Ancient Knowledge: Early Humans in Peru More Advanced Than We Thought

Early Humans in Peru More Advanced Than We ThoughtA groundbreaking discovery of an early sophisticated society was made by American scientists at Huaca Prieta, a site of a prehistoric settlement beside the Pacific Ocean in the Chicama Valley, Peru. The site is home to one of the earliest and largest pyramids in South America, and archaeologists often find traces of camping grounds of Indian ancestors who inhabited that part of the country about 5,000-8,000 years ago.

Conducting excavations at one of these mounds, archaeologists have excavated hundreds of thousands of artifacts, most of which are at least 8,000 years old, while some findings were created as early as 15,000 years ago.

For decades, scientists have been arguing about the origins of human society in Peru. According to a classic theory, people could have migrated to the Americas from Siberia to Alaska using the Beringian land bridge, which was located on the site of the modern Bering Strait during the last ice age. That means people could have crossed the land bridge not later than 12,000 years ago and could have eventually reach the southernmost point of South America about 11,000 years ago.

The newest findings, published in Science Advances magazine, indicate that coastal territories of modern Peru were inhabited 15,000 years ago, and prehistoric Peruvians had a much higher level of development that was believed. They were skillful enough to make intricate hand-woven baskets and fabrics, catch fish with hooks and harpoons and cultivate avocados, peas, pepper, pumpkins and even some medicinal plants.

"The mounds of artifacts retrieved from Huaca Prieta include food remains, stone tools and other cultural features such as ornate baskets and textiles, which really raise questions about the pace of the development of early humans in that region and their level of knowledge and the technology they used to exploit resources from both the land and the sea," said James Adovasio, co-author of the study and a world acclaimed archaeologist at Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch.

According to Adovasio, the society had a standardized or organized manufacturing process to produce textiles and baskets, which are much fancier than they needed to be for that time period. "Like so many of the materials that were excavated, even the baskets reflect a level of complexity that signals a more sophisticated society as well as the desire for and a means for showing social stature. All of these things together tell us that these early humans were engaged in very complicated social relationships with each other and that these fancy objects all bespeak that kind of social messaging," the expert noted.

It still remains unknown where those people came from. The final report of this excavation will be published in a book by the University of Texas Press later this summer.

Satellite Images May Have Solved the Mystery of Peru's Nazca Lines

Lovers of ancient wonders and viewers of History Channel’s Ancient Aliens, I have bad news for you. One of the Earth’s great mysterious man-made monuments may not be the handiwork of visitors from a galaxy far, far away after all, much to the chagrin of conspiracy theorists. Stories about ancient hot air balloons and snapshots of alien visits recorded in stone may be convenient for the sake of explaining Nazca’s incredible images of geometric plants and animals, a well-preserved, large-scale series of geoglyphs carved into the Peruvian desert which can only be seen in their entirety from above. But now, new satellite imagery may shed light on the UNESCO World Heritage site’s true purpose: water irrigation.

In a recent episode of Motherboard’s podcast “Science Solved It,” senior researcher Rosa Lasaponara of the National Research Council in Rome tells Vice that satellite images of the site link the unusual designs - which are believed to have been created between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D. - to a series of spiral-shaped holes nearby called puquios. The holes, she says, were used for irrigation, and fed into an intricate underground aqueduct system that allowed the Nazca “to transform the desert into a garden.”

Further evaluation of the satellite imagery, which can detect not only existing formations on the surface but the remnants of former structures as well, suggest that the Nazca built a sophisticated system of settles and canals in the region, and that the landscape would have appeared far more cultivated and lush than arid desert it is today.

Puquios - spiral-formations dug into the ground - can be found near Peru's famous Nazca lines. Wikimedia Commons

On the million dollar question - why did the Nazca create their giant designs, and for whom? - Lasaponara believes that the imagery may have been a way to give thanks to the gods for bringing water to the valley.

