Robots Exploring Ancient Temple Uncover Wild Artifact That Has Historians In Awe

“When we walk into the site to excavate, the feelings of awe and privilege and fascination are not purely of our own invention. We’re still getting the message from these priests 3,000 years ago." That's what Professor John Rick of Stanford University's Department of Archeology experienced researching the ruins of Chavín de Huántar in Peru, as he told the BBC in 2016. But after 25 years of studying the site, new technology showed Rick that he still had so much left to uncover.

Ruins and Rituals

Carved into the Andes mountains, Chavín de Huántar was home to elaborate spiritual rituals thousands of years ago. People traveled great distances to participate in religious ceremonies led by priests in structured environments both above and below ground, made even more spiritually powerful by its special location.

Working with the Elements

In 1500 BC, the cultural hub attracted spiritual pilgrims looking to witness its grandeur and almost mystical relationship to the elements. Located some 10,500 feet above sea level in a valley below two rivers, the spot sees a lot of flooding, which ancient architects and priests work with, instead of against.

Strategic Technologies

Professor Rick has worked to piece together the past of life in Chavín de Huántar. As of 2018, he and his team observed enough of the site to know it was built and operated strategically. “It pushed the innovation of advanced technology. They were using hydraulics, acoustics, mirrors, psychoactive drugs. They made water dance and sing by its motion through canals," he told the BBC.

Tough Spot

The sheer feat of construction is impressive. Passageways schematically carved out of the earth prove that ancient Chavin building methods were just as sophisticated as those of the modern day. But that complexity makes them even trickier to explore, let alone research. The archeological team had to figure out how to access the narrowest of tunnels.

The Robots

The team had to embrace the reality — no human being could fit through these tunnels. The next best way to navigate the tight passageways was with robots. Stanford’s School of Engineering came up with two different models: the snake-like Vinebot, created by Ph.D. scholar Magaret Coad, and the four-wheeled Chavin Rover, developed by students Daniel Chan and Jack Lane. 

Light in the Dark

They hoped the robots would shed light on parts of the tunnels shrouded in darkness for thousands of years, and given what they knew about the Chavin, they were guaranteed to find at least a few treasures. As far as concrete facts about ancient civilizations are concerned — with the Chauvin, experts got lucky.

Excellent Recordkeepers

Professor John Rick told the BBC in 2016, “What makes Chavin special is that the priesthood left an excellent record. This stage in society is generally not well recorded. Many of these formative periods are destroyed and rarely do we see them so well preserved. When Chavin fell as a cultural system, there wasn’t much damage. The underground spaces were effectively sealed up.” 

Blood Offerings

The site is separated into two Temples — one Old, one New — with both consisting of above-ground stone structures and below ground labyrinthine passageways. Statues of human-animal hybrid creatures decorate the landscape, though most prominent is the 15-foot tall deity Lanzón that stands in Old Temple. From what experts can tell, there's a groove in Lanzón's head meant to receive poured liquids, presumably blood offerings.

Deliberately Confusing

To stand at the feet of the towering Lanzón and watch blood run through its grooved features, while unidentifiable lights and sounds travel through the underground temple, would be one unforgettable sensory experience. That's exactly the intended point, archeologists say, as the Chavín designed features like skylights and other passages intended to confuse.

Cult-like Tactics

In addition to the more narrow and intimate ritual spaces, other areas of worship accommodated over 1,000 people. Professor Rick compares the practices of the Chavín to certain cult tactics. Journeys of pilgrims to the religious center were punctuated by music and hallucinogenic drugs.

Hallucinogenic Symptoms

“A number of the plants are taken as snuffs – it’s very irritating. We have representations of mucus flow, wide staring eyes, and other features like pain, which can be matched with drug users still using these drugs in the Amazon basin,” Rick explained. In fact, the Chavin culture had a very unique relationship with these substances.

Determining Drug State

Even more fascinatingly, researchers pinpointed the kind of drug states the Chavin people experienced. In the BBC interview, Rick said, “They were credibility drugs. They’re not the most extreme where you’re completely out of your world — the users weren’t catatonic. You live with them and become more impressionable. They’re ideal for this system.” 

Persuasive Elements

Historians know the Chavín de Huántar pilgrimage site used drugs and the overall atmosphere to influence the people gathered there, also common strategies used by cults. However, Rick suggests another persuasive tactic was part of the ancient ritual dynamic.

