kenb
Bronze Member
(01-20) 04:00 PST Kuelap, Peru -- The broken skeletons were scattered like random pottery shards, rediscovered where they fell centuries ago.
Were these ancient people cut down in a long-forgotten battle? Did European-introduced diseases cause their demise? Were they casualties of some apocalyptic reckoning at this great walled citadel?
The "cloud warriors" of ancient Peru are slowly offering up their secrets - along with more questions. Recent digs at this majestic site, once a stronghold of the Chachapoya civilization, have turned up scores of skeletons and thousands of artifacts, shedding new light on one of the most remarkable, if least understood, of Peru's pre-Columbian cultures.
Among the arresting findings: defensive walls incorporating the dead; stone missiles used to repel invaders; gargoyle-like stone carvings; and the civilization's sudden collapse.
While almost everyone knows about the Inca and Machu Picchu, relatively few have heard of the Chachapoya or visited their domain, a swath of Amazon headlands and breathtaking cloud forests on the eastern slope of the Andes. This walled settlement, among the largest monuments of the ancient Americas, rivals the Incas' Machu Picchu in scale and grandeur.
Getting here requires a lengthy journey on roads less traveled, nearly vertical jeep tracks featuring better-not-look drops of 3,000 feet or more.
"You have to have an adventurous spirit to come to Kuelap," said Alice Cook, 25, a school teacher from Alaska who was hiking down after a day's visit. "It's not like just getting on the train and you're here."
The Chachapoya civilization is believed to have thrived from around 800 to about 1540, the last 70 years or so under the domination of their empire-minded neighbors, the Inca, and then the Spanish. The Chachapoya, historians say, were a loose confederation with settlements spread across a 25,000-square-mile swath of north-central Peru - an area about the size of West Virginia - and might have numbered 300,000 people or more at one time.
Known from colonial chronicles as tall and fierce warriors who long resisted the Inca, the Chachapoya were far-ranging merchants and powerful shamans.
Exotic plumage and intricate shell-carved jewelry found here and elsewhere attest to their position as traders who probably roamed from the Amazon jungle to the Pacific coast. Items bartered included coca leaves, tropical feathers and hallucinogenic plants. Their archaeological legacy, however, points to something more profound than a mercantile society.
"Although the Chachapoya played a part in the greater Andean cultural sphere, their art and architecture convey a bold, independent spirit that distinguishes them from their neighbors," wrote Adriana von Hagen, a Peruvian journalist and scholar.
The Chachapoya typically built on high ground, which offered defensive position and drainage in a region where enemies were abundant and rains torrential. Farmers terraced hillsides for potatoes, maize and other crops, sustaining large populations where few live today.
Many stone-built Chachapoya sites have been found - and others probably remain concealed by lush vegetation - but the citadel here, with walls approaching 60 feet in height, radiates an unsurpassed grandeur. The wall, which varies in height as it snakes along a verdant ridge, is composed of dozens of rows of limestone blocks of varying size and shape, some weighing several tons, all precisely cut and wedged into place in an impressive feat of meticulous construction.
From a distance, Kuelap, at an altitude of 9,500 feet, appears like the prow of a behemoth ark that outlasted some primordial flood and was left perched on a hilltop, dominating the cloud forests, the misty realm between towering Andean peaks and the low-lying Amazon flood plain.
The existence of Kuelap has been known widely for more than a century. But in contrast to Machu Picchu, which became an international sensation after a Yale explorer, Hiram Bingham, declared its discovery in the early 20th century, Kuelap's isolation long thwarted serious research. Waves of determined looters and the curious carted off bones and other remnants.
Now Kuelap is yielding its mysteries to the most rigorous scientific excavations to date, financed by the Peruvian government and the state of Amazonas.
Arriving in Kuelap on a recent day amid the frenzy of archaeological work provided a hint of how dynamic it must have been when several thousand people, possibly a priestly class, resided within the walled compound. Inside the 15-acre enclosure, which has the feel of a medieval fortress, researchers have found more than 500 structures, mostly round stone dwellings that once featured conical thatched roofs.
