Humboldt on Transatlantic pre-Columbian contact in America: Amalivaca

Continuing with some interesting information published by von Humboldt (see my previous post on pygmies and white indians), today's post will look into his comments on an ancient god who reached the interior of Venezuela, by boat, coming from a distant land beyond the ocean.

During his journey along the Orinoco in Venezuela in the year 1800, Humboldt described the myth of Amalivaca. Below is the relevant text from his work Personal narrative of travels to the equinoctial regions of the New Continent during the years 1799-1804.

This text can be found on page 597:

"All mankind or to speak more correctly all the Tamanacs were drowned with the exception of one man and one woman who saved themselves on a mountain near the banks of the Asiveru called Cuchivero by the Spaniards. This mountain is the Ararat of the Aramean or Semitic nations and the Tlaloc or Colhuacan of the Mexicans. Amalivaca sailing in his bark engraved the figures of the moon and the sun on the Painted Rock Tepumereme of Encaramada. Some blocks of granite piled upon one another and forming a kind of cavern are still called the house or dwelling of the great forefather of the Tamanacs. The natives show also a large stone near this cavern in the plains of Maita which they say was an instrument of music the drum of Amalivaca. We must here observe that this heroic personage had a brother Vochi who helped him to give the surface of the earth its present form. The Tamanacs relate that the two brothers in their system of perfectibility sought at first to arrange the Orinoco in such a manner that the current of the water could always be followed either going down or going up the river. They hoped by this means to spare men trouble in navigating rivers but however great the power of these regenerators of the world they could never contrive to give a double slope to the Orinoco and were compelled to relinquish this singular plan.
Amalivaca had daughters, who had a decided taste for travelling. The tradition says, no doubt in a figurative style, that he broke their legs, to render them sedentary, and force them to people the land of the Tamanacs. After having regulated every thing in America, on that side of the great water, Amalivaca again embarked, and “returned to the other shore,” to the same place from which he came. Since the natives have seen the missionaries arrive, they imagine, that Europe is this other shore; and one of them inquired with great simplicity of father Gili, whether he had seen the great Amalivaca yonder, the father of the Tamanacs, who had covered the rocks with symbolic figures.
These notions of a great cataclysm; of a couple saved on the summit of a mountain, and throwing behind them the fruits of the mauritia palm-tree, to repeople the Earth; of that national divinity, Amalivaca, who arrived by water from a distant land, prescribed laws to nature, and forced the nations to renounce their migrations; these various features of a very ancient system of belief, are well worthy to fix our attention. What the Tamanacs, and the tribes whose languages are analogous to the Tamanac tongue, now relate to us, they have no doubt learned from other people, who inhabited before them the same regions. The name of Amalivaca is spread over a region of more than five thousand square leagues; it is found designating the father of mankind (our great grandfather) as far as to the Caribbee nations, whose idiom approaches that of the Tamanac only in the same degree as the German approaches the Greek, the Persian, and the Sanscrit. “Amalivaca is not originally the Great Spirit; the Aged of Heaven, that invisible being, whose worship springs from that of the powers of nature, when nations rise insensibly to the sentiment of the unity of these powers; he is rather a personage of the heroic times, a man, who, coming from afar, lived in the land of the Tamanacs and the Caribbees, sculptured symbolical figures upon the rocks, and disappeared by going back to the country he had previously inhabited beyond the Ocean.
The anthropomorphitism of the divinity has two sources diametrically opposite; and this opposition seems to arise less from the various degrees of intellectual culture, than from the different dispositions of nations, some of which are more inclined to mysticism, and others more governed by the senses, and by external impressions. Sometimes man makes the divinities descend upon Earth, charging them with the care of ruling nations, and giving them laws, as in the fables of the East; sometimes, as among the Greeks and other nations of the West, they are the first monarchs, priest-kings, who are stripped of what is human in their nature to be raised to the rank of national divinities. dmalivaca was a stranger, like Manco-Capac, Bochica, and Quetzalcohuatl ; those extraordinary men, who, in the alpine or civilized part of America, on the table lands of Peru, New Grenada, and Anahuac, organized civil society, regulated the order of sacrifices, and founded religious congregations. The Mexican Quetzalcohuatl, whose descendants Montezuma thought he recognized in the companions of Cortez, displays an additional resemblance to Amalivaca, the mythologic personage of savage America, or the plains of the torrid zone. When advanced in age, the high-priest of Tula left the country of Anahuac, which he had filled with. his miracles, to return to an unknown region, called Tlalpallan. When the monk Bernard de Sahagun arrived in Mexico, the same questions precisely were put to him, as those which were addressed to father Gili two hundred years later in the forests of the Oroonoko ; he was asked, whether he came from the other shore, from the countries to which Quetzalcohuatl had retired."

Humboldt also saw petroglyphs, with symbols engraved and painted on rocks along the Orinoco. He gives their location and guesses that they were done by people who preceeded the current inhabitants: "We have seen above, that the region of sculptured rocks, or of painted stones, extends far beyond the Lower Oroonoko, beyond the country (latitude 7° 5’ to 7° 40’; longitude 68° 50’ to 69° 45’) to which belongs what may be called the local fable of the Tamanacs. We again find these same sculptured rocks between the Cassiquiare and the Atabapo (lat. 2° 5’ to 3° 20’; long. 69° to 70°); and between the sources of the Essequibo and the Rio Branco (lat. 3° 50'; long. 62° 32’). I do uot assert, that these figures prove the knowledge of the use of iron, or that they denote a very advanced degree of culture; but even on the supposition, that, instead of being symbolical, they are the fruits of the idleness of hunting nations, we must still admit an anterior race of men, very different from those who now inhabit the banks of the Oroonoko and the Rupunuri."

The Tamanac People

The Tamanacs were a tribe that belonged to the Cariban linguistic group and lived in the area comprised by the Cuchivero River, which flows into the lower Orinoco in Venezuela. The Jesuit missionaries attempted to group them in the mission of San Luis de Encaramada in 1749 (approx. location map) and Father S. Gilii (mentioned further up by Humboldt) remained there for 18 years until the Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish colonies in America in 1767. He recorded the myth (more on his writings below). The mission passed on to another order, but it declined, and during the independence wars in the 1810s and 1820s they suffered a high death toll which nearly wiped them out.

They had a mythical deluge myth of noachian scale, which left only one man and one woman alive. They survived by climbing to the summit of the Tamanaca mountain. Amalivaca came to their land after crossing the Atlantic Ocean, and civilized them in a Promethean way, he counted with the help of his brother. He is the one who engraved the symbols mentioned by Humboldt, on cliffs and rocks.

Gilli's Account

Filippo Salvadore Gilii (1721-1789) wrote his account (Saggio di storia americana o Sia storia naturale, civile, e sacra de regni, e delle provincie spagnuole di terra-ferma nell'America meridionale, 1780). Below is the text about Amalivaca (See vol. 3, p. 5).

