- 6 hours ago
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:01This week, join me as I rediscover a lost civilization
00:05in the high Andes of Peru.
00:07They built the largest stone structure in the Americas.
00:11To the Inca, they were the Chachapoya,
00:13the people of the clouds.
00:15The Spanish called them the great warriors.
00:19But today, we don't even know their real name.
00:21Who were the Chachapoya?
00:23And how did they disappear?
00:25Look at this.
00:26To find out, I'll explore their cliffside tombs.
00:29Unwrap one of their ancient mummies
00:31and get exclusive access to a newly discovered cave
00:35where their secrets may be hidden.
00:36Look at what we stumbled upon here.
00:38Can we uncover the remains of a lost civilization?
00:42We're digging for the truth
00:43and going to extremes to do it.
00:59Peru, land of the great Inca Empire and its dramatic fall to the Spanish conquistadors.
01:06But before the clash of these two great powers in the 16th century,
01:10there was another civilization that flourished in the northern Andes on top of the world.
01:15They were called the Chachapoya.
01:18But they disappeared almost entirely.
01:21In fact, few people have even heard of them.
01:25So who were they?
01:27And what happened to their civilization?
01:32To begin my investigation, I head to the remote high peaks of the Andes in northern Peru.
01:38No easy feat.
01:40From Lima, Peru, it's a 14-hour drive up the coast.
01:45Then due east on the winding mountain roads to a town called Chachapoyas.
01:53Hi, I'm Hunter Ellis.
01:55This place is named after the lost civilization of the Chachapoya,
01:58who even today archaeologists know very little about.
02:01But in the remote surrounding area, they have left a few clues
02:04that are starting to provide some answers.
02:06Who were these people?
02:07And why is so little known about them?
02:09These are some of the questions that I'll try to answer
02:12as I head into some of the most inaccessible regions of Peru.
02:17My first stop, one of the world's biggest mysteries.
02:229,500 feet up in the Andes, it's called Quay Lap.
02:30This ridge may look like a natural formation,
02:32but it's the outer wall of an ancient citadel.
02:36In 1843, an explorer found this abandoned mountaintop city.
02:40For almost a century, everyone assumed it had been constructed by the Inca.
02:46Who else but the architects of Machu Picchu could build on such a monumental scale?
02:52But those first assumptions have been challenged.
02:56I'm meeting the man who has changed our understanding of Quay Lap, Alfredo Narvaez.
03:05Oh, what a beautiful place up here.
03:07I can see why this is referred to as the Machu Picchu of the north.
03:09Yes.
03:10But if others speak of Quay Lap in terms of Machu Picchu, Alfredo doesn't.
03:17He tells me this place is different from anything the Inca built.
03:22Inca structures were made of irregularly shaped, tightly interlocking blocks,
03:27while most of Quay Lap stones are uniform and held together with mortar.
03:33Inca rooms are square-cornered and rectangular.
03:37Quay Lap is sinuous and rounded.
03:40It's also much older than Machu Picchu.
03:43So do we know when Quay Lap was built?
03:45The radiocarbon dating is 500 A.D.
03:49That's 1,000 years older than Machu Picchu.
03:53And this is the largest stone structure in the Americas.
03:58So who were these unknown builders?
04:00And why did they disappear?
04:05Alfredo takes me to one of three entrances to the fortress.
04:17This, to me, is brilliantly designed.
04:20Because it's so narrow, it controls the traffic in and out of here.
04:24Yes, absolutely.
04:25You have only one possibility to go inside.
04:29One person by one person.
04:31The entrance feels like it was built to keep out invaders.
04:34Yet they've found no evidence of warfare here.
04:38Well, this is it.
04:40This is the Quay Lap site.
04:41Wow.
04:42This is Quay Lap.
04:43Look at this.
04:45It's impressive and mysterious.
04:48Looters have been all through here.
04:50Few clues remain to tell me anything about its builders.
04:53Were they warriors or priests?
04:56There's just one place with evidence.
04:59The remains of human bodies in the outer wall.
05:02Oh, wow.
05:04Looks like a pelvic bone and some ribs and, I mean,
05:09how many of these tombs did you find in these walls?
05:12Well, we found 65 of these tombs.
05:15And how many individuals?
05:17At least 350.
05:20Alfredo says the bones don't provide enough information
05:23to tell who the Chachapoya were or how they lived their lives.
05:27To answer these questions, I have to find an intact mummy.
05:31And the best place to do that is to head even higher,
05:34to the tombs they built on cliffs.
05:37I'm headed to the cliffs of La Pataca.
05:40To get there, I take the only road from Quay Lap to New Tingo,
05:44then south an hour past Lame Bamba, where the road suddenly ends.
