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TBR HISTORY ARTICLE - THE MYSTERIOUS STONE FACES OF MARKAWASI, PERU
A PLATEAU IN PERU, east of Lima, is filled with strange rock
formations that appear not to be natural. Were they carved by an
unknown pre-Inca civilization? Some have suggested these enigmatic
figures may be artifacts of the oldest civilization on Earth and prove
South American contact with ancient Egypt.
BY MARC ROLAND
Fifty miles northeast from the modern city of Lima, stands a desolate
plateau in remote central Peru. One mile across and less than two
miles long, its flat top is populated by human and animal forms frozen
in stone on a colossal scale, ranging from 10 to 30 feet high. They
represent full-faced human heads, some of them seemingly wearing
bizarre turbans or caps, and animals, such as dogs—all of them
randomly scattered, in no apparent order or deliberate arrangement.
And each one shows varying degrees of severe erosion, perhaps
indicating their deep antiquity.
But these same weathering forces on the rocky outcroppings may have
been responsible for their appearance: Were these figures actually
made by men long ago, or were they fortuitously formed by nature? Are
they statues or apophenia? These are some of the questions filmmaker
Bill Cote poses in his latest DVD: _The Mysterious Stone Monuments of
Markawasi, Peru_.
_Markawasi_, in Quechua, an Inca family of languages still spoken
throughout the Andes, means “Road in the Sky,” an apparent
reference to the plateau’s 12,500-foot elevation. (Quechua speakers
refer to Quechua by the endonym Runasimi or Runa Simi or “people
speech”.) Aymara, a possibly related language, is also spoken in the
area. It was here that Cote brought his cameras to document the
strange structures, and, in so doing, created a fully professional
production, as original as it is intriguing. For example, his
employment of time-lapse photography to capture the lengthening or
foreshortening of shadows probably brings the figures to life more
effectively than even a personal visit might provide. He also outlines
the features to deftly highlight their alleged identities, without
distorting them—a useful technique, because some of the supposed
“heads” or “animals” are otherwise difficult to discern.
Cote offers a well-balanced presentation, allowing viewers to make up
their own minds about this undeniably evocative location, regardless
of its real origins. That Markawasi, alone, of all other plateaus
throughout the entire region, possesses this remarkable collection of
structures underscores their artificial creation, to some
investigators. The figures first came to the attention of the outside
world as recently as 1952, when Peruvian archeologist Daniel Ruzo
(1900-93) began his eight-year-long research of the “Road in the
Sky” after seeing an earlier, black-and-white photograph of the
so-called “Head of Humanity.” It is the site’s largest effigy,
the supposed depiction of a Caucasian man or woman facing opposite
from a Semitic profile, with the addition of a smaller skull, perhaps
Negroid. These themes—so utterly removed from pre-Columbian
Peru—add immeasurably to the site’s controversy.
But they are by no means unique. Cote shows us what appears to be
a _moai_, as the great monoliths of far-off Rapa-nui are known to
Pacific Ocean Easter Islanders. Another “statue” resembles Taurt,
ancient Egyptian goddess of childbirth, signified by a standing
hippopotamus. In Nile Valley temple art, “the Great Lady” was
occasionally portrayed with Sobek, the death-god, at her back, just as
the two appear at Markawasi.
Cote’s computer graphics go on to match up one half of King
Tutankhamen’s head with the other half of a similarly pharaonic face
on the Peruvian outcropping. Hardly less anomalous than these cultural
comparisons are the seeming depictions at the “Road in the Sky” of
an elephant (pachyderms died out in South America no sooner than
10,000 years ago), a horse (an animal first introduced by 16th-century
Spanish Conquistadors), plus an African lion and rhinoceros. Yet more
out of place and disturbing is the representation at Markawasi
of Amphichelydia, a suborder of giant turtles extinct for at least 30
million years.
If just a few such figures adorned the plateau, we might be inclined
to dismiss their lookalike shapes as the haphazard handiwork of wind
and rain at work with rock and time. But to find so many—allegedly,
more than 200—in one place, and one place only, should give us
pause.
That was the impetus for inviting Boston University geologist Robert
Schoch to Markawasi. His expert opinion was enlisted to determine once
and for all if the Peruvian structures were manmade or entirely the
results of erosion. Sadly, he demurred from providing a decision one
way or another, leaving viewers no less uncertain than before his
arrival. Schoch avows on camera that any question of the structures’
cultural or natural origins seemed to him immaterial, an unusual
determination for a professional geologist that must have disappointed
his hosts, who went to so much trouble and expense for his personal
participation. More enlightening was the on-site research of Peruvian
archeologist Dr. Marino Sanchez, director of archeology at the
better-known Inca stronghold of Machu Picchu, who points out that the
fantastic shapes are not alone on the plateau. Nearby are ancient
stone ruins, including irrigation canals and several_“_chullpas.”
Chullpas are pre-Incan mortuary towers built around A.D. 800 and
similarly found at the shores of Bolivia’s and Peru’s Lake
Titicaca. While their period does not necessarily coincide with the
possible creation of the Markawasi figures, it does show the area was
inhabited at least 12 centuries ago. The very existence of these ruins
does suggest, however, that either some pre-Incan people did in fact
sculpt the human and animal forms, or that visitors were drawn during
ancient times to the plateau-top for the same cause that attracts
modern researchers; namely, the evocative shapes, even if they were
created by the processes of erosion. Even today, native Peruvians
revere _huacas_, undeniably natural configurations of trees or rocks
that differ in appearance and stand out from the rest of the local
environment. If the presence of chullpas implies that the site may
have been a necropolis, then the colossal heads may represent
memorials to the honored dead, as inferred by its very name: the
“Road in the Sky”; i.e., the road to heaven.
In any case, no one has been able to prove the Markawasi effigies were
sculpted hundreds or thousands of years ago by prehistoric Peruvians
conversant with not only dynastic Egyptian and Easter Island cultures,
but African and even long-extinct animals, or entirely the product of
over-active human imagination hard-wired to discern recognizable
“patterns” in natural surroundings. In either case, Bill Cote’s
documentary takes us as far as we can go in the early 21st century
toward understanding this monumental enigma. His production team