" The Indians know, or rather, calling themselves Gentiles, also knew a tribe on which the inferior tribes depend, and they call them in their language the Amalivacà. The Parians call them the Amarivacà, the Caribs call them the Amarivacà; and the name given to them by the Zavaricotti, the Guaichiri, the Chirichiripi, the Machiritaria, and by many others, whose catalogue we will give elsewhere, is not very different.
The Tamanachi [Tamanacs] give to Amalivacà a brother called Voce, and they say that with him he created the earth. In the formation of the river Orinoco there was a long conflict between the two of them.
...
Amalvacà had a daughter (the story of the Tamanachi continues) who, like many of her peers, loved walking; and her father, to prevent her from doing so, broke her legs.
Amalivaca stayed for a long time with the Tamanachi in the place called Màita. There they show the cave, which is nothing but a steep cliff on the top of which there are some rocks shaped like a cave. When I saw it, it was called the Amalivacà-jeutitpe; that is, the cave where Amalivacà lived. Your drum is not far from that cave is his drum, a large rock, on the road to the Màita, to which they give that name.
Amalivacà after he had been living for many years with the Tamanachi (their stories continue), finally chose a canoe and returned to the other side of the sea, from where he had come. You, for sure, they said to me, must have seen him there.
When leaving (here is some final news) Having already entered the canoe, he turned to the Tamanachi and said in another voice: uopicaccetpe mapkateccì; that is, you will change your skin so much. What he wanted to indicate with those words, the Tamanachi say that our ancestors did not die, but that by perpetually rejuvenating themselves, they would only have changed their skin like crickets, serpents, and other similar animals."

On page 30, Gilii notes that this deity was very human: " the Tamanachì speak of him as of a man (who was with them in Màita, they say, who had to be dressed, that he was white, and similar things not applicable to one who creoles, but to one who was the first to bring them to those places."

The Rock Art

In vol. 2, p. 234 he mentions the petroglyphs: "About eight miles from Ecaramada, there is a rock called Tepu merème, that is, the painted stone. I thought I would see some memorable stone there, and, eager to clarify, I went to see it. But as far as I could see, the paintings they have on the ceiling of the aforementioned rock are nothing but rough outlines, made in ancient times with some kind of stone, and have no appearance of letters. The Indians do not give them any meaning, and only say that they are made by Amalivacà, who they consider their god."

A paper describes the site of Amalivaca Cave (Tarble de Scaramelli, Kay, and Franz Scaramelli. 2021. Cueva de Amalivaca: Tradición y memoria. Boletín Antropológico 39: 35–65) with images of the rock art and details about its location, age, use, and interpretation of the symbols.

In 1810 Humboldt wrote a letter to a French colleague with the symbols that a friar named Juan Ramón Bueno had sent him, copied from rocks in Urbana, very close to the Gilli's Jesuit Mission site. These symbols, pictured below, were incised into hard granite rock, and Humboldt asked his colleague for help, as he wanted to decipher them. See this Paper in Spanish about this script, with Humboldt's letter. Also read his comments with a plate showing the script (French) in his book "Vues des Cordilleres, et monumens des peuples indigenes de l'Amérique", Humboldt, p.61.

Punic letters?

In "Vues des Cordilleres..." Humboldt wrote the following: "One might recognize in these characters some resemblance to the Phoenician alphabet; but I strongly doubt that the good monk, who seemed to take little interest in this supposed inscription, copied it with great care. It is quite remarkable that, of the seven characters, none is repeated more than once: I had them engraved only to focus the attention of scholars who may one day visit the forests of Guiana on such a worthy subject." (p. 61

Urbana, Venezuela: Symbols in rock art

Humboldt continues: "It is quite remarkable, moreover, that this same wild and deserted region, in which Father Bueno believed he saw letters engraved on the granite, presents a great number of rocks which, at extraordinary heights, are covered with figures of animals, representations of the sun, the moon, and the stars, and other signs that are perhaps hieroglyphic. The natives recount that their ancestors, in the time of the great floods, reached the summit of these mountains by canoe, and that at that time the stones were still in such a soft state that men were able to trace lines on them with their fingers. This tradition suggests a horde whose culture is quite different from that of the people who preceded them: it reveals a complete ignorance of the use of the chisel and any other metal tool."

The Transoceanic Implications of Amalivaca

The deluge myth appears to be universal, it is mentioned by different cultures around the world, and probably reflects the flooding of coastal plains during the period following the end of the last Ice Age when areas like doggerland, the Black Sea, and the Sunda shelf were submerged by the rapid sea-level rise provoked by large-scale ice melt.

The interesting features of the Amalivaca myth are his civilizing activities, the bark or canoe that brought him across the Atlantic, to America, and his return to his place of origin after he finished his work here. He was a human, white, wore clothes, had a brother, and a daughter, and produced rock art.

Amalivaca was a human being.

His transoceanic origin is similar to the myth of the white, bearded, tunic-clad god-like people mentioned in other Amerindian myths: Quetzalcoatl among the Mesoamericans and also Viracocha among the Incas, who was also bearded, white, and wore special clothes, and whose name means "wide" (vira) and "sea" (cocha) and is said to have vanished by crossing the Pacific.

I am not implying that white, bearded Europeans or Egyptians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, etc. visited America in a civilizing mission, but point out a common myth that is shared by Aztecs, Incas, and the Orinoco jungle people. It must be an ancient one, with very old roots, perhaps dating to the times when America was peopled, contemporary with the post-glacial floods that originated the deluge myths across the Americas.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

Pygmies and White Indians - von Humboldt

I came across an interesting article about Pygmies in the Americas, written in 1963 by Armando Vivante "Current state of the discussion on American pygmies" (Estado actual de la discución sobre los pigmeos americanos, Vol 5, No 28, Revista del Museo de La Plata. Nueva Serie. Sección Antropología).

Pygmies

I have posted about dwarves in the past, the mythical beings which are evoked in many Patagonian native legends. And in my book, I explored the "pygmy" option to explain the origin of these myths, below is an excerpt on this subject:

"Science, facts, and the Patagonian dwarves
Reports of minute people have surfaced periodically across South America since the arrival of the Spaniards. Mostly fantasies, some may hold some truth in them. For instance, in Cuzco, Perú, the heart of the Inca Empire, Spanish conquistador Pedro Pizarro wrote in 1571 about “three Indians, not seen before, very small, like dwarves.” Closer to Patagonia, in 1612, Ruy Díaz de Guzmán, another conquistador, mentioned “pygmies that live under the ground” in eastern Bolivia.
We could dismiss these stories of dwarves as fantasies of superstitious ill-educated soldiers, but in the early years of the 20th century, some scientists proposed theories about the peopling of America involving a “primitive” dwarf race, the “Diminutive Negroids,” or “Negrito” people.
American archaeologist Harold Sterling Gladwin (1883-1983) advanced the theory that “Diminutive Blacks” were the first people to arrive in America and that later migration from Asia assimilated or annihilated these first arrivals. He suggested that small blacks who had lived in southern China until the Chou dynasty could have moved north and entered America through the Bering Strait.
There are several groups of pygmies scattered around Southeast Asia, such as the Andaman islanders, the Semangs of Malaysia, and the Philippine Aetas. mtDNA studies have proven that these people descend from early human migrants out of Africa, who remained isolated in their specialized environments; but there is no proof that any of these people moved on to America.
Looking for such proof, in the early-20th century, Swiss anthropologist, Dr. Josef Kollmann, found pygmy remains in the Chincha Valley, Perú, and stated that they still survived as the short Changos of northern Chile, whose men were only 1.6 m tall (5 ft. 3 in.) and the women barely 1.45 m (4 ft. 8 in.) Small people indeed, but not dwarves.
The neighboring Mochica people were of a similar height, as shown by a 25-year-old female mummy (Lady of Cao) dating from 450 A.D., which measured 1.48 m (4 ft. 9 in.)
It is interesting to note that the Mochica spoke a language that “appears to be a linguistic isolate” totally unrelated to all other American Indian languages, and it “contains features that are rare both within South American languages and in the languages of the world.”
It seems that there is some reasonable basis for a “short” - but not dwarfish-group of Indians in the Americas north of Patagonia; but what about Patagonia itself?
We have two different pieces of evidence; one was put forward by Father Manuel Molina, who suggested that the Tachwüll dwarves may be based on fact. The other involves a mysterious group of short people in northern Patagonia, the Kofkeche..."

