Trimenen the Giants of Coin (Patagonia).

Oliver van Noort (1558-1627) was a Dutchman, navigator and merchant who sailed around the globe (the first Dutchman to do so) during an expedition which set out from Texel, The Netherlands in 1598 with the intention of looting Portuguese and Spanish settlements in America, and trade with spices in the Far East.

A company was organized, the Magelhaensche Compagnie with Peter Van Beveren, Huyg Gerritz and John Benninck as its main shareholders, and it fitted four ships the "Hendrick Frederick", the "Mauritius", the "Endracht" and "Esperance", with 248 men on board.

They reached the Strait of Magellan, and massacred a group of Fuegian natives on Penguin Island, killing all the men and sparing the women and children -though they kidnapped four of the children. One of them gave them the following account:

"From one of these boys, after he had learnt the Dutch language, they had the following intelligence. The larger of the two islands was named Castemme by the natives, and the tribe inhabiting it Enoo. The smaller island was called Talche. Both were frequented by great numbers of penguins, the flesh of which served the natives as food, and their skins for cloathing. Their only habitations were caves. The neighbouring continent abounded in ostriches, which they also used as food. The natives of these dreary regions were distinguished into tribes, each having their respective residences. The Kemenetes dwelt in Kaesay; the Kennekin in Karamay; the Karaiks in Morina: All these are of the ordinary size, but broad-breasted, and painted all over; the men tying up their pudenda in a string, and the women covering their parts of shame with the skins of a penguin; the men wearing their hair long, while that of the women was kept very short; and both sexes going naked, except cloaks made of penguin skins, reaching only to the waist. There was also a fourth tribe, called Tirimenen, dwelling in Coin, who were of a gigantic stature, being ten or twelve feet high, and continually at war with the other tribes."

Read the Source of this text (Kerr Robert. (1824). General History and Collection of Voyages… Edinburgh. Vol. X Chap. IV. Voyage of Oliver Van Noort Round the World in 1598-1601.). Another online source with the original book.

In the original Dutch language version (see it online here), the names for the natives are written the same as in the English translation except the following: Karayke, Morine, and Trimenen.

The massacre and kidnapping is a display of ruthlessness typical of Europeans of those days (I exclude Narbrough from this category, he was more compassionate. When he saw the natives at Port Desire in 1669 he wrote "they would not have come near our People, if they had not fallen accidentally in the Hills and Valleys with them. I have thought that they have heard of the cruel dealings of the Spaniards, and dare not trust us." (Source)

Dutch killing Fuegians, by T. de Bry. Source

By the time they left the Strait of Magellan, scurvy, bad weather, and the clashes with the Portuguese and the natives had decimated the crew. The second in command, Jacob Claasz, was court martialled for attempted desertion and abandoned on the mainland near Port Famine. His fate is unknown.

Only two ships made it into the Pacific Ocean, the "Mauritius" and the "Endracht", 101 men had died, and only 147 had made it to there alive. They raided some spots along the Pacific coast and then they visited the Spice Islands. Only 45 made it back to Holland, the outcome of the commercial venture was a break-even. It led to a greater geographic knowledge and set the basis for the Dutch East India Company that would occupy the East Indies and establish the Dutch colonial empire there.

All the abducted children died at sea, and shortly after, in 1600, Sebald de Weert on his way back to The Netherlands stopped on that island and found a woman, who had survived the massacre.

The Natives

This is the original Dutch text by van Noort.

Below are two maps, one by van Noort (top) from 1602, with the Pinguyns Eÿlanden, and a modern one (bottom) with the only three islands in that part of the Strait, from north to south Isabella, Marta, and Magdalena. If the people the Dutch killed were on one of these islands, they were boat people, not foot indians like the Selk'nam.

van Noort map of Patagonia and Current map. A Whittall

van Noort identified four native groups and their territories (names from English and Dutch versions):

• The Enoo on the Island of Casteme next to the Talche Island
• The Kemenetes in Kaesay
• The Kennekin in Karamay
• The Karaiks (or Karayke) in Morina (or Morine)
• The Tirimenen (or Trimenen) in Coin

The first four groups were normal sized people, which by the description given, seem to be canoe people. The fourth group were the giants, at war with the others.

The Selk'nam called the Yagan people "Uowen" which does not appaer in this list, so this also proves that the boy kidnapped by van Noort was not a Selk'nam.

I have found two scholarly articles on this subject, one is a thesis (Alejandra Vidal, (2015) Proto-Chon: Fonología, morfología y léxico, who discusess her findings about the words mentioned by van Noort, most of which she writes "belong to some language of the Chon family" (see p. 71 1.6.1. La lengua de los enoo (fines del siglo XVI)).

Vidal interprets the Enoo terms as equivalent to the following Chon language terms:

• Kenneka. Selk'nam "nèné-qà" ‘belonging to the West’, "k-nèné-qr" ‘person from the West’
• Koin. Place name. Selk'nam "kʔójin" ~ "kwʔójin" ‘cordillera’ (Andes)
• Castemme (Santa Magdalena Island). Tehuelche "kašte:m" ‘land within’
• Talcke (smaller Santa Marta Island). Tehuelche "t’alk’e-" ‘be small’

This is a jumble of Selk'nam and Tehuelche terms. Which group would use such a language?

David Williams wrote an interesting paper attempting to identify: "Which ethnic group did the mysterious Enoo tribe (Strait of Magellan, 1599) belong to? / ¿A que grupo etnico pertenecio la misteriosa tribu enoo (Estrecho de Magallanes, 1599)?" Revista de Antropologia Iberoamericana, vol. 10, no. 1, Jan. 2015, pp. 99+. Gale OneFile: Informe Académico, Online

Williams suggests the enoo people were Yamaná people (Yaghans) canoe people who were inside the territory of the Alakaluf canoe people. This is far from the Beagle Channel and southeastern Islands of Fuegia, where the Yamaná people lived. What were they doing in the Strait of Magellan hundreds of kilometers north of their territory?.

I agree with Williams that the particle "aike" found in the name of the name of the Karaik or Karaike is a Tehuelche word which means "campground", "place where you live". So maybe it was the spot where the "Kar" people lived (?) what is Kar?

Over a century ago, John Cooper (Analytical and critical bibliography of the tribes of Tierra del Fuego and adjacent territory. (1917). Washington Govt. printing office.) wrote about the words reported by van Noort and stated that "Neither the tribal names or other words have been confirmed by later investigators; they are all probably erroneous, with the possible exception of Coin (= Chon?). Cf. however, Furlong, 7, p. 185: the western Onas are called Kenenica Chon."

Below is an image from Furlong's book (Furlong, Charles Wellington, (1917), Tribal Distribution and Settlements of the Fuegians, Comprising Nomenclature, Etymology, Philology, and Populations) and the entry regarding Kenenica people:

Source

Furlong and the Kenenica. Source

Furlong (1874–1967) was an American author, artist and explorer who traveled extensively and visited Tierra del Fuego in 1907-1908. He wrote several books about the area and its people. He says that the Southern Onas (Selk'nam) called the "Western" Onas "Kenenica Chon", where Chon, is the Tehuelche word for "people"** so "Kenenica" is "Western". This is in agreement with Vidal's interpretation.

But, why would the people in Penguin Island use a Southern Selk'nam term?

** See Alexander Chamberlain (On the Puelchean and Tsonekan (Tehuelchean), the Atacameñan (Atacaman) and Chonoan, and the Charruan Linguistic Stocks of South America, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1911), pp. 458-471. Online) who confirms that "... Tsoneka (Tsoneca), or Tsonek, Chonek, etc., the term by which they call themselves, said to signify "men," "people.""

This identifies two words: "Coin" = "Chon" (people) and "Kenenica" = "West". We will never know for certain who any of these people were, including the Trimenen giants.

