft black limestone on the north and hard white granite on the south for the lintel, fagade and steps of the so-called New Temple (see, e. g., Burger 1992: fig. 173).
World History