Fair Indians and Pygmies

In his 1963 article, Vivante begins by mentioning some of the literature on the subject and also notes that Alexander von Humboldt wrote about pygmies in the sources of the Orinoco River, but does not provide additional information about it.

So, I looked up Humboldt's journey along the Orinoco and found tha while he was at Esmeralda, Venezuela in the year 1800 (see map), he mentioned pygmies and also "white" Indians! Below is the relevant text from his work Personal narrative of travels to the equinoctial regions of the New Continent during the years 1799-1804.

"...the Oroonoko [sic - Orinoco] receives on the north the Ocamo, into which the Rio Matacona falls. At the sources of the latter live the Guainares, who are much less copper-coloured, or tawny, than the other inhabitants of those countries. This is one of the iribes called by the missionaries fair Indians, or Indios blancos, respecting whom I shall soon treat more at large." (p.559)
...
"I shall here proceed to give some information respecting the tribes of dwarf and fair Indians, which ancient traditions placed for centuries near the sources of the Oroonoko. I had an opportunity of seeing some of these Indians at Esmeralda, and can affirm, that the shortness of the Guaicas, and the fairness of the Guahariboes, whom Father Caulin calls Guaribos blancos, have been alike exaggerated. The Guaicas, whom I measured, were in general from four feet seven inches to four feet eight inches high (ancient measure of France). We were assured, that the whole tribe were of this extreme littleness; but we must not forget, that what is called a tribe constitutes, properly speaking, but one family. The exclusion of all foreign mixture contributes to perpetuate varieties, or the aberrations from a common standard. The Indians of the lowest stature next to the Guaicas are the Guainares and the Poignaves. It is singular, that all these nations are found close to the Caribbees, who are remarkably tall. They all inhabit the same climate, and subsist on the same aliment. They are varieties in the race, which no doubt existed previously to the settlement of these tribes, (tall and short, fair and dark brown) in the same country. The four nations of the Upper Oroonoko, that appeared to me to be the fairest, are the Guahariboes of the Rio Gehette, the Guainares of the Ocamo, the Guaicas of Canno Chiguire, and the Maquiritares of the sources of the Padamo, the Jao, and the Ventuari. It being very striking to see natives with a fair skin beneath a burning sky, and amid nations of a very dark hue, the Spaniards have forged two daring hypotheses, in order to explain this phenomenon. Some assert, that the Dutch of Surinam and the Rio Esquibo may have intermingled with the Guahariboes and the Guainares ; others insist, from hatred to the Capuchins of the Carony, and the Observantins of the Oroonoko, that the fair Indians are what are called in Dalmatia muso di frate, children whose legitimacy is somewhat doubtful. In both cases the Indios blancos would be mestizoes, sons of an Indian woman and a white man. Now, having seen thousands of mestizoes, I can assert, that this comparison is altogether inaccurate. The individuals of the fair tribes, whom we examined, have the features, the stature, and the smooth, straight, black hair, which characterizes other Indians. It would be impossible to take them for a mixed race, like the descendants of natives and Europeans. Some of these people are very little, others of the ordinary stature of the copper-coloured Indians. They are neither feeble, nor sickly, nor albinoes ; and they differ from the copper-coloured races only by a much less tawny skin. It would be useless after. these considerations, to insist on the distance of the mountains of the Upper Oroonoko from the shore inhabited by the Dutch." (p.564)

Back to Vivante and the 1963 article

Vivante looks into the conquistador and Spanich chronicles and notes that the references are vague, racist, and place the pygmies in the upper reaches of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers. He notes the chronicle of Nicolas Federmann (1530-31) who mentioned a tribe of pygmies in that area of Venezuela, the Ayaman people, "a nation of dwarves."

The article then mentions several authors, including Kollman, and Haliburton (Science, 1896) who reported pygmies in the Guyanas (close to Humboldt and Federmann's sightings). Sullivan, in 1898, repeated similar stories about people along the upper Negro River (Amazonia): "I met, while on the Rio Negro, one of the tributaries of the Upper Amazon, a race of remarkably small people". As well as D.G. Brinton (The Dwarf Tribe of the Upper Amazon, American Anthropologist, Vol. 11, No. 10 Oct., 1898, p.319).

Dwarf Tribe in the Amazon. Brinton, 1898

Vivante cites those who are in favor of pygmies and those who oppose the idea and criticizes both groups. He also mentions the black dwarves, and the mythical dwarves (including some Patagonian examples). Overall, he seems to favor the idea of an ancient, relictual mutation appearing, fragmented, among certain native groups. However, he suggests further research with objective methods to clarify the matter.

Next Posts...

I found some interesting material in Humboldt's book, and also in Vivante's work, which I will explore and present, with additional information, in the next posts.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

Purple dyestuff from shelfish: Phoenician influence in America?

The Phoenicians discovered how to produce a pruple dye, that was highly appreciated in the Mediterranean region. They kept the secret of its production to themselves and sold the dye at high prices. Roman emperors dressed in purple, it was a symbol of wealth and extreme luxury. ipsum

They obtained it from the murex shellfish. A vast quantity of shells had to be processed to obtain small amounts of the purplue Tyrian dye (one-eighth of a drop of dye from each shell). 60,000 shells were required to produce one pound (453 g) of dye. In 1971, J. P. Robinson (Tyrian purple. Sea Frontiers 17: 77-82) noted that one pound of silk dyed with Tyrian purple would have cost $28,000 (this is equivalent to $224,000 in 2025 value).

Murex shells, and a purple-dyed cloth. Source

The Phoenicians exploited murex to the brink of extinction, and had to expanded their production to the Northwestern Atlantic Ocean coast of Africa, where they harvested and processed shellfish for this purpose.

Phoenicians used Banded Dye Murex (Murex trunculus L.) and the Spiny Dye Mureх (Murex brandaris L.), they also used the Rock Shell (Thais haemastoma), known as buccinum at that time.

Shellfish dyes in the Americas

Robinson noted that the Phoenicians broke open the shell to access the punicin dye compound or removed the gland that produced it. instead, the Mixtec Indians of Oaxaca and Guerrero, in Mexico, milked the snails, which preserved them.

The natives in Nicoya, in Costa Rica,dyed cotton with shellfish at the time of the Spanish conquest.

An article (Purple Dyes from the Carlos Museum Pre-Columbian Textiles Collection: Direct Mass Spectrometry and HPLC Analyses. Jennifer Campos-Ayala, Reneé Stein, Rebecca R. Stone, and Ruth Ann Armitage, 2017) investigated the chemical makeup of different purple dyes used in coloring textiles in ancient Pre-Hispanic Peru.

