The Raimondi Stele is a sacred object and significant piece of art of the Chavín culture of the central Andes in present-day Peru. The Chavín were named after Chavín de Huantar, the main structure found in ruin at this archaeological site. The Chavín are believed to have occupied this space from 1500 BCE to 300 BCE, which places them in the Early Horizon period of Andean cultures. The Early Horizon came to rise after the spread and domination of Chavín art styles, namely the hanging pendant eye and anthropomorphism/zoomorphism of feline, serpent, and crocodilian creatures. The stele is seven feet high, made of highly polished granite, with a lightly incised design featuring these key artistic choices shown in the depiction of the Staff God. After not being found in situ (in its original intended position), the stele now is housed in the courtyard of the Museo Nacional de Arqueología Antropología e Historia del Perú in Lima. Finding The first modern record of someone writing about their finding of the stele was José Toribio Polo in 1871, but his sights at the time were more set on the Lanzón. Two years later in 1873, Antonio Raimondi, an Italian-Peruvian naturalist, visited Chavín de Huantar and described the structure as a "fortress," taking note of the stele in the ceremonial center. As mentioned previously, the Raimondi Stele was not found in situ, but instead in the home of Timoteo Espinoza, a local farmer. According to Raimondi and other accounts of travelers at the time, the local people of Peru would collect and display objects representative of the past in their homes, aligning themselves with the past while also protecting their history. Once the modern world knew about the existence of the stele, Polo returned and focused his 1891/1892 study on the monolith. After excavations done by Julio C. Tello years later, it was confirmed that structures like the Raimondi Stele existed elsewhere on the grounds (the Tello Obelisk, for example) and led to further investigations of the purposes of these monoliths. Visual analysis Chavin artists frequently used the technique of contour rivalry in their art forms, and the Raimondi Stele shows this technique through dualism in the imagery of an indigenous god and its adornments. Contour rivalry means that the lines in an image can be read in multiple ways, depending on which way the object is being viewed, and in Chavín culture