Mateo Martinic (Los canoeros de la Patagonia meridional, Journal de la société des américanistes, 1989, 75 pp. 35-61. Source) identifies the "Karaike" with the Alakaluf canoe people and the "Enoo (Enooke, Enuke)" with the "Laguediche, Aveguediche, Poykes, Poyukes Indians of the Strait and adjoining waters".

Martinic does not identify these natives, but Alcides D'Orbigny, who visited Patagonia, did so in the 1830s when he listed the names given by mariners who visited the area or those who interacted with the Patagonians: "Beauchene-Gouin only mentions two [tribes] the Laguediches in the east and the Aveguediches, in the west of the Strait. Boungainville calls them Pecheraís because he heard them pronounce that word many times. Molina calls them Caucau, Falconer [Falkner] who never saw them gives them the name of Key Yus or Keyos to those who are on the west of the Strait of Magellan and the name of Yucama Cunny to those in the east" (Source. p. 231)

I have not been able to find any coincidences between the words mentioned by van Noort and those listed in this Spanish-Alakaluf / Alakaluf-Spanish dictionary.

Thomas Falkner didn't visit Patagonia, but he had excellent sources. He wrote in his Description of Patagonia (1774) about the southernmost Tehuelche groups, along the Strait of Magellan:

"The last of the Tehuel nations are the Yacana-cunnees, which signifies foot-people; for they always travel on foot, having no horfes in their country. To the north, they border on the Sehuau-cunnees [these are named for some black hares!: "Sehuau signifies, in the Tehuel dialect, a species of black rabbit, about the size of a field-rat; and as their country abounds in these animals, their name may be derived from thence; cunnee signifying people."] to the west, on the Kej-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 in order to pass the straits. They are sometimes attacked by the Huilliches, and the other Tehuelhets, who carry them away for slaves, as they have nothing to lose but their liberty and their lives. They live chiefly on fish; which they catch, either by diving, or striking them with their darts. They are very nimble of foot, and catch guanacoes and ostriches with their bowls (sic) [bows?]."

These "floats" or coracles were used by the Aonikenk people, who seem to be these Yacana-cunnees (probably the name given to them by the Northern Tehuelches, as foot Indians). The Selk'nam to the south may also have used floats to trade across the Strait of Magellan, so it is possible that the natives on Penguin Island were Aonikenk or Selk'nam. The "western people" would have been the Key-yus, possibly the Kemenetes in Kaesay. Mountains separated them from the Aonikenk.

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

The Cayapas and their D4h3a mtDNA

The Cayapa people in Ecuador carry the very rare D4h3a mtDNA haplogroup in high rates in comparison to other Native Americans. See my previous post (D4h3a revisited).

When it was discovered in 1999, this variante was reported as the "Cayapa lineage", later it was found in other native groups, but at extremely low frequencies. This is the paper published back in 1999 that reported this unique Amerindian mtDNA founding lineage for the first time.

Cayapa territory. From O. Rickards, C. Martínez-Labarga, J.K. Lum, G.F. De Stefano, and R.L. Cann (1999)

A 2013 study reported that "The “Cayapa” lineage, D4h3a, was confirmed in the expected high proportion (22.5%)." Meaning that over 1 in 5 Cayapas carry this variant. It didn't find any European, Asian or African mtDNA among the natives.

A 2020 paper, citing Bravi, reported that "the highest frequencies of this lineage are found in Cayapa and Tehuelche populations, with a percentage of 25% of the total samples". Interesting link to the Patagonian people!

I found the extremely interesting thesis, by Bravi, 2005, (see it here - Spanish). In it, Bravi analyzed this new founding lineage. The frequency is high in certain groups, between 13% and 25% in the Fuegian Yamaná, the Patagonian Tehuelche, the Paraguayan Lengua, and the Cayapas. It is much Lower among the Araucanian people (Mapuche and Huilliche) of Chile and the Peruvian and Bolivian Quechuas (Image below is from the paper). This discontinuity in the distribution (Chile, Peru and Bolivia lie between the Ecuadorian Cayapas and the Amazonian Lenguas, and the Patagonian-Fuegian people) suggests that the original D4h3a migration was later overlaid by more recent arrivals with other mtDNA halpogroups diluting its presence.

Araucanization

The author of this thesis notes that the Patagonians probably had a higher ratio of this rare haplogroup before the Mapuche people crossed the Andes (pushed by Spanish conquest in the late 1500s), a process known as "Araucanization" (disliked by the Mapuche people, who feign they are original inhabitants of Argentina's Patagonia - they aren't, they are original people in Chile, not Argentina).

The paper states: "Since the beginning of the "Araucanization of the Pampas and Patagonia" in the 17th century, the cis-Andean Pampas-Patagonian populations interbred with "Araucanian" immigrants of trans-Andean origin. Given that some of the "Araucanian" fractions lack "Cayapa" lineages ... or possess them in low frequency... it is reasonable to interpret that their presence at such high frequency among the Tehuelches would not be a consequence of recent Araucanian female introgression (in the last 350 years) but rather a reflection of their ancestral condition. Although very high, the actual frequency of 26% for the “Cayapa” haplotypes among the Tehuelches, it must have been higher in the past, towards the end of the 16th century, before the massive influx of “Araucanians” from this side of the Andes."

The table above shows (left to right), the population, the sample size "N" the number of D4h3a found "Cayapa", the frequency "frecuencia" and the source.

The Cayapa people

Rickards et al, (1999), had noted that the Cayapas were "of distinct interest to geneticists, for at least three reasons. First, their oral traditions recount a migration from the western Amazon basin into the Andes (Barriga-Lopez 1987; Carrasco 1988) and then a flight from Ibarra into the lowland jungles to escape first Inca and finally Spanish enslavement (Barrett 1925). These movements suggest that historical events and forced acculturation have not significantly distorted their genetic identity. Second, although they have been exposed to disease epidemics brought by foreign contact, their population appears to have been stable during the past 250 years of colonial rule and has been slowly increasing to its current size of ∼3,600 individuals, without significant admixture from either European- or African-derived settlements adjacent to tribal communities."

The fact they migrated from the Amazon basin, suggests that this ancient lineage was present there, well inland, (not on the Pacific coast) and dispersed across the continent from that node.

The 1999 paper pointed out that even though the Cayapas spoke a Chibchan language, "the Cayapa appear closer to non-Chibchan speakers of South America than to representatives of the same language family in Central America, a classic case of discordance between genetic and linguistic data."

The Chibchans reached Colombia and NW South America around 2000 years BP, and are, relatively speaking, "newcomers". This is mentioned in a recent paper: "original “Chibchan homeland” in Central America is supported not only by mtDNA studies on present-day populations who speak Chibchan languages but also from linguistic observations, indicating that the isthmus region exhibits the highest diversity within this language family."

The Amazonian Cayapas probably adopted a Chibcha family language the same way that the Northern Tehuelche, Puelche and Pampa groups in Argentina adopted the Mapuche Araucanian language: trade and war, simplicity of the language helped spread the Mapdungun Mapuche language replacing the Chon of the Tehuelche groups. I agree, language and genes don't necessarily go together or imply a common origin and heritage.

According to a book published in 1919, the Cayapas lived an isolated lifestyle (it may have helped preserve their unique genetic marker), in 1641 the Spanish "Visitador", an official recorded that the tribe at Piñán consisted of 334 people. They were "antisocial like all savage tribes, and didn't live in villages. Instead the families built separate huts along the river banks, and seldom did so further inland. They moved frequently, and when cocoa cultivation replaces the jungle in which they live, they move away. They bury their dead in the middle of the dead person's former home, and move away.

Another book from 1876, states that "about 2,000 Cayapas, who still keep to the forests on the banks of the Rio Cayapas, holding carefully aloof both from the whites and the negroes... their language, which has also remained unaffected by Quichua and Spanish influences."

