BRIEF HISTORY REVIEW
The Architectonical Complex:
Chavin was a great religious center, built more than 3,000 years ago, with the excesses produced by a peasant society that had succeeded in a agricultural revolution. One of the advantages obtain by this revolution was the improvement of housing, and it opened the way to the progress of Architecture, which produced great public buildings of essential religious meaning. For the construction of the domestic units they used simples materials and construction elements. Instead, the religious requirements and the technological development of masonry permitted the old Chavins, to realize monumental works of a impressive homogeneity and as a product of the collective will of the Man of the Andes.
The Chavin architecture is a creation based on the functional values of shapes, in which they develop a series of characteristic elements. The monumental aspect that until today it surprises the observer, was obtain thanks to the equilibrium of the shapes, and the enormous volume of the construction.
In the edification of the temples with structures and environment as complex as that of the Chavins, was necessary resistances and thrust, of volumes and material, it is difficult to conceive the execution, without the knowledge of a considerable group of mathematical principals. The Temple of the Lanzon and the Principal Temple of Chavin should have been planned previously on scale, and with precise measurements.
The specialized stone cutters carved very hard rocks (diorite and granite) with rudimentary instruments and transported giant blocks of rock from a far away quarry. Meanwhile the architects had to make the maps and the projections of a series of interior corridors, multiple suites and ventilation ducts placed in several levels, calculating the correct position of the beams and the branches of the interior spaces; to lay a complicated net of channels of underground drainage for the evacuation of the llamas and rodents sacrifices, with exact calculations of declivity for the sliding of the water and exact of the plunging system and siphon. To establish the symmetric distribution of the baseboard sculptures and the flight of stairs flanked by light wooden beams that sometimes, with sections divided in two, would give access to the boards, cornices, flying door frames and columns with sculpted figures; calculation of slopes; along with anticipating the future connections of the wall or enlargements, etc. All this architectural complexity was never possible for them to observe in one whole piece. Besides, the architects had to resolve mechanical problems and coordinate the enormous assistance of workers.
Another fact that stands out is the accuracy in the orientation and the volume in proportion of the buildings, factor that obey astronomical and geometric principals, that was probably attributed to a mystical significance.
The results obtain were surprising. We see for example, that to construct the Principal Temple, it was intended that its base which was added to the south branch of the Temple of the Lanzon, had to be a perfect square (70 mts. each side). According to the modern measurements, the error does not exceed more than 45 cms. in the southern part. The orientation of all the structural units are of North-South and of East-West with a deviation of 9 degrees with respect to the Magnetic North Pole.
The orientation center starts from a circular signal in the inferior part of the flight of stairs on the eastern part of the Square Plaza and it crosses with absolute precision, the central block of the Stairway of the Jaguars, the Atrio of the Lapidas of the Doorway of the Falcons and the eastern facade of the Principal Temple. This transversal axis covers a length of more than 200 mts. without the least deviation.
The execution of the Temple of Chavin required a gigantic employment of human energy, a vast quantity of work and a considerable consumption of the food surplus. In the Ruins of Chavin, great blocks of Diorite and Limestone were used on the construction of basements, beams and flight of stairs, with a weight aprox. of 20 to 30 tons. The Stairway of Alva or Middendorf, shows a parallelepiped rock of 7 meters of length and 0.60 cms. carved in one block of Limestone.
The structural principals of Chavin's architecture have certain variations with in itself. Each temple is determined in its proportion in a different way from the other but at the same time the proportionality is so well regulated, that at simple sight you can not see the difference.
The Principal Temple renounces all types of combinations. Only the harmonically sum of equalness; shows only one type of pillar or columns and beams. One force of thrust and resistance, and the same weight operates together. In the second enlargement of the Principal Temple, in a way, that uniformity is changed and a new element comes in with the innovation of a bracket and the dominion of the shapes of the rock in equalness of carvings.
The Doorway of the Falcons is a type of door formed by two columns. The columns is one of the most extraordinary elements in the Chavin architecture. Its a cylindrical body that radiates its force in all directions, its richly decorated with figures of divinities and regulated by homogeneous distances with respect of its neighbor. Its diameter proportionally permits it to have great stability. The height (2.15 mts.) and the diameter (0.50 cms.) is proportional to the dimensions of the spaces and the weight that it had to support. In the Doorway you can find a mixture of structural factors, mechanical and functional.
The Ceremonial Center of Chavin is a center of interior passages. The interior spaces: galleries, cells, alcoves, altars and other rooms destined to the practice of the religion are small, narrow and without direct light. In fact, the idol called El Lanzon, is located in a intersection of two narrow galleries, with a outlet to the exterior, by a passage and narrow halls. The proportion of the place indicates to us that its capacity was not accessible more than to, a reduced number of ministers (priests and acolytes) all related to the religion.
The Chavin architecture is very closely bond with the Lithic sculpture. the architectonical element and the sculpture are placed next to each other, making a nice art work. It has effects of the bilateral symmetries, the famous Stele engraved, developed in a horizontal rhythm.
The total configurations affected the pyramidal shape and it obeyed a master unit of design. The composition of the complex has the shape of a U, oriented towards the east, formed by 3 bodies, closed up by a court with an open spaces on the east part, a architectonical master shape adopted in the formative period of the Andes. With out lacking the caved in patios of circular or quadrangular shape.
The diversity of construction elements and empty spaces of the monuments testify to a great development; its enough to consider all of them to assure, that the 3,000 year old architecture of Chavin stands out in a place of honor in the history of art in this era.