Patagonian Mummy Cueva del Gualicho

In my previous post on the mummy found by Samuel Mitchill in a cave in Kentucky in 1815, I pointed out that it was "a red-haired mummy in Kentucky. Buried in a cave wrapped in several liners, including feathers and squatting". The red hair is quite uncommon among Native Americans, but, I wonder... could it be due to the ochre with which many Amerindian corpses were painted prior to burial? in other words, a red pigment (ochre) dyed their hair?.

In any case, lets follow the data and see what we can find. Today: Patagonia, a squatting mummy with a feather and ochre.

The Mummy of Cueva del Gualicho

In South America, the Patagonian Paleo Indian natives buried their dead using ochre (a red pigment). Half a world away from Kentucky a mummy was discovered in 1877 by Argentine explorer and scientist, Francisco Pascasio Moreno. He was exploring unknown territory in Southern Patagonia, following the Santa Cruz river to its sources: at a lake which he named Lake Argentino. He trekked along the coast as the lake was really choppy due to the prevailing westerly winds and came across a hill on a promontory where, in a cave which he named "Cueva del Gualicho" (more on Gualicho and a previous post on the cave's rock art), alluding a native myth regarding evil spirits (Gualicho also Walichu).

In summer of 1877 (February in the Southern Hemisphere), Moreno came across a mummy at Cueva del Gualicho, close to what is now the town of El Calafate in southwestern Patagonia. His description of the discovery: (2)

"... in a small cave with figures painted on its walls, 8 meters wide by three deep [25 x 9 ft.] and a decreasing height that is only 20 cm in the back part [8 in.] , I find after digging where my common sense told me to, to my delight, a human body, painted red, in a similar position to those found in Peru; this one is in fairly good shape, because the body was buried wrapped in ostrich [actually, South American rhea, or ñandú] hides and then covered with grass and soil, from which I pick up two stone knives and an arrowhead of the same material. This interesting mummy has the hair cut nearly at its roots, and this together with the red paint with which the body had been covered alive, or after dead, makes me wonder if it may belong to a Fueguian of those that inhabited the Strait of Magellan in the times of Gamboa. [Sarmiento de Gamboa, Spanish explorer of the 1570's AD]".

We will see that Moreno was right on the mark with the Fuegian origin of this mummy.

So here we have a Mummy, in foetal position, wrapped in hides and painted red

Moreno would later write that it belonged to a distinct group different to the contemporary Tehuelche - Aonikenk groups of that area.

The mummy, unlike the one found by Mitchell in a Kentucky cave (see my post on that Red haired mummy), did not have a vest with feathers, instead it had one large condor feather across its chest, as can be seen in the drawing of the mummy:

Cueva del Gualicho Mummy. From (1)

 

Moreno wrote: "between that arm [the left one] and the body, crosses a lovely black condor feather which has also been painted". It is interesting to point out that they painted the feather red too.

Regarding Moreno's reference to Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, he was sent, in 1579 by the Viceroy of Peru to settle the Strait of Magellan to avert the possibility of the English occupying the region. Sarmiento’s wrote about "Giants" (the Tehuelche patagonians). He carried out his mission and founded two settlements, But lack food and harsh local conditions doomed both of Sarmiento’s fledgling settlements; their fate was sealed when provisions sent from Spain failed to arrive; nearly all of the settlers starved or froze to death. When English privateer Sir Thomas Cavendish landed at one of the villages in 1587 he found a handful of survivors, and appropriately renamed it Port Famine.

Anyway, Sarmiento de Gamboa actually mentions the locals, but it does not coincide with Moreno's comment:

Sarmiento de Gamboa mentions in his account (page xvii) (3) that the natives painted their face in "red and white"... but no reference to short cut hair. Actually they wore it long but they bundled it.

As a summary: foetal positioned mummy, with feathers, ochre painted. In southern Patagonia. And wrapped in layers of local ostrich hides.. Not red haired though, but very similar to the Kentucky mummy. mtDNA will show further similarities, but that is another post.