They built dugout canoes, from balsa wood tree trunks (pictured below - source).

An account published in 1894 says that the Cayapas river was 100 to 120 m wide (roughly 300 to 360 ft) and that "we met Cayapa boats all the time. They are light canoes, of elegant construction. On the sides they had whimsical mosaic-like designs painted with tars. They are maneouvered by an Indian using an oar 3 m long (10 ft), and by an Indian woman, who navigates from the stern with an other oar, very wide and short"

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

Similar myths between Patagonians and Australians

Some Patagonian Natives' myths that are very similar to those found in Australia, among the Aboriginal people.

As I mention further down, the human mind whether modern or archaic, Aboriginal, Chinese or Patagonian has a rather limited set of emotions or feelings to deal with. So fear is usually elicited by means of monsters, man-eating ogres, creatures from the dark, living-dead and son on. It should not surprise us to find giants, dwarves,trolls, lake creatures and all kinds of monsters that have their equivalent in different parts of the world. They were all "invented" by the "limited" human mind.

Having said this, people with a common origin share traditions, which in the very distant past were the glue that kept clans or tribe together. They were passed on from father to son, mother do daughter over countless generations and have survived until this day. A clear example is Little Red Riding Hood, which struck fear into us when we were children: a man-eating (or better said, a "granny-eating") wolf in a forest! How many of us have seen a real live wolf? Very few. Maybe on a documentary on Alaska or Canada, but never in the wild.

But the story is based on real facts: forests are dangerous, wolves exist and careless children may fall prey to them (or other strangers) or worse, also cause trouble to their kin.

So below are some of these shared myths:

Tehuelche native myths from Patagonia

I copy pasted from my book, I have added some comments to give context, in brackets "[]":

"Yiakelon she- ­ghosts. These ghost­ women dwelled among the cracks of the cliffs and escarpments and bear an amazing similarity to the Australian Aboriginal belief in ‘Mimi’, who were tall slim mischievous beings that also lived among the rocky crags. The Aboriginals believed that before their arrival to Australia, Mimi had human shape and taught men how to hunt, cook, talk, sing and also, to paint the rocks (note the extraordinary similarity with Elal). Once again we have a myth relating both cultures, Australian and Patagonian; if it is a coincidence, it is striking...

"...The creature described by Falkner [comment: among the Guarani natives in Paraguay] is surprisingly similar to the Iemisch [among the Tehuelche of Patagonia]; no wonder Musters quickly identified the Patagonian water tiger with it. A Guaraní legend about Guarán,the native warrior who slayed Yaguarú, provides some interesting details about the beast, not only did it live in a cave by the river bank but it also had a strong tail and a taste for women’s flesh, it was also foul smelling just like Ayayema, Kawtcho, Mapinguari and the dwarfish Chupacabras. [several Amerindian monsters]
A Pan-Gondwanan beast? A similar mythical creature, an amalgam of giant otter and feline, is said to live in New Zealand, the ‘Waitoreke’ —Maori for “water animal with spurs”. The Australian Aboriginals also had their equivalent water monster, the foul smelling ‘Bunyip’. This may reveal once again possible ancient cultural ties between Australoids and southern South American natives, or maybe the repetition of similar themes across dissimilar and totally unrelated human cultures; perhaps we humans have a limited repertoire of fears and they tend to crop up again and again in our myths. It may also indicate that the former super continent of Gondwana was home to a strange water creature...

Selk'nam myths from Tierra del Fuego

"... at the dawn of time, during the mythical era of the ‘Hoowin’, the legendary ancestors of the Selk’nam [lived]. Once again, this bears a striking similarity with the Australian Aboriginals’ belief that all things began with the Dreamtime; a sacred era out of time in which ancestral Totemic Spirit Beings formed the creation."

The Hoowin was a time that preceded us, the world was peopled by the Sun, Moon, stars, snow, wind, sea, all of them very powerful witches. Then the modern world formed, many of these creatures turned into animals, mountains, lakes and the sea... humans were created out of this mysterious ancestral Hoowin world.

Hoowin is very similar to the Dreamtime, an "everywhen", a "time out of time" which was peopled by the ancestors of Australian Aboriginals, who had supernatural abilities and lived in this Dream Time that preceded creation...

"Fascinatingly, the Australian Aboriginal people also have legends about wild hairy pigmies that they called Gubba; these are very similar to the Fuegian Yosi in appearance and size, being barely one meter tall (3 ft 4 in).
...The Aboriginals, besides ‘Gubba’ that was akin to the Fuegian Yosi, also recognized another large wild hominid, the ‘Yowie’ or “great hairy man” that killed and ate people. Some Australian researchers such as Gilroy, Cropper and Healy believe that Yowie is a Homo erectus, a human ancestor which became extinct worldwide when modern man, Homo sapiens, moved out of Africa. According to them, it somehow managed to survive in Australia long enough to coexist with men.In the Australian case, it is reasonable to assume H. erectus habitation prior to modern humans, because its remains ve been found close by, in neighboring Indonesia. This could imply that the Patagonians’ ancestors, the Australoids, could have encountered H. erectus in Austronesia and brought it with them as their ‘hairy men’ myths when migrating to America..."

I also explained the Austronesian hypothesis as follows:

"The Austronesian hypothesis
All these Patagonians, were quite different from the rest of South American natives; this has been revealed by a study of their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). This type of DNA is maternally inherited and allows researchers to trace the maternal lineage back in time and to establish connections between groups of people based on differences in their mtDNA. mtDNA taken from skeletons of the now extinct Yagan, Selk’nam and Alakaluf populations as well as Aonikenk Tehuelche show that they, from a genetic viewpoint, were different from all other American natives (including the Mapuche in northern Patagonia). It is noteworthy that the skeletal remains of Fuegians, the Patagonian natives and their Paleo­Indian ancestors also depart from the typical Mongoloid pattern found in other American Indian (Amerindian) groups such as the Mapuche. Both lines of evidence suggest that there may have been more than one migratory wave of Asian people ancestral to the American natives. It may also be possible that the ancestors of all the Patagonian PaleoIndians came in an independent migration long before the arrival of the ‘Clovis people’. The Clovis had entered the continent through Bering Strait via Alaska about 13,500 years BP. They are considered as the Americas’ first inhabitants (hence the ‘Clovis­ first’ model) yet, southern South America, which according to the Clovis first model should be the last part of the continent to be occupied by humans, seems to have sites as old as or even older than the Clovis sites found in North America. Human remains discovered in Brazil show a very strong resemblance to modern South Pacific people, suggesting that America was first colonized by the generalized human (Homo sapiens) population that inhabited East Asia in the Late Pleistocene. These people arrived in America in very ancient times long before the Mongolid morphology of the forbearers of the Clovis had evolved.
They may also be the ancestors of the southern Patagonian Paleo Indians, and their different racial origin and cultural background may have a bearing on the myths and legends of their Tehuelche and Fuegian descendants. It is extremely likely that these first Americans brought with them their own set of ancient tales about strange beings, and gradually adapted them to their new home. There are, as we will see, surprising coincidences between Patagonian and Austronesian myths. It was these original people who forged legends that even today pervade throughout Patagonia."

Quotes from A. Whittall, Monsters of Patagonia, Zagier & Urruty.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2015 by Austin Whittall © 

Mapuche and the quick peopling of America

Today's post brings us back to Patagonia after a long time. The fact is that I came across an interesting paper in my quest for data on the peopling of America. I am a firm believer that Homo sapiens were not the first people to reach the New World and that our more ancient relatives may have done so long ago, surviving until recently and originating the myths that are found across the New World about "ogres", "wild men" and "monsters").

The paper has some strange facts and information which I do not agree with, so please indulge me while I review it.

