© 2016 BBC
Brilio.net/en - The view is beyond breathtaking: high above the shadows of the highlands in the northwestern Andes, over the dense Amazon jungle, a stunning mirror-like mountain lake is hiding a 500-year old secret, waiting for curious explorers to reveal it.
Laguna de Los Condores, also known as Laguna de las Momias is a home to a large number of Incan painted mausoleums, engraved onto the walls of a craggy cave that emerges out of a lagoon. In the darkness of each mausoleum lies a mummy in a seated position, as if waiting for something to come, or someone to find it. Those mummies wrapped in both plain and decorated textiles, which formerly worn by the ancient royalties.
Image byKrista Eleftheriou
The lagoon is located on a remote strip of land in northern Peru, known as the Chachapoyas region. This is one of the countrys most important Inca sites since 1997 when archeologists discovered hundreds of mausoleum that were home to mummies, as well as ceramics and other artifacts that traced back to the Incas.
Image viaflickr
Most of these preserved corpses were relocated to the nearby Leymebamba Museum, but thousands are thought to wait silently in 17 other mausoleums hidden in the jungle-covered mountains. They might be waiting for quite some time due to the high cost of archaeology work in this remote region.
Despite its natural charm, only 150 hikers trek this little-known spot each year. But more visitors are likely to come with the construction of Peru's first cable car to the nearby archaeological site of Kuelap.
The Machu Picchu of the north
The fortress of Kuelap byMichael John von Horsten Alamy
Situated just 80 kilometers from the north of Laguna de Los Condores, lies remainings of the ancient monuments, the fortress of Kuelap. This place, also known as the Machu Picchu of the north, was a religious and political centre for the pre-Inca Chachapoyan. This lonely place, as well as the entire Chachapoyas area, will eventually see increasing numbers of visitors in the coming months and years, thanks to the July 2016 opening of the cable car along with plans to start commercial flights to the region.
As mentioned by a bio-anthropologist Dr. Sonia Guillen, Peru's leading expert on mummies, the Laguna de Los Condores excavation is one of the most important discoveries relating to the Inca period in South America. It is one of only two known large Inca burial sites which escaped devastation by the Spanish conquistadors.
The finding was sort of a miracle, said Guillen to BBC journalist Krista Eleftheriou at the Leymebamba Museum. These mummies are very significant because they are the first to show us how the Incas prepared their dead in a royal way. They cured the skin to preserve it and made it into leather and they extracted the organs through the anus.
Dr. Sonia Guillen (Photo:Krista Eleftheriou)
The mummified corpse was then wrapped in woven textiles and surrounded with artefacts and offerings, such as pots, feathers, woven baskets and quipus. The last one has knotted Inca tools that recorded stories and accounting.
The royal mummies
The royal mummies byKrista Eleftheriou
According to Dr. Guillen, the Laguna de Los Condores mummies were likely royalties, or at least held high positions in Inca society. An elaborate burial process was devoted to them, and neither wear nor tear was found on the bones, which is usually found in the commoners remains. Reputedly, the Incans mummified their royalties to keep them connected with the community.
The Incas revered their royal dead because they were still very much part of the world of the living, Guillen said. The Inca mummy participated in meetings, still held property and made decisions.
As Guillen took Eleftheriou around, they saw rows of mummies lined the museums shelves, wrapped in the traditional funeral dressing, others with their skeletons visible, their bodies arranged in the fetal position. Things you will also see (and maybe take with camera) in your future visit.
"Each mummy can tell you a story. This guy died when he was 17 or 18 years old; we know that because of his teeth," she said, pointing out one of the bodies. "He was a bird catcher because his body is wrapped in nets.
Feathers were of high value in Inca society and a bird catcher was a prestigious role.
According to Guillen, burial sites such as the Laguna de Los Condores mausoleums were crucial to the Incas' success in taking control of the region, culture and the people, as they replaced the Chachapoyan way of burial with the Inca tradition of mummification.
"When the Incas conquered this area, they replaced the funerary pattern. They emptied the mausoleums (once filled with pre-Inca Chachapoya deads) and conquered their spirit by conquering their sacred places," she said.
It remains a mystery why such a beautiful place that once a home for a flourishing civilization for more than 500 years could be abandoned during the Spanish conquest, reclaimed by nature and sat hidden for half a millennium.
Source: BBC
(brl/tis)