05:49Then I'll have to find a way to the cliffs.
05:54To help me get there, I enlist local explorer Peter Lercha.
06:00I hear La Pataca is one of the best places to find intact mummies.
06:06It's so remote and inaccessible that most looters can't navigate these roads,
06:11let alone scale the cliffs.
06:14The road we're on is a dirt road, it's narrow, bumpy,
06:18and there's often sheer cliffs on one side of the truck.
06:23We'll be on this treacherous road for more than four hours.
06:32Then it's another two hours on horseback.
06:41But it's all worth it when I see the cliff for the first time.
06:45Look at that.
06:46Wow.
06:47There it is.
06:48That's the cliff.
06:49La Pataca.
06:51Peter says the entire cliff is over 1,500 feet high.
06:56And I've never repelled anything more than a hundred feet.
07:00I can see a couple of the tombs up there.
07:02How many are up there?
07:03There should be far more than a hundred all over the hill.
07:06A hundred? No way.
07:07Really?
07:08More than a hundred.
07:09I can see man-made platforms, ledges,
07:12and what looked like burial houses sticking right out of the cliff face.
07:20Peter tells me we'll descend to the natural caves about halfway down the face.
07:25But we'll wait until morning.
07:26So what do you think we'll find up there tomorrow?
07:29There should be some mummies.
07:32Unbelievable.
07:32Well, I'm excited to get up there.
07:34Tomorrow morning.
07:35Be a great day.
07:36Let's go.
07:37All right.
07:42The next morning, we meet the climbing crew and hike 45 minutes to the top of the cliff.
07:48So here we are, top of Mapataca.
07:53To help Peter and me make this treacherous descent,
07:56we have one of the best mountaineers in Peru, Maximo Genestrosa.
08:01Maximo has climbed Mount Everest twice, the second time without bottled oxygen.
08:07So I feel confident with my life in his hands.
08:14Because the cliff is so high, we can't repel by ourselves.
08:18Instead, Maximo sets up a system which gives him control of the ropes to lower us down to the caves.
08:24As if it wasn't dangerous already, the cameraman Rich is going alongside me,
08:29meaning Maximo will control both of our ropes at the same time.
08:34This setup is untested.
08:36Because we can only do this once, I'll be wearing a helmet cam.
08:39This will be mounted onto my helmet.
08:41The plug will go in here.
08:43And I'll be wearing a backpack where this will be recording everything where I am looking.
08:49So if I see bones on a cliff on the way down, so will you.
08:55Peter goes first.
08:57Is he over the edge?
08:58I think so.
08:59Yeah.
09:02That's the edge right there.
09:04Next goes Rich, our cameraman.
09:06Ready, Rich?
09:07Hey, tell me if we break.
09:08Okay.
09:11Now, it's my turn.
09:21I'm scrambling through heavy vegetation on the edge of a cliff over 150 stories high.
09:27I'm going to go left.
09:29Better.
09:29He's going left.
09:32Maximo Henestrosa, an experienced mountaineer, has my life in his hands.
09:38He's attempting to lower me to the cliff side tombs built by the Chachapoya.
09:44This is the risk I take to investigate the mysterious forgotten civilization who built some of the most impressive mountain
09:51architecture in the world.
09:54I'm told the mummies in the tombs below can provide clues.
10:01Rich, our cameraman, is already hanging off the ledge waiting for me.
10:06And Peter, the explorer who brought us here, is already in the cave.
10:12Communication is key.
10:15One small mishap or lapse in concentration and we could be resting with the Chachapoya mummies for eternity.
10:24Should I go down the same side of that ridge or the other side of it?
10:28Maximo told me to lean back and trust the rope, but it's difficult because the brush is so thick.
10:35The soft limestone rock breaks off beneath my feet.
10:39My feet are tangled in the brush.
10:41It's right here.
10:43I'm stuck.
10:46I'm getting second thoughts.
10:49Maybe this isn't such a smart idea.
10:54Finally, I get untangled and remove my feet from the ledge.
11:04Maximo lowers me to Rich, the cameraman.
11:08What's up?
11:09It's okay.
11:11Oh, my God, man.
11:12Look at me.
11:14Look at you.
11:15I know.
11:16Together, Rich and I are suspended in mid-air.
11:24I need a moment to take in the view.
11:30All around me, I can see platforms and obvious signs of man-made structures.
11:36Oh, wow.
11:37I can see tombs everywhere.
11:39There's a circular structure up here that are like little small rooms inside.
11:44There's more timbers from where they built platforms.
11:48And there's bones up on all of these ledges here.
11:53As Maximo lowers me further, I see that these warriors of the clouds have left a sort of calling card.
