Chavin+People

Chavin People

The Chavin civilization developed in Northern Andean from 900 BC - 200 BC. Chavin reached its height around 500 BC. Chavin’s lived in the Mosna Valley which was in the west central part of Peru. The name was given to this early civilization from the great city Chavin de Huantar. Chavin de Huantar is approximately 160 miles North of the modern day Lima, Peru.

Main activities in the Chavin culture included hunting, fishing, and agriculture. They created methods of irrigation and used this to help them farm areas around rivers, and lagoons. Chavin culture represented the first widespread artistic style in Peru. They built huge temples and tombs. They carved faces of their gods on the walls of rocks. Chavin people were skilled at metal, stone, tile, ceramics, text- tile, bead making, pottery, dyeing methods. Traders carried these goods along with the farmers produce throughout the region. Eventually the traders became resourceful and began using llamas as pack animals to carry the goods up and down the mountain trails.