ladykrampus reblogged
ladykrampus reblogged
Embossed ball made of lead and silver
Peru. Chincha. 10th to 15th century AD
H. 2 15/16 in. (7.38 cm)
#arqueologia#peru#chincha#andes#lead#silver#andean#metallurgy#metalworking#art#arte#history#historia#archaeology#tlatollotl#24th#February#2016#February 24th 2016#make it look like i'm still on#most tags not mine#tags preserved for the commentary of the OP only#or index and search features of this blog
ladykrampus reblogged
The Cemetery of Chauchilla
Located 30km away from Nazca, Peru, Chauchilla contains pre-Columbian mummified human remains and offerings. It was last used in the 9th century AD with burials beginning around 200 AD. The cemetery has been extensively plundered by huaqueros (grave robbers) who leave the bones and pottery fragments scattered on the surface.
ladykrampus reblogged
ladykrampus reblogged
Feline and Cactus Stirrup Vessel
Peru. Chavin. 900 BC to 200 BC.
This Tembladera-style Chavín work depicts a feline rendered in relatively high relief, alternating with a cactus form that may refer to the hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus. Chavín is considered the mother civilization of the South-American Andes, and is often compared to the Olmec of Mexico in that both cultures established many patterns of art, architecture, and culture by 1000 BC, that prevailed until the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century. Stirrup-spout vessels like this example were made by the Chavín (and many other South-American peoples) using a number of molds, with details modeled by hand. Although we do not know what was stored in these vessels, suggestions include corn beer or “chicha,” a native Andean fermented beverage. Chavín stirrup-spout vessels vary in both their architecture (spout-width, shape, direction) and type of decoration. Many combine incised design with modeled form, as in this example. Felines of the type depicted on this vessel were important in Chavín art and culture because they were associated with the ruling houses. In nature such animals are often excellent hunters who occupy the top of the food chain, qualities also valued in human rulers. Felines, like jaguars and pumas, were also thought to enjoy great spiritual force; shamans were believed to transform into such creatures.
ladykrampus reblogged
Female Effigy Figure
Sperm whale tooth, shell, hair.
South Coast, Peru. Nazca. Date unknown.
Andean civilization is renowned for spectacular textiles that were at the heart of social politics and economics from earliest times. The fiber arts permeated all facets of daily existence, from clothing to protect the body to bridges spanning treacherous gorges. The form, materials, quality, and decorative imagery on clothing conveyed a person’s social status or political affiliation and even recounted his or her specific accomplishments on behalf of the state. This female figure originally was dressed in clothing appropriate to her meaning as an offering - perhaps a building dedication cache or ritual deposit at a huaca, a sacred location where divine forces are concentrated. Coastal Andean peoples were keen observers of the vast ocean world. The Nazca, in particular, relied heavily on marine resources for food and materials for a variety of uses, such as the whale tooth from which this captivating lady was carved. The salty ocean and its unusual creatures constituted a dyadic opposition to the earth with its fresh waters. The carving of a ritual figurine from the tooth of a gigantic marine creature certainly carried extra spiritual significance. The authenticity of this figurine is now in question. Though the materials used are in keeping with those used by the ancient Nasca, recent discussions with scholars in the field in both United States and in Peru suggest that this type of figurine is not part of the known iconographic repertoire of the Nazca peoples of ancient Peru.
ladykrampus reblogged
Archaeologists in Peru thought they had discovered something special when they uncovered the tomb of a pre-Inca priestess and eight other corpses in 2011. But an even bigger find was right beneath their feet.
Continuing their search for artifacts a year later, the team dug beneath the priestess, uncovering a basement tomb they believe was built by an ancient water cult and meant to flood.
“This is a very valuable finding,” said Carlos Wester La Torre, head of the excavation and director of the Brüning National Archaeological Museum in the Lambayeque region—a region named after the little-known culture that built the stacked tomb. “The amount of information of this funerary complex is very important, because it changes [what we know of] the political and religious structures of the Andean region.”
The nearly 800-year-old basement burial sheds light on complex Lambayeque social structures and on the worship of water in the culture.
Four sets of waterlogged human remains were found in the flooded tomb, one adorned with pearl and shell beads—indicators of wealth or status. The other three corpses likely were intended to accompany the body into the next world.
The faces of both elite individuals, in the lower and upper tombs, were covered with copper sheets, and wore earspools bearing similar, wavelike designs.
While other saturated burial sites have been discovered in the region, this is the first documented discovery of a stacked grave holding revered people, according to archaeologist Izumi Shimada, a Lambayeque expert at Southern Illinois University who was not part of the excavation team.
A diagram shows a recently unearthed stacked grave of Lambayeque elites. The priestess on the first floor was found seated, while bodies on the bottom floor were found lying down, below the water table (marked by a dotted line).
Water Worship
The Lambayeque, sometimes called the Sicán, had carved out a home along the drought-prone Peruvian coast nearly a hundred years before the Inca arrived.
The stacked tomb sits in a sprawling ceremonial complex called Chotuna-Chornancap, close to the modern city of Chiclayo. The spiritual center’s coastal location, water-themed art, and recently discovered grave may help round out the creation story of the Lambayeque.