11:59Look at over here.
11:59Here we have a pictograph of a headhunter painted in red.
12:04And it looks like a Chachapoya warrior holding the skull and spine of his enemy.
12:09It's amazing.
12:13As I get closer to the cave, Maximo's crew member guides me in.
12:18Ah, yes.
12:21Pachumama.
12:23Mother Earth.
12:25Hi, Hunter.
12:26Welcome to the cave.
12:28Have you been lonely down here?
12:30Peter thinks this cave was a prime burial site for the Chachapoya.
12:35Now, let's explore the interior of this cave.
12:38Look at this place.
12:43He leads me down a small passage.
12:46We're hoping to find some mummies.
12:48Let's see if we can see any remains.
12:53See anything?
12:56Or bones?
13:00As we go further back, we don't see much of anything.
13:03I get the sense we aren't the first ones to be inside this cave.
13:06Check this out.
13:08Here's a newspaper.
13:10It's a sign of looting.
13:12Look at this.
13:141985.
13:16Some looters have been here before us.
13:19Looters come here looking for jewelry, gold, or anything of value.
13:24They're a big reason archaeologists struggle to study the Chachapoya.
13:30By the time they find their tombs, they're usually disturbed or even destroyed.
13:37Looks like you've reached the dead end almost, huh?
13:39Here's the end.
13:41The dark passageway leads us nowhere.
13:48But on the way out, I notice a platform that looks man-made.
13:51All right, let's head over this way.
13:52Similar to what I saw on the cliff.
13:54Here, let's take a peek.
13:56Let's see what we see.
13:58Oh, wow!
14:00Definitely several individuals up there.
14:02Yeah, several individuals up here.
14:04I see at least three skulls, a vertebrae, some ribs, more femurs.
14:12Tell me what you think.
14:17There's mortar.
14:18Oh, there's mortar right up in there.
14:21So they would have built a stone flat.
14:21It looks like we found a funerary monument, built to protect mummies on the ledge.
14:26Layered in here.
14:28And so, this is definitely man-made.
14:32Let's go look over there.
14:34This is amazing.
14:35All these bones.
14:37Here, look at that.
14:39I mean, that's probably the remains of about four or five individuals, do you think?
14:48But even here, the looters have beaten us.
14:51They destroyed the mummies.
14:53All that's left are these remaining bones.
14:59Looks like the looters are pretty good mountain climbers.
15:03But what about the Chachapoya themselves?
15:06How could a primitive culture manage to scale these treacherous cliffs?
15:10Only when you get this close do you realize how many tombs exist in these cliffs.
15:14And, you know, we're using this modern equipment.
15:17And yet, they had nothing.
15:18They had nothing.
15:19Maybe some primitive ropes.
15:22And that's really a good question.
15:25How did they get there?
15:26Exactly how the Chachapoya constructed their cliff tombs is an enigma.
15:31Most of them are so remote and inaccessible, they haven't even been studied.
15:36But it's clear these people of the clouds had mastered their environment.
15:40They must have been expert climbers and pretty good engineers, too, to move all this stuff up here.
15:48Despite the looters, Peter and I haven't given up yet.
15:51So we descend another 300 feet to a ledge about halfway down the entire cliff face.
15:57On a whim, we follow it for 100 yards or so.
16:01When we stumble on what we came to find.
16:03Whoa, Peter, look at this.
16:07Oh, my gosh.
16:11Two mummies.
16:12Yes, two mummies.
16:13And it's almost intact.
16:15I mean, you can see the cloth here.
16:17And the flesh is still on the bone.
16:20I mean, we found so little up above.
16:22And yet, this is down below, right at the base of the rappel.
16:25I mean, this is an incredible find here.
16:28The mummies are incredible.
16:30But even these have been hacked up by looters.
16:34Peter says, if I want to find an intact mummy outside a museum, I need to venture even further to
16:40places even harder to get to.
16:43He tells me about a cave north of the town of Chachapoyas that was only recently discovered.
16:50Right now, there's a team of archaeologists surveying it for human remains.
16:55To get there, I have to go north past Chachapoyas about six hours.
17:00Then back south an hour, up to a tiny village called San Carlos.
17:05From there, we hike.
17:07Now, Domingo.
17:08We hired a Peruvian guide to arrange locals to carry our gear on horseback.
17:12And just before we head out, our guide tells us we're closer to a mummy than we think.
17:17Basically, we're at the end of the road here.
17:19Like, this is where you guys are going to head off and hike for the horses.
17:22Hope to.
17:22I've been here since really early in the morning, basically sorting out the horses.
17:25And there's a woman here who's been helping me out, just wrangling guys to get the horses for us.