The paper by Bodner, Perego et al. (2012)

The paper by Martin Bodner, Ugo A. Perego et al., (2012) [1] reports the discovery of two new mtDNA haplotypes D1g and D1j among Native Americans. They are quite rare and are found mainly in the southern tip of South America. They are dated to an average age of 16.9 +⁄- 1.6 ky, which places them right at the (officially recognized) dates for the migratory wave that peopled the New World (in the paper this date is estimated as ~ 15 to 18 kya).

The paper makes a very surprising claim: "the Paleo-Indian spread along the entire longitude of the American double continent might have taken even <2000 yr." [1]. Since we are talking about some 16,000 km (10,000 miles) this is a very quick pace of migration: look how long it took modern humans to reach Australia from Africa or Europe! Why were the Paleoindians in such a hurry?

The answer is simple: to fit the time frame imposed by orthodox science.

Since the Monte Verde site in Northern Patagonia in Chile is dated to approximately 14 kya, we have a definite date of arrival in the Southern tip of America and since the migration began in Beringia some 15 to 18 kya... we do not have too much margin here: 1,000 to 4,000 years. The authors opt for a Salomonic mid-point of 2 ky for the journey from Beringia to Patagonia and their calculation is the following:

The novel mtDNA clades arose in America some 16.9 +⁄- 1.6 ky, and as both of them belong to the mtDNA D1 haplogroup, which coalesces at 13.9 to 18.3 kya, this date imposes an upper limit to the peopling event.

They support their quick march across America stating that "such a rapid movement is consistent with the results of three simulation studies..." [1]. Of course models are only as strong as the assumptions they are based on. A stones and bones approach would be more reliable, but since mainstream scholars ignore the American sites older than 15 ky, then they have to rely on simulations to support their dates.

They favor a specific coastal route along the Pacific Ocean as the most probable path to Patagonia: "only a coastal route ... can explain the speed of the migration from Beringia to Monte Verde [in Chilean Patagoina]" [1]. They discard a two pronged entry into South America (on the East and West of the Andes).

Looking at the ethnic groups and geographical locations in which these haplotypes were found, the dismissal of other population route is odd. But the authors do so based on the dates they have defined: since D1g and D1j both split from a common source in America (in other words less than 18 kya) and had to reach Monte Verde some 14 kya, there is not much time for peopling the continent and evolving separately:

"Another potential interpretation of our results would appear much less plausible: the origin of all D1g and D1j lineages in a common source population that separated in the north with little or no later migration over the mountain barrier. This would involve a split of these founder groups after all subclades present on both Andean sides had developed (≤5 kya), and thus a very recent start of the southward movement. Furthermore, this model would not conform to the presence of humans at the Monte Verde site at ~14 kya. Hence, a common source population that split into an eastern and a western group would be likely only with extended migrations, as described above, starting or continuing after the youngest lineages had differentiated. In addition, this demographic model would find more difficulties to explain the total absence of D1g and D1j in northern South America." [1]

Of course, an earlier start from Beringia would avoid all these complications, and allow for a two pronged entry into South America, but this is not allowed in the mainstream theory.

And the problem of its "total absence... in northern South America" if true, may be due to the lack of adequate sampling and sequencing. Because the paper itself states that D1j was found in the Dominican Republic, in an extant Taino native! To reach Hispaniola Island in the Caribbean, the Tainos surely island-hopped all the way from Venezuela in Northern South America which they surely reached after splitting from the other "coastal" group in Colombia, which means that the two pronged option into America, one coastal the other on the East of the Andes is viable.

But Bodner, Perego et al., believe that "the presence of D1j mtDNAs in the Dominican Republic could represent the genetic echo of a truly South American source population's input into the Caribbean, supporting the hypothesis of a peopling of the Caribbean Islands from the southeast to the northwest." [1], that is, the proto-Tainos first peopled the Amazon, which they reached from the Pacific coast in Peru, Ecuador and Norhtern Chile, from where they then took a nortwestern route to reach the Caribbean by Trinidad-Tobago.

The paper says that the younger D1j was collected from several native groups: Mapuche, Kolla or Coya, Diaguita, Pilagá, Wichi, Mataco (actually Mataco and Wichi are the same people!) (all in Argentina), Bolivian Quechua, and the Taino in the Dominican Republic. The older D1g was found in the Mapuche and other Patagonian natives.

These natives live in completely different ecosystems, speak different languages and exploit their resources differently: the forests of the Chaco lowland natives such as Pilagá the foothills of eastern Salta Mountains below the Yunga jungle (Wichi), the arid and high altitude Andean Plateau (Coya and Quechua), the mountain valleys in the Central Argentine Andes (Diaguita), the Central Chilean Valley, the forests of the Patagonian Andes (Mapuche) to the fjords and icefields in the Fuegian region (Yaghans), adaptation took a long time.

So I do agree that either a coastal route with trans-Andean spread or a split right in the north (Colombia) with two southward routes (Pacific and trans-Amazonian) of dispersal are both feasible.

Mapuches and inconsistencies

But the paper supports another explanation:

"The Mapuche settlement area could have enabled the two scenarios that are visible from our results (albeit to be confirmed with more data): The ancestor population of the Mapuche, possibly living in an area north of Chile, could represent the common source population compatible with the split scenario, where the incubation time before was long enough to develop all of the variation that is observed on both sides. The continuous extensive bidirectional gene flow across the mountain barrier after the initial coastal migration and differentiation postulated in the other scenario could have been mediated by the Mapuche ancestors that inhabited the areas on both sides and thereby served as a long-term genetic trans-Andean link." [1]

I find their support of a "Mapuche" core for dispersal as hard to digest. I am not an expert in genetics, far from it, I am a very amateurish amateur, but when it comes down to Patagonia and its native people, I am a well learned, well read layman. I did plenty of research into the aboriginal Patagonians during the years that I spent writing my book (Monsters of Patagonia) and I took a particular interest in the Mapuche.

The Mapuche people are the most overtly assertive natives in South America. They claim that their territory spanned most of the southern tip of the continent. They use maps like the one below (just google Mapuche Map and see how often it turns up), a map which is reproduced by Bodner, Perego et al. [1] too!! See below:

On the left, the orange shaded territory is the land that Mapuche nationalists claim was once theirs until they were expelled in 1879 by Chilean and Argentine troops. It is a mixture of half-truths and should be taken with a pinch of salt. On the right, shaded green is the map in Fig. 3.c. [1] in Bodner, Perego et al., showing the Mapuche dispersal. Both coincide!

Let's get some background on the Patagonian Natives from a reliable source (A. Whittall and Monsters of Patagonia, 2012) [2] from which the following map is taken, and which shows what scholars agree upon as the homeland of the different native groups of Patagonia:

Map showing the native groups in Patagonia. [2]. Copyright © 2014 by Austin Whittall

As you can see by comparing the maps, the Mapuche groups were firmly entrenched in Southern Chile and in the Argentine province of Neuquen. To the west, in Northern Patagonia and into the Buenos Aires Pampas we have the Puelche people, who were not Mapuche.

