Posted on 05/02/2007 5:38:33 PM PDT by blam
Rare skeleton, jewels found in Bolivia pyramid
Wed May 2, 2007 9:46PM BST
TIWANAKU, Bolivia (Reuters) - Archeologists have uncovered the 1,300-year-old skeleton of a ruler or priest of the ancient Tiwanaku civilization together with precious jewels inside a much-looted pyramid in western Bolivia.
The bones are "in very good condition" and belong to either "a ruler or a priest," Roger Angel Cossio, the Bolivian archeologist who made the discovery, told Reuters on Wednesday.
He said the tomb -- containing a diadem and fist-sized carved pendant of solid gold -- survived centuries of looting by Spanish invaders and unscrupulous raiders who depleted Tiwanaku of many precious treasures.
"After so much looting... miraculously this has stayed to tell us the history," Cossio said.
"It's a complete body... next to it are jewels, offerings and a llama," he said.
The llama may have been a status symbol or a source of food for the journey to the afterlife, archeologists
said.
The corpse was found in a niche carved inside the 15-yard-high (15-metre-high) Akapana pyramid, which was built around 1200 BC and is described by experts as one of the biggest pre-Columbian constructions in South America.
At its peak, the city of Tiwanaku stretched over 1,480 acres and had a population of over 100,000, according to chief archeologist Javier Escalante, who presented the findings on Wednesday at a news conference near the pyramid. The Tiwanaku civilization spread throughout southwestern Bolivia and parts of neighboring Peru, Argentina and Chile from around 1500 BC to AD 1200.
Although experts still have to do carbon dating to determine the age of the remains, archeologists estimate they were buried some 1,300 years ago, during the decline of the Tiwanaku empire.
Cossio believes the remains belong to someone of importance in the Tiwanaku society.
"Not just anyone would be buried under the Akapana pyramid" he said.
In the 1900s workers used the base of the pyramid as a quarry from which they extracted stones to build a rail line connecting the neighboring town of Guaqui with La Paz.
Speaking of Andean stuff, Mrs. Renfield and I will be attending a lecture on Friday by Wade Davis (one of my favorite anthropologists) on the subject of Peru, at the Grosvenor Auditorium in the HQ of National Geographic in downtown DC. Wish you all could join us!
You bring me gum-gum?
Boy, I wish I could too.
If you have a Q & A session, will you ask him about the persistent stories about tall, light-skinned people, see my post #9, and, if there's nothing to them, why do they continue? If he thinks there's 'something to them', ask who they are and where did they come from. See post # 10 also. I'm sure he'll know the lady doing the skull work in that article.
The Spainiards did not have pHDs.
“Serpent and the Rainbow” author?
Yep...also author of “Shadows in the Sun”, one of my favorite books.
Something along the line of the article below.
Kuelap - The Machu Picchu Of Northern Peru (Chachapoyas - White, blonde haired people)
Any possibility of them being related to the Berbers?
I don't know. A lot of the Berber DNA came out of the Franco-Iberian refuge at the end of the last Ice Age.
Just a thought.
I agree.
I think the same of the Jomon/Ainu of Japan.
Yes, but are they fairhaired? Seems like I recall they are closer to the Ural/ middle steppes peoples with darker hair, etc.
Berbers were/are blonde/red/light haired, etc.
Just a thought.
"Lovelock, Nevada, is about eighty miles northeast of Reno. It was in a cave near here, in 1911, that guano miners found mummies, bones, and artifacts buried under four feet of bat excrement. The desiccated bodies belonged to a very tall people - with red hair. "
If you ask the Mormons, they will tell you those people were "Nephites" and "Lamanites", who Mormons say were Hebrews, as well as the American Indians were Hebrews.
The Spainiards did not have pHDs.
They also didn't write the article:
Spanish version - In claiming the heathen's treasure for Spain our brave Conquistadores have preserved this devil's bounty to the Glory of God and from future exploitation by either looting pagan PhD archeologists or the depleting, unscrupulous devil's spawn raiders of Tiwanaku.
Depleting, unscrupulous raiders of Tiwanaku version - We dig, we find, we take goodies, save shiney and interesting stuff for use by great peoples of proud, righteous liberators of Tiwanaku and not keep thingies hidden so that evil demon Spaniard or creepy leftist girly man archeologists no find same in future.
I think there is probably a clue in here:
Guanches-Canary Islands-DNA Project
"Indeed, the Guanches are deemed to be related to the Berbers of neighboring Morocco, who are, likewise, tall, blond and blue-eyed when unmixed with the Arab majority. Other specialists, however, believe that the Guanches are related to the Celts of Western Europe, the early realm of these races. No matter what, the Guanches represent a unique opportunity of studying the early peoples of this region."
My y-chromosome DNA is R1b.
The Chachapoya, distinguished by fair skin and great height, lived primarily on ridges and mountaintops in circular stone houses.
Thanks blam!
Excellent points.
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