The textiles span almost 1,500 years (between 100 and 1470 AD) and different colors were obtained by combining dyes and overdying the cloth repeatedly. The authores noted that "Purple derived from mollusks is well known in the Old World, and was also used in Central and South America, though originating from a different species of marine snails./p>

But some purples were obtained by combining red and blue: "Red yarns were overdyed with blue, or vice versa, to produce purple. Red dyes in ancient Peru were generally derived from the roots of the Relbunium plant or from cochineal (Dactylopius coccus) insects... cochineal dye can yield a purple color when copper is used as the mordant. Blue dye was obtained from the Indigofera, Isatis and Polygonum genera.".

They did detect one dye that was a true purple, obtained from shellfish because it had the typical chemical signature of such an origin: "Only a single sample showed traces of dibromoindigo, characteristic of shellfish-derived purple dye."

Another article looked into the specific species of shellfish that yield the purple dye dibromoindigo. These species are found around the world, and also in America: "Three of them have been reported to inhabit the Pacific coast of South America: Red-mouthed rock shell of the Eastern Pacific (Stramonita biserialis) from Mexico to Chile; Loco (Concholepas concholepas) from Callao, near Lima, Peru, to the Strait of Magellan in the southern end of Chile, including the Juan Fernández Archipelago, and Chocolate rock shell (Stramonita chocolata or Thais Chocolata) from Peru to Valparaiso, Chile".

The Chilean natives in northern Chile used them 9,500 years ago as food, tools, and containers. This article mentions "the use of this dye for textile production, Phipps indicated that dyed purple yarns appeared no later than 500 AD... In 1963, Saltzman and collaborators found shellfish purple dye in pre-Hispanic cloth, and Michel identified it on a fabric from Pachacamac, Peru, dated back to 900–1200 AD."

Phoenicians in America?

José Imbelloni published a long article titled "Mollusks and the ancient migrations of Mediterranean peoples to America according to the Manchester School" (Los moluscos y las antiguas migraciones de pueblos mediterráneos hacia América según la Escuela de Manchester - Estudio crítico. Revista del Museo de La Plata, 1926, Vol. 29) in which he critically reviews the evidence on Phoenicians in America as put forward by the "Manchester School" as espoused by Elliot Smith, W. J. Perry, J. Wilfrid Jackson, and W. H. R. Rivers.

Jackson proposed in 1916 that the Egyptians had reached America with their "heliolithic" culture, and introduced the use of shells as money-cowries and shell-trumpets, as well as purple dye. Imbelloni argues against the money and trumpet uses of shells, and although he accepts the ancient tradition of the use of shellfish dyes in Tehuantepec, Mexico, Costa Rica (Nicoya), and Santa Elena in Ecuador, and possibly among the Incas of Peru. But, he states that there is nothing extraordinary in these facts as there are several mollusks that produce purple dye, living in the Caribbean and the Pacific coast of America. He disagrees with Jackson's conclusion that "Mediterranean sea farers" introduced the secrets of purple dye into America.

You can read Jackson's book here: J. Wilfrid Jackson, 1917 Shells as Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture, Manchester University Press.

Jackson mentions the use of Purpura patula in Central America adding that it is similar to the "Purpura hemastoma of the Mediterranean, one of the species used by the ancient Tyrian dyers, and which, as previously mentioned, is still used by the Minorcan fishermen to mark their linen." On the Pacific coast, the natives of Panama and Guatemala dyed "Poupre de Panama" using Purpura perszca.

For Jackson, "all the foregoing, in addition to other associated elements of culture, could have developed independently in the Old and in the New World is inconceivable." It was discovered once, in the Old World, and transmitted to America:

"It seems almos easier to believe that certain elements of an ancient European culture were at one time, and perhaps once only, actually transmitted by the traditional small band of ... Mediterranean sea-farers, than to explain how, under totally different conditions of race and climate, the identical ideas and customs should have arisen. The peculiar and distinctive character of the shellpurple industry is in itself sufficient justification for this conclusion, as it is altogether unlikely that different people could have adopted so remarkable a custom, along with identical methods of extracting the precious purple matter from shell-fish."

Map showing the distribution of the Shell Purple Industry. Jackson

As the map shows, the use of this dye was also known in Japan. We know that (Source) the Japanese used the Rapana bezoar for dyeing, and that it was used by professional divers to stain their cotton diving suits because they believed that the snail purple had supernatural powers.

Closing Comments: No Phoenician influences in America

In my opinion, like many other discoveries (agriculture, domestication of animals, metallurgy, etc.) the use of purple dye obtained from shellfish was a convergent discovery, it took place in different locations among different people, just by chance.

So, no, the Phoenicians did not bring their know-how to America.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

The navigating skills of the Southern Tehuelches (Aonikenk)

The Tehuelche people were the original inhabitants of Patagonia, and they lived in the steppe, east of the Andean mountain range (to the west were the Chonos, Mapuches, and Huilliches in what is now Chile). They were the descendants of the ancient Patagonian Paleo-Indians. There are two versions about the origin of the name Tehuelche: one is that it comes from their words tehuel = “south” and chu = “land”, this suffix was later distorted by the Mapuche into che = “people”. The other is that the Mapuche called them chewuel = “surly”, “unsociable” and che = “people”, hence the “unfriendly people.”

We divide the Tehuelche people into two distinct groups, each with cultural and linguistic differences: the Northern Tehuelche (Günnuna Kenna or Gennakenk – which, in their language, meant “people”) and the Southern Tehuelche. The region located between the Senguer, Chubut, and Chico rivers was a flexible border between both groups.

Today's post will focus on the southermost of the Tehuelches and their navigation skills.

Southern Tehuelches and Selk'nam

The Southern Tehuelche were divided into two separate sub-groups, very similar except for their language: The northernmost were the Teushen (Boreal Southern Tehuelche), who lived in the north of central Patagonia, between the Santa Cruz and Chubut rivers. To the south were the Aonikenk or Aonek’enk (Austral Southern Tehuelche), which meant “People of the South.” They lived in the southern area, between the Santa Cruz River and the Strait of Magellan.

On the northern side of Tierra del Fuego Island were the Selk’nam (or Ona), who were “foot Indians” who never adopted an equestrian way of life because horses never reached their island before the arrival of the first white settlers. The Selk’nam were very closely related to the Tehuelche in culture and language; they had become separated from them when the sea level rose and flooded the Strait of Magellan, isolating them on Tierra del Fuego at the end of the last Ice Age.

The watercraft of the Aonikenk

Father Thomas Falkner (1707-1784) was an English Jesuit priest who lived in what is now Argentina in several Jesuit missions where he was in close contact with natives of different Patagonian tribes from 1730 until 1767, when the Spanish crown expelled the Jesuit order from South America. Upon returning to Britain in 1774, he wrote his book, Description of Patagonia, detailing his first-hand knowledge of the region. In it, he described how the natives crossed the Strait of Magellan:

"Tamu, the Yacana-cunnec Cacique, told me that they used a kind of float, with which they sometimes passed the Straits, and had communication with those of his nation". (p.92)

Falkner applied the name Yacanacunnec to what we now call the Aonikenk Tehuelche people. Perhaps "those of his nation" were the Fuegian Selk'nam natives, who were also part of the Chon native peoples, isolated on the Isla Grande, the main Tierra del Fuego Island after the last ice age.