Bodner, Perego et al., are right when they say that the Mapuche resisted the Spanish conquest and that they were pushed south of the Bío Bío River where they held their sway until 1880. They forget that the Mapuche were subdued in Central Chile by the Inca empire between 1470 and 1536 and that there were other ethnic groups very different to the Mapuche living in Patagonia. The authors attribute their post-defeat dispersal and deportation as a cause of the spread of their genetic heritage, but this is not quite true. Because in fact, the Argentine Census Bureau (INDEC) shows that out of the current population of 113,680 Mapuch, 78,534 live in Patagonia, mainly in Neuquén, another 20,527 live in Patagonia's northernmost province of la Pampa and neighboring Buenos Aires, only 9.745 live in the Greater Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires city and only 4,874 live in the rest of the country. [3]

Southern South American Natives [2]

"Mapuche
The northwestern area of Patagonia spanning the north and central parts of Argentina's province of Neuquén and Chile's viii^th, ix^th and x^th Regions were peopled by the Mapuche (who in the past were also known as Araucanian, a name that has now fallen out of use.
They are apparently not related to the older populations that inhabited the rest of Patagonia. In fact, their origin is quite a mystery. Originally established in central Chile, they were first dislodged southwards by the Inca who invaded the region in the mid 1400s incorporating it to their Empire. Spanish conquistadors after destroying the Inca Empire entered Chile in 1541. Conquistador is the Spanish word for conqueror; they were the adventurers, soldiers and explorers who took the New World by force, seeking gold, silver and precious stones; and forcing the natives to work in the mines that produced them. Violent and merciless, they found their match in Chile. Mapuche and Spaniards engaged in a war that continued for over three hundred years; the longest standoff between natives and Europeans in America. Spanish conquest gradually forced the Mapuche to move south towards the Island of Chiloé, well beyond their original homeland. They also moved eastwards across the Andes, settling on its eastern foot-hills in what is now Neuquén, where they 'Araucanized' the local natives, who adopted their very convenient language (Mapudungun).
The Mapuche progressively extended their influence eastwards towards the Pampas, and through war, trade and cattle rustling, absorbed and Araucanized the original Puelche inhabitants of Tehuelche blood during the eighteenth-and nineteenth-centuries.
They were sedentary farmers who made pottery and wove wool. This distinguishes them from all the other Patagonian natives who were nomadic hunter-gatherers, lacking pottery and agriculture, living in leather tents, the 'toldos', hunting guanaco and ñandú (Rhea or South American ostrich). A large Mapuche community still inhabits its ancestral homeland in Argentina and Chile.
Tehuelche
They were the descendants of the ancient Patagonian Paleo-Indians. The name was given to them by the Mapuche, and meant 'fierce people'. They can be split into two distinct groups, each with their own cultural and linguistic identities: the Northern Tehuelche (Günnuna Kenna or Gennakenk—which, in their language meant 'people') and the Southern Tehuelche. The region between the Senguer, Chubut and Chico rivers was a flexible border between both groups.
Northern Tehuelche. Gradually, during the seventeenth century these northernmost Tehuelche expanded further north out of Patagonia, across the Negro and Colorado rivers and into the Pampas where they replaced the original natives of Buenos Aires province and became known as the Pampas or Puelche (the latter, in Mapudungun means 'Eastern people').
In the Pampas they encountered vast quantities of free roaming wild cattle and also the horse which the Spaniards had bought to America. The horse was quickly adopted, and through the Puelche it rapidly spread south into the heart of Patagonia.
The original Gennakenk continued living in Patagonia between the Negro and Chubut rivers until their demise in the late 1800s. There was yet another smaller group, on the flanks of the Andes in the Argentine provinces of Chubut and Río Negro. They were usually at war with the Mapuche who frequently invaded their territory. They were known as the 'Chüwach a Künna' (people at the edge of the mountains) yet little is known of them.
Southern Tehuelche. They called themselves 'Chonik', which in their language meant 'us, the people'. Originally they were 'foot Indians' and it was not until the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries that they adopted the horse. The Southern Tehuelche were divided into two separate sub-groups, very similar except for their language:
• Teushen (Boreal Southern Tehuelche); that lived in the north, between the Santa Cruz and Chubut rivers.
• 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." [2]

There were other native groups (Chono, Selknam, etc.), I will only focus on the Mapuche since these are the ones mentioned in the paper.

Araucanization

The "Araucanization" of the natives living to the East of the Andes was a very peculiar phenomenon. It also happened to the Huarpids living in the South of what is now Mendoza Province, just north of Patagonia. This is what happened:

The Inca first and then the Spaniards pushed the Mapuche south into the forests of the Chilean Lake District (1470 - 1620). The Mapuche fought back until they razed the Spanish settlements south of the Bío Bío River (1620s) and held the border until the 1870s.

During the late 1600s They spilt over the Andes into what is now Argentina and their language was adopted by the non-Mapuche Huarpids, Pehuenche, Picunche and Poya groups that lived in what is now Neuquén province. The Mapuche traded with them, and language goes with trade. Salt from the Patagonia and cattle together with horses were rustled across the desert from the Ranches (Estancias) in Buenos Aires into Chile.

The Mapuche absorbed several Tehuelche myths and incorporated them into their beliefs, the Gualicho is one of them, and is widely dispersed across Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, yet it is not a Mapuche myth, it is Tehuelche. [2]

The northern Tehuelche groups of the province of Buenos Aires became the "Puelche" and gradually replaced the original "Querandí" groups that lived in the Pampa grasslands. In the province of La Pampa, other groups morphed into the Mapuche speaking Ranquel natives. The Puelche adopted the Mapuche language too but were a distinct group. The raids on Spanish settlements increased in virulence during the 1700s.

A border guarded by poorly equipped troops marked the edge of Spanish civilization. The pink line in the map above throug San Carlos, Rio Cuarto, Melincue and Mar del Plata marks one of those borders: it moved back and forth, pushed by both parties during their invasions.

The period of the Independence wars left the border unprotected and the natives advanced and raided the towns beyond it. Rosas in 1833 led an expedition into the heart of the native territories and pacified the region for 20 years. In Argentina civil war and war with Paraguay delayed the solution of its military border in the south until 1879. In the meantime, Chile had advanced its frontier and many Mapuche chiefs crossed the Andes and settled in Argentina, and even in La Pampa. The araucanized natives and the Chileans (they were known as "Chileans" among the local natives) organized combined raids on the Argentine towns until a military campaign put an end to it in 1879-1880.

Many Mapuche chiefs were arrested and deported with their families to Buenos Aires, others died in battle, but it was not a genocide, only a war. It ended swiftly and later the natives were allowed to return to Patagonia (1890s and early 1900s). As the demographic figures attest, they are many Mapuche living in the region nowadays.

For those interested in reading more about the Araucanization, I mention some books below:

Rodolf Casamiquela, (1985). Características de la Araucanización al oriente de los Andes. Vol 2, No 1. Revista Universidad Católica de Temuco. doi: 10.7770/cuhso-V2N1-art141
Rodolfo Casamiquela, (2007). "Racista anti-mapuche": o la verdadera antigüedad de los mapuches en la Argentina. Ed. Casamiquela.
J. Roberto Bárcenas, (1990). Culturas indígenas de la Patagonia. Turner, 1990
Fernando Oper&ecute;, (2008). Indian Captivity in Spanish America: Frontier Narratives. (See: The Araucanization of the Pampas). University of Virginia Press, pp +65
Chris Moss, (2008). Patagonia: A Cultural History (See: Chapter 8). Oxford University Press

By the way, the Mapuche dislike the idea of "araucanization" and insist on a false point of view: that they actually occupied all these territories. But this is not the case, it is akin to saying that an English speaking native Tamil in India is an Englishman. The fact that both use the same language does not make them both Brits.

Rodolfo Casamiquela, who was born in Patagonia and studied the Tehuelche community in depth was the source of the Araucanization theory and he was attacked ruthlessly by the Mapuche activists until his death.

There are many similarities between Mapuche and Amazonian myths, involving jaguars and giant otters (which do not live in Chile, but are found in the Amazon and Chaco regions), Latcham [4] suggested that the Mapuche originated in the Amazon and later moved to Chile, perhaps furhter studies may corroborate this theory which would support a trans-Amazonic peopling route.

Trivia

Just for the fun of it, a Frenchman, Orelie-Antoine de Tounens wanted to be a king, so, in 1860 he chose a part of the world that (he thought) belonged to nobody (actually it was claimed by both Chile and Argentina as theirs, as it was the former Spanish territory in Patagonia), and he went there to claim it as his.

He landed in Chile, presented himself to the natives and offered them protection from Argentina and Chile if they accepted him as king. The natives agreed and he was appointed King of Araucania and Patagonia (in Chile but not Argentina). The Chilean army captured him and deported him back to France. He tried to return several times but died in his home in France in 1878.

