User:France3470/draft article on Pambokancha

Pambokancha is an ancient Incan religious center located in Peru. It is 30 miles from Cuzco the historic capital of the Inca Empire. In 2004, Archaeologists found that the temple site had undergone significant closing ceremonies unusual because it suffered damage only at the hands of the Incas. Incan pilgrims smashed and burned their own temple, and a tower containing a golden statue of a king, rather than let them fall into the hands Spanish, says an Australian archaeologist Ian Farrington from Canberra's Australian National University. Farrington described the site as "the find of a century."

Though 'closing ceremonies have been observed before at other sites, Pambokancha was most extensive, with 70 to 80 buildings containing evidence of closing ceremonies. Farrington reported that The Incas took away items from the site before leaving the area, including some bodies from tombs.The archaeologists found pottery from all over the empire in a state of "remarkable preservation", said Farrington. The pottery was from as far north as Ecuador and as far south as Argentina. They also found lapis lazuli, gold and silver. The archaeologists also found carbonised organic remains, including whalebone and sharks' teeth, indicating they had been cooked.

The site had religious significance, and local villagers still use the hill behind it to celebrate the festival of Santa Barbara on Dec. 4, the same date used from Incan times.

"(The Incas) literally closed the placed down," said Farrington. "It's the find of a century." Incas systematically smashed pottery and burnt offerings as part of closing ceremonies held before they left the area ahead of the Spaniards' arrival.

He said it was strange to find the remains of Pacific marine animals at the site, which is high in the Andes mountains. "The Incas certainly didn't hunt [the whales]. They would have been stranded on the beach and salted and offered to the king."

The distribution and range of the objects indicated the place was a site of pilgrimage, Farrnington said, and may have been the site of a royal palace. Farrington said the architecture at the site included a 12-metre tower that documents said once housed a golden statue of the king.

"We suspect this statue was part of what the Incans took away to Cusco," said Farrington. "The treasure was eventually handed to the Spaniards."

Farrington said the architecture broke all the patterns they knew of.

"[There were] curved walls, and buildings built in step-fret style, with triangular shapes set at right angles," he said, adding that the unusual buildings were a sign of power and authority.

But he said they had yet to find ordinary houses.

"We'd like to find some domestic remains here; it seems strange there aren't any."