Archive for the ‘Ancient South America’ Category
By: The Scribe on October, 2007
Although the popularly held belief is that Columbus discovered America… it seems that he wasn’t actually the first to make it there from across the ocean. That’s right – the chickens beat him to it.
Well, actually both the chickens and the Polynesians arrived at the same time, according to ancient DNA evidence. It turns out that the ancient Polynesians were much better sailors than anyone gave them credit for, and somehow managed to beat Christopher Columbus to the Americas by at least a century, arriving in the early 1400s, if not before.
So, not only did the Polynesians colonize nearly every island in the South Pacific – and there’s plenty of evidence for their existence on these islands – but they apparently figured that journeys of several thousand miles weren’t enough. They wanted to sail even further, which brought them to: South America.
Ancient chicken bones found along the coast of Chile were DNA analyzed and compared with the DNA of other chickens found at archaeological sites across the Polynesian islands. The results? The chickens’ genetic stock was Polynesian and not European… and since chickens have a bit of problem when it comes to sailing across the open Pacific on their own, they must have arrived on the ships of Polynesian sailors.
The chicken bones dated to sometime between 1320-1410 AD, which fits with the time when Polynesians probably would have been expected to reach the American continent, although until now, there was no evidence that they actually did so. It is likely that they traveled here from Easter Island, and made their way across the ocean to Chile.
The Mapuche people living in Chile today, coincidently, have quite a number of Polynesian words in their language, and some of their tools are very similar to Polynesian items. While this may be a direct link between these people and the ancient sailor, there is not enough evidence to be %100 certain.
At the very least, there can be no doubt that Polynesian chickens – and humans – discovered America well before Christopher Columbus ever knew of its existence.
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Tomorrow: Sailing Obelisks
By: The Scribe on October, 2007
About a thousand years ago, the Wari people living at the town of Cerro Baul in southern Peru evacuated their city… but before they left, they had a few tasks to fulfill:
1) Get completely plastered on spicy corn beer.
2) Set the brewery, temple, and palace on fire.
Naturally, this was simply the course of action taken to fulfill a ‘ceremonial destruction’ of where they used to live – since both the Wari nation and the neighboring Tiwanaku state were in decline, the Wari people of Cerro Baul probably figured that they had better plans for helping their people survive than to simply continue living up on their flat-topped mountain.
The Wari people and their Tiwanaku neighbors were both agriculturally-based societies, and the Wari had lived since 600 AD on top of a 2,000-foot-high mesa – which might seem somewhat counterproductive, since any traded goods would have needed to be hauled up and down the side of the mountain, a rather dangerous task no matter how you look at it.
However, the most likely explanation was that the Wari wanted to show off their prowess to the Tiwanaku – establishing themselves with a bit of ‘king of the castle’ bravado, since the nearest Tiwanaku city was only 5 miles away and would have been able to see the Wari’s town rather clearly from their vantage point. Mind you, there is no evidence for the two groups ever fighting each other – it seems that the Tiwanaku were more focused on their religious devotion – and both seem to have worshipped the same gods… can you say ‘sibling rivalry’?
Another thing both the Wari and the Tiwanaku shared was a deep appreciation for something called ‘chicha’, which was a fermented alcoholic drink made from corn – it was quite similar to modern day beer, and it was consumed in excessive quantities during their necessary drinking rituals.
Michael Moseley, an anthropologist at the University of Florida, had this to say about the Wari and Tiwanaku’s love for beer: “You couldn’t have a ceremony without intoxication; people would drink until they fell down, then get up and start drinking again.” Considering this perspective, perhaps the sudden decline of both cultures around 1000 AD isn’t so inexplicable after all…! Though, of course, it actually seems that a long-term drought was to blame.
Thus, if the drought caused severe problems for these agricultural societies, the Wari probably saw their inconvenient settlement location as less important than it had originally seemed to be – and so, the Wari people brewed up one last batch of beer and promptly set fire to the entire city. Archaeological evidence shows that the roofs of buildings were deliberately burnt and many drinking cups were ‘ritually smashed’.
Since chicha takes a week to brew, the people had time to get themselves organized for the event – evidence shows that there were not only 28 local tribe leaders assembled in the courtyard at the time of the drinking party, but the presence of many, many animal bones shows that the people had quite the feast before heading out to burn the town.
So, after eating too much, and getting far too drunk, the local men went out into their former hometown and set everything in the palace, temple, and brewery that could possibly be combustible on fire – then they threw their beer mugs into the flames, and walked away to start new lives elsewhere… presumably, they had actually taken that part into consideration.
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Tomorrow: Racism in ancient Rome (or the lack thereof)
By: The Scribe on October, 2007
If there is one highly notable thing about ancient South America, it’s that the continent was home to many, many indigenous cultures – all of which developed independently of each other, becoming specialists in various, distinct areas. One of these lesser known cultures, but certainly not any less talented, was the Quimbaya civilization of Colombia.
The Quimbaya were noted for their incredible talent in goldworking, which was revealed through their highly technical accuracy and exquisitely detailed designs. Their gold pieces also have a very distinct hue and shine, which comes from the inclusion of 30% copper with the gold, creating an alloy known as “tumbaga”.
The favored subjects of Quimbaya gold art pieces were men and women in sitting positions, almost always with closed eyes and rather placid expressions. Gold funerary masks were also created with the same general expression on the face, and these were often placed inside the sarcophagus of a deceased individual – gold was believed to have been a sacred thing, and very useful for achieving safe passage into the afterlife.
The Quimbaya generally lived around the Cauca River in Colombia, and although it is believed that they probably settled there sometime in the first century AD, the culture did not really reach its height until the 4th to 7th centuries. Then during the 10th century, the Quimbaya disappeared as mysteriously as they had appeared… leaving behind purely archaeological evidence of a civilization with advanced cultural development, a structured chiefdom, and groups of people dedicated to specialized trades, such as pottery, goldwork, trade relations, the military, and religious duties.
Beyond this, little else is known – except for one thing: the Quimbaya were drug addicts. Many of their gold figurines have flasks around the neck, or are even flasks themselves, and held a substance called lime. Lime was chewed together with coca leaves in order to release their “active stimulant” – and anyone who knows even a bit of plant biology will probably recall that coca leaf is the raw material used to manufacture a more commonly known drug: cocaine.
Of course, the Quimbaya believed that this stimulant helped them to bring about a state of clear and contemplative thinking, and may have been an important part of the culture’s religious beliefs – the drug was probably used during fertility rituals, in order to commune with ancestral spirits and ensure the continued regeneration of essential plant and animal life in their land. Why would this be the case? There are actually several present-day people groups in Colombia, such as the Kogi, who utilize coca for a very similar purpose!
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Tomorrow: More Ancient Goodness!
By: The Scribe on October, 2007
As previously discussed here on The Ancient Standard, most of what the world knows about the Chachapoyas culture of ancient Peru comes from their burials and several pieces of monumental architecture, such as the fortress of Kuelap. While there are still many unanswered questions about this civilization and their eventual fall under Spanish occupation, a recent discovery may shed a little more light on the lives of the Andean Cloud Warriors.
Inside the fortress of Kuelap, excavation teams recently uncovered approximately 80 bodies: men, women, children, young and old – the skeletons seem to represent the culture’s entire demographic. While that may not seem unusual at first, the fact is that the bodies were discovered inside of the fortress and were unburied. Instead, the bodies were dispersed or in small groups, giving every indication of these people still being in the place where they were when they died.
The fact that these people don’t seem to have been touched or moved after their deaths is highly troubling, especially considering that the Chachapoyas were known for their elaborate burials – after all, that is where most of the information about these people comes from, since they did not develop their own writing system with which to record their history.
Why so many people died here, and why they were not buried, is a question with highly speculative answers. Perhaps there was a plague, and other tribe members were afraid to touch the cursed bodies? Perhaps the Spanish invaded in a surprise attack, slaughtering everyone in the fort before they could escape? Was there an internal conflict? Either way, the entire episode must have happened very quickly – many of the bodies had artifacts next to them that were typical of daily use, meaning that they did not have time to pack anything up or even drop the dishes or tools that they were carrying!
Some specialists in South American archaeology have identified pieces of pottery at Kuelap as Incan, which means that the rapid deaths of these people must have happened during the time of the culture’s Incan captivity. It is well known that the Chachapoyas were fierce fighters, continuing to rebel against the Inca even as their culture was suppressed and their people dispersed.
One possibility is that the Inca sent their own warriors to the site to kill a group of Chachapoyas who refused to submit to their authority, or perhaps the event occurred near the end of the Spanish suppression of the Inca, around the time when the Spanish turned on their Chachapoyan allies and forced them to convert to the Spanish way of life.
Certainly, closer forensic examination of the skeletons will reveal more information about how they died – whether by violent trauma or through an epidemic – and through this, hopefully a greater understanding will arise of this period in ancient history.
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Tomorrow: More Ancient Standard
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