Researchers using ground-penetrating radar have identified a previously unknown ceremonial center in the Ancash region of the Peruvian Andes. Dating to the late Formative Period, the structure has been named the 'Temple of the Obsidian Moth' due to the discovery of a large central mural depicting a stylized winged insect with obsidian flakes embedded in its antennae. The murals, preserved by a deliberate ritual burial of the site with fine sand, retain their original red, yellow, and black pigments.
The temple features a sunken circular plaza and a series of subterranean galleries used for shamanic initiation rites. Artifacts recovered include bone flutes, Spondylus shell beads, and ceremonial stone mortars used for grinding hallucinogenic snuff. This find suggests that the pre-Chavin cultures of the highlands had a much more complex iconographic tradition involving nocturnal animals than previously assumed by Andean scholars.