Also appearing on Motherboard’s podcast is Atlas Obscura co-founder Dylan Thuras, who provide background on three of the more outlandish, but still widely popular, theories about the lines, some of which postulate the imagery was a marking system for astrological phenomenon, meditative ceremonial walking paths or an artistic collaboration between the Nazca and visiting aliens.

“If you only look at it in one framework, that it’s a giant carving to be seen from above, you get completely hung up on trying to figure out how it was possible,” Thuras told Vice. “But if you understand its relation to water sources, it doesn’t seem so impossible.”

Alas, Lasaponara and her colleagues findings suggest an even more exiciting possibility than aliens, if such a thing is possible: that the Nazca were a far more sophisticated civilization than previously believed.

Viracocha's Astronomical Creation Engine

3,500 years ago, the southern shores of Lake Titicaca, situated in La Paz, Bolivia, were inhabited by the Tiwanaku culture who built stone super-structures such as; the Akapana, Pumapunku, the Kalasasaya and the Semi-Subterranean Temple. The Inca civilization later dominated the Peruvian Andes between the 13th and 16th century and inherited Tiwanaku cosmology, religion and traditions.

South shores of Lake Titicaca (Diego Delso, delso.photo/CC BY-SA 4.0 )

Supreme Creator and The First Man

According to a creation myth recorded by 16th century Spanish chronicler Juan Diez de Betanzos, the Inca's supreme-creator god Con Tici Viracocha rose from Lake Titicaca "during the time of darkness to bring forth light." Most often described as an old man with fair-skin and a beard, wearing a long robe and carrying a staff and a book, after crafting the sun, moon, planets and stars from islands on Lake Titicaca he created "a race of brainless giants from stone," which he destroyed with a great flood. Viracocha then used clay and successfully forged the first man, Manco Capac (meaning: splendid foundation) the son of Inti the son god, and his sister Mama Uqllu, which means "mother fertility".

Manco Capac, detail of 'Genealogy of the Incas' ( Public Domain )

Walking north from Lake Titicaca with a golden staff called 'tapac-yauri' when they reached the Cusco Valley the golden staff sank into the ground, founding the Inca civilization, the royal blood line of Sapo Incas, and the center of what would later become the Coricancha Temple of the Sun, a gold-plated super-structure of worship.

Depiction of Inca emperor Pachacuti worshipping Inti in the Coricancha ( Public Domain )

Having given his people language, emotions, civilization, agriculture and the arts, Viracocha then created all the animals and finally set the universe in motion before "journeying to the north-west, teaching humanity and the arts before he walked across the Pacific Ocean, promising one day to return to Lake Titicaca."

Nine generations after Manco Capac founded Cusco with his golden staff, chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega tells us the 9th Inca ruler Sapa Inca Pachacuti created the Inti Raymi (Quechua for "sun festival") to celebrate the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, and new year in the Andes of the Southern Hemisphere. The Inti Raymi honored the sun god Inti, one of the most venerated deities in Inca religion, and the ceremony also honored the special day upon which Viracocha created Manco Inca, the father of the royal Inca bloodline.

Inti Raymi (Festival of the Sun) at Sacsayhuaman,Cusco ( Cyntia Motta/CC BY-SA 3.0)

In all of the numerous versions of the Inca creation myth, Viracocha's creation event occurred on the June solstice, when the agricultural, civic and ceremonial calendars came to an annual close - the New Year. In Peru, the June solstice sun rises at 65° east of north and sets at 295° north west. Local variations to these astronomical angles were made to account for differing altitudes and obstructions on the horizon.

On this special date, the sun was believed to calibrate, and power-up, the national ceke line system of 41 invisible, long-distance alignments which emanated from the Coricancha Temple of the Sun in Cusco, and across the Inca empire. This radial matrix of alignments was pinned onto the landscape with sacred sites called huacas. Perceived as flowing with male and female creation energy, the ceke lines not only united the spiritual focus of a nation but they also served as an accurate calendrical and time device, and the knowledge of how to use or read such a semi-mythical machine was highly-guarded by the high priests of the Coricancha.