Believe it or not, there still is a heir of de Tounens still claiming his throne. www.araucania.org

Closing comments

The Monte Verde site (14,000 y) shows us that people were living in Chile at that time, it does not impede the existence of sites 15, 16, 18 or even 35 ky old. It is just one site that has been found and dated in a way acceptable to orthodoxy.

To build back from that date with the constraints of a Beringian standstill (oh yes, the paper also supports the "incubation period" in Beringia) and define a 2,000 year duration for the epic adventure of peopling America is, in my opinion, a bit far fetched.

The diversity and variations found in America cannot be overly simplified. Fieldwork is required, more sites are needed, remains must be found, dated and sequenced. The pausity of ancient data puts constraints on our knowledge. We must open our minds and let the facts speak for themselves. Models and simulations are fine, but reality tends to impose itself in the long run.

Sources

[1] Martin Bodner, Ugo A. Perego et al., (2012). Rapid coastal spread of First Americans: Novel insights from South America's Southern Cone mitochondrial genomes. Genome Res. May 2012; 22(5): 811–820. doi: 10.1101/gr.131722.111
[2] Austin Whittall, (2012). Monsters of Patagonia. Zagier & Urruty, B. Aires.
[3] Indec Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos, 2004 (Census Bureau). Native population
[4] Latcham, R., (1924). La organización social y las creencias religiosas de los antiguos araucanos. Santiago: Cervantes.

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

More on the Patagonian Labrys, Phoenicians and Cretans

Getting back to my pervious post on the "Chelelon" or "Opposing triangle" shapes found in Patagonian rock art, and a possible link with Mediterranean cultures of ca. 1.500 BC., I have done some additional reading and can shed some light on some of the questions left unanswered in that post:

In the closing comments of that post I hinted "tongue in cheek" that:

"We could argue that the Cretan sailors reached Patagonia and smelted tin or copper and took it back to Crete in ingots shaped as Labyris, and that the Tehuelche natives imitated them and fashioned their own stone axes. Or that they saw the powerful religious connotations of the Cretan Labyris and adopted it as their own. But that is probably unlikely."

But I did not know then that the Cretans actually did smelt ingots that had a very odd shape! (in a Previous post, I mentioned that they came to Patagonia seeking copper) so it may possible that they had some influence on the native Patagonians. But first lets get back to the "labrys shape" and what my research found:

Patagonian tattoos

The Phoenicians according to Lucian of Samosata [1] tattooed themselves, and they represented these tattoos on their statues (such as the colossus at the Phoenician settlement of Amathus in Cyprus, which has “Tattoo marks on its arms” [2]

But what kind of evidence is this anyway, most human groups from different parts of the world tattoo themselves too!

George C. Musters, an English sailor and explorer who rode from Punta Arenas to Carmen de Patagones, with a band of Aonikenk Tehuelche natives in 1869/70, recorded first hand their customs and activities. He wrote about their tattoos too:

"Both men and women tattoo their forearms... the usual designs consist in a series of parallel lines and sometimes a single or double triangle, the upper one leaning on the apex of the lower one"

What Musters is describing is the opposed triangles motive or Chelelon design! [3]

They were done with blue clay or powered charcoal. He added that in the past the designs were more complex and were applied on the body and the face. He let them tattoo him.

What does this "double triangle" mean anyway? Why would they also tattoo themselves with it?

The Key to the Afterlife

Apparently a femenine goddess of the Tehuelches, whose name is written "Seécho, Sésom, was known as the " Old Woman of Heaven", nicknamed Karunon (which means hag).

She "Looks at the arm... she recevies the dead and examines that their wrists bear the Sháin (tattoo) and throws those who dont, into the sea.". The natives really feared her. [4]

This was also recorded by the Italo-Argentine scientist and explorer Clemente Onelli towards the end of the 1890s:

"They all have on their left arm small tattoos that, as an indian friend told me, are some kind of baptism to be able to enter the outwordly lands; the indian who does not have those hieratical signs marked on him is not allowed into heaven and if close to a river, his [body] is thrown into the water" [5]

A similar belief was held by the North American Sioux who believed that a warrior without tattoos would be turned away from the lodges of the afterlife, and wander the earth as a ghost.[7] Could this Trans-American myth have a common origin in the Paleoindians who peopled America ca. 30 kya? Or did they arise as separate myths?.

The Double cups

My previous post also mentioned "double cups" like two cones joined at their vertex with a shallow concave base.

They baffled me so I decided to read some more about the Tehuelche. They did not use glasses or chalice shaped cups, these artifacts serve another purpose:

They were Anvils. Here is the explanation:

Musters mentions that the Tehuelche jewels (except for the beads) "are home made: they make them by hammering coins that they obtain by trading with the colonies" (the Spanish outposts in Southern and Northern Patagonia or the Welsh one at Trelew, Chubut). [3]

Chilean author Mateo Martinic [6] goes into details on their metal working techniques:

"Anvils:, new handicraft activities arose, especially in working pieces of metal (bronze, copper) in which the natives besides using the elements that they acquired by barter (the most usual) they also used combined with tools belonging to their own culture, that is, stone anvils, adapted to making certain semi-spherical shapes... So that in some types of anvils were chipped to create small rounded cavities which were then used to make metal bowls." [6]

So this settles the mystery of the "double cups" they were anvils used by the natives to hammer coins into different jewels. Their concave bases were not designed to hold drinks but to shape the metal.

Oxhide ingots

For those longing for some Cretan or Phoenician link, other than Samosata's reference in the beginning of this post, there is a certain resemblance between the shape of the "Tehuelche axes" an the "oxhide ingots".

Oxhide ingots are metal slabs mostly made from smelting copper (though some are made from tin). They were manufactured and widely distributed during the Mediterranean Late Bronze Age (LBA).

Their shape resembles the hide of an ox, in which the "legs" are a protruding handle at each of the ingot’s four corners. These made it easier to carry the ingots on the backs of pack animals.

They have been found in Turkey, Cryprus, Crete, Sardinia, Sicily, Egypt and Bulgaria. The photo below depicts one:

Oxhide shaped ingot

The British Museum has more information on these ingots, and has a photo captioned "Copper Oxhide ingot from the Foundry Hoard, inscribed with a maker’s mark or Cypro-Minoan sign at one end (around 1200 BC-1050 BC)." So the Minoans made these ingots too.

Sources

[1] The Syrian Goddess De Dea Syria, by Lucian of Samosata by Herbert A. Strong and John Garstang [1913].
[2] Perrot and Chipiez, Phoenicia and its Dependencies, p. 165. Fig. 110
[3] Musters George, At Home with the Patagonians, Ed. Continente, B. Aires. 2007. pp. 158 and 159
[4] Alejandra Siffredi, Hierofanías y concepciones mítico-religiosas de los Tehuelches meridionales, Runa : archivo para las ciencias del hombre, 1969-1970, vol. 12, p. 247-271.
[5] Clemente Onelli, (1904)Trepando los Andes pp. 156.
[6] Mateo Martinic Beros, (1995) Los Aonikenk: Historia y cultura, pp. 99 and 214
[7] Faith Hickman Brynia 101 Questions about Your Skin that Got Under Your Skin ... Until Now pp. 142

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2013 by Austin Whittall © 

Chelelon, the “hourglass”, “Labyris” or “double ax” symbol in Patagonia

I was looking at some drawings traced from the rocks at some Patagonian rock art sites in Comallo, Río Negro province, Argentina, published in a book by Teresa Boschin [1], and was surprised by the “ape-like” appearance of the “men” and the strange shapes of their clothing (?) or bodies (?). (see image below). Could they be Neandertals or Homo erectus?