Sources

(1) Echeverría Baleta, Mario , (1995). La Momia del Cerro Gualicho, Cumacú, B. Aires. pp. 31. I took the snapshot from my book.
(2) Moreno, F., (2007). Exploración de la Patagonia Sur II: el lago Argentino y los Andes meridionales. 1877. B. Aires: Continente. pp. 101.
(3)Sarmiento de Gamboa, P., (1768). Viaje al Estrecho de Magallanes por el Capitán Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa en los años de 1579 y 1580… Madrid: Imprenta Real de la Gazeta. Pp 205 and plates.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2014 by Austin Whittall © 

Sarmiento de Gamboa's UFO in Patagonia (1580)

 
Spanish explorer Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa recorded a strange incident during his voyage of exploration to the Strait of Magellan, it happened on the evening of Sunday, February 7, 1580.

(Sarmiento de Gamboa founded two ill fated colonies on the Strait of Magellan whose inhabitants starved to death, one became known as Port Famine. Only one settler survived to be rescued and taken to Lima).

He recorded the event in his journal and the original text is shown in the following image

Sarmiento de Gamboa's Journal. From [1]

Below is my translation of the original Spanish text. My comments are in brackets “[ ]”:

"Tonight during the evening on the South East side, quarter towards the South [South south east] we saw a round thing, red as fire, like an oval shaped shield, rise; it climbed through the sky, perhaps on the wind. Above a tall mountain it extended [in time or in shape?] , and being as a tall spear upon the mountain, it became like a half moon, tinted between red and white. Its shapes were like these [2] [see fig. 4, in the plates]

The figure drawn in his journal is shown below:

The image of the UFO seen by Sarmiento de Gamboa. From [1]

What could it have been?

What was this U.F.O.? (not in the sense of an alien spacecraft, but as a natural phenomenon). A comet or an eclipse.

Well, there actually was a total moon eclipse with the full moon of Jan 31, 1580, at 21:36 U.T., which would be around 17:36 or 5:36 PM in the area close to Tierra del Fuego (Gamboa was close to the Strait's western mouth) and actually it was visible in that area (see map below).[1]

The Lunar Eclipse of Jan. 31, 1580. By NASA. From [2]

Yes, I know, the dates are wrong, the eclipse happened on January 31st while Sarmiento wrote about something that happened on February 7th!

At first I thought that as Sarmiento’s diary was kept following the dates used back then, in 1579, which corresponded to the Julian calendar introduced by Julius Caesar, the eclipse could account for his sighting.

As you all know, the Julian calendar was out of phase with the real motion of the Earth by about 11 minutes every year. So when Easter began falling behind the “real” astronomical date, Pope Gregory XIII modified the calendar in 1582 to compensate for these 11 minutes per year difference. The Council of Nicea in 325 AD had done a minor adjustment, but by these 11 minutes a day added up to about 10 days in 1582. So in October 1582, the calendar was adjusted and October 15th followed October 4th. Many people wondered what happened to those 10 stolen from their lives!

But this cannot explain the eclipse. Because: 1) Julian Calendar is used to reflect astronomical events prior to 1582 and the NASA website [2] says the eclipse happened on January 31st.

¿Could Sarmiento have mistaken the dates?

By the way, the images seem to show a moon changing shape due to the Earth’s shadow flitting across it. The reddish color is also typical of lunar eclipses.
But we have one week difference!

The answer to my question is NO, he did not mistake the dates, in fact he saw and recorded the lunar eclipse in his journal:

"This Sunday there was a lunar eclipse; and though Sarmiento observed it and it was a clear night, and the Moon appeared in the East while the Sun set, and when it rose, it appeared round and totally un-eclipsed, but its redness and darkness that came over the sky as it showed itself above the Eastern horizon...." [1] pp. 184

So we can forget about the eclipse! I could not find any comets during that period either.

Perhaps some distant volcano’s eruption reflecting on a cloud blown by Patagonia’s wind?

A mystery, but I don’t think it can be due to an extraterrestrial alien craft.

Then again, the image in Sarmiento de Gamboa's journal looks like the Moon during Last Quarter, and, on February 8th that was precisely the Moon's phase. Could a volcanic eruption have caused the Moon to appear red? This is quite a common phenomenon, "blood red" Moon due to volcanic ash in the air (I have seen it due to Puyehue Volcano's recent eruption).

Sources

[1] Sarmiento de Gamboa, P., (1768). Viaje al Estrecho de Magallanes por el Capitán Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa en los años de 1579 y 1580… Madrid: Imprenta Real de la Gazeta. Pp 205 and plates.
[2] NASA. Phases of the Moon: 1501 to 1600

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2011 International Year of Forests Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall ©