[Aztlan] Large and important Chachapoyas burial site found

[michael ruggeri]

Peru finds ancient burial cave of warrior tribe

By Robin Emmott




Archeologists have uncovered a 600-year-old, large underground  
cemetery belonging to a Peruvian warrior culture, thought to be the  
first discovery of its kind, an official said on Thursday.

After a tip-off from a farmer in Peru's northern Amazon jungle,  
archeologists from Peru's National Culture Institute last week found  
the 820-feet-(250-meter)deep cave that was used for burial and  
worship by the Chachapoyas tribe.

So far archeologists have found five mummies, two of which are intact  
with skin and hair, as well as ceramics, textiles and wall paintings,  
the expedition's leader and regional cultural director Herman Corbera  
told Reuters.

"This is a discovery of transcendental importance. We have found  
these five mummies but I believe there could be many more," Corbera  
said. "We think this 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 added.

The Chacapoyas, a white-skinned tribe known as the "Cloud People" by  
the Incas because of the cloud forests they inhabited in northern  
Peru, ruled the area from around 800 AD to around 1475, when they  
were conquered by the Incas.

GREAT WARRIORS

But their strong resistance to the Incas, who built an empire ranging  
from northern Ecuador to southern Chile from the 1400s until the  
Spanish conquest of the 1530s, earned them a reputation as great  
warriors.

They are best-known today by tourists for their stone citadel Kuelap,  
near the modern town of Chachapoyas.

In 1996, archeologists found six ancient burial houses containing  
several mummies, thought to belong to the Chachapoyas.

"The remote site for this cemetery tells us that the Chachapoyas had  
enormous respect for their ancestors because they hid them away for  
protection," Corbera said.

"Locals call the cave Iyacyecuj, or Enchanted Water in Quechua,  
because of its spiritual importance and its underground rivers," he  
added.

Corbera said the 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.

"The idea now is to turn this cave into a museum, but we've got a  
huge amount of research to do first and protecting the site is a big  
issue," Corbera said, adding that looters had already vandalized a  
small part of the cave in search of mummies or gold.

Archeologists have uncovered thousands of mummies in Peru in recent  
years, mostly from the Inca culture five centuries ago, including  
about 2,000 unearthed from under a shantytown near the capital Lima  
in 2002.

One of Peru's most famous mummies is "Juanita the Ice Maiden," a girl  
preserved in ice on a mountain.





Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited.



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