Entry is via claustrophobic corridors, with space at some points for only a single person. Whether this was a defensive measure or a design conceit remains unclear. Worn into the smooth stone of one passage are the hoof prints of countless llamas, beasts of burden and a source of food.
Interior walls feature geometric friezes, sculptured serpents and glaring stone faces - eerie, unnerving visages from a lost era.
Dozens of archaeologists and their assistants, armed with shovels, picks, brushes, pens and paper, endeavor to peel back the layers of dirt and debris and unlock the enigma.
"We found these," says Modesto Velazquez, a laborer who is part of the archaeological team, displaying several ancient deer antlers that served a decorative and possibly utilitarian purpose, an ancient version of coat hooks.
Looming above the scene is the so-called Plaza Mayor, a towering structure shaped like an inkwell that might have been the first construction here. Evidence such as bones, foodstuffs and a miniature condor carved from seashell point to a place were rituals were performed and offerings to deities made.
"We think this was the ceremonial heart of Kuelap," said Julio Rodriguez, a supervising archaeologist.
The Chachapoya were keen to keep their dead nearby: wedged into walls, buried beneath the floors of homes, placed in highly decorative mountain sarcophagi.
Most impressively, they practiced mummification: A breakthrough in Chachapoya scholarship was the recovery a decade ago of more than 200 well-preserved mummy bundles from a steep cliff above a sacred lake known as the Lagoon of the Condors. Looters initially found the more-than-500-year-old funerary assemblage, leading to a salvage operation. The mummies were swaddled in cotton bundles, some embroidered with stylized faces.
One mummy, now unwrapped and on exhibit at a museum in nearby Leymebamba, was probably an Inca administrator, his characteristic ear ornament still in place, his still-bright teeth evidence of ample nutrition.
The Chachapoya apparently eschewed ear jewelry in favor of bone ornaments in their noses. A mummified young girl displayed skull wounds possibly consistent with human sacrifice. A mummified wild cat also was found, an indication that the feline might have been revered.
Along with fine textiles used to wrap the dead, the cliff burial site yielded some of the best examples of khipu, dyed and knotted strings that Inca administrators used to keep census data, records of tributes paid and other information.
The archaeological evidence is that the Chachapoya adapted to their Inca overlords, however much they might have resented them.
"The two groups seem to have eventually reached a kind of mutual accommodation," said Sonia Guillen, a forensic anthropologist who is Peru's foremost authority on mummies.
The apparently sudden decline of the Chachapoya in the first half of the 16th century, and their obliteration from the map, are themes that have confounded experts. Today, the only trace of their language is in place names such as Kuelap.
"The Chachapoya suffered a demographic catastrophe in a short period of time," said chief archaeologist Alfredo Narvaez, noting that the population probably dropped from several hundred thousand to perhaps 10,000 by the mid-16th century, after the arrival of the Spanish in Peru.
Scholars say the Chachapoya quickly allied themselves with the Spanish against the tribe's Inca overlords. But whatever benefits collaboration brought were probably short-lived. European diseases decimated Andean and other New World populations.
Evidence of a possible final calamity at Kuelap has been found in a platform near the Plaza Mayor, where excavators recently discovered scores of randomly scattered skeletons, of all ages and both sexes, mixed amid daily utensils. This was a striking departure in a culture in which departed loved ones were treated with great care and ceremony.
"Why these remains were concentrated here and not properly interred is a big question," said Edwin Blas, a supervising archaeologist standing over the platform.
Researchers are treating the site like an ancient crime scene. Some have speculated on a climactic battle; others say the remains could be of people who succumbed to disease.
The area shows evidence of a great fire, Narvaez says. He speculates it could have been deliberate destruction of the grand structure as it was abandoned, a kind of ritual purification found at other pre-Columbian monuments.