Status Symbols

Social status. “At the time, [it] would have been an extraordinary distance to travel. This leads us to think the people that came here were important figures. This was a cult for the secondary elite who were now emerging and for whom Chavin fit very well in their world view,” Rick said in a BBC interview.

Access to Inner Chambers

The most generous gift-givers might’ve been granted access to the center-most underground chambers. And what happened in there? Well, that's what the research team aimed to find out. The only problem was getting into those difficult-to-reach spaces and gathering evidence without destroying anything.

Sending In the Robots

It was up to the robots to investigate those out-of-reach tunnels and crevices. While observing one of the Chavin Rovers wheeling its way through a little passageway from their laptop, the archeological team spotted something that grabbed their attention in the camera frame. 

Crawlspace Discovery

Right next to the wall of the tunnel was an object that appeared undamaged! Fueled by adrenaline, co-creator of the Rover Daniel Chan volunteered to crawl through and attempt to retrieve whatever it was. After a few awkward minutes, Chan laid hands on the object and let out a punctuated, “Wow!”

Relic Results

It was a long-necked vase, almost entirely intact some 2500 years after it was left behind. The robots proved their value from the jump and continued to yield results with more incredible finds. Combing the 36 tunnels they’d managed to map up to that up, they made the landmark discovery for which researchers at Chavín de Huántar always hope.

Skeletal Remains

The Stanford archeology team recovered three sets of human remains, dating back 3,000 years, the first-ever discovered at the Peruvian site. “We have found at least three people in one of the galleries. One of them is a small boy, the other one is a teenager and the other one is a young man, between 20 and 30 years old," Rick told the Daily Mirror in 2018.

Ultimate Sacrifice

What's more, based on the positioning of the skeletal remains, Rick and the rest of the team estimate that these people lost their lives traumatically. The disrespectful nature, facedown, covered in rocks, their final resting places indicate they were sacrificial killings. But with many still unexplored chambers yet to research, there's still mystery a lot of mystery surrounding Chavín death practices.

Robots are the Future

If archeologists have a chance of unpacking the complexities of the ancient Chavín civilization, it'll be accomplished with robots. Professor Rick explained in a Stanford University School of Engineering YouTube video that the success of the robots is a huge step forward for the entirety of the field of archaeology. But not all archaeological finds are discovered with such high-tech gear. Sometimes, everyday people stumble across valuable artifacts.

A Family Reunion

Take the case of 12-year-old Jackson Hepner. When he and the rest of his family were gathered together for a reunion at The Inn at Honey Run in the summer of 2019, something extraordinary occurred that none of them could have predicted. As part of the day’s activities, the group was taking photos in the picturesque landscape when something caught Jackson's eye.

Gone Exploring

The family arranged themselves on a bridge that stretched across Honey Run Creek. And the photo session carried on as Jackson stepped away from the lens, taking a chance to explore the babbling waters beneath him. However, the young man wouldn’t return to the bridge empty-handed. He discovered something incredible in those few minutes along the creek.

Picturesque

You can find The Inn at Honey Run in Millersburg, Ohio, which sits towards the state’s northeastern corner. It’s a picturesque spot, surrounded by rolling hills and dotted with quaint Amish homesteads. The property uses the natural rise and fall to its advantage, as its honeycomb-style suites are carved right into the landscape.

Natural Wonders Galore

The Inn at Honey Run has other natural wonders for its guests to explore. They boast well-cultivated gardens on-site, as well as access to walking trails that guide people on treks throughout the countryside. To make matters even more peaceful, the inn usually has an adults-only guest policy.

No Shortage Of Activities

In short, there’s plenty to see and do at The Inn at Honey Run. No one would know that better than innkeeper Jason Nies. Indeed, in July 2019, he brought his family to the grounds for a day-long reunion. They lucked out with perfect, sunny weather, which meant they could enjoy the hotel’s many natural amenities.

The Perfect Backdrop

Of course, the family wanted to commemorate their reunion with a group photo, too. So, they gathered on the bridge that spanned Honey Run Creek, this gave them the perfect backdrop for their pictures. The group posed for a series of snaps, taking a break between shots at a certain point.

Spotting Something

And that’s when 12-year-old Jackson Hepner got the chance to explore the waters passing beneath the bridge. He wrote for The Inn at Honey Run’s blog that he meandered “about ten yards upstream from the bridge we had our family pictures on,” when he spotted something out of the ordinary.

Something In The Water

Jackson recalled the exact location of the strange object. He wrote, “It was partially buried on the left side of the creek. It was completely out of the water on the creek bed.” The Inn at Honey Run’s blog explained further why it stuck out to the pre-teen. They described it as “a strange-looking solid object covered in ridges.”