Falkner added on p. 111 some more information:

"The last of the Tehuel nations are the Yacana-cunnees, which signifies foot-people ; for they always travel on foot, having no horses in their country. To the north, they border on the Sehuau-cunnees; to the west, on the Key-yus or Key-yuhues, from whom they are divided by a ridge ot mountains: to the east, they are bounded by the ocean; and to the south, by the islands of Tierra del Fuego or the South Sea. These Indians live near the sea, on both sides of the straits, and oftentimes make war with one another. They make use of light floats, like those of Chiloe to pass the straits."

Chiloe floats

Toribio Medina (Los aborijenes de Chile, 1882, p.188) describes the canoes and balsas of the Araucanians, which they used in rivers, lakes, and to cross between the mainland and Mocha Island (28 km - 17 mi.) They used rushes, reeds, puya, or straw, and tied them into bundles as floats (Read more about these vessels). They hollowed out canoes. Further north in the Peruvian and Chilean Atacama region the natives made floats using sealed sea wolf hides filled with air. But these were not hollow, you had to mount them.

However, I found a Source that mentions a native in Chiloe called Agustín Yapa who "crossed the channels to transport sheep in leather balsas" (Benjamín Vicuña, Catálogo de la biblioteca i manuscritos, 1886. p.44).

"Pelotas" or coracles

Tomás Harrington disagreed with Falkner. Harrington was an Argentine school teacher and ethnologist (1887-1967) who lived and worked in Patagonia, where he interviewed dozens of Tehuelche natives and compiled an extensive native vocabulary and listed many place names. In his Contribución al estudio del Indio Gününa Küne, Revista del Museo de La Plata, Vol.2 No.14 (new series), 1946, p.259) he noted that the name Yacana-cunes can be interpreted as "pedestrian people", and that the Keyus were the people who crossed the Strait. He added that it is impossible to define the racial origin of either group.

However, we have an eyewitness Antonio de Viedma (1742-1797), a Spanish naval officer who explored the coast of Patagonia and trekked inland discovering the lake that bears his name. In his diary (Diario de un viaje a la costa de la Patagonia, para reconocer los puntos en donde establecer poblaciones con una descripción de la naturaleza de los terrenos, de sus producciones y habitantes; desde el puerto de Santa Elena hasta la boca del Estrecho de Magallanes) he recounts his exploration from San Juliá to Lake Videma during which he had to cross the Chico River close to Corpen (map). On the way back the river was flooded:

"Day 27
At 8 a.m. we set off, and at 12 p.m. we reached the banks of the Rio Chico de Santa Cruz. Since the river was very high, the indian Ocopán decided not to ford it; so we stopped at a place they call Chonqueyr.
Day 28
At 5:30 in the morning, the indian Ocopán and Don León de Rosas, who had attempted to cross the river, succeeded and informed me. I intended to cross as they had, but upon reaching a channel, the stable hand couldn't restrain the horses, which bolted. So I ordered the pilot to cross and tell Julián to send me some swimming Indians so as not to risk my life or leave without gathering all the horses. He did so and found Julián at a place they call Quilion, from where he sent me three swimming Indians, equipped with hides and sticks to form a ball [in the original "pelota"] They arrived where I was at sunset and brought guanaco meat for us to eat.
Day 29
At 8:00 a.m., having prepared to cross the river, and feeling that the "pelota" that the indians were mkaking wasn't right, I ordered them to leave it, and that once they were on the other side of the river, I would try to cross with my horse. This was done, and we all crossed without the slightest incident; and continuing our journey, we arrived at Oenna at midday, where I found the pilot returning to join me, and some tents belonging to Chief Julián, whom I had sent for the same purpose; and here we spent the night."

Viedma ratifies the use of floats mentioned by Falkner.

Fifty-one years later Captain FitzRoy and Charles Darwin (the scientist who proposed the theory of evolution through natural selection) left the HMS Beagle to explore the Santa Cruz River from its mouth. They almost reached Lake Argentino before turning back due to lack of supplies. In his description of their journey (where the boat had to be hoisted by the sailors against the river's stron current), FitzRoy mentions the natives and their floats (FitzRoy, R. 1839. Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836, describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagle's circumnavigation of the globe. Proceedings of the second expedition, 1831-36, under the command of Captain Robert Fitz-Roy, R.N. London: Henry Colburn. See p. 344)

"...we arrived at the spot whence the smoke had issued, but saw no human beings: though marks of very recent fire, and numerous tracks of feet upon a soft muddy place at the side of the river, showed that a party of Indians had lately crossed over, and a smoke rising at some distance on the southern shore, pointed out where they were gone. At this spot there was about an acre of good pasture land, by the water side: and the breadth of the river itself was something less than usual, reasons which had induced the natives to select it as a crossing place*. To pass a river running at the rate of six or seven miles an hour, and about two hundred yards in width, can be no easy task to women and children. But as we saw many prints of very small feet on the muddy bank, both women and children must have crossed at this place with the men. How did they get over? there is no wood, neither are there rushes with which they might make balsas†. Perhaps some of the women and children were put into rough, coracle-like boats, made of hides‡, and towed across by the horses, holding by whose tails the men swam and perhaps many of the women. This method of holding by the tail, while swimming, is said to be better than resting a hand upon the horse's neck and holding by the mane. None of the Indians sit upon their horses while swimming."
* Marked 'Indian Pass' on the plan.
† Floats or rafts.
‡ "Me envió tres indios nadadores, provisto de cueros y palos para formar una pelota." (Diario de Viedma, p. 58.)

We know tht FitzRoy had read Falkner, and since he also quotes Videma, he probably imagined the coracles based on this information.

Argentine explorer and scientist Francisco Moreno (1852-1919) during his own exploration of the Santa Cruz River, in 1876-77, which reached Lake Argentino, cited FitzRoy's comments and added his own rmarks (See Viaje a la Patagonia Austral. Vol. 1, 1879. See p.256.):

"There is no doubt about the accuracy of these words; the place lends itself easily to crossing, for even though at this point the river is narrower than in other parts and runs at a speed of seven miles per hour, the undulation formed by its course and the disposition of the terrain make it preferable to other points. The Indians also confirm the assertion of the English admiral and have told me that before Pavon Island was populated they crossed the river at this point and at other places located further inland where, although the river is always too deep, as happens at the point I am concerned with, to allow passage on firm foot, they always find more or less ease in crossing it.
They carried it out, and even today they sometimes do, on rafts made of branches and tree trunks that the river carries in its upper course, and when trunks are lacking, as happens here in Chickerook Aiken, they built such rafts, although smaller, with the poles of their tents. On them they placed the small children and the few belongings; the women and men held onto the ends of the poles submerged in the water and swam alongside the raft. This was pulled by a horse, to whose tail it was tied, but before they had horses, the strongest swimmers of the Indians were in charge of steering it. This means of crossing the rivers is not without dangers, and it is frequent that one or more of the indigenous people drown; however, I have sometimes used it with excellent results in my exploration of the Limay and Negro Rivers. Our companion Isidoro assures me that he also knows that this point has been a crossing point for Indians. [a ford]"

This ford was located at Chickerook-Aiken (see approx. location in Google maps).

