The archaeological site of Chavin gave its name to the culture that developed between the 15th and 5th BC in this High Valley of the Peruvian Andes, in the Province of Huari, Department of Ancash, 250km North of Lima, Peru.
At 3,150m/10,330ft in elevation, the religious centre sits between the Eastern (Snowless or Black) and Western (Snowy or White) ranges (Cordilleras) of the Andes, near to the site are the 2 of the few Mountain Passes that allow passage between the desert coast to the West and the Amazon Jungle to the East. It is also located nearby the confluence of the Huachesca and Mosna Rivers, a natural phenomenon of two joining one that symbolically was seen as a spiritual and powerful phenomenon.
Chavin was a ceremonial and pilgrimage centre for the Andean religious World and hosted people from different latitudes, distances and languages, becoming an important centre of religious, ideological, and cultural convergence and dissemination around a central worship that spread over a wide territory of the Andes, as far as North, Central, and South coasts, the Northern Highlands, and High Jungle of Peru.
Chavin is one of the earliest and best known pre-Inca sites and represents the more important expression of the arts, decorative, and construction techniques of its time.
The visual legacy of the ceremonial and cultural nature is evident in its architectural, technological, and symbolic creation, which is characterized by coated quarried stone buildings and artificial terraces around plazas, in which an internal gallery system with an intricate network of vents and drains is designed to function without windows to the outside world.
The Temple complex that stands today comprise 2 building phases: -the U-shaped Old Temple, and the New Temple, which expanded the Old Temple and added a rectangular sunken court. Walls and Floors are composed of roughly-shaped stones in many sizes. Finer smoothed stone was used for carved elements. From its first construction, the interior of the Temple was riddle with a multitude of tunnels. While some of the maze-like tunnels are connected with each other, others are completely separated. All the tunnels existed and functioned in complete darkness -there are no windows in them, although many smaller tunnels that allow air pass through the structure functions as vents. The acoustics of these structures are extremely high that may have projected sounds form inside the Temple to the outside world. The location of Chavin seems to have helped make it a special place. The decoration of buildings and plazas used anthropomorphic and zoo-morphic symbolic iconography of extraordinary aesthetic synthesis, carved in bas-relief on tomstones, columns, beams, and monolithic stone sculptures.
The Chavin Spear (Lanzon), the Stela, the Obelisk, the Faconidae Gate (Portico), the Circular Plaza, and the Tenon Heads, among others, are evidence of the outstanding and monumental Chavin art and make the archaeological site a unique monument of universal significance.
The deity for whom the Temple was constructed was represented in the Chavin Spear (Lanzon), a notched wedge-shaped stone over 15 ft tall, carved with the image of a supernatural being, and located deep within the Old Temple, intersecting several tunnels. The name Great Spear is en reference to the stone's shaped figure, that would be the representation of the digging stick used in traditional Highland agriculture. The shape indicated that the deity's power was ensuring successful planting and harvest.
The supernatural being carved in the Spear depicts a standing figure with a very large round eyes looking upward. Its mouth is also large, with bared teeth and protruding fangs. The left hand of the figure rests pointing down, while the right hand is raised upward, encompassing the Heavens and the Earth. Both hands have long, talon-like fingernails. A carved channel runs from the top of the Spear to the figure's forehead.
Two key elements characterize the deity: it is a mixture of human and animal features, and the symbolic representation favors a complex and visually outstanding style that may create a sort of confusion to the ones not familiar with the Andean religion beliefs. The fangs and talons indicate associations with the Jaguar and the Caiman, representing the power invested in them that comes from the jungle lowlands and they are seen elsewhere in Chavin art and in Andean iconography. The eyebrows and hair of the figure have rendered as snakes, making them red as both bodily features and animals.
Further visual complexities emerge in the animal heads that decorate the bottom of the figure's tunic, where 2 heads share a single fanged mouth. This technique, where 2 images share parts or outlines, is called contour rivalry. Chavin art creates a dual and visually complex style that is deliberately confusing, creating a barrier between believers that can see its true form and those who cannot.
While the Spear itself was placed deep in the Temple, the same iconography and contour rivalry was used in Chavin art on the outside of the Temple and in portable wares that have been found throughout Peru.
The serpent motif seen in the Spear is also visible in a nose ornament. This kind of nose ornament, which pinches or passes through the septum, is a common form in the Andes. The 2 serpent heads flank right and left, with the same upward-looking eyes as the Spear. The swirling forms beneath them also evoke the sculpture's eye shape. An ornament like this have worn to show not only the power invested in the individual but allegiance to their beliefs.
Metallurgy in the New World first developed in South America before traveling North, and objects such as the nose ornaments that combine spiritual wealth and physical approach to it are among the earliest known examples. This particular piece was formed by hammering and cutting the gold.
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