17:30And while we were chatting, she just mentioned that she had a mummy very casually, so I asked to see
17:34it.
17:34I mean, come on in. Check it out. You're not going to believe it.
17:39Check out the toes, man. I was blown away by the toes.
17:42Wow. This is what we came for.
17:43Can you ask her where she got it?
17:44Kevin?
17:45Yeah, no, there's a whole story behind it.
17:47One day, they saw some guys walking down with a big black sack.
17:50And her son said that they looked suspicious. They were from out of town and stuff.
17:54So we went up and investigated and found out, basically, they had the mummy.
17:57So they took it off these guys.
17:58Ever since it's been here.
18:00How long have the mummy has the mummy?
18:01Four months ago.
18:03About four months ago, she says.
18:04You know, she says she gives it candles.
18:06And it's her friend. She's given it a name and everything.
18:09What's her name?
18:09The name's Juanita.
18:11Juanita is your name, right?
18:12Yes.
18:13I call her Juanita.
18:16Juanita is your friend?
18:17Yes, Juanita.
18:22It's incredible.
18:24This is a small little place up in the mountains.
18:26There's a mummy in there.
18:27Absolutely wild.
18:28Who knows what else is out here? That's the great thing.
18:32But the problem is, looters are everywhere.
18:35There is no time to waste.
18:39Hopefully, we're not too late.
18:40The locals tell us it's about a three-hour hike.
18:43I hope they're right.
18:45See where those rain clouds are?
18:47We're headed straight for the rain.
18:49Down to the caves of Atupapa.
18:51Atupapa.
18:52Go see the mummies.
18:54Let's do it.
18:54Let's rock and roll.
18:56Let's go.
18:57Yep.
18:58Forward.
18:58Forward.
19:00Welcome to our office.
19:01Whatever you feel, man.
19:02Not bad, huh?
19:03Come on, guys.
19:04Moving slow.
19:04Keep it going.
19:05Keep it going.
19:05Let's go.
19:06Come on.
19:06Got rain coming in.
19:09We're all in great spirits, but the altitude is adding to our exhaustion.
19:14How's Rob doing?
19:16Rob's not doing so good.
19:17Rob's down in the lowlands where the water and the mud are.
19:21We're up here on solid rock.
19:23They should have taken a left at Albuquerque.
19:27And we're only one-eighth of the way there.
19:32We keep pressing on, right to the top, only to get some disappointing news.
19:37Well, we've hiked for two hours.
19:40Two hours.
19:41And it was supposed to be a three-hour hike.
19:43And now they say it's two and a half hours from here.
19:46Which means we're hiking at night.
19:50The higher we climb, the heavier the cloud cover.
19:53It's getting dark.
19:55We're on our last legs.
19:58We're going to lose light in 30 minutes.
20:00They say we're staying another hour plus out of there.
20:03Who knows if that's true.
20:06How am I making it before dark?
20:08Yeah.
20:09Is reaching this cave really worth the risk?
20:12Our only hope to get there is to hunker down and put one foot in front of the other.
20:17I'm just following these muddy footprints right here of people and horses who have gone before me.
20:31This is not an easy road here.
20:37As you can see, it's nighttime out here.
20:41It's raining.
20:43And I have no idea how far ahead the cave is.
20:47But let's keep pressing.
21:00Oh, my God.
21:01I think I see camp.
21:07Finally.
21:07Tense.
21:09Yes.
21:12Oh, my God.
21:14It's late.
21:20Get inside my tent.
21:22I've got to put up my tent and try to get dry because this is miserable.
21:30Finally, we reach home base for the archaeologists working at the cave.
21:34Within minutes, we set up our tents, change into dry clothes, and crash.
21:46The next morning, I'm up early, but our tent city is already abandoned.
21:52The team of archaeologists and anthropologists have left for the cave.
21:56My contact is caver Steve Knudson, who will take me to meet the researchers.
22:02They've granted Digging for the Truth exclusive access to their discovery, the largest cache of
22:08Cachapoya human remains ever found.
22:10I hope these bones can provide insight into the mystery of this lost civilization.
22:17Up until now, the only descriptions we have of the Cachapoya come from the chronicles of the Spanish invaders.
22:23They called them fierce warriors, but how did they know?
22:27Did the Cachapoya join the Inca in fighting the Spanish?
22:31I hope this cave will answer some of my questions.
22:36Steve leads the way.
22:39This is an enormous cave by Peruvian standards.
22:42This is huge in here.
22:44Its ceiling is about 30 feet high, and it delves into the earth for over a mile.
22:50We take headlamps and lanterns to light the way, because in just a few feet, we'll be in the dark
22:56zone.