The bones and other artifacts newly unearthed are being collected, cleaned and catalogued - each one possibly a key to unlocking more Chachapoya secrets.
kenb
Were these ancient people cut down in a long-forgotten battle? Did European-introduced diseases cause their demise? Were they casualties of some apocalyptic reckoning at this great walled citadel?
The "cloud warriors" of ancient Peru are slowly offering up their secrets - along with more questions. Recent digs at this majestic site, once a stronghold of the Chachapoya civilization, have turned up scores of skeletons and thousands of artifacts, shedding new light on one of the most remarkable, if least understood, of Peru's pre-Columbian cultures.
Among the arresting findings: defensive walls incorporating the dead; stone missiles used to repel invaders; gargoyle-like stone carvings; and the civilization's sudden collapse.
While almost everyone knows about the Inca and Machu Picchu, relatively few have heard of the Chachapoya or visited their domain, a swath of Amazon headlands and breathtaking cloud forests on the eastern slope of the Andes. This walled settlement, among the largest monuments of the ancient Americas, rivals the Incas' Machu Picchu in scale and grandeur.
Getting here requires a lengthy journey on roads less traveled, nearly vertical jeep tracks featuring better-not-look drops of 3,000 feet or more.
"You have to have an adventurous spirit to come to Kuelap," said Alice Cook, 25, a school teacher from Alaska who was hiking down after a day's visit. "It's not like just getting on the train and you're here."
The Chachapoya civilization is believed to have thrived from around 800 to about 1540, the last 70 years or so under the domination of their empire-minded neighbors, the Inca, and then the Spanish. The Chachapoya, historians say, were a loose confederation with settlements spread across a 25,000-square-mile swath of north-central Peru - an area about the size of West Virginia - and might have numbered 300,000 people or more at one time.
Known from colonial chronicles as tall and fierce warriors who long resisted the Inca, the Chachapoya were far-ranging merchants and powerful shamans.
Exotic plumage and intricate shell-carved jewelry found here and elsewhere attest to their position as traders who probably roamed from the Amazon jungle to the Pacific coast. Items bartered included coca leaves, tropical feathers and hallucinogenic plants. Their archaeological legacy, however, points to something more profound than a mercantile society.
"Although the Chachapoya played a part in the greater Andean cultural sphere, their art and architecture convey a bold, independent spirit that distinguishes them from their neighbors," wrote Adriana von Hagen, a Peruvian journalist and scholar.
The Chachapoya typically built on high ground, which offered defensive position and drainage in a region where enemies were abundant and rains torrential. Farmers terraced hillsides for potatoes, maize and other crops, sustaining large populations where few live today.
Many stone-built Chachapoya sites have been found - and others probably remain concealed by lush vegetation - but the citadel here, with walls approaching 60 feet in height, radiates an unsurpassed grandeur. The wall, which varies in height as it snakes along a verdant ridge, is composed of dozens of rows of limestone blocks of varying size and shape, some weighing several tons, all precisely cut and wedged into place in an impressive feat of meticulous construction.
From a distance, Kuelap, at an altitude of 9,500 feet, appears like the prow of a behemoth ark that outlasted some primordial flood and was left perched on a hilltop, dominating the cloud forests, the misty realm between towering Andean peaks and the low-lying Amazon flood plain.
The existence of Kuelap has been known widely for more than a century. But in contrast to Machu Picchu, which became an international sensation after a Yale explorer, Hiram Bingham, declared its discovery in the early 20th century, Kuelap's isolation long thwarted serious research. Waves of determined looters and the curious carted off bones and other remnants.
Now Kuelap is yielding its mysteries to the most rigorous scientific excavations to date, financed by the Peruvian government and the state of Amazonas.
Arriving in Kuelap on a recent day amid the frenzy of archaeological work provided a hint of how dynamic it must have been when several thousand people, possibly a priestly class, resided within the walled compound. Inside the 15-acre enclosure, which has the feel of a medieval fortress, researchers have found more than 500 structures, mostly round stone dwellings that once featured conical thatched roofs.
Entry is via claustrophobic corridors, with space at some points for only a single person. Whether this was a defensive measure or a design conceit remains unclear. Worn into the smooth stone of one passage are the hoof prints of countless llamas, beasts of burden and a source of food.
Interior walls feature geometric friezes, sculptured serpents and glaring stone faces - eerie, unnerving visages from a lost era.
Dozens of archaeologists and their assistants, armed with shovels, picks, brushes, pens and paper, endeavor to peel back the layers of dirt and debris and unlock the enigma.
"We found these," says Modesto Velazquez, a laborer who is part of the archaeological team, displaying several ancient deer antlers that served a decorative and possibly utilitarian purpose, an ancient version of coat hooks.
Looming above the scene is the so-called Plaza Mayor, a towering structure shaped like an inkwell that might have been the first construction here. Evidence such as bones, foodstuffs and a miniature condor carved from seashell point to a place were rituals were performed and offerings to deities made.
"We think this was the ceremonial heart of Kuelap," said Julio Rodriguez, a supervising archaeologist.
The Chachapoya were keen to keep their dead nearby: wedged into walls, buried beneath the floors of homes, placed in highly decorative mountain sarcophagi.
Most impressively, they practiced mummification: A breakthrough in Chachapoya scholarship was the recovery a decade ago of more than 200 well-preserved mummy bundles from a steep cliff above a sacred lake known as the Lagoon of the Condors. Looters initially found the more-than-500-year-old funerary assemblage, leading to a salvage operation. The mummies were swaddled in cotton bundles, some embroidered with stylized faces.
One mummy, now unwrapped and on exhibit at a museum in nearby Leymebamba, was probably an Inca administrator, his characteristic ear ornament still in place, his still-bright teeth evidence of ample nutrition.
The Chachapoya apparently eschewed ear jewelry in favor of bone ornaments in their noses. A mummified young girl displayed skull wounds possibly consistent with human sacrifice. A mummified wild cat also was found, an indication that the feline might have been revered.
Along with fine textiles used to wrap the dead, the cliff burial site yielded some of the best examples of khipu, dyed and knotted strings that Inca administrators used to keep census data, records of tributes paid and other information.
The archaeological evidence is that the Chachapoya adapted to their Inca overlords, however much they might have resented them.
"The two groups seem to have eventually reached a kind of mutual accommodation," said Sonia Guillen, a forensic anthropologist who is Peru's foremost authority on mummies.
The apparently sudden decline of the Chachapoya in the first half of the 16th century, and their obliteration from the map, are themes that have confounded experts. Today, the only trace of their language is in place names such as Kuelap.
"The Chachapoya suffered a demographic catastrophe in a short period of time," said chief archaeologist Alfredo Narvaez, noting that the population probably dropped from several hundred thousand to perhaps 10,000 by the mid-16th century, after the arrival of the Spanish in Peru.
Scholars say the Chachapoya quickly allied themselves with the Spanish against the tribe's Inca overlords. But whatever benefits collaboration brought were probably short-lived. European diseases decimated Andean and other New World populations.
Evidence of a possible final calamity at Kuelap has been found in a platform near the Plaza Mayor, where excavators recently discovered scores of randomly scattered skeletons, of all ages and both sexes, mixed amid daily utensils. This was a striking departure in a culture in which departed loved ones were treated with great care and ceremony.
"Why these remains were concentrated here and not properly interred is a big question," said Edwin Blas, a supervising archaeologist standing over the platform.
Researchers are treating the site like an ancient crime scene. Some have speculated on a climactic battle; others say the remains could be of people who succumbed to disease.
The area shows evidence of a great fire, Narvaez says. He speculates it could have been deliberate destruction of the grand structure as it was abandoned, a kind of ritual purification found at other pre-Columbian monuments.
The bones and other artifacts newly unearthed are being collected, cleaned and catalogued - each one possibly a key to unlocking more Chachapoya secrets.
kenb
