By Andy Corbley -Jun 9, 2025

Conservation work on the North Basing of Building 1 in Pajatén, Peru credit, Heinz Plenge Pardo
At a UNESCO Heritage Site in Peru, archaeologists have announced the discovery of over 100 additional hidden structures belonging to a pre-Incan civilization.
Gran Pajatén is located high in the northeastern Peruvian Andes, and was likely a major center of the Chachapoya civilization, which thrived for 400 years before being conquered by the Inca.
Discovered in the 1960s, and excavated in the 1980s, the remoteness of the site led to its eventual neglect.
Between 2022 and 2024, an interdisciplinary team from World Monuments Fund Peru carried out a conservation and documentation project within Río Abiseo National Park, a UNESCO Mixed World Heritage site recognized for its extraordinary cultural richness and natural beauty.
Using technology like LiDAR, the researchers identified a sophisticated urban settlement complete with agricultural terraces, circular buildings and cliffside tombs at altitudes of up to nearly 10,000 feet above sea level, Smithsonian Magazine writes.
This discovery radically expands our understanding of Gran Pajatén and raises new questions about the sites role in the Chachapoya world. Evidence now confirms that it is not an isolated complex but part of an articulated network of pre-Hispanic settlements from different periods, said Juan Pablo de la Puente Brunke, Executive Director of WMF in Peru, in a statement from the fund.
The Chachapoya society (pronounced cha-cha-POE-ya) was composed of regional chiefdoms that nevertheless shared a distinctive architectural and artistic language, as reflected in their unique circular buildings, geometric friezes, and highly decorated cliffside burials.
More:
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/hundreds-of-newly-found-structures-reveal-the-true-scope-of-this-little-known-pre-incan-civilization/