22:56It's really spooky, these human bones laying around.
23:02Steve tells me he first explored this cave in 2002, when he discovered it was littered with bones.
23:08He knew he'd stumbled upon something extraordinary.
23:12As an amateur historian, he'd read about the Cachapoya.
23:16But when he saw the bones in the cave, he was confused.
23:19The Cachapoya usually bury their dead in cliff tombs.
23:23He reported his discovery to Peruvian archaeologists.
23:27How did the archaeologists respond when you told them about what you had found?
23:31Well, at first, they just insisted that the Cachapoya never went into caves.
23:36They only put their mummies at the entrances.
23:39But I kept insisting, no, no, we found stuff way back in caves, way back in the dark zones.
23:47Just amazing, it just goes on and on through here.
23:51Well, and imagine the processions hundreds of years ago with hand-held torches.
23:57I'm hearing voices up ahead.
23:59Yeah, I think we are coming to our people here.
24:03After walking a full mile back into the cold and dark, we finally reached the researchers.
24:08Watch your step.
24:11Hunter, come on up here. This is the archaeological crew.
24:14I'll introduce you to the rest of the guys.
24:17The crew consists of both Peruvian and American researchers,
24:21including Karen Smith Gardner, a graduate student in anthropology at Chico State University.
24:26Well, welcome. We are counting bones.
24:29This is the 48th tomb in this cave of the 62 that have been identified in this cave.
24:35Wow, 62. And you have people from all over working this site, right?
24:38We do. Hard at work.
24:39Yes, absolutely.
24:41It looks like there are hundreds of bones up here.
24:45Karen tells me the cave has been severely disturbed by looters.
24:48So they're not disrupting the integrity of the tombs by counting and sorting the bones.
24:53Where are we right now? What is the significance of this actual location?
24:58They tell me I'm witnessing the first stage of a new discovery.
25:01They've been working for just two weeks, and nobody has found a burial site like this before.
25:07These people were known for living in the clouds.
25:10What were they doing in a cave?
25:12The Chachapoyan are a people about which very little is known, really.
25:17Right.
25:17They haven't been studied much.
25:18And we know something about their architecture, their sites.
25:21But really, the bones haven't been studied so much.
25:23And they can tell us so many things.
25:27I ask her what they can learn from bones.
25:30Yeah, we can learn a lot from bones.
25:32We can learn about the diet.
25:34We can learn about the difficult environment in which these people lived.
25:37There's quite a lot of trauma that we've seen.
25:40So we're learning that they're pretty tough people that dealt with a lot.
25:44Yes, absolutely.
25:45But we have found a few...
25:47Karen tells me she set aside a few great examples that tell a vivid story
25:51of who these people were and how they lived their lives.
25:56All right, the things I wanted to show you are just over here.
26:00Wow, this is a lot of bones.
26:02It truly is.
26:03This is the largest collection we have in the cave.
26:07This pile of bones represents 79 people.
26:10In total, they've counted the remains of more than 300 people in here already.
26:15And they've barely scratched the surface.
26:20Let me show you what's really impressive about these people.
26:22Okay.
26:22These were tough people.
26:24They lived with some serious injuries.
26:27For example, we have here the top part of a tibia.
26:30It's your shin bone.
26:31Right.
26:32Now, a tibia should look like this.
26:35Yeah, that looks... wow.
26:36This tibia was broken.
26:37It appears to have been possibly even driven into itself.
26:42Driven into itself and split?
26:44Yeah.
26:45And what's extraordinary is that this has completely healed.
26:48This has totally healed bone through here.
26:51And this person walked on this bone.
26:53I mean, so you're talking about tough people.
26:55These were tough people, absolutely.
26:56And we've seen a lot of serious breaks with serious healing in this cave.
27:01What else do we have?
27:02If you think that's something, I've got some head injuries, too.
27:06Karen shows me other bones with telltale signs of violent trauma.
27:10Maybe warfare.
27:11Yeah.
27:11These are all fragments of skulls.
27:14This is part of the frontal bone.
27:15And here you can see it's a big round divot.
27:17Just like a blunt force to the head, like possibly a sling stone or something?
27:22Could be, absolutely.
27:22It's something round.
27:24But what, again, is amazing is this didn't kill that person.
27:27This is all healed.
27:29Wow.
27:29Someone took care of this person.
27:30Did they practice medicine of any kind?
27:33Absolutely.
27:33They were renowned as being very skillful healers.
27:39And one of the most interesting kinds of medicine that we can see evidence of is trepanation.
27:46Trepanation is an ancient surgical technique.
27:50To relieve the pain and pressure of a serious blow to the head, holes are drilled into the skull
27:56and parts of the bone are removed.