The Inca's Solar-Earth Empire

Andean cosmovision is a term used to describe how ancient Andean cultures viewed time and space. Inca people nurtured a complex polytheistic and animistic world view in which all agricultural, ritual and ceremonial calendars began/ended on the June solstice. The sunlight and the resulting shadows observed at the solstice sunrise were highly spiritualized, and to fulfil their full sacred potential they were extended across landscapes by teams of specialist astronomer-priests, highly-trained in the sacred crafts of measuring time and distance.

Knot Writing: Incas Used Khipus To Communicate With Textiles

We know cave drawings told stories and were a means of communications. But what about macrame? A researcher at St. Andrews University in Scotland says that’s exactly how Inca’s transmitted letters.

In a paper published Monday for the April 9 edition of the journal Current Anthropology, anthropologist Sabine Hyland of the St. Andrews Department of Social Anthropology examined two khipus preserved by a village in Peru that villagers said were sacred texts about warfare.

The various ways of twisting and knotting animal hairs an cotton fibers and colors contained 95 symbols that amounted to writing. The khipus even contained names at the bottom, formed by distinct fibers, colors produced by dies and ply direction.

Spanish witnesses long claimed khipus contained historical narratives, biographies and epistles, but scholars dismissed them as memory aids, providing simple mnemonic tools rather than providing a writing system to preserve information.

“I examined two khipus safeguarded by indigenous authorities in the remote Andean village of San Juan de Collata,” Hyland wrote. “Village leaders state that these khipus are narrative epistles about warfare created by local chiefs. The existence of epistles, comprehensible to recipients, implies a shared communication system.”

People in seven central Andean villages still hold khipus, mostly as a historic legacy rather than a means of communication. Some are used for accounting purposes.

“In Collata, the khipus were stored in a sacred wooden box containing over 100 manuscripts. … The khipus show little evidence of felting, indicating that they have not been handled frequently. While highly valued, the manuscripts are not generally consulted in village affairs, although one senior man reads through them in his spare time. … Collata is the only village in the Andes where colonial manuscripts and khipus are known to be preserved together in the same archive,” Hyland said.

The existence of the box was a well-guarded secret among village elders until recently. The preserved khipus were created in the 18th century around the time of the rebellions against the Spanish conquerors.

“Evidence suggests that Andeans composed khipu epistles during the rebellions to ensure secrecy and affirm cultural legitimacy. … Spanish chroniclers … stated that Inca runners, known as chasquis, carried khipus as letters during the Inca period,” Hyland wrote.

The Inca used khipus to communicate. Photo: Ellen Macdonald/Flickr

About 600 khipus similar to those found in Collata can be found in museums and private collections around the world. Several have been classified as fakes because they deviate from what was considered the norm. Hyland said they probably should be re-examined in light of her research.

Harvard University archaeologist Gary Urtontold ScienceNews, however, Hyland’s work will do little to decipher the khipus, even though she was able to make out the name “Alluka,” a family name in Collata, at the end of three cords.

The khipu database project at Harvarddescribes the artifacts as “record-keeping devices” used by the Inca empire, which stretched from Ecuador to Chile, from about 1400 through the Spanish conquest of Peru in 1532.

“The word khipu comes from the Quechua word for knot and denotes both singular and plural. Khipu are textile artifacts composed of cords of cotton or occasionally camelid fiber,” the database says. “The cords are arranged such that there is one main cord, called a primary cord, from which many pendant cords hang. There may be additional cords attached to a pendant cord; these are termed subsidiaries. Some khipu have up to 10 or 12 levels of subsidiaries” and when rolled for easy transport, resemble a mop.

Mystifying mummy found in Peru raises questions

Mystifying mummy found in Peru raises questions

A rather fascinating discovery has been made in the country of Peru recently. Author and speaker L. A. Marzulli made his way to a private museum that suffered from earthquake damage. With permission and contacts, he was able to enter this location along with his cameraman.

