Ira Block/National Geographic
A woman buried with a golden bowl on her face was wrapped in mummy cloths and buried with military
items, hinting at a role as a ruler.
Posted on 05/17/2006 3:00:42 AM PDT by Pharmboy
Ira Block/National Geographic
A woman buried with a golden bowl on her face was wrapped in mummy cloths and buried with military
items, hinting at a role as a ruler.
A mummy of mystery has come to light in Peru.
She was a woman who died some 1,600 years ago in the heyday of the Moche culture, well before the rise of the Incas. Her imposing tomb suggests someone of high status. Her desiccated remains are covered with red pigment and bear tattoos of patterns and mythological figures.
But the most striking aspect of the discovery, archaeologists said yesterday, is not the offerings of gold and semiprecious stones, or the elaborate wrapping of her body in fine textiles, but the other grave goods.
She was surrounded by weaving materials and needles, befitting a woman, and 2 ceremonial war clubs and 28 spear throwers — sticks that propel spears with far greater force — items never found before in the burial of a woman of the Moche (pronounced MOH-chay).
Was she a warrior princess, or perhaps a ruler? Possibly.
"She is elite, but somewhat of an enigma," said John Verano, a physical anthropologist at Tulane University, who worked with the Peruvian archaeologists who made the discovery last year.
Christopher B. Donnan of the University of California, Los Angeles, was not a member of the research team but inspected the mummy and the tomb soon after the find.
"It's among the richest female Moche burials ever found," said Dr. Donnan, an archaeologist of Peruvian culture. "The tomb combines things usually found either exclusively in male or female burials — a real mystery."
The National Geographic Society announced the discovery and is publishing details in its magazine's June issue. The excavations, more than 400 miles northwest of Lima, were supported by
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A Pharmboy/GGG(TM) exclusive...
Oh good, now she'll be the new "proof" of a matriarchy, and white men killed her and blah blah blah.
The Moche were clearly far more advanced than the tribes of the Liberal Nation living in latter-day America.
prisoner6
Hillary the first?
She may have been a Lesbian warrior. Indian cultures revere homosexuals as special people "of two Spirits"..............
The bowl made of gold, it's hardly likely they would use such valuable metal as a insult.........
Heather has two mummies...
lol!!!!!..........gOOD ONE!.........DAMN cApS lOCK....NEeD IT FOR WORK.....
Good one. Thanks.
....Or just less likely to rip than a paper bag.
I'm always amazed at how widespread (across time, space, and cultures) the use of red pigment coating on high-status burials was used...
"The tomb combines things usually found either exclusively in male or female burials — a real mystery."
Aren't all burials either for male or female????
(joking, folks)
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Maybe she was a shaman/healer.
Or maybe she was the beloved of the ranking king or ........
I am told that older women are revered for their wisdom (as well as lack of hormonal influences) and, in may Indian cultures, make the decisions for the tribe. War decisions made by these women are then carried out by the males of the tribe. She could have been a general, which is consistent with what I have been told.
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