27:59This is a child, fairly young.
28:02You can see there's his forehead.
28:04Right.
28:04And right there's his, uh...
28:06Oh, wow.
28:07Yeah.
28:08The side of his head.
28:09And right there you can see the hole that was drilled.
28:12Amazing.
28:12Now this is amazing for a lot of reasons.
28:14There are 20 individual holes drilled around the edge of this, which is the largest I have seen of this
28:20style.
28:20So we're seeing massive breaks in leg bones and arm bones and massive trauma to the skull.
28:29We are.
28:29So these are people that lived hard, fought hard.
28:32They did.
28:33And yet they were able to survive.
28:34Absolutely.
28:35Um, they definitely had hard lives.
28:38So what does a cave like this offer you when it comes to finding out more about this particular civilization?
28:45It offers so much, especially in the hard evidence.
28:47What I wish it offered was more context.
28:50Um, there's always...
28:50When Karen says context, she means intact mummies.
28:54The bones give them the raw data to learn about the Chachapoya lifestyle.
28:58But they provide little historical information.
29:01And really read the stories while they're here.
29:03Mummies could provide many more answers.
29:06Fortunately, among all these bones, they've found one.
29:16All right.
29:17The mummy is just down here.
29:23Right down there.
29:25Wow.
29:26Check that out.
29:27Uh-huh.
29:28So what do you think happened to the head?
29:30Sadly, it has been sacked by tomb robbers who took the head looking for treasures inside or something.
29:37But you can see the hands are curled up in front, like the fetal position.
29:41There's actually skin on the back here.
29:43Even in its damaged state, this mummy reveals a key clue about the Chachapoya.
29:48The timeline of when at least some of them were in this cave.
29:53Without radiocarbon dating, it's difficult to pinpoint an exact time period.
29:57But Karen says that this mummy shows evidence of embalming.
30:01That dates it to no earlier than the mid-15th century.
30:05Before that, the Chachapoya did not embalm their dead.
30:10I'm fascinated.
30:11Why did the Chachapoya change their burial practices?
30:16Karen tells me that if I want to learn more, I need to visit the Leme Bamba Museum,
30:21home to the largest collection of Chachapoya mummies anywhere.
30:25The museum got its start with a spectacular discovery deep in the Andean jungle
30:30at a site called Laguna de los Condores.
30:34In 1996, archaeologists recovered 219 intact mummies
30:39from nearly inaccessible cliffside tombs.
30:42It was the first significant discovery of Chachapoya remains in over 150 years,
30:48a remarkable breakthrough that ignited new enthusiasm to study this lost civilization.
30:56I'm meeting the leader of the excavation and curator of the Leme Bamba Museum,
31:00Sonia Guillen, Peru's premier bioarchaeologist.
31:04When it comes to Chachapoya mummies, you're the expert.
31:07Well, come and see.
31:10She takes me to a climate-controlled room with shelves of mummies.
31:14Whoa.
31:16I can't believe my eyes.
31:19Now, this is an amazing collection of mummies.
31:23Are these from all over the region?
31:25No, these are just the 219 mummies we recovered at Laguna de los Condores.
31:30From one site?
31:31Just one site.
31:32So have you been able to learn a lot from studying these mummies?
31:36Most of these years have been dedicated to conservation,
31:39to just make sure they are okay, they're stable, and to build this museum.
31:44Really, the research is only starting now.
31:47What are some of the things you can learn by studying?
31:49Karen's forensic analysis of the cave remains is still in its infancy.
31:53But Sonia's work is much further along.
31:57She has the data from multiple carbon dating tests,
32:00so she knows when these mummies died.
32:03They're about 500 years old.
32:07X-rays help Sonia and her team see what's inside the bundles.
32:10I'm excited.
32:11Up until now, they've only unwrapped five of them.
32:16This is a mummy bundle, and we are going to complete the unwrapping of this bundle today.
32:23I'm going to be just the sixth person to unwrap a Chachapoya mummy from Laguna de los Condores.
32:29This mummy has been partially damaged by looters.
32:32Now we're going to open it up to see what's inside.
32:36First, we put on masks and gloves.
32:39Get our masks on.
32:40I feel like I'm going in for surgery now.
32:42Mm-hmm.
32:44We are...
32:45Does this, so this slides, we slide it off the head first?
32:47Mm-hmm. We'll slide it off the head, and...
32:50She tells me to be very careful.
32:52The bones are fragile.
32:54Lift it there.
32:54You got the shoulder here?
32:55Mm-hmm.
32:56Okay.
32:57Gently, we fold back the layers of textiles and begin to see a person inside.