They photographed a rather unusual mummy, enclosed inside a glass case. They were not allowed to record video of it yet, as a team of researchers were currently examining the mummy. It is unlike anything else ever seen before. The dimensions of the body, are quite different. The skull is elongated and large to be that of a normal-sized human being.

The spine protrudes from the skin substantially, beyond taking into account the deterioration of the corpse. With a few photos, it is easy to see just how bizarre the spine of this mummy is—from different angles.

All of this is suggests, that this mummy may actually be an entirely different species from us and what we deem to be alien. The assumption is this mummy has a longer spine than a human and being able to see it under an X-ray machine would further provide more information.

Seen in the video, L. A. Marzulli makes mention that perhaps this specimen—may well be that of a Nephilim. The Nephilim are the offspring, the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men” before the Deluge, according to Genesis 6:4 a passage from the Bible.

“When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the Lord said, ‘My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.’ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.” (Genesis 6:1-4, New Revised Standard Version)

Apparently, Peru has previously been a hot spot for giants and other oddities. There are a number of privatized museums which exist. These museums, have quietly been collecting rare specimen’s from around the world without sharing the remains and artifacts with the rest of humanity.

Many wonder what the reasoning of this is. Perhaps there are a very select few, who know more than the rest of us with the newfound information they have obtained.

L. A. Marzulli has followed the paranormal and fringe type cases for years. As a researcher, he has become a part of the paranormal community with his writings, radio and television appearances.

The Sayhuite Stone - A massive boulder with over 200 Geometric and zoomorphic figures

Located at the Sayhuite archaeological site in Peru - around 3 hours away from the city of Cusco - we find one of the most mysterious boulders in Peru.

According to experts, this archaeological site was a sanctuary related to the cult of water, where a temple existed that legends describe as being covered with gold sheets of the thickness of a hand, and while many archaeological remains have been found there, the strangest one of all is the Sayhuite stone - a massive rock covered with more than 200 geometric and zoomorphic figures.

When the Spanish conquistadores arrived in Sayhuite - according to John Hemming in his book Monuments of the Incas - the temple was ruled by the priestess Asarpay who, before being captured, threw herself from the top of a 400-meter high waterfall.

The remains of the temple show no traces of the gold, but the entire archaeological site is covered with massive andesite blocks and stairways that offer a small glimpse into the past as if they belonged to a much larger construction that existed there at one point.

But let's get back to the Sayhuite stone.

The most mysterious blocks on the site is without a doubt the Sayhuite Stone - a huge monolith on which the ancients carved hundreds of geometric and zoomorphic reliefs, such as reptiles, frogs, and felines. The stone is about two meters long and four meters wide.

It was found at the top of the Concacha hill, and experts believe it was used as some sort of topographic model for hydraulics. Carved on the stone you can clearly distinguish terraces, ponds, rivers, tunnels and irrigation canals.

While the exact function of the Sayhuite stone remain a mystery, researcher Dr. Arlan Andrews believes that this monolith was used as a scale model to design, develop, test, and document the properties of water flow for public water projects, and to instruct ancient engineers and technicians in the concepts and practices of the craft.

Experts believe that the stone has been remodeled several times, and the ancients added and removed several elements, changing the water flow.

While there are several theories that describe its function, many experts agree that the massive stone most likely had a religious use, perhaps a symbolic representation of the universe, and or related to the cult of water. Whoever created the massive stone is another massive mystery. Although it is known for sure that the place was an Inca sanctuary, archaeologists are not sure that the ancient Inca were the constructors.

It has been speculated that it could also be a representation of the irrigation system used by the Incas and even a scale model of their entire empire with each of the regions represented with certain symbols. The jungles would be represented by the presence of animals like monkeys, iguanas or jaguars, whereas the coast is symbolized with animals like octopuses.

While the Sayhuite stone remains shrouded in mystery, it provides archaeologists with insight into the culture of the pre-Columbian population. Archaeologists have determined that the site was an Incan religious center, where rituals and ceremonies for the worship of water was conducted. The monolith is an important clue to this since it depicts a water-like flow between the carvings.