Allen Francis Gardiner (1794–1851) was a British Royal Navy officer and missionary, who starved to death in Tierra del Fuego, after an unsuccessful attempt to set up a mission among the Yaghans or Yamana. In 1842, he left us a description of a now unknown tribe, the Tachwell (see my post on them) who lived in the Southwestern Andes and frequented the Strait of Magellan. In 1842 Gardiner wrote (Accounts and Papers. COLONIES. Session 2 February 24 August 1843. 33. Vol XXXIII. House of Commons papers, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. HMSO, 1843) about them, and one part of his description mentions the use of hide-covered canoes to cross the Patagonian rivers:

"The district by the Tatchwell is wet and rainy and heavily timbered with trees of great size, their tents, dress, and stature is similar to that of the other Patagonian tribes; they have, however, canoes, but these are only employed for crossing rivers, and are merely a light frame covered with guanaco skins. They use no paddles but are towed across by their horses swimming before with a lasso attached to their tails."

Benjamin Bourne in "The Captive in Patagonia" (p.133) describes "boats" used by the Aonikenk to cross rivers. He had been sailing from Connecticut to California in 1849 during the Gold Rush and while stopping for supplies on the northern shores of the Strait of Magellan was taken captive by the Aonikenk and held prisoner. After three months he managed to escape when he saw a boat with a party of white people. They took him to the island on the Santa Cruz River, rescuing him.

Below is his description of native navigation and a plate from his book:

"We moved the next day in a northerly direction, and struck the river Santa Cruz, encamping about an eighth of a mile from its marshy banks...
Three or four days were passed in suspense, which was at last terminated by taking our line of march down the river. We halted at noon, at a point where the banks sloped gently to the water's edge, on either side of the deep and narrow channel. Active preparations were here commenced for crossing. Part of the horses were driven across the river, whilst a portion of the tribe were occupied in building boats to ferry their families and goods across. Their boats are constructed after a simple fashion. A quantity of bushes are cut and dragged down to the margin of the water. They take four tent-stakes, and lay them so as to enclose an area eight feet square, lashing them firmly together at the four corners. Four Indians then raise the stakes from the ground, while others place the skin covering of the tent over the frame, allowing it to sag down three or four feet. The edges of the skin are brought over the stakes, and fastened on the inside. The bushes, made ready for the purpose, are placed within, tops downward, round the entire circumference, and secured to the stakes, till the boat is completely timbered up. The bushes keep the skin distended, and give to the vessel an oval shape, so that, though square at the top, it bears a striking resemblance to a large iron pot. Its length and its breadth of beam are of course equal. When completed, it is firmly lashed from stem to sternpost, and from side to side, with a lariat, or green hide rope, forty feet long, to keep it from spreading or racking. I had no hand in modelling this witch of the wave, but, like an apprentice, did as I was ordered in forwarding the structure, and, when nothing else was required, "held on to the slack." It was at last completed, like the temple of Solomon, without the sound of axe or hammer; neither bolts, trenails nor caulking-iron, were required. We carried the barge down, and launched her in the stream. Two paddles were made by lashing two bladebones of the guanaco to sticks. Squaws, pappooses and baggage, were stowed away, till the boat was laden to the water's edge. I was directed to take passage with the family and household effects of the chief, and seated myself in the centre of the closely-packed craft. One end of a lariat was fastened to the boat, and the other tied to the tail of a horse. A savage mounted, with one rein attached to the wooden bit on the up-stream side. Two others took the oars, one on each side, and a squaw was stationed on the top-gallant forecastle for the purpose of singing, to insure good luck. All is ready. The old horse wades till the depth of water compels him to swim, and the boat is pushed off. The rider floats on the horse's back, kicking the water with his feet, holding the rein in one hand, and grasping the mane with the other. "Chew! chew!" he shouts, at the top of his voice. The black swan in the forecastle opens her capacious mouth and sings, "Yek yah, youri miti! yek yah, youri miti!" The two oarsmen dig away with might and main, while the younger fry swell the chorus with a "Yah! yah! yah!" The boat brings some heavy lurches to the windward, then yaws off to leeward; all owing to those lubberly oarsmen not meeting her with the helm in season. At length, after innumerable shiftings, we reached the opposite shore, and waded up on dry land. Several boats were constructed after the same unique model, and succeeded in crossing safely."

Ferrying the Santa Cruz. Bourne

So, all of these people confirm the use of guanaco hide-covered floats.

Across the Strait of Magellan

An interesting paper (Franklin, W.L. (2022) Guanaco colonisation of Tierra del Fuego Island from mainland Patagonia: Walked, swam, or by canoe? Geo: Geography and Environment, 9, e00110. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.110) explores why does Tierra del Fuego only have one large mammal, the Guanaco, and no rhea or pumas. The answer according to Franklin is that a large eruption by Hudson Volcano some 7,750 years ago wiped out the natives and large terrestrial fauna in the southern tip of Patagnoia, and that "Neither terrestrial vertebrates nor man were replenished from the adjacent mainland for 1000 years because the Strait of Magellan was a complete biogeographical barrier. Guanacos on Tierra del Fuego have lower genetic diversity compared with the mainland, suggesting it is a younger population. Empirical evidence and pivotal events of Patagonia's prehistory support one of three hypotheses: guanacos were introduced to Tierra del Fuego by early Holocene, guanaco-dependent, indigenous peoples from the mainland who repopulated Tierra del Fuego utilising the newly invented, skilfully crafted, seaworthy bark canoe."

Below is an image from Franklin's paper depicting the natives carrying guanaco across the Strait of Magellan.

Franklin therefore suggests " Guanacos and Fuegian dogs to Tierra del Fuego... by bark canoe. I propose that canoeists when they recolonised Tierra del Fuego in the Middle Holocene selectively introduced two ‘utility species’ of mammals to Tierra del Fuego that were of direct survival value for the existence of a terrestrial hunter-gatherer culture on the island: the guanaco because of its importance as a familiar and sustained source of food and skins (clothing and shelters), and the domestic Fuegian dog in a mutualistic relationship for its companionship, protection and hunting abilities..."

The bark canoe is what the Yamana or Yaghan people used until their demise in the late 1800s. However, the Selk'nam Fuegians were not known for owning boats or bark canoes. Their territory was the open grasslands and tundra, bogs and the fringe of the Fuegian Forests, on the north side of Tierra del Fuego. They seldom ventured into the woods of the Southern Andean ridges. They were pedestrian, land people, not sailors or canoe people like the Yamanas or their neighbors, the Alakaluf of the Western and Northwestern Tierra del Fuego canals and fjords. The Alakaluf used dugout canoes made from logs.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

The inscriptions on a Patagonian Axe - Adze - Stone plaquette

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.

78 - Axe in basalt with inscription and red paint. - Patagones, collection of Mrs. Julia M. De Serrano

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:

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025by Austin Whittall © 

Bitter Taste genes

The ability to taste bitterness may help us avoid poisoning from eating toxixc plants. Animals in general, and our ancestors, the primates developed this trait. The PTC gene is responsible for our perception of bitter taste.

All nonhuman primates have only one variant of the PTC gene known as PAV, which is therefore considered as the ancestral or original gene form, these apes are homozygous for it (meaning that the two copies they carry, one from each parent, are identical). This is known as the "taster" allele, it allows them to taste bitterness.

Genetics

PTC bitter gene, is formally known as the TAS2R38 gene. It comes in eight different variants but two of them are prevalent, the ancestral "taster" allele, and a "non-taster" allele which comprise 96% of the human population. These encode a specific protein, which contains 333 aminoacids, the 7-transmembrane domain G-protein-coupled receptor which responds to bitterness.

The different alleles cause tiny variations in the position of some aminoacids in this protein and cause the "taster" and "non-taster" variants and four other intermedieate "less-taster" types.

The variants are named after the positions of these amino acids the "original" or "ancestral" form is the PAV form (because it contains proline at position 49, alanine at position 262, and valine at position 296), this is the "taster" form.

Neanderthals and Denisovans are also PAV tasters (Source).

The second mayor form is the "non-taster" one, known as AVI, because it contains alanine, valine and isoleucine aminoacids in those three positions, respectively.

Further down we will look into why do the "non-taster" alleles survive, and account for roughly half of the human population, who can't taste bitter flavors. If tasting bitterness protects against plant toxins, why do so many of us carry the non-taster variant?

The other six variants are AAV, AVV, AAI, PAI, PVI, AAI, and PVV and are found at relatively low frequencies.

The prevalence found in one study was the following: 42.3% PAV (ancestral, taster), 53.1% (derived, non-taster) and the intermediate taster ones (2.5% AAV, 1.2% AAI, 0.8% PAI, and 0.1% PVI, no AVV or PVV were detected). (Source).

People who inherited at least one copy of the PAV allele from their parents are able to taste bitterness.

These alleles also have a geographic distribution, PAV and AVI are the most frequent, and make up the vast majority of European and Asian alleles. They are also found in Africa, but there, AAI is found at a relatively high frequency. The table below, (Table 1 from Risso, D., Mezzavilla, M., Pagani, L. et al. (2016) Global diversity in the TAS2R38 bitter taste receptor: revisiting a classic evolutionary PROPosal. Sci Rep 6, 25506), shows data from 5,589 individuals sampled across 105 populations around the World, and it highlights the slight variations in different populations.

Table 1: Detailed distributions of TAS2R38 haplotypes in the studied populations. . Source

The "Americans" in the table shown in the image are from the following groups (the number is the individuals in each sample): North America Maya Mexico 42, North America Puerto Ricans Puerto Rico 110, South America Colombians Colombia 134, South America Karitiana Brazil 28, South America Mexicans Mexico 160, South America PEL Peru 170, and South America Surui Brazil 16.

American Natives and Bitter Taste Genes

Looking at the data, we see that PVV is exclusively European, and does not appear in any other population, including Amerindians. It didn't admix into them despite the large-scale intermingling that took place after 1492, which is quite surprising.

AAI is definitively African where it reaches 13.22%, and in small amounts among Europeans and Americans (perhaps due to African genetic mixing into Southern Europeans and slave trade into America).

PVI is extremely rare, and is found at higher frequencies among Native Americans, with 0.19%, followed by Africans by 0.15%. None in Asia, and only 0.03% in Europe. We could suppose that African slave trade brought it into America, but why is the prevalence 26.6% higher in the Americas than in Africa? Being absent in Asia it surely didn't arrive via Beringian migrants.

AAV, absent in Asians is also found among Americans (2.26%), slightly lower than Europeans (3.56%) and much higher than Africans (0.61%). If it introgressed into Amerindians through Europeans, then, why didn't the European AVI do so in a similar proportion? (AVI among Americans is 26.69% while it is 49.22% among Europeans and roughly 33% in Africans and Asians).

Regarding the ancestral PAV, original allele, it is highest among Native Americans with 68.8%. The other populations have a lower frequency of it.

Interestingly, according to Kim et al. (See: Kim UK, Jorgenson E, Coon H, Leppert M, Risch N, Drayna D., Science. 2003 Feb 21;299(5610):1221-5. doi: 10.1126/science.1080190. PMID: 12595690. Positional cloning of the human quantitative trait locus underlying taste sensitivity to phenylthiocarbamide), "The common nontaster AVI haplotype was observed in all populations except Southwest Native Americans, who were exclusively homozygous for the PAV haplotype" (these natvies were almost 100% tasters).

Another article (Flores SV, Roco-Videla A, Aguilera-Eguía R. Variation in haplotype frequencies of the TAS2R38 gene, associated with the perception of bitter taste. Salud, Ciencia y Tecnología. 2025 Jan. 1;5:1026.) notes taster prevalence among Peruvian Andean people: "A particularly interesting case is the Peruvian population, which stands out for its high frequency of bitter taste perception diplotypes. In this population, only 1 % has the AVI/AVI diplotype, indicating an almost total prevalence of bitter taste perception (PAV/PAV and PAV/AVI). This exception suggests a specific dietary adaptation in the Andean region, or well the result of genetic drift."

Why hasn't natural selection erased the non-taster alleles?

For human beings, nearly all naturally occurring plant toxins poisons taste bitter. But, not all bitter tasting foods are poisonous. Many bitter tasting foods are harmless.

One interesting paper suggests that excluding all bitter flavored plants would mean lost calories and nutrients, because many bitter veggies are healthy and have no harmful effect (citric fruits, bitter melon, or kale, as well as the other cruciferous vegetables), some foods like beer, green tea, or coffee are bitter yet pleasurable. Also, bitterness may also mean medical properties such as quinine (the bitter ingredient of tonic water) used to combat malaria, or the pain-killing properties of salicin, found in willow leaves, on which the aspirin was based.

Humans also have cognition, and curiosity, they may try a bitter food, which if it doesn't cause harm, can then be safely added to the diet.

A paper (T2R38 taste receptor polymorphisms underlie susceptibility to upper respiratory infection Robert J. Lee,… , Danielle R. Reed, Noam A. Cohen. Published October 8, 2012. Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2012;122(11):4145-4159. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI64240.) found that bitter taste receptors also act upon the tissue lining the upper respiratory tract, and those carrying at both PAV alleles (tasters) are better protected from microbes than those carrying one or none: "these individuals are more likely to be infected with gram-negative bacteria such as P. aeruginosa than those with 2 functional receptor alleles." It also suggests that " humans with more non-taster alleles live in the colder climates, where the evolutionary pressure for the taster genotype may be relaxed, as there are fewer pathogens than in warmer climates."

But why the AVI non-taster allele is still carried at around 50% levels in humans. Could it be functional for other reasons and offer an evolutionary advantage that we have not yet identified?

