Oyotún District is one of twenty districts of the province Chiclayo in Peru.[1]

Oyotún
Country Peru
RegionLambayeque
ProvinceChiclayo
FoundedNovember 23, 1925
CapitalOyotún
Government
 • MayorSegundo Manuel Aguinaga Perez
Area
 • Total455.4 km2 (175.8 sq mi)
Elevation
209 m (686 ft)
Population
 • Total10,302
 • Density23/km2 (59/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC-5 (PET)
UBIGEO140110

Archaeology edit

In November 2019, Peruvian archaeologists led by Walter Alva discovered a 3,000-year-old, 130 feet long megalithic 'water cult' temple with 21 tombs in the Zana Valley. Archaeologists assumed that the temple was abandoned around 250 BC and later used as a burial ground by the Chumy people. Twenty of the tombs belonged to the people of Chumy, and one to an adult male buried during the Formative period with a ceramic bottle with two spouts and a bridge handle. According to the excavations, as many as three construction phases took place in the temple: the first was between 1500 BC-800 BC, when people built the foundations of the building from cone-shaped clay; second, between 800 BC-400 BC, when the megalithic temple was built under the influence of the pre-Inca civilization known as the Chavin; and finally 400 BC-100 BC, when people added circular pillars used to hold the roof of the temple.[2]

References edit

  1. ^ (in Spanish) Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática. Banco de Información Distrital Archived 2008-04-23 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved April 11, 2008.
  2. ^ November 2019, Yasemin Saplakoglu-Staff Writer 20. "Archaeologists Discover 3,000-Year-Old Megalithic Temple Used by a 'Water Cult'". livescience.com. Retrieved 2020-09-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)


6°50′S 79°18′W / 6.833°S 79.300°W / -6.833; -79.300