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Professor emeritus discovers animal-shaped mounds in Peru valleys

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ANCIENT ASTRONOMERS Robert Benfer, an MU professor emeritus of anthropology shown here last December in Peru, used Google Earth Pro from his Columbia home to discover mounds that resembled animals when viewed from the sky. His research suggests that astronomy was important to a culture that flourished 4,000 years ago. Photo courtesy of Robert Benfer

DIGGING UP THE PAST

Benfer’s discoveries suggest advanced culture 4,000 years ago in Peru

Robert Benfer, an MU professor emeritus of anthropology, has made important archaeological discoveries during his decades of field research in South America.

But his latest eureka moment came not in the hot dust of a remote Peruvian valley, but from the comfort of his Columbia home.

Benfer was perusing on Google Earth Pro the aerial geography of Peru’s Casma and Chillon valleys, which contain ruins of a sophisticated but mysterious culture that existed some 4,000 years ago. He zoomed in on mounds up to 1,300 feet long sprinkled with structures and relics made by an ancient people, often called Andeans.

From that vantage point, Benfer noticed that two mounds outlined shapes, something impossible to glean from the ground. “These are animal figures,” he remembers thinking. “There can’t be just two.”

Benfer has since identified eight giant effigy mounds and dozens of smaller ones that resemble whales, condors, snakes, birds and the mythical monstruo, a composite of long-clawed creatures. The effigy mounds are similar to Andean animal carvings and constellations in the South American zodiac. 

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