14 June 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

In Peru, Archaeologists Discovered an Ancient Dance Floor that can Imitate Rumbling of Thunder

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient “sounding” dance floor in Peru that was designed to create a drum-like sound when stepped on, perhaps for a thunder god.

The floor was constructed into an open-air platform at Viejo Sangayaico, 200 km southeast of Lima, sometime between AD 1000 and AD 1400. From 1400 to 1532, it was still in use under Inca rule, and possibly in the early years of the Spanish conquest.

“We know that in pre-Hispanic Andean rituals dance was a big part of the proceedings. I believe that this specially constructed platform was built to enhance the natural sounds associated with dance,” says Kevin Lane, an archaeologist with the Instituto de las Culturas (IDECU) of the Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina, who led the research.

Funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the project’s findings have recently been published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.

The sole author of the study, Lane: “The larger site’s association to the veneration of Andean lightning and thunder deity suggests that dancing at this location might have been in part attuned to this supernatural entity,” he writes in the paper.

This site served a unique function among the stunning Andean landscape, where myths and beliefs converged with natural rhythms, possibly even facilitating direct communication with the divine through the ceremony. According to the research, it was not just a stage for performances and functions, but also a possible Inca temple dedicated to the lightning deity.

It was built to face the nearby Huinchocruz mountain, and it included a revered site with a pre-Hispanic ceremonial platform known as an ushnu. One of two open-air platforms served as the foundation for the dance floor.

A different drum: an open-air platform at Viejo Sangayaico that makes a deep percussive sound when stomped on may have been a “sounding” dance floor used to venerate a nearby mountain deity of thunder and lightning. Photo: ORP-PIACI Project
A different drum: an open-air platform at Viejo Sangayaico that makes a deep percussive sound when stomped on may have been a “sounding” dance floor used to venerate a nearby mountain deity of thunder and lightning. Photo: ORP-PIACI Project

“I believe that these open platforms would have been used during the pre-Hispanic period as a stage on which to venerate the nearby mountain gods, in this case those of Huinchocruz,” Lane explains.

According to archaeologists, the Viejo Sangayaico dance floor was created as a way to mimic the mesmerizing sound of thunder, drawing on the Andean belief system that connected lightning deities with rain and thunder.

The archaeologists first identified the sounding dance floor when they heard a hollow noise as they walked on it.

The platform’s unique design consists of four layers of carefully prepared fills, and a diverse array of materials was designed to enhance the percussive sound. These layers were made up of camelid guano and clean silty clay, which were strategically interspersed to achieve the desired percussion effect. The carefully placed gaps within the dung layers contributed to the creation of a deep, bass-like sound that encircled the dance floor, which was approximately 10 meters (32.8 ft) in diameter.

“We reckon the platform could have held up to 26 people dancing in unison, making for a loud thumping sound,” Lane says. Perhaps, the dust raised by the dancing was a visual feature to add to the larger effect of the performance.

The discovery raises the possibility that parts of other Andean sites may have been built to enhance sound. The profound significance of sound in ancient Andean rituals had long been acknowledged in sites like Chavin.

Another Andean site in Peru where the use of sound has recently been studied is Huánuco Pampa. It appears that the Andean civilization had harnessed the power of sound to forge a sacred connection with their deities and the cosmos.

doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2023.101515

Cover Photo: ORP-PIACI Project

Related Articles

Archaeologists Use Song to Unveil the Legendary End of West Africa’s Kaabu Kingdom

19 March 2025

19 March 2025

As the archaeological discoveries at Kansala, located in present-day Guinea-Bissau, reveal the tangible remnants of the once-mighty Kaabu Kingdom, the...

Mystery of Knaresborough Roman hoard revealed by Newcastle experts

13 January 2024

13 January 2024

Archaeologists at Newcastle University have investigated one of the most unusual late-Roman metalware ever discovered in the British Isles. Although...

Export barred on roundel manuscript gifted to Queen Elizabeth I by Archbishop

12 September 2022

12 September 2022

A rare presentation manuscript that Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker gave to Queen Elizabeth I in 1573 has been sold...

The 11-meter giant statue of the island of Naxos “Dionysus of Apollonas”

22 March 2023

22 March 2023

One of the two ancient marble quarries, thought to have begun the sculpture, the greatest art of antiquity, is located...

Human Activity on Curaçao Began Centuries Earlier Than Previously Believed

28 March 2024

28 March 2024

New research co-led by Simon Fraser University and the National Archaeological Anthropological Memory Management (NAAM Foundation) in Curaçao extends the...

Ancient Christian Settlement Discovered in Egypt

14 March 2021

14 March 2021

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities said on Saturday that a French-Norwegian archaeological team had discovered a new ancient Christian settlement...

Dominican mission discovers 1,305-meter Greco-Roman ancient rock-cut tunnel in Alexandria

4 November 2022

4 November 2022

A Greco-Roman tunnel measuring 1,305 meters in length was discovered beneath Tapuziris Magna, an Ancient Egyptian city, by an Egyptian-Dominican...

Washi papers discovered inside a 675-year-old Buddhist statue in Japan

3 February 2024

3 February 2024

The carved head of an ancient Buddhist statue hidden in the Myooin temple in Fukuyama, Hiroshima, Japan, has revealed pages...

Medieval double grave discovered with majestic objects inside the circular ditch

22 August 2022

22 August 2022

An early medieval double grave was discovered in Kirchheim am Neckar Friedrichstrasse, southern Germany, during excavations supervised by the State...

Iron Age stone altar and gold-plated ceremonial sword discovered in Kazakhstan

14 August 2021

14 August 2021

A stone altar and a gold-plated ceremonial sword used in the early Iron Age were discovered during excavations along the...

Archaeologists find the earliest evidence Maya sacred calendar in the Guatemalan pyramid

14 April 2022

14 April 2022

Archaeologists identified two plaster fragments depicting a date that the Maya civilization called ‘7 deer’ and was part of the...

Radiocarbon dating shows that the Roman settlement of Karanis survived in Egypt until the Arab Conquest in the 7th century AD

13 May 2024

13 May 2024

New research results are rewriting the history of Karanis, an ancient Greco-Roman agricultural settlement in the Fayum oasis in Egypt....

Evidence of Intentional Roman Use of Narcotic Seeds, Found in Bone Vessel in the Netherlands

8 February 2024

8 February 2024

Archaeologists have discovered the first conclusive evidence of the existence of a hallucinogenic and poisonous plant thought to have been...

Excavations at Coleshill may rewrite English Civil War history

5 February 2023

5 February 2023

Archaeologists excavating the site of Coleshill Manor in Warwickshire have revealed evidence of what could be one of the first...

World’s Oldest Customer Complaint “at 3800 Years Old”

4 February 2021

4 February 2021

When we are not satisfied with the product we receive, what almost all of us do is complain about the...