From 1000-200 BC Chavín de Huántar was a major religious centre in the Peruvian highlands and of all the early Andean urban centres had the greatest influence on other contemporary cultures in Peru.

Chavín is strategically placed along a natural east-west route between the lowland forest and the Andean highlands. Its expanding urban community became a destination of religious pilgrimage and a centre of trade. The Amazon was an important source of religious beliefs and exotic goods. Valuable warm water marine shells were traded in from Ecuador and obsidian (volcanic glass) from southern Peru. Pottery from coastal sites such as Cupisnique has been found in Chavín de Huántar temples. In return Chavín religious beliefs and artistic styles spread throughout Peru.

The focus of Chavín’s religious beliefs was an oracle god. This monster-like image with fanged teeth was carved on the Lanzón, a stone sculpture found in one of the many passages inside Chavín’s Old Temple. Much of Chavín art features Amazonian caimans (Amazonian alligators), jaguars and harpy eagles as well as part-human, part-animal images. Another large stone sculpture, the Tello Obelisk (now in the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Peru), represents the life-giving forces of nature. It shows two caimans as food-giving gods covered in images of important crops such as manioc, peppers and peanuts.