33:02Used, um, cotton.
33:04Actually...
33:05First, I notice the hands.
33:06Means the land...
33:07And it's not just bones.
33:09I can even see the skin.
33:11Oh, my gosh.
33:11I can see this, the shoulder.
33:13Okay.
33:14At this point, we are going to get him up.
33:18Okay.
33:19So slowly, slowly.
33:21Okay.
33:23Are all the mummies placed in this fetal position?
33:27Yes.
33:28This is an Andean trait.
33:31In most Andean cultures, you will find this position.
33:37Yes.
33:38Okay.
33:38Should I just hold around the shoulders here?
33:40Check.
33:41That's incredible.
33:43We can sort of keep on...
33:45I'll hold it.
33:45...moving the textiles down.
33:48Okay.
33:49Oh, man, it's amazing.
33:50I see the whole spine and the ribs.
33:53Okay.
33:54Now...
33:55...to move forward.
33:57Unwrapping the textiles is painstakingly slow going.
34:00This is the tricky part, huh?
34:02Navigating it around the feet?
34:04Yep.
34:06Wow.
34:07This is the first time this guy has been out of his wrapping in over 500 years, huh?
34:14Yes.
34:14Yeah, no, this is about 10 to 15 pounds or so.
34:19Yes, yes.
34:20It's just unbelievable that I'm holding a Chachapoya.
34:25But even more amazing, Sonia tells me this mummy gives us a window into their fate.
34:30The Chachapoya only began to embalm their dead 500 years ago.
34:36Before the mid-15th century, they treated their dead very simply.
34:41They let the bones and skull dry out, then they cleaned, tied, and wrapped them in a cotton sack.
34:48But later, they began to eviscerate the corpses, tie them in a fetal position, treat them with oils, and wrap
34:55them in textiles.
34:57Sonia tells me that Chachapoya learned this mummification technique from the Inca at a time when they were integrated.
35:05What we have here is the mummy of a Chacha Inca, of the time when the Chacha and the Inca
35:13had integrated,
35:14and probably this guy was one of the administrators of this province now of the Inca state.
35:23My long expedition finally pays off.
35:26The mummies here reveal that the Inca began to dominate the Chachapoya.
35:31Now my question is, how and why?
35:37I'm traveling through the High Andes in Peru, home to a forgotten people called the Chachapoya.
35:44I'm investigating how their civilization was lost to history.
35:49On my journey, I've learned that the Chachapoya built the largest fortress in the Americas,
35:54and that they mummified their dead and placed them high in the cliffs.
35:58I saw the largest collection of Chachapoya mummies ever found,
36:02and learned that the Inca brought new mummification practices when they came to the High Andes.
36:07But my question is, did the Inca simply influence, or did they conquer and destroy the Chachapoya?
36:15To learn what happened when the two civilizations collided, I'm meeting associate professor of archaeology,
36:21Dr. Warren Church from Columbus State University.
36:25He told me to meet him on the Inca road, just below an old Chachapoya settlement called Yalape.
36:31Hey Warren, Hunter, thanks for meeting me up here.
36:33Glad you made it.
36:34You bet.
36:34What a beautiful place to hike.
36:36This is amazing.
36:36Perfect day.
36:37This section of Inca road is one of the best preserved in all of Peru.
36:41Warren tells me that it's prime evidence of what took place here, for this was originally a Chachapoya trail.
36:48This particular trail is incredibly important in a strategic sense.
36:53It was a strategic Chachapoya trade route and crossroads, north-south, and especially east-west into the jungle,
37:00a gateway to the jungle, really.
37:02And the person who controlled this really was the person who had a very lucrative business.
37:07And so the Inca wanted it.
37:10The Chachapoya territory was the crossroads of the northern Andes and the gateway to the Amazon beyond.
37:17In 1438, the power to the south, the Inca, began to expand their empire.
37:23In less than 40 years, they came knocking on the door of the Chachapoya.
37:28In fact, right now, we're heading up towards Yalape.
37:30Up ahead, Warren says, is Yalape, a Chachapoya village that witnessed some brutal battles.
37:35And that's right up here?
37:36That's right up here.
37:36All right, let's go take a look.
37:38Take a walk.
37:40As we continue on the trail to Yalape, I learned that the ruins sit on top of a mountain covered
37:45in vegetation, much like Quaylap.
37:51All right, we got prickers here.
37:52Okay.
37:54You know what?
37:55I'm learning why this is the lost civilization, because none of these places are easy to get to.
38:04Oh, wow.
38:05Check this out.
38:06This reminds me a lot of Quaylap.
38:08Yeah, this is classic Chachapoya architecture.