Intrigued, I read on, and got to the interpretation given by Boschin. The outcome is this post, which does not deal with primitive hominids but with some strange rock art and stone implements found in Patagonia.

Images traced from the Comallo rock shelters. From [1].

The strange men drawn at Comallo

The first thing that drew my attention were the ears, round, bear-like, mouse-like or even monkey-like (as can be seen in the top row of the drawing above –excluding fig. 185- , and in the second row in fig. 177, as well as fig. 242 in the third row).

The second thing were the “pot bellies” as can be seen again, in all figures of the first row, and, again, excluding the odd drawing depicted in fig. 185. In the second row it appears in figs. 177, 184 and 200 and again in fig. 241 in the third row.

What could they be? Pregnant women? Pot-bellied men? Persons wearing a blanket wrapped around their waist? What are these strange shapes?

Teresa Boschin, the author interprets them as follows:

• Figures 200 (row 2) and 241 (row 3) carry an “ax” (the double triangle shaped thing across their chests –more on this below.
• Seven of these figures are “examples of regional micro-identities” (meaning perhaps local dress or body paintings that are distinct from other regions) and these are all the figures that I noticed had the strange ears!, they are not ears but, according to Boschin some kind of earrings. Fig. 75 on the last row has a chest armour and a Tembetá or “lip plate”, to stretch the lower lip outwards
• Fifteen of them have a clear identification of their gender (look between their legs).
• Several have symbols that identify their “clans”: three toes of fingers (the Rhea or South American ostrich clan), snake, step-shaped garments and tatoo designs (figs 176 and 241). A head-dress with feathers (see bottom row figs. 108, 110), two leather capes (fig. 232 row three). Boleadoras (fig. 161 and 176 on the top row and fig. 75 on the bottom row) – the two pink or red round shaped things around the person’s waist). A combat armour and a cape (fig. 107 and 108, last row), and a one-armed person (fig. 161 top row).

My comments on Boschin’s interpretation

Boleadoras: The name boleadora derives from the Spanish word ‘bola’ (ball); they were stones balls sheathed with leather and attached to strong tendon straps that were whirled above the head of the hunter to gain momentum and then thrown so as to entangle around the hunted animal’s legs.

The problem is the size: the ´bolas’ were not as big as shown in the rock art. Even the largest stones were not bigger than a tennis ball. They were worn hanging from the waist, and in most photographs and engravings showing Tehuelche natives you never see the boleadoras. However, I did find one which shows a native riding a horse with his bolas strung around the waist as can be seen below (engraving from George Muster’s ride along Patagonia in 1870): [2]

Patagonian hunting, notice the boleadoras in his hand and slung on his waist.

Regarding earrings, in all the images (photos, paintings, etc) that I have seen, not one single Patagonian native man is shown wearing earrings of any kind. Women seldom appear wearing earrings, and if they do, they are tiny.

As an example, below is a photograph of a Tehuelche native Casimiro Biguá and his male relatives, at Carmen de Patagones fort in 1865. Notice: no earrings or boleadoras:

Casimiro Biguá and relatives, Patagones in 1865. No earrings or boleadoras.

The Axes

Boschin associates this rock art with Elumgássum, which she says is the mythical creator of the Tehuelche people. She points out that this particular rock art at Comallo introduces some stylistic changes: “that prioritize Elumgássum displaying a variety and quantity of axes...”[1]

For more on this Patagonian monster, see our posts on Elumgássum or Ellengassen.

Regarding the Axes, I have posted about Ellengassen’s hand ax postulating that it is the hand ax of some primitive hominid.

But this time I decided to take a deeper look into the matter and the odd shaped axes that Boschin mentions.

Looking at the rock art drawings, you will notice the ones she says carry an ax across their chests, it is a figure which she describes as follows “Chelelon are two triangles linked at the vertex [1] Surprisingly she does not go into the etimology of the word “Chelelon”, which I did, and found quite enlightening, but first lets look into these “double headed axes”.

The Minoan connection

The Palace of Knossos lies on the island of Crete, on the Eastern tip of the Mediterranean Sea. This complex at Knossos was built around 1,900 BC and was permanently occupied until around 1,200 BC when the site was destroyed by fire.

In one of the Palace’s rooms, an image of a double headed ax is cruedely engraved on the walls of the light well at the west end. The room received its current name as "The Hall of the Double Axes" due to this symbol. [3]

This is not at all strange since the Labyris or double headed ax was a very important symbol in the Minoan religion (something akin to the cross for Chrisitanity). [4] In Crete it was carved, painted, engraved and depicted in ceramics, frescoes and even cast in metal.

Labyris or double ax

The Labyris is a very ancient symbol (the word is of Lydian origin), and found in many places around in Europe and the Middle East:

• Baring and Cashford describe it at the Paleolithic cave at Niaux, in Southeastern France [6]
• E. O. James dates it as a religious symbol from the Fifth millenia BC and M. Eliade has the ax as part of religious rites at Tell Arpachiyah (of the Assyrian Tell Halaf culture), where it was found close to a naked goddess. In other parts of the Middle East it is a symbol of the “Mother Goddess” [7]
• A Summerian text of the Third millennium BC mentions a sacred wedding which included the “Double headed ax ...” [8]
• Even Afrodite (heir of the Cretan Mother Goddess) appears with the double ax symbol in the Afrodisia coinage [9]

Apparently the word for Labyrinth -the home of mythical Minotaur- derives from the word for double ax (Labyris) and meant “Home of the Double Ax”.

Its meaning

What does the double ax symbolize? Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas believed that the symbol predated metal axes by several millenia and that it represented a stylized Goddess of regeneration and death, with a hourglass shaped body and which was symbolized with a butterfly (because the various stages of its life cycle represent the cycle of life, death and rebirth).[5]

In my opinion Gimbutas seems to have been right (More on butterflies towards the end of this post). However, axes can be fashioned in stone, as we will see was the Patagonian case.

Furthermore the word labrys may derive from labia (with evident sexual and fecundity – Mother Goddess connotations).[5] Interstingly the double ax is depicted as held by women. It is never depicted as held by men. And, as an example of this: the Greeks would have Hercules steal Hyppolite's labryis, she was the queen of the Amazons.

Could Comallo cave rock art depict women? Hence the earrings?

Others interpret the symbol differently: Sir Arthur John Evans (1851 – 1941) the archaeologist who discovered the Palace of Knossos believed that the figure was a symbol of the union of complementary principles: the femenine and the masculine. Yet another interpretation is that it is the ax with which the Cretan bulls were sacrificed.

The Patagonian double headed axes

This takes us back to Boschin and her Labyris shaped axes. There are quite a few examples of these axes in Argentine museums. They are all fashioned in stone (well, the native Tehuelche did not work metals, so they had to use stone):

Some stone axes found at different sites of Patagonia and Northern Argentina. From [10].

In 1903 Juan Ambrosetti wrote a paper about these “Great Patagonian Ceremonial Axes”, and mentions that some were found in burial cairns along the Chubut River valley, and one was found at Punta Ninfas, Chubut, on the sea coast. All of them in Patagonia. On average they were 30 cm (one foot) long and a few centimeters thick (less than 1 inch).

He also mentions one tiny 8.5 cm (3.3 in.) ax that was given to him in Northwestern Argentina, at Molinos, Salta province (see above on the right). This is interesting since it may point at some type of cultural or religious influence that spanned the Andean and Patagonian part of America.

Most were carved out of basaltic rock (lava is quite frequent in Patagonia), and some were cracked in half at their narrowest part, due to manhandling when being dug out of the cairns.

Below is another of these axes, which belonged to a Tehuelche Chief named Foyel.