A 2012 paper (Campbell MC, Ranciaro A, Froment A, Hirbo J, Omar S, Bodo JM, Nyambo T, Lema G, Zinshteyn D, Drayna D, Breslin PA, Tishkoff SA. Evolution of functionally diverse alleles associated with PTC bitter taste sensitivity in Africa. Mol Biol Evol. 2012 Apr;29(4):1141-53. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msr293. Epub 2011 Nov 29. PMID: 22130969; PMCID: PMC3341826) says it does, but isn't yet fully understood:

"the selective force maintaining common AAV, AAI, and AVI haplotypes for extraordinarily long periods of time remains unclear. Although both AAV and AAI are associated with intermediate bitter taste sensitivity, the AAI haplotype is more common in Africa than AAV. Intriguingly, the AAV haplotype may represent a “stepping stone” to other more advantageous haplotype variation, such as AAI and AVI. We suggest that common PAV, AAI, and AVI haplotype variation may be maintained at high frequencies in response to selective pressures unrelated to diet. Indeed, recent studies have shown that bitter taste receptors are expressed in a variety of cell types in the human gastrointestinal tract (Rozengurt and Sternini 2007) and lungs (Shah et al. 2009; Deshpande et al. 2010), where they influence insulin and glucose levels (Dotson et al. 2008), eliminate harmful inhaled substances (Shah et al. 2009), and stimulate the relaxation of airways for improved breathing (Deshpande et al. 2010). These studies demonstrate that bitter taste loci have a number of different functions and raise the possibility that common variants at TAS2R38 may be under selection due to their physiological roles in human health beyond oral gustatory function. Though we cannot conclusively distinguish the selective forces maintaining common variation at TAS2R38, it is clear that genetic variation at this locus is diverse and has been functionally important long before modern Homo sapiens existed."

Neanderthals

Our relatives, the Neanderthals had bitter taste perception (source) the El Sidrón individual, was heterozygous, carrying the ancestral PAV and the derived allele with an alanine in position 49, the study didn't clarify the other two positions, so this Neanderthal could have carried the common non-taster AVI, or the more rare variants AAI or AAV.

This means that the non-taster variant dates to before humans and Neanderthals split around 500,000 years ago. Of course, genetic flow between both groups could have introduced the derived non-taster variant into the 48,000-year-old Sidrón individual (meaning it originated among our H. sapiens), but the study considers this unlikely and affirms that "our results indicate that the non-taster alleles were already present in the ancestral human populations from which both Neanderthals and modern humans diverged."

The rise of non-tasters took place long ago. Studying African populations Tishkoff et al. (2012) found the following evolution and timeline for this gene from the PVA to the AVI form:

The PAV → AAV variant arose when P was replaced by A at site 49 1.3 million ± 242,211 years ago. Then the AAV → AAI shift took place when V was replaced with I at position 296, 1.0 million ± 267,268 years ago. These changes predate the split between Neanderthal-Denisovans and our ancestral H. sapiens lineage. Another mutation was the A for V at position 262, causing the AAI → AVI shift. This one took place 336,000 ± 89,845 years ago. The other low-frequency alleles are much younger than 200,000 years. Below is and years old, respectively. The lower frequency variants, including those that are associated with decreased PTC sensitivity, appear to be much younger in age, occurring within the last 200,000 years. Below is Fig. 4, from this paper, we added in red letters, each allele.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

On the Native American Horse and its survival in Patagonia

In his paper El Grupo Lingüistico Tshon de los territorios magallánicos, Robert LEhmann-Nitsche mentions the name of the Tehuelche natives, and offers different explanations. One is the following, and it involves the pre-Hispanic horse, native to the Américas. (Revista del Museo de La Plata, vol.22, 1913).

I have posted several times about extant native American horses, this is additional proof. Below is the relevant text:

"[these] inducethe belief that tehuel may also be an animal, typical of Patagonia, but, which? The reasonings of Aníbal Cardoso³, in my point of view leave no doubt abouth the fact that the autochthonous Argentine horse (Equus rectidiens) has existed during the period of the conquest [by the Spaniards c.1536] and is still alive, though not with pureblood representatives (the last bands in Southern Patagonia must have disappeared during the past years), but crossbred with the imported horse, originating the creole horse. The native linguistics supports this ...
there is among the Araucanians [Mapuches] the native Word for a wild horse: caitá (this is, according to our investigations, the correct spelling), the word is not found in the old dictionaries, but is commented by Lenz¹.
...
It is on record that the Patagons of the South used the word shäch, to designate wild horse (Equus rectidiens), that was gradually replaced by the Spanish word caballo."

³ Cardoso, Antigüedad del Caballo en el Plata. Anales del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Buenos Aires. XII, p.271-439. 1912. Nuevos comprobantes a propóito e la antigüedad del caballo en el Plata, ibidiem, XXIV, p. 445-460. 1913.
¹ Lenz, Los elementos indios del castellano de Chile. Santiago de Chile, 1904, p.160.

Below is a picture (Source) of a Tehuelche native, wrapped in his guanaco fur quillango mounting a rather small horse which, seems to have curly hair!!

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

On Freshwater Turtles in Patagonia - Update

In a previous post earlier this year, I mentioned that the movie director Miguel Angel Rossi suggested that the "Lake Monster" of Lake Nahuel Huapi was probably a turtle and I listed different species found in Argentina, none of which live in Patgonia due to the low temperatures. However, looking into the matter I found several references on these animals in the Patagonian rivers.

In August 2016, (Source), a freshwater turtle was photographed swimming in the Rio Negro River at Paso Córdoba (Google map), Pablo Chafrat, from the Museo Patagónico de Ciencias Naturales, a museum in the neighboring city of General Roca said that it could be an "exotic" turtle that someone bought and then grew tired of it, discarding it in the river. Below is a picture of the animal.

Turtle, Paso Córdoba, Rio Negro.

An article published in May 2019 reported finding a turtle (Phrynops Hilarii) in the Plottier irrigation channel during works on it. This irrigation system takes water from the Limay River. After draining it, they checked for any fish that may have become stranded, to capture them and place them back in the Limay River. They found a turtle which was rescued ant taken to the local fish-stocking station. It is pictured below.

Lagoon Tortoise (Phrynops Hilarii), Plottier channel.

The director of the fish-stocking station of Plottier, Jorge Figuolo said that the animal was checked by a veterinarian to make sure it was healthy, adding that its habitat is the Paraná River basin, and that they would return it to that area as they don't believe it could adapt to the cold water in Neuquén. They couldn't understand how it found its way into the irrigation channel (see the location on google maps). This spot is 58 km (35 mi.) upstream from Paso Córdoba.

A second turtle was found by a fisherman in Dec. 2023, 15km - 9 mi. east of Plottier, in the waters of Duran Creek (Source, with video), it was also identified as a Phrynops hilarii specimen. This spot is not far from Plottier, and is actually a branch of the Limay River (Map with location). The same explanation was given: a pet that was returned to the wild.

Turtle, Durán Creek, 2023

In Dec. 2024, the media reported (see video) a turle at Paso Córdoba (was it the same one spotted in 2016?) and again the fact that it was an exotic animal was mentioned. The turtle in the video looks well adapted to its habitat! See its picture below.

Turtle, Paso Córdoba, 2024

The facebook page of the Reserva Ecológica Plottier (Plottier Ecological Reserve) mentions several sightings in the area, not only the one mentioned in 2019, but others: Jan. 2025, and the turtle was left where it was found. The post says that these animals are now part of the local fauna. It also has a picture from Nov. 2022, a sighting in 2018 and another at Santa Helena Lagoon in the Plottier botanical gardens.

So, are these native creatures that had gone on undetected until now, or were they brought to the Neuquén, Limay, and Negro rivers area as pets from another place outside of Patagonia, and then set free in the environment? By the way, they seem to be thriving in the area, despite the cold winter temperatures.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©