The maze is a maze but not Inca

I wrote to a hotel which is 1,200 m south (3/4 of a mile) from the Labyrinth and asked them if they knew about it. They were kind enough to write and explain:

Buenos días , lei su consulta . el lugar , es un museo a cielo abierto perteneciente al escultor fausto marañon . la figura del laberinto fue realizada por su hija , Yamila marañon . mas info www.pukarainca.com , atte Sergio slobodianiuk geógrafo.

Translation

Good Morning, I read your enquiry. The place, is an open air museum belonging to the sculptor Fausto Marañon. The labyrinth shape was done by his daugher, Yamila Marañon. More details www.pukarainka.com [he was promoting his hotel], Regards Sergio Slobodianiuk geographer.

I immediately googled her name and came across her website and a page dedicated to her mazes, it has photos of the one that I had spotted with Google Earth: her web is http://www.yamyla.com.ar/p/laberintos.html

Closeup of the "Maze" that was not an Inca one.

I felt a bit let down... I had thought that I had discovered - uncovered something new, but, it was very like a cretan maze and I had not found any references to Inca mazes with that shape. So, it was not an Inca maze at all. (if it looks like a dog and barks, it is a dog... if it looks like a Cretan maze it is one (and therefore it is modern).

On the bright side my conjecture about low walls was on the mark.

I will leave my Google Earth armchair exploration and focus on the possible arrival of pre-sapiens humans in America. So I am preparing a post on primitive stone tools in South America (prompted by some information and some bright remarks that Pablo Infantino shared with me (Thank you Pablo).

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

Closer Look at the Inca Maze

I drew the outline of the path within the maze (Uspallata, Mendoza, close to Ruta Nacional 149 highway in Argentina), and it follows the classic "Cretan" design (actually it is a universal design, repeated across the globe spanning thousands of years):

The "inca" labyrinth of Uspallata

The image above is the maze at Uspallata. In red I outlined the route from the center to the entrance. The yellow line is a "corridor" that leads nowhere. It makes the maze symetrical.

I believe that it is not a maze built with high walls, perhaps it is just a path outlined with boulders, less than 4 inches (10 cm) high. That would explain why the wind or a flood uncovered it recently. Not much soil had to be removed.

Notice how similar it is to the ones below:

Images of similar mazes (from top to bottom): Coimbra, Portugal. Cornwall, England. Finland. Hollywood Stone, UK. Padugula, India. Sardinia, Italy. Syria.

Sources of the images and further reading

The Mystery of the Labyrinth. M. Elviro.

L. Wormhoudth. Labyrinth / Maze

Labyrinthos J. Saward

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

The Uspallata maze is similar to Cretan labyrinths

More photographs of the geoglyph that I found next to National Highway 149 close to Uspallata in Mendoza Province, Argentina.

I used Google Earth image history tool which shows older shots of the same region. For this particular area there are three photographs taken in June 2002, August 2009 and December 2012. Then I went into Bing Maps and found an image which predates 2012 but is later than the August 2009 image (I know this because you can see that the road is being paved, something that happened after Aug. 2009 and before Dec. 2012).

Photo Gallery

Some photographs of the geoglyph over the years:

Geoglyph in Uspallata Mendoza. Copyright © 2013 by Austin Whittall

The sequence shows that the "drawing" was not visible back in 2012, but that it gradually became visible later. Perhaps it was covered with sand which blew away, revealing the shape below it. (or some flash flood from the river which runs just south of it). It does not seem to have been built during this period.

Its main axis seems to run North to South (maybe giving it some geographic or astronomic function). I have no idea what it is, but it is some kind of maze (the lines form a continuous path). I have been looking for similar maze shaped objects in South America but have not been lucky. Posting Labyrinth in Google shows up many shapes, but none exactly like it. Some images below:

The Minotaur's labyrinth. Cretan coin (67 B.C.).

A blog on maths describes how the Cretan maze can be drawn and gives an example and an explanation:

Making a Classic Cretan maze.

Another online labyrinth site says the following "The two most common labyrinths are the Classic-7 or Cretan and the Medieval or Chartres. The Cretan labyrinth refers to the symbol on the ancient coins from Crete. Its single pathway loops back and forth seven times before reaching the center. Some people think that the Cretan pattern represents the movement of the planet Mercury over an extended period of time." and provides this image (which I have inverted so that it matches the Mendoza geoglyph):

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A classic or Cretan Maze.

I don't want to bore you with mazes but the similarity between the Uspallata labyrinth and the Cretan one can one mean one of two things:

1. The wonderful human mind comes up with the same answer to similar questions time and time again, across the world and in different cultural settings. Inca and Cretan made mazes the same way because that is the way human brains think.