According to folklore, their mythical founder, Naymlap, arrived on a raft from the sea and walked on crushed Spondylus shells—a ritual item treasured throughout the Andes. When he died he turned into a bird.
“These concepts—birds and water—are part of their beliefs and help them understand life and death,” dig leader Wester La Torre said.
The watery grave contained piles of shells and wave-embossed gold earspools—more evidence of the importance of water to the Lambayeque.
They knew the tomb—located below the water table, where the ground is always saturated—would flood, Wester La Torre said. They likely wanted it to flood, he added, perhaps to ensure the region’s agricultural fertility.
This Lambayeque, after all, thrived for nearly 600 years—from A.D. 800 to 1375—in a mercurial environment. To grow food in the desert, they built complex and extensive irrigation systems. And rare periods of torrential rain could wreak nearly as much havoc as the persistent aridity.
The practice of a groundwater burial could also link the Lambayeque to that later Andean culture, the Inca, Wester La Torre said. “The Inca believed that the dead became a seed, which sprouted new life,” he explained. “The way that this person was buried suggests the same process of fertilization, in which the seed, the person, is reborn.”
Stacked Burial
Nearly a year ago, Wester La Torre discovered the first tomb 16 feet (5 meters) underground. While digging deeper for artifacts, his team found the lower tomb under the water table, at that time just 20 feet (6 meters) below the surface.
Stacked burials are highly unusual in Andean archaeology, according to Wester La Torre and Shimada. Typically elite tombs are found in isolation.
While archaeologists have not yet determined the sex of the person in the flooded tomb, Wester La Torre said the individual may have been related to the important woman overhead. Alternatively, the two may have shared a religious, commercial, or political relationship, such as a succession of power.
Changing Tides
While Wester La Torre is confident that the Lambayeque intentionally placed the grave in groundwater, other archaeologists question whether the tomb actually flooded during Lambayeque times. The area water table, they note, fluctuates with rainfall and irrigation levels.
Some archaeologists say modern agriculture may have raised the water table, meaning the original grave would have been dry. The more cropland farmers irrigate, the more run-off they see percolating into the soil and underground reservoirs.
“What we don’t really know is the water table 800 years ago,” says Southern Illinois University’s Shimada. “We don’t know where it was.”
Regardless of water levels, Shimada said, “the single most important aspect of this superimposed tomb is that both [burials] date to a time period that is still not well known. It is one of the very few elite tombs dating to the Late Sicán.”
Having reached the height of their power, the Sicán were buffeted by a drought and huge flood roughly around A.D. 1100.
The disasters launched the culture into a “period of chaos and decline,” Shimada said. The capital moved to a new location, and the civilization entered its late period.
Although the Lambayeque’s territory shrank, their society remained a power in the region, archaeologists say—and the new tomb discovery appears to back them up.
“The tomb suggests that, indeed, shortly after the series of natural disasters … ,” Shimada said, “they maintained a great deal of wealth.”
ladykrampus reblogged
A 500-year-old frozen Incan mummy suffered from a bacterial lung infection at the time of its death, as revealed by a novel proteomics method that shows evidence of an active pathogenic infection in an ancient sample for the first time.
The full report is published July 25 in the open access journal PLoS ONE.
Detecting diseases in ancient remains is often fraught with difficulty, especially because of contamination. Techniques based on microbe DNA can easily be confused by environmental contamination, and they can only confirm that the pathogen was present, not that the person was infected, but the researchers behind the study, led by Angelique Corthals of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, found a way around this problem. They used proteomics, focusing on protein rather than DNA remains, to profile immune system response from degraded samples taken from 500 year-old mummies.
The team swabbed the lips of two Andean Inca mummies, buried at 22,000-feet elevation and originally discovered in 1999, and compared the proteins they found to large databases of the human genome. They found that the protein profile from the mummy of a 15-year old girl, called “The Maiden,” was similar to that of chronic respiratory infection patients, and the analysis of the DNA showed the presence of probably pathogenic bacteria in the genus Mycobacterium, responsible for upper respiratory tract infections and tuberculosis. In addition, X-rays of the lungs of the Maiden showed signs of lung infection at the time of death. Proteomics, DNA, and x-rays from another mummy found together with the Maiden did not show signs of respiratory infection.
“Pathogen detection in ancient tissues isn’t new, but until now it’s been impossible to say whether the infectious agent was latent or active,” says Corthals. “Our technique opens a new door to solving some of history’s biggest mysteries, such as the reasons why the flu of 1918 was so devastating. It will also enhance our understanding of our future’s greatest threats, such as the emergence of new infectious agents or re-emergence of known infectious diseases.”
“Our study is the first of its kind since rather than looking for the pathogen, which is notoriously difficult to do in historical samples, we are looking at the immune system protein profile of the “patient,” which more accurately tells us that there was indeed an infection at the time of death.” or “Our study opens the door to solving many historical and current biomedical and forensic mysteries, from understanding why the plague of 1918 was so lethal, to finding out which pathogen is responsible for death in cases of multiple infections.”