Posted on 01/11/2007 1:17:32 PM PST by Rodney King
Hands over her eyes and her face gripped with terror, the woman's fear of death is all too obvious.
The remarkable mummy was found in a hidden burial vault in the Amazon.
It is at least 600 years old and has survived thanks to the embalming skills of her tribe, the Chachapoyas or cloud warriors.
Eleven further mummies were recovered from the massive cave complex 82ft down.
The vault - which was also used for worship - was chanced upon three months ago by a farmer working at the edge of northern Peru's rainforest. He tipped off scientists who uncovered ceramics, textiles and wall paintings.
The Chachapoyas were a tall, fairhaired, light-skinned race that some researchers believe may have come from Europe.
Little is known about them except that they were one of the more advanced ancient civilisations in the area. Adept at fighting, they commanded a large kingdom from the year 800 to 1500 that stretched across the Andes.
It is not known what the Chachapoyas actually called themselves - they are identified by the name given to them by their rivals and eventual conquerors, the Incas.
It comes from the Inca's Quechua language and means 'cloud people', because of the high forests in the clouds that the Chachapoyas inhabited.
Virtually all record of the tribe was lost when the Incas were themselves overrun by the Spanish conquistadors who landed in 1512.
They have, however, left behind a spectacular citadel, called Kuelap, 10,000ft up in the Andes.
It has more than 400 buildings and defensive towers, many of them with decorated walls, cornices and friezes.
Some experts rate Kuelap more highly than the Incan ruins at Machu Picchu.
Herman Crobera, the leader of the archaeological team that explored the cave, said: 'This is a discovery of transcendental importance.
'It is the first time any kind of underground burial site this size has been found belonging to Chachapoyas or other cultures in the region.'
He said walls near the mummies in the limestone cave were covered with paintings of faces and warriorlike figures which may have been drawn to ward off intruders and evil spirits.
'The remote site for this cemetery tells us that the Chachapoyas had enormous respect for their ancestors because they hid them away for protection,' added Mr Crobera.
'Locals call the cave Iyacyecuj, or enchanted water, because of its spiritual importance and its underground rivers.' The archaeologists have not yet established an accurate age for their finds.
Once they have finished exploring and excavating the tomb, Peruvian authorities want to turn it into a museum. The mummies are going on show at the Museum of the Nation in the capital Lima.
Looks more like Pelosi on November 8.
Bill Clintons statement on the discovery of this ancient mummy: "I'd hit it."
The Mormons will be pleased.......
I was thinking more the way Sandy Burglar looked the day the Clintons told him to get the stuff out of NSA or else?
Or what would happen if she didn't get her Botox injections on time...
Ping
A dilemma for liberals. They will of course be fawning over this discovery of evidence that ancient cultures cared for their ancestors. It lets libs put cultures other than ours on a pedestal.
Their problem lies in that this discovery would not have been made if it were not for the clearing of the rain forests. After all, where do you think the farmer got that farm land right up against the rain forest?
Ping
From the article:
The Chachapoyas were a tall, fairhaired, light-skinned race that some researchers believe may have come from Europe. Little is known about them except that they were one of the more advanced ancient civilisations in the area. Adept at fighting, they commanded a large kingdom from the year 800 to 1500 that stretched across the Andes.
If the dating is correct, the Chacapoyas are centuries too late fit into the Book of Mormon time frame. And they are probably too far south as well: most Mormon scholars believe that the events of the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica.
On the other hand, if it can be established that the Chacapoyas did come from Europe, it would be another example of transatlantic migration. And it would show that the history of the Americas is more complicated than it is sometimes described. So in that sense I suppose we Mormons will be pleased.
It looks as though this article draws heavily on another:
"The 820-feet deep cave (250-meter) was used for burial and worship by the Chachapoyas People, known as the "Cloud People".
Walls in the limestone cave near the mummies were covered with wall paintings of faces and warrior-like figures that may have been drawn to ward off intruders and evil spirits.
Locals call the cave Iyacyecuj, or "Enchanted Water" in Quechua, because of its spiritual importance and its underground rivers."
http://camayocperu.com/members/mummy-cave.htm
This article:
'Locals call the cave Iyacyecuj, or enchanted water, because of its spiritual importance and its underground rivers.'
"He said walls near the mummies in the limestone cave were covered with paintings of faces and warriorlike figures which may have been drawn to ward off intruders and evil spirits."
Plagiarism, anyone?
good detective work.
Why the fear? Was she ceremoniously killed?
Interesting. There were cultures up and down the Amazon at the time of the European conquest, but... whether it was rats or people, disease reduced most of the native peoples of the Americas to nomadic farmers by the time the English and French arrived a century later. I've always thought one reason U.S. and Latin American history is so different has as much to do with just the numbers -- and sophistication -- of the peoples the two different settlers (conquers, whatever) encountered.
It is a stretch (no pun intended) to think that it would be possible to read any kind of facial expression on mummified remains.
Though they were into human sacrifice, and hence it's GOOD they are no longer with us.
A little puzzled here by the first pic. The deceased seems to have her hands bound. Yet the article suggests she was mummified in a reverent burial ritual. How can that be? And how can it be that any such civilization can be called "advanced?" We have got to stop treating past civilizations as if they were more enlightened than the present. That society, like all others of it's time, was both primitive and stupid. That Darwin took notice and that they are no longer among us should be evidence enough.
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