In my post on engraved stones, better known as "Stone Plaquettes", where I mentioned Father Molina's theory of an "Oceanian" (Polynesian) origin for them, I included the stone pictured below. I was intrigued by the "letters" (or symbols that resemble letters) engraved on the top of the stone tool, which is unique among all the native artifacts I have seen to date. So, I tried to learn more about it. This post is about what I learned during my investigation.
The Story Behind this Axe
I came across an interesting paper on stone axes (Source) which mentions this particular artifact.
Argentine anthropologist and professor, Milcíades Alejo Vignati (1895-1978), studied several Patagonian sites and his studies identified the Gennakenk (Northern Tehuelche) people and culture. He investigated many objects and artifacts that were held in private collections by local farmers and ranchers. In a letter written in the late 1930s, he asked a teacher living in Carmen de Patagones, Mrs. Emma Nozzi, to track down some stone axes he had first seen in 1916. He gave her the details of eight of them, one of which was this strange axe.
Local rancher Juan P. Martín had two artifacts. Nozzi wrote back to him with the information, and said:
"the axes that belonged to D[on] P. Martín are kept by his daugher Doña Julia M. de Serrano. I have held the pieces in nmy hands, both very interesting, but “they will not go out of the house of their owner”. Her father did not allow it, neither will she. They were found at "Los Duraznos" -Guardia Mitre- and photographed by the professor German Fish. If you wanted to study them your only option would be to meet the owner, extremely possessive, yet friendly and elegant like the ancient Maragatos [people who founded the town, and came from a region in León, Spain, called Maragatería] that history tells us about. During her youth she explored her father's fields, and for this reason it would be very interesting for you to talk with Mrs. Serrano."
Evidently Molina managed to see the axe in the early 1970s while he prepared his book, "Patagónica". But Vignati never published any article about it.
Trying to track down Mrs. Serrano, I found out that her maiden name was not Martín, instead, it was Martini. The Martinis were part of the "upper class" of the town of Carmen de Patagones. Mrs. Martini wass born as Julia Martini, on Sept. 5, 1890. She died in 1960. She married Pedro Antonio Serrano in 1916, he was the Governor of the Río Negro Territory from 1913 to 1916. Her father, the owner of the ranch in Guardia Mitre was her father Juan Pedro Domingo Martini (b.1859), her mother was Leopoldina Secundina Miguel. Her eldest brother was Mayor of Carmen de Patagones (1929-30), and she had two other brothers, and two sisters. (Source)
Emma Nozzi continued working as a teacher, but she got more involved in anthropology and archaeology and eventually wound up as the Director of the Carmen de Patagones Museum which she had helped create in 1951, with a collection of artifacts that she had gathered and obtained for the Museum, as donations. (See this bio of Nozzi). In 1991, the Museum was renamed after her.
The museum's website does not provide much information about its collections. I asked them if the de Serrano collection objects form part of their current inventory. The museum replied, thanking me for the context that I had provided in my information request, and confirmed that they do have this piece in their collection ("Dear Austin, Thank you for your message and for all the information you shared; it really provides some very interesting context. We can confirm that we have an axe in our collection that matches the description you provided. We don't have any further information to add at this time, but we appreciate your inquiry and are interested in receiving any information you may have. We remain available to continue exchanging information or references on this and other topics related to the region. Best regards.")
What is it?
The use given to these engraved stone plaquettes, stones axes or adzes remains a mystery. Several theories have been proposed, below are some of them:
- "Models or schemes of textiles, especially ponchos." A design template for weaving ponchos. This theory was put forward by Hector Greslebin in 1928. (Nueva hipótesis sobre el destino de las placas grabadas de la Patagonia prehistorica, Physis, Revista de la Sociedad Argentina de Ciencias Naturales, Vol IX, 1928-29 pp.223-233). Greslebin noted that one of the plaquettes was found beside a spindle whorl, suggesting they were used together.
- They were spades or shovels, used to dig. Vignati wrote an article about this use (Vignati, Milciades A. 1923. Las llamadas hachas patagonicas, Descripcion. de ejemplares y nueva interpretacion, Comunicaciones del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural Bernardino Rivadavia, vol. II (1923-1925), no. 3, pp.17-44.) concluding that:
"1. The so-called Patagonian "axes" are suitable for digging the earth and would have been used to prepare graves;
2. In addition to being a tool, they can be considered a distinctive mark of the women who carried out the funeral ceremonies. The ornamental designs presuppose a value for the axes that transcends their simple utilitarian purpose;
3. The graves where axes are found probably belong to women who were buried with the tool and as a symbol of their profession."
The symbols on this axe
The Tehuelche people who lived along the Negro River in the area close to Guardia Mitre, where the adze was found, did not have any form of writing or script. Their neighbors, the araucanized Puelche people, and the Mapuche from the upper Rio Negro valley also lacked writing.
The natives had symbols, and designs that they painted on their guanaco-fur blankets, known as quillangos. They also scratched them on the stone plaquettes. Lacking ceramics, they did not use them to decorate baked clayware.
To interpret the inscription on this axe we have to define which is the top and which is the bottom. As shown in the figure below:
The symbols resemble the following text: Z ſ S I ❯ K, or, if inverted, Ʞ ❮ I S ȷ Z.
The "inverted, or backward K" does not exist as a letter in Spanish. The "long s" (ſ) and the inverted C or "greater than" (❯) symbols are not used in that language either.
And they are not Polynesian symbols either. The Rongorongo script found in Easter Island (Rapa Nui) uses glyphs that do not resemble letters, and neither do the Hawaiian petroglyphs from Waianae. Molina's conjecture of an "Oceanian" origin does not seem to apply to this artifact.
The symbols are not punic in case you suspect some Phoenician or Carthaginian envoys visiting Patagonia in the distant past. Yes, you could argue that the K is an aleph (𐤀), the inverted K is kaf ( 𐤊), the S is a nun (𐤍), the C ia a lamed (𐤋), and the inverted C, a pé (𐤐), but there is no Z character in punic.
I believe that the text is just a mimicry of Latin symbols, and meaningless, probably used to evoke the power of the Spanish conquerors.
Further reading
The following article contains plenty of information on axes and plaquettes that were discovered in Patagonia:
R. Lehmann-Nitsche, (1909). Hachas y placas para ceremonias procedentes de Patagonia, Revista del Museo de La Plata, Vol. XVI (2da Serie V.III), p.204.
Below is one of the many figures included in this paper:
That same issue has an interesting article by Lehmann-Nitsche on the ceremonial stone head-shaped clubs, or clava from Chile and Argentina (Clavas Cefalomorfas de piedra procedentes de Chile y de la Argentina, p. 150).
The following image of a clava is from this article:
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025by Austin Whittall ©
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