What Is It?

Jackson’s uncle, Jason Nies, recalled to News 5 Cleveland how the boy “came back with this, thinking it was a cool fossil.” Of course, the 12-year-old “didn’t know what he found,” his uncle added. But Jackson’s dad and other uncle had a suspicion that the pre-teen had happened upon something noteworthy.

Out Of The Ordinary

With that, the grown-ups wasted no time; they logged onto the internet and started searching. As Nies remembered, they quickly came across an object that looked very similar to the one they found. If they were right, Jackson’s discovery was something truly extraordinary, so they called in the experts.

Asking The Experts

Luckily, Jackson’s dad and uncle could reach out to in-state experts to examine the boy’s discovery. Specifically, they spoke to Nick Kardulias, a member of the College of Wooster’s archaeology department. They also consulted Ashland University’s Nigel Brush and Dale Gnidovec, who worked for The Ohio State University’s Orton Geological Museum.

An Ancient Relic

Kardulias, Brush and Gnidovec examined the jagged, rock-like object, which measured in at just over seven inches in length. And each expert came back with the same conclusion. Just as Jackson’s father and uncle suspected after their web search, the boy had pulled an ancient relic from the creek bed.

Back To The Ice Age

To understand how a remnant of this type would end up in northeastern Ohio, one has to reach very far back into the state’s history. Nearly 2 million years ago, the world was in flux as its climate shifted from the temperate Cenozoic Era to the frigid Pleistocene Ice Age.

Dropping Temperatures

As temperatures dropped, massive continental glaciers began forming around the planet’s northernmost points. The frozen sheets grew thicker and larger, which pushed them down toward land. Some of the glaciers creeped onto the North American continent, eventually covering two-thirds of Ohio.

Ohio's Origins

The Ice Age completely changed Ohio’s natural landscape. For instance, before the glacier iced over the state, the eleventh-largest lake in the world, Lake Erie, did not exist. And the icy mass brought sediments and nutrients to the soil it covered, which is why only certain parts of Ohio are agriculturally intensive.

Ancient Beasts

But the Ice Age didn’t just bring rich soil and massive lakes to Ohio – it also brought a new slate of species to the area. Indeed, the state had the perfect habitat for many of the creatures that roamed the earth during this period. Not only was it frigid and covered in ice, but it also had lots of foliage, too.

Mammoths And Mastodons

Namely, Ohio had both forests and grasslands, both of which appealed to two different species of Ice Age animal. As Gnidovec explained to Newsweek, “During the Ice Age there were two kinds of ‘elephants’ living in Ohio – mammoths and mastodons.” But the landscape catered to the latter slightly more than the former.

A Mammoth Discovery

Gnidovec went on, “Mastodons are much more common… and mammoths are much more rare. That is because Ice Age Ohio had much more forested areas, which the mastodons lived in, that it did open grasslands preferred by the mammoths.” Knowing this made it easier to narrow down where Jackson’s discovery came from.

Not Just A Rock

Indeed, as Nies told News 5 Cleveland, Jackson’s dad and uncle got close to identifying the jagged, rock-like object themselves. He said, “We quickly found out this might be a mammoth or a mastodon tooth.” It took Ashland, Kardulias and Gnidovec’s expertise to confirm that it came from the former.

One Mammoth Molar

All three experts agreed that Jackson had found a mammoth’s tooth; specifically, its upper third molar. It had all the signs of being a prehistoric chomper. The parallel ridges along the tooth identified it as belonging to a mammoth, as their teeth had such striations to help them grind up the grass and seeds they typically ate.

Remnants Of The Beast

Mammoths lived in the Ohio area between 110,000 and 12,000 years ago. They made the trek to North America from Asia more than two million years ago, but the remnants of beasts more than 13,000 years old are hard to come by. Gnidovec told the New York Post that “glacial advances” effected the preservation of their skeletons.

Measuring Up

Fortunately, even a later woolly mammoth skeleton can tell archaeologists a surprising amount about the species. The experts know that the species stood at about the same height as an African elephant. Males reached up to 11 feet in height, while female mammoths stood just below the 10-foot mark.

Heavy Hitters

A full-grown male woolly mammoth could weigh up to 6.6 tons, while the relatively lightweight female weighed in at 4.4 tons. Of course, the species had an early advantage at growing to be so huge. Baby woolly mammoths came into the world at a whopping 900 pounds each.

