Posted on 09/04/2005 10:44:47 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
LIMA, Peru (AP) - An American explorer says an ancient metropolis discovered by his father in Peru's cloud forest six years ago has been plundered by tomb robbers.
Sean Savoy, 32, who recently led an expedition to the Gran Saposoa ruins, said he was stunned to find a sculptured stone head had been ripped from a stone wall and tombs destroyed since he was there a year ago.
"We encountered a site, previously unknown to us, but obviously to others, where over 50 cliffside tombs were destroyed. Not just sacked and looted, the tombs themselves destroyed. Torn apart with picks and axes," he said in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press.
Savoy, the son of famed 78-year-old explorer Gene Savoy, described the ruins as a massive metropolitan complex spread along a river valley on the eastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes. He urged Peru's government to take steps to protect the city.
"It is time for the government to take note," he said. "Something has to be done. These places are in danger of destruction."
His 23-day expedition to the site, 335 miles (540 kilometers) north of Lima, included government archaeologists, architects, a stonemason, an expert on Andean art, armed police and 30 muleteers.
Savoy said the city is much bigger than his father had calculated, estimating the metropolitan area covers more than 80 square miles (200 square kilometers) and dates to the 7th century. He believes the valley was once home to at least 20,000 people, double the previous estimate.
The elder Savoy discovered the site in 1999, naming it Gran Saposoa, and concluded it was one of the cities of the Chachapoyas kingdom.
Sixteenth-century Spanish chronicles tell of a network of seven Chachapoyas cities strung like a necklace along the high jungle of northern Peru. Savoy described the Chachapoyas as tall, fierce warriors who were defeated in the late 15th century by Inca ruler Tupac Yupanqui just decades before the Spanish conquest of Peru.
The recent expedition marked the fifth time the site has been explored since the Savoys discovered it by tracking over a wind-swept, 14,500-foot-high (4,350-meter-high) Andean pass and hacking their way down into the overgrown jungle valley.
The latest expedition discovered a sixth citadel, located at 12,000 feet (3,600 meters) with a 64-foot wide (20-meter wide) avenue. Savoy said the six interconnected districts discovered during the five expeditions contain hundreds of circular stone buildings.
"I had no idea of the scale of the ruins. The scale was humongous, mind-boggling," said Patrick Manning, an Irish architect who took part in the expedition. "There are hundreds of buildings. There is years of work to be done."
He said he understands how hard it is for an impoverished nation like Peru to protect its many pre-Columbian ruins.
"The big problem is the lack of funding," Manning said.
The Savoys live most of the year in Reno, Nevada, where Gene Savoy directs the Andean Explorers Foundation. Since his last trip to Gran Saposoa in 2001, the elder Savoy has dedicated his time to writing a book about his last 15 years of exploration, his son said. He has already authored three books on his expeditions.
The elder Savoy is credited with finding more than 40 lost cities in Peru since the 1960s, including three of the country's most important ruins: Vilcabamba, the last refuge of the Incas; Gran Pajaten, a citadel city atop a jungle-shrouded peak; and Gran Vilaya, a complex of more than 20,000 stone buildings.
Much of his work has focused on the Chachapoyas, whose empire extended along a 135-mile (220-kilometer) stretch of the Andes' fogbound eastern slopes that Peruvians call the "eyebrow of the jungle." He has found six of the seven fabled Chachapoyas cities.
"The exploration must continue. My father will be back," the younger Savoy said. "We have to find the last city."
AP-ES-09-04-05 2313EDT
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Thanks for the interesting articles over the past few days. They've been a welcome respite from current events.
And, we've managed to hit all but one of the continents.
It's amazing that they built those tombs and pyramids without the use of registered engineers and AutoCad.
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