Foyel’s ax, From: [11]

It was given by Foyel to an Argentine General, Liborio Bernal as a peace token, when the native troops he commanded surrendered to the Argentine authorities in 1883. It remained in the General’s family until his great grandchildren donated it to the Emma Nozzi Museum of Carmen de Patagones in 2009. The basaltic rock ax still is about 20 cm ling has some red paint marks on it. It symbolized Foyel’s authority (like a crown or a sceptre symbolize royal authority in Europe).[11]

More axes can be seen below, (A) is similar to the one shown above and is from the Gaiman Museum, Chubut. The ones shown in (B) are from Leleque’s Museum (Chubut), these two axes are “squarer”. And, from the Bariloche Museum, Río Negro we can see the common every-day ax, used for chopping, which has a more practical ax-like shape (C), and is therefore totally different to the “Ceremonial axes”.

Some more Patagonian axes.

The paintings: Rock Art

This symbol (the triangles linked at their vertexes) also appears in rock art, clearly depicted on their own, and not stuck on the chests of people as in Boschin’s Comallo cave paintings.

Hourglass shaped painting, in red, at the Alerces National Park, Chubut.

Curtoni [12] who analysed the different symbols painted across Patagonia, calls it a Clepsydra, or water clock (maybe meaning an hourglass, due to its shape, which would be a sand clock not a water one). In any case he finds it depicted in paintings in the provinces of Buenos Aires (Tandilia and Ventania sites), La Pampa, Neuquén, Mendoza and San Luis, which was the area where the Northern Patagonian Tehuelches lived until the arrival of the Spaniards.

Its symbolic value is powerful since it also appears on other artifacts, not only painted on rocks [12]:

Notice the engraved shapes on the upper part of the object. From [12]

A Universal symbol

However the hourglass symbol is quite common, and it appears in rock art around the world. Some examples below:

Navajo Petroglyphs in New Mexico, USA [14]

Tuareg art in Northern Africa, Sahara.

It maybe meant different things to different people. It is a simple symbol, easy to draw. Rock art depictions can be interpreted to mean anything (like Boschin construing axes out of triangular shaped drawings).

But let’s get back to the stone axes:

Double cups

An interesting blog [13] by Gustavo Rubino Begner on Patagonian geoglyphs mentions a “Double Cup” which he says “is a symbol of being able to receive and keep the energy generated by the ceremony, and, if double amplifies it”.

Since the original text is in Spanish, I will quote in full:

Focusing on the central space that the overlapping and intersections create, we obtain an image which is similar to a double cup also called "ambilateral".
The same shape can be found in the rock art and petroglyphs in Patagonia, sometimes more or less outlined, to the point that it is drawn with straight lines. It is compared to the shape of a sand clock or a (number) eight. In Chubut several cups of this type have been found, generally of stone. The ritual cup symbolizes the power to receive and contain the energy that is generated within the ceremony. If it is double, there is an amplification in two dimensions or directions, external and internal

Indepentendly of Gustavo Rubin Begner's interpretation, I am not sure what these "cups" are, I am currently researching on them.

As you can see, they are quite different from the axes which are basically "flat", the "cups" look like two cones joined at their apex. Since they seem quite shallow it is unlikely that they served as drinking cups. What can they be?

“Double Cups” and an ax. See details below: Top and Right images are from [13]

The upper left image is a double-cup found on the Senguerr River, Chubut, Patagonia. On the Right, Double Cups also from Chubut. The lower left image is a decorated ceremonial ax printed on an Argentine stamp [15].

Chelelon or the opposed triangles are actually Butterflies

So now we go all the way back to the beginning of this post, where Boschin calls these axes by their native name “Chelelon” but did not say what it meant.

She shows how they could be combined and repeatedly superimposed:

Combined Chelelons at Loncoman site. From [1]

This image is important: those are not axes stacked one upon the other, they are something totally different: butterflies. I have seen butterflies gathered in a humid shady spot, they are symbols of fertility, spring, balmy weather and as can be seen below, can pile up together:

Butterflies grouped together. Photo: A. Whittall. Copyright © 2013 by Austin Whittall

In fact, that is what the word Chelelon means! [16] in Tehuelche language: Butterfly. Not triangle or Ax, just butterfly:

Entry for Chelelon in the Tehuelche Dictionary [16]

A Patagonian historian, Mario Echeverría Baleta describes the painted capes crafted by the Tehuelche natives or Kai Ajnun. They were made out of Guanaco Lama guanicoe hides (they were the staple food of the Tehuelche, who used their hides for clothing and building the tents in which they lived in).

The native Tehuelche wore their hides with the fur towards the inside to keep warm and also to keeping burrs and branches from sticking to the hairs, the bare leather was tanned and painted with different motifs, such as the Chelelon, one of which is shown below.[17] Echeverría Baleta also states that they represent butterfly wings:

Chelelon motif, from [17].

Closing comments

The hourglass paintings on the guanaco capes and on the cave walls are butterflies not axes. They may symbolize family clans or even fertility. More research needed.

Humans have a limited repertoire of images and symbols (stars, crosses, dots and... hourglass shapes), and repeat them across space and time. The meanings are surely different, the symbol is the same one.

We could argue that the Cretan sailors reached Patagonia and smelted tin or copper and took it back to Crete in ingots shaped as Labyris, and that the Tehuelche natives imitated them and fashioned their own stone axes. Or that they saw the powerful religious connotations of the Cretan Labyris and adopted it as their own. But that is probably unlikely.

By the way there are many coincidences between Patagonian and Cretan myths.

They did make stone axes with two heads, and that is interesting and worth investigating. Why a double headed axe?

Then there are the “Double cups” which in my opinion are not cups and have no relation with the axes or the hourglass “Chelelon”

Sources

[1] María Teresa Boschin, 2009. Tierra de hechiceros arte indígena de Patagonia septentrional Argentina, Univ. De Salamanca.

[2] Musters, G., (2007). Vida entre los Patagones: un ano de excursiones desde el estrecho de Magallanes hasta el rio Negro: 1869-1870. B. Aires: Continente-Pax.

[3] Knossos Palace

[4] Symbols of the Minoan Goddess Religion

[5]Vicki Noble, The Double Goddess: Women Sharing Power.

[6] A.Baring & J.Cashford, 2005. El mito de la Diosa, Ed. Siruela. pp. 140

[7] E. O. James, Antichi dei mediterranei, Ed. EST, pp. 167
Mircea Eliade, 2006, Storia delle credenze e delle idee Religiose. Ed. BUR, pp. 152.

[8] Daniel Reisman, 1973, Iddin-Dagan's Sacred Marriage. Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol. 25, N. 4, 1973: 187

[9] Paule Faure, Fonctions des cavernes crétoises pp. 157

10] Ambrosetti, Juan B.,1903, Arqueología Argentina. - Las grandes hachas ceremoniales de Patagonia ( probablemente Pillan Tokis). 10 de Marzo de 1903. Anales Del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires. Vol. ser 3 Tom.2.

[11] Julio Esteban Vezub , La vida social de las cosas y los artefactos-documentos del Museo de Carmen de Patagones CORPUS - Archivos virtuales de la alteridad americana http://ppct.caicyt.gov.ar/index.php/corpus/article/view/1438/1440

[12] Rafael Pedro Curtoni , 2006 Expresiones Simbólicas, Cosmovisión y Territorialidad en los Cazadores Recolectores Pampanos. Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropología XXXI, Buenos Aires. pp133

[13] Geoglifosenlapatagoia.blogspot by Gustavo Rubino Begner

[14] Alex Patterson (Comp.), 1992. A Field Guide to Rock Art Symbols of the Greater Southwest , Big Earth Publishing.

[15] Díaz, José Fernández , 1984. Catálogo 2a exp Las Culturas de América en la Época del descubrimiento. 137pp. Madrid

[16] Ramon Lista, 1894, Los Indios Tehuelches, Una Raza Que Desaparece

[17] Mario Echeverría Baleta, Kai Ajnun - El milenario arte tehuelche de los quillangos pintados

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2013 by Austin Whittall ©