2. Cretans came to America, reached Mendoza and built a maze in the middle of nowhere...

I am more inclined to option 1.

I will keep on researching this matter.

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

More on Patagonian Mazes and Labyrinths

 

Spiral Maze at Cueva de los Indios, Santa Cruz, Patagonia

Argentine researcher, historian and anthropologist, Rodolfo Casamiquela suggested that the Patagonian rock art depicting labyrinths had some relationship with those found in the Mediterranean basin. My previous post on Patagonian Labyrinths was an introduction, today we will delve a bit deeper:

Patagonian Labyrinths, some examples

a. Cueva Grande

Spiral Maze engraved in a rock at Cueva Grande, Santa Cruz, Patagonia From [1]

The photograph above is the “complex spiral figure” [1] at Boulder N° 2, Cueva Grande rock shelter in Santa Cruz province, close to the Deseado River Valley. The paper from which I took the photograph says that the position of the spiral, engraved (not painted) into the rock, is a clear indication of its relevance: “[the] more central position of the most complex curvilinear figures is outstanding, since in a variety of ethnographic conexts slabyrinths, concentric circles and spyrals have mythological connotations related to the renewal of life" [1]

In other words, the spiral shaped labyrinth has a religious meaning of re-birth or perhaps some kind of afterlife.

b. Alero El Galpón.

The image below shows the motiff found on Block N° 4 at Alero el Galpón, Santa Cruz province in the same general area as the Cueva Grande site. The block, regrettably disappeared! [3]

Spiral Maze at Alero El Galpón, Patagonia. From [3]

Casamiquela and his dates...

In my previous post I quoted Casamiquela dating these Patagonian labyrinths to the period around the birth of Christ (i.e. two thousand years ago). He adds that the classical labyrinth of the Tragliatella type, from Knossos, dates back to 220 BC. Which is clearly incorrect, as we will see below the Etruscan vase dates back to 620 BC and the myth itself is very likely much older.

Tragliatella Vase

It is an oinochoe a peculiar kind of wine jug made by the ancient Greeks. The Tragliatella jug or vase, was unearthed in 1878, from an Etruscan grave in Cere, Cerveteri, Italy. It has been dated to 620 B.C. The labyrinth, engraved on a vase, is shown below [2], it seems that some armed horsemen are emerging from it.

Tragliatella Wine Jug, note horsemen, maze with word Truia (Troy) inside it and, on the right, mating couples

The vase itself is shown below:

Etruscan Tragliatella Vase 650 BC. Maze can be seen.. From [2]

The resemblance between the shapes of both mazes (Tragliatella maze and Alero El Galpón) is amazing, coincidence? proof of an encounter between Mediterranean mariners and Patagonian natives? How can we know for sure?

Casamiquela (see my previous post) is certain that the Patagonian maze motif derived from European ones (I have not yet found his proof)...

But lets get back to the Tagliatella wine jug.

It seems that the soldiers (according to a Virgil [BC 70 - 19] in his epic poem Aeneid) are taking part in a sport called “Game of Troy” (Ludus Trojae in Latin), some kind of equestrian parade performed by young well-to-do men. Virgil compares the whirling mounted men, riding on intertwining and winding courses with the intrincate maze of Crete.[2]

Perhaps in ancient times it had some "fertility" rites associated to the dance (hence the trysting couples depicted on the jug).

The Cretan youths danced and did acrobatics on the horns of running bulls, as shown by remnants of their art. The Cretan bulls in turn are associated to the Minotaur - Labyrinth myth.

Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull being begat by Pasiphae, wife of Cretan King Minos, after mating with a bull (God Poseidon made her do so), lived in a maze. King Minos forced the Athenians to provde seven young men and women every nine years as a sacrifice to Minotaur. Finally a young hero Theseus slayed the monster.

There seems to be a relationship between fertility - youth - life and death in the Minotaur / Maze myth. Were Patagonian mazes associated to fertility ceremonies? Or is it a symbolism of re-birth and life renewed? More in my next posts.

Sources

[1] Carden, Natalia (2088) Territories among hunter-gatherers & the ritual dimension of landscapes: the central Patagonian plateau, Argentina. Before Farming 2008/1, versión online, artículo 1: pp. 1-19. ISSN 1476-4261. fig. 11.
[2]Matthews, W. H., (1912). Mazes and Labyrinths. A General Account of their History and Development. Chapter XVIII, The Dance or Game of Troy.
[3]Carden, N. (2007). Paisajes Rituales y Laberintos. Fig 11, "C". Boletin del Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino. Vol. 12, N° 1, 2007, pp. 43-60, Santiago de Chile. ISSN 0716-1530

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall ©