Proto-writing and cranial deformation of the Paracas civilization
The name Paracas derives from the Quechua para (rain) and acco (sand), meaning rain of sand. The area where this important Peruvian culture arose is in fact a huge desert located in the south of Lima, where there were probably frequent sandstorms in the past. It was precisely the exceptional aridity of the climate that allowed the conservation of an immense archaeological treasure whose study led us to reconstruct the life of this ancient people. Cemeteries known as Cavernas and Necropolis were found in the Cerro Colorado area. But when does this culture date back?
The French archaeologist Federico Engels found the remains of some cultivated vegetables (tomato and mandioca), which were dated, with the carbon 14 method, as long as 7000 years before Christ. Paracas agriculture therefore appears to be one of the oldest in America. However, it was around 3000 BC that some farmers and fishermen settled near the Paracas peninsula, giving rise to one of the most astonishing Peruvian cultures, which stood out for its astonishing fabrics and the enigmatic practice of cranial deformation.
It was in 1927 that the greatest Peruvian archaeologist, Julio C. Tello, discovered some tombs located in Cerro Colorado and began to study them from a scientific point of view. These tombs were absolutely invisible as they were hidden by a layer of earth and sand of about 5 meters. To access it you need to enter a narrow tube of about 3 meters, which leads to the burial chamber, often oval, 1.2 meters high, with a diameter of about 4 meters. The number of bodies found inside varies greatly: usually there are 4 or 5 (members belonging to the family), but sometimes dozens have been found (belonging to the clan). The majority of the mummies are placed in a fetal position and have deformed skulls (also half of the skulls show signs of brain surgery, i.e. they have been trepanned for unknown reasons). Various offerings are often found in tombs, such ass spondylus necklaces, tools for plowing, fishing, hunting, small figurines, cotton bags containing powders used for make-up, ceramic plates and remains of cereals (corn) or tubers (mandioca).
According to archaeologist Anne Roosevelt, ceramics initially originated in the Amazon, around 6000 years before Christ. It was introduced to Peru through Chavin de Huantar and later the cultivation of cereals, textile art and the use of domesticated dogs spread throughout the Andean space. Around 1000 BC the dominant iconography in the art of Paracas, both plastic and pictorial, was the mythical being that has the characteristics of a bird-snake-feline, typical of the Chavin de Huantar tradition. Only starting from 500 BC were the chavinoid symbols replaced by some metaphors of local animals, such as foxes, whales and falcons which mean a lot to the inhabitants of the coast and the desert, both from the point of view of natural agricultural cycles and from that of seasonal changes.
One of the most distinctive characteristics of the Paracas culture was excellence in textile art. In reality, the loom was already used starting from Chavin de Huantar (while it was unknown in Caral), where advanced techniques were already used for the interweaving of fibers and their decoration. How and when did contact between the two cultures occur? Chavin was never actually home to a dense population, but was a ceremonial place, a bit like the oracle at Delphi, Greece. It was probably some men of Paracas culture who, during their pilgrimages to Chavin, assimilated important knowledge about textile art and then introduced it into their land.
In some Cavernas tombs, excellent cotton cloths dating back to 800 BC have been found, with bright colors in perfect condition. This proves that dyeing techniques had reached excellence and were based on plant, mineral and even animal substances.
These fabrics can have up to 200 threads per square centimeter. Some specialists have shown that up to 190 types of different dyes were used and on certain occasions gold, silver threads, human hair and bat hair were added. The designs that can be identified are mathematically perfect and present an iconography similar to those found in the ceramics of the Nasca culture. According to the archaeologist JorgeQuell, these graphic representations form a magical-religious whole that can be considered a symbolic proto-writing and therefore take on a very important meaning, comparable to Egyptian hieroglyphs or Mayan manuscripts.
According to J. C. Tello, a particular fabric decorated with 21 different images was nothing more than a lunar calendar. Researcher Victoria de la Jara also claims that the Paracas proto-script is the oldest in America. In my opinion it can be considered a form of symbolic communication, which however also took on a magical and esoteric meaning, linking the world of today, that is, the reality of time, with the underworld (snake), and with the sky (or world of the future, whose symbol is the bird, near the Sun). According to Victoria de la Jara, the change of position of some symbols in different fabrics, called Unku, could represent a calendar based on the calculation of the time necessary for the growth of some important plants (corn, potatoes or mandioca).
The careful analysis of some of these fabrics has made it possible to identify up to 400 different symbols, which can be divided into three categories: predictions or prophecies, astronomical observations and some complicated symbols, currently indecipherable. This symbolic-ideographic system seems to have made use of some mathematical formulas used for the calculation of the solstices and equinoxes, all to form a kind of esoteric religion used for agricultural purposes, that is, to propitiate the fertility of the fields and therefore of the entire society.
J. C. Tello found some rectangular rooms in the Necropolis cemetery, submerged in sand. In total, 429 mummies were recovered whose clothes were in an almost perfect state of preservation. Here too, carbon 14 dating confirmed the antiquity of 800 BC for this astonishing find. Strangely, these mummies were all of men of advanced age, dressed in sumptuous clothing, adorned with necklaces of precious stones and spondylus, and all had deformed skulls covered with a strange turban, called the llauto. Near the mummies, there were offerings to the Gods: gold, some superb quality fabrics called Unku, Esclavina or Uncucha and some ceramic objects, with elegant and delicate shapes, generally monochromatic and poorly decorated. During in situ research, J. C. Tello found a large quantity of deformed and trepanned skulls.
In fact, in many cultures of the ancient world, for example in Egypt, China and Japan, it was customary to deform the skulls of children who belonged to high castes, both for religious reasons and for social differentiation. In America this strange custom was adopted in many cultures: for example by the Caribe-speaking peoples and the Guane of Colombia, by the Nasca of Peru and by the Omagua met by Francisco de Orellana in his mythical Amazonian journey. The strange and still inexplicable thing is why this unnatural practice developed simultaneously in areas of the Earth so distant from each other, which were not interconnected.
Cranial deformation, which usually caused the head to elongate upwards or backwards, could be obtained with various techniques: the most used was the frontal-occipital, according to which the child's skull was compressed by applying wooden wedges compressed by the same bandages both in the forehead and in the temples.
Some researchers have suggested that cranial deformation was carried out not only to differentiate a group of children destined to become priests, but also to recall some mythical characters with the same cranial characteristics, who in the distant past were important in certain situations. Researcher Pedro Weiss found that 45% of the skulls found at the Cavernas site were subjected to cranial trepanation. This is an enigma that adds up to a mystery. Why were deformed skulls of the deceased drilled?
It was probably for ritual and mystical reasons that we ignore for now, but the strange thing is that even the skulls of living people were drilled, and this can be deduced from the large, easily visible scars. Tello also found a kind of bag for surgical tools, where there were obsidian cutters, bone chisels, gold, silver and copper blades for cutting and other small objects. According to some surgeons, cranial deformation in living subjects had mainly curative purposes (extirpation of tumors or hematomas). However, other reasons cannot be discarded: according to some researchers, it was carried out to awaken parapsychological and prophetic faculties in the subject, or to bring out particular character and mental qualities.
The Paracas culture slowly declined around 100 AD.
No burials indicating epidemics or wars have been found, therefore the real reason for the disappearance of this civilization is still unknown. Was it a terrible Paraca (sandstorm), which destroyed and obliterated the thriving coastal cities? In my opinion it is possible that the inhabitants of the area slowly moved towards Nasca, probably a more humid area during that time, starting another culture that absorbed many characteristics of Paracas and subsequently developed some peculiarities of its own.
YURI LEVERATTO