Popular Prehistorics

Even without a description of the rest of their physical features, many people can conjure up an image of a woolly mammoth. They’re among the best-known prehistoric species, and that’s due to the fact that their remains have been found in abundance. And, sometimes, frozen bodies still had their soft tissue intact, painting a perfectly clear picture of what the species looked like.

Wearing Their Winter Coats

Such finds also proved that the woolly mammoth had all of the tools it needed to survive in an Ice Age, too. Beneath an outer layer of fur, the animals had a shorter undercoat for extra warmth. They had exterior ears and a tail, but both were relatively small to prevent heat loss and frostbite.

Plant-Based Diet

Even in the midst of an Ice Age, the woolly mammoth maintained a diet of grasses and sedges (grass-like flowering plants). They used their giant tusks to forage and their ridged teeth helped them to grind up their herbaceous diet. Such being the case, woolly mammoths only had four teeth, all molars, and they grew six replacement sets over their lifetimes.

A Tooth Fairy's Dream

Nigel Brush, an anthropology professor at Ashland University, explained the process on his Facebook page. He wrote, “Ice Age mammoth had four large teeth (two upper and two lower). As the ridges on each tooth were worn down, the tooth was shoved forward in the jaw by a new tooth until the old tooth fell out.”

A Lucky Find

Because of the mammoths’ propensity for replacing its ridged teeth, dental remnants are more common than skeletal ones. Even so, Ashland University geology professor Jeff Dilyard scanned the area where Jackson found the tooth, but there were no other signs of mammoth remains in the creek bed.

Going Extinct

Mammoths became extinct with the conclusion of the Ice Age, as many of the species adapted to such a severe climate died out. Indeed, the woolly mammoth faced more than one threat before they disappeared from the face of the earth. Hunting may have also contributed to the species’ demise as well as the rising temperatures.

The Last Survivors

So, the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age approximately 10,000 years ago, wiped the majority of wooly mammoths out. However, further research has found that two populations survived longer than that. One herd of mammoths lived on St. Paul Island in Alaska until 5,600 years ago, while another group lived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until approximately 2,000 BC.

10,000 Year Old Fossil

As such, Ohio’s woolly mammoth inhabitants likely perished as the ice started to melt, along with the majority of their species. This meant that Jackson had found a fossil at least 10,000 years old. Such a magical find was not lost on his uncle Nies, who described how he felt about the discovery to News 5 Cleveland.

Pieces Of History

Nies told the news outlet, “It’s just a neat find. It’s not every day you get to touch and feel and see a mammoth tooth!” The Inn at Honey Run shared a similar sentiment. Their blog stated, “The unearthing of the Mammoth tooth shows that there are definite pieces of ancient history hidden around us, connecting us to an interesting past.”

Exploring The Grounds

The Inn at Honey Run’s blog continued, “We just have to be in the right place at the right time to find them, like Jackson.” With that, they wondered what would be next for their hotel and its rich natural surroundings. The blog concluded, “The Honey Run team can’t wait to see what cool item turns up on our grounds next!”

A Personal Plea

Jackson added that he had found the tooth “buried on the left side of the creek.” Then, he added a personal plea to the archaeologists who would inspect his find. “I would like to have my tooth back in my hands as soon as possible. I want to show it to my friends,” Jackson wrote.

Increasing Excitement

Even without the mammoth tooth in hand, news coverage of his discovery made Hepner even more giddy at discovering such an ancient remnant. His father, Josh, told CNN in August 2019, “He has been very excited since the find, and that excitement has grown with the increasing interest in the story.”

Making Headlines

On August 27, 2019, The Inn at Honey Run provided an update on the story through their Facebook page. It read, “Since 12-year-old Jackson Hepner discovered the Mammoth Tooth on the grounds of The Inn, the story has exploded. Local and regional publications picked up the story and before he knew it, Jackson’s photo appeared on national news outlets!”

The Rightful Owner

The post continued, “Throughout the whirlwind Jackson was excited by the coverage and the process, but remained steadfast in his primary objective: getting the tooth back so he could show his friends!” Flipping through the images attached to the post, it became clear that Hepner’s wish came true. One picture showed his father handing him back his fossil discovery.

Putting It On Display

And, although that’s the last update on the mammoth tooth on The Inn at Honey Run’s Facebook page, Hepner’s uncle, Nies, had his own vision for the fossil in the future. He looked forward to his nephew bringing it back to the place he found it so that all of the hotel’s guests could take a look at it.