Comparative study of early ceremonial centers in the Central Andes

1寺庙是用于仪式活动的特殊公共建筑，在安第斯文明早期是社会互动的中心。2寺庙建造的开始至少早在形成时期之前的几百年，可能有必要修改形成时期的定义。3在先驱期结束时，仪式建筑有一些不同的传统。所谓的Kotosh宗教传统位于北部高地南部和中部沿海附近，圆形下沉式宫殿的寺庙在北部和中部沿海很受欢迎。4.早期沿海地区发展了大型仪式中心。它们分为梯田形、广场综合体和U形等类型。在北方高地，具有特色的寺庙具有三级砌块挡土墙的高平台。5根据C14年代测定的对比回顾，似乎在公元前700年左右出现了一些具有海岸和高原混合特征的仪式中心，如Pacopampa、昆图尔瓦西和Chavin de Huantar，而与此同时，那些大型的沿海中心几乎被遗弃了。要弄清这一现象的含义，还需要进一步的研究。

1 Temples, special public architecture for ceremonial activities, were the focus of social interaction during the early period of the Andean civilization.2 The beginning of temple construction was at least several hundreds years before the Formative period and it may be necessary to revise the definition of the Formative period.3 There were a few different traditions of ceremonial architecture at the end of the preceramic period. The so called Kotosh Religious Tradition was in the southern part of the north highland and near the central coast, and the temples with circular sunken court were popular in the north and central coast.4 Large scale ceremonial centers developped in the coast in the Early formative period. They are classified into some types such as the terraced, the plaza complex, and the U-shaped. In the northe highland, the characteristic temples have the high plataforms with three-stepped retaining walls of sone masonry.5 According to comaparative review of C14 dating, it seems that around 700B.C.there appeared a few ceremonial centers with mixed characteristics of the coast and highland such as Pacopampa, Kuntur Wasi and Chavin de Huantar, while, alomost at the same time, those large coastal center were abandoned. Further researches are necessary to clarify the meaning of this phenomenon.