A joint Peruvian-Japanese archaeological mission has discovered a 3,000-year-old ceremonial temple deep within the Marañón Basin of the Amazonian highlands. Designated the 'Temple of the Cacao Priest,' the structure contains multiple ritual chambers where archaeologists found ceramic vessels containing traces of fermented cacao, the earliest evidence of its ceremonial use in this region.
The temple features a unique sunken circular plaza with walls decorated in polychrome mud-plaster reliefs of stylized shamans and jaguars. Experts suggest this site was a key node for the trade of exotic tropical products between the Amazon and the Andean civilizations, marking a major breakthrough in our understanding of early socio-religious networks in South America.