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.

---

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

Moreno and the American Neanderthaloids

 
In 1880, Argentine scientist and explorer Francisco Pascasio Moreno disclosed in a series of conferences [3] he gave in Europe, his discovery of two new skulls, one was quite recent but the other was very peculiar and belonged to:

"a race represented by a neanderthaloid type, similar to the Botocudos [...] with a very pronounced flattening of the skull [3]

These Botocudos (from the Portuguese word Botoque - plug, due to the wooden disks they place in their ear lobes and lips), were deemed at that time to be primitive, and they also had dolichocephalic skulls (also a supposedly "ancient" feature).

Moreno's skull had been found close to the Negro River, in Northern Patagonia, at a depth of four meters [13 ft.] in association with the remains of large extinct mammals. After Moreno's lecture at the Société d'Anthropologie, Topinard, who had attended the session, openly suggested that "...that skull was the South American equivalent of the Neanderthal".[1]

An American origin for Neanderthals?

Paul Topinard (1830-1911), Broca's chief disciple, pointed out that ths skulls of both Neanderthals and primitive Paleo-Indians were dolichocephalic, with receeding foreheads and prominent brow ridges. Broca and Topinard supported the notion that the dolichocephalic skulls were ancient while brachicephalic skulls were a trait common to "modern" humans. Moreno's findings tended to support this idea.

Topinard suggested that "It makes us ask wether Neanderthal is not accidental in Europe during the Quaternary Period, and his real homeland is Southern South America" [2] Therefore upholding an American origin for Neanderthals. I believe that he was the first to suggest this idea.

He also believed that the Tehuelche were the remnants of this autocthonous human group, originated in America. German doctor, Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902), had the same ideas, however Italo-Argentine scientist Florentino Ameghino (1854-1911) believed that Moreno's skulls belonged to an extinct dolichocephalic group of humans, unrelated to modern Tehuelche natives which had been displaced and replaced by brachicephalic modern men.

The similarities between Moreno's skull and the remains found in Brazil, at Lagoa Santa, Brazil, by Lund between 1835 and 1844 led some scientists in the 1880s to believe that these belonged to a native American race, and an "OOA" (Out Of America) theory for the peopling of the world, very emphatically supported by Ameghino, but (even until today) opposed by the North American school led by Czech scientist Ales Hrdlicka (1869-1943) who attacked anyone who dared to suggest an autocthonous origin of humans.

Sources

[1] Leonardo Salgado, Pedro Navarro and Pablo Azar. Antiguos Craneos humanos de Patagonia: Observaciones sobre el significado evolutivo del "indice cefálico" en la literatura científica Argentina (1870-1915). ILUIL, vol 27, 2004 - 769-790.
[2] July, 1 1880, Session. Bulletin de la Société d’Anthropologie, Paris, pp. 490.
[3] Moreno, Francisco, (1880). Sur deux crânes préhistoriques rapportés du Rio Negro Bulletin de la Société d’Anthropologie, Paris, June 15, 1880, p.p 490-497.

---

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

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

Patagonian Glaciers - What they look like

 

We have mentioned (Here)the glaciers and the Icefields, but one thing is to write about them, another is to see them.

I have been to the "Los Glaciares National Park" in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, twice. In 2004 and 2007. Both in mid winter. A freezing but delightful experience. The park includes several lakes, the largest of which are Argentino and Viedma - and for both of them there have been reports of "lake creatures" (I will post on them later).

I took hundreds of photographs of several glaciers including the two most famous ones, Perito Moreno and Upsala (below are two of these photos), both on Lake Argentino.

Perito Moreno glacier is 5 km (3 mi.) wide and its ice walls are over 60 m (180 ft.) high above the lake level, and below it, they dig deep into the bedrock of the lake's bottom. Over 400 m (1,300 ft.) below the lake's surface. Actually the base of the glaciers are over 200 m (700 ft.) below sea level because these lakes are at a very low altitude above sea level (184 m - 603 ft.).

The photograph shows the southern face on Brazo Rico which, joins the main body of the lake by passing in front of the glacier through the "canal de los tempanos" (iceberg channel).

Perito Moreno advances slowly blocking the channel until the water pressure builds up and breaks the ice dam. A surge of water then flows into the northern part of the lake to flow into the Atlantic ocean.

Regarding Upsala glacier, the photograph shows one of its two faces (each are about 4 km long - 2.5 mi.). It is also 60 m high. A very large chunk of ice.

Perito Moreno Glacier (south face) - Southern Icefield. Copyright © 2007 by Austin Whittall

Upsala Glacier (western face) - Southern Icefield. Copyright © 2007 by Austin Whittall

Map of Southern Santa Cruz Province showing Parque Nacional los Glaciares (vertical stripes), Lake Argentino and Upsala (in red) and Perito Moreno (in blue) Glaciers. From a map by IGM.

Further reading:

Chinni, Guillermo, (2004). Glaciares del Lago Argentino y el Chalten. Del Perito Moreno al Marconi. B. Aires: Zaguier & Urruty Publications.




Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters