We know that the ancient Egyptians mummified cats, dogs, ibis and other animals, and now an international team of scientists has found signs of such acts on the other side of the world. The article, published in the journal PNAS , describes the discovery of mummified parrots and macaws around the years 1100 – 1450 that must have reached the desert oases in commercial caravans.
“Bird feathers were highly valued in America and are found in high-status burials – explains José M. Capriles, professor of Anthropology at Penn State University (USA). The fact is that parrots and macaws are not native to Atacama, the driest desert in the world found in northern Chile , but archaeologists found feathers preserved in leather boxes and other protective materials, as well as mummified birds in different archaeological sites.
“The fact that live birds made their way through the Andes at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters is astonishing,” said Capriles. “They had to be transported through huge steppes, with a cold climate and very difficult terrain, until they reached Atacama. And they had to arrive alive.” Most of the bird remains the researchers found date to between 1000 and 1460 AD, beginning at the end of the Tiwanaku empire and just before the Incas traversed the area. According to Capriles, it was a time of war, but also a great time for commerce, with frequent caravans of llamas moving from side to side.
The researchers studied 27 complete or partial remains of scarlet macaws and Amazon parrots from five oases in the Atacama. Using zooarchaeological analysis, isotopic dietary reconstruction, radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA evidence, the research cataloged Scarlet Macaws and at least five other species of parrots that were transported from nearly 500 kilometers away from the Amazon. The team mapped the various natural habitat ranges for scarlet macaws, blue and yellow macaws, and the various parrots to try to determine how they traveled to the Atacama. The researchers also found that the birds consumed the same diet as the farmers who owned them.
An unhappy life
As Capriles indicates, at that time the concept of animal welfare that we have today did not exist: “Some of these birds did not live a happy life. They were kept alive to produce feathers and these were being plucked as they grew.
Another unusual finding has to do with the treatment of birds after death. Many of the parrots were found mummified with their mouths open and their tongues hanging out. Others had their wings spread in permanent flight. ” We have no idea why they were mummified like this, ” explains the scientist. “It appears that they were gutted through their cloaca, which helped preserve them. Many times, they were wrapped in textiles or bags.”