38:11You can see the same shape stone, same building techniques, typical sort of stone freeze here that you'd find.
38:20What a great vantage point of the crossroads of trade.
38:22The Inca must have really wanted this territory.
38:24They wanted it fiercely enough that nothing was going to stop them.
38:28They were going to take it.
38:30They were going to absorb casualties in the thousands, but they were going to take it one way or the
38:35other.
38:35In terms of siphoning...
38:36Faced with the onslaught of the Inca military might, most of their foes simply surrendered.
38:41How about some of the battle tactics?
38:43But when the Inca moved into Chachapoya territory, they encountered their fiercest enemy.
38:52Why did the Chachapoya rebel so fiercely when a lot of civilizations welcomed the Inca?
38:59The Chachapoya were not typically accustomed to having a chief, a boss, an overlord, an emperor.
39:05None of this was familiar to the Chachapoya.
39:07These people were all independent.
39:08To actually see an imperial army marching on them was something new and totally unacceptable.
39:13And they simply fought to the last man.
39:16Each Chachapoya settlement was fiercely independent.
39:19But they all shared a common foe in the Inca.
39:23And they had a distinct advantage, even against the Inca's superior force.
39:28And this is not easy terrain to fight in.
39:30No, no, it's miserable terrain to fight in.
39:32And these people knew it and the Inca didn't.
39:35Essentially, Inca fought battles in open plains.
39:37Here these people were mountain people.
39:39They fought from the heights.
39:40They rolled rocks down.
39:41It was like guerrilla tactics almost.
39:42Guerrilla tactics, exactly.
39:46But if they had the home field advantage, how were these great warriors finally defeated?
39:52Did the Inca have more sophisticated weapons?
39:58So what were some of the weapons that the Chachapoya would use in battle?
40:02Well, they had a number of weapons at their disposal.
40:04The principal weapon here, probably from distance, would be the sling.
40:08And this was their weapon par excellence, essentially.
40:12So this is a long range weapon?
40:13This is a long range weapon.
40:14This is basically the Indian bow and arrow from the heights.
40:19This was a killing device.
40:21I have to admit, it doesn't seem like much.
40:24If this was the Chachapoya's primary long range weapon, how effective was it?
40:30Did they really stand a chance against the Inca military machine that brought so many other warriors to their knees?
40:37Warren sets me up with a clay pot to see for myself.
40:40All right, go for it.
40:42As far as locking and loading, this takes me a while.
40:49Oh, man.
40:53Oh, man.
40:55Man.
40:57As rudimentary as it is, I mean, it's kind of like a very primitive slingshot.
41:02It generates some serious power if you do it right.
41:15Oh!
41:16Yes!
41:18Finally.
41:19Congratulations.
41:19We were running out of rocks up here, though.
41:21Chachapoya could have used you.
41:23This test proves the value of a sling.
41:26In the hands of a Chachapoya marksman, this weapon was lethal in mountainous terrain.
41:31From there, Warren explains, the battles would progress to hand-to-hand combat.
41:37At this, the Chachapoya were just as formidable.
41:41Their maces were crowned with stone for bashing and taking the heads of their foes.
41:46Trophy heads were taken.
41:47These were displayed prominently, heads of enemies.
41:50If you took the head of an enemy, you took away their soul.
41:53You took away their power and the power of their ancestors.
41:56You cut them off from their cosmic connections, and you really did take them prisoner.
42:02These people basically were born warriors.
42:05So if the Chachapoya were such fierce warriors that refused to surrender, how did they lose?
42:11Simply, the Inca were relentless.
42:13They would not take no for an answer and essentially overwhelmed them by sheer force of numbers,
42:18but not without the Chachapoya probably inflicting enormous casualties like the Inca had never seen in any other region.
42:26It took the Inca just over one year to finally subdue the Chachapoya.
42:32It was a monumental victory.
42:33The Inca now controlled the Northern Andes and the Amazon, solidifying their place in history as the largest empire ever
42:41built in the Americas.
42:43But for the Chachapoya, it was the beginning of the end.
42:47To guard against rebellion, the Inca banished most of the young warriors to the far corners of their empire.
42:54Every shipment brought the Chachapoya closer to obscurity.
42:59Yet the Inca, too, were on borrowed time.
43:02They ruled for only 60 more years before the Spanish conquest.
43:07Today, a Spanish town that bears the Chachapoya name is the only obvious memory of an amazing civilization that ruled
43:14the Northern Andes for almost 1,000 years.
43:16But the ruins they left behind in the rugged terrain, and the mummies that continue to be uncovered, bear witness
43:23to these people of the clouds, no longer forgotten by history.
43:27Thank you very much.
43:28To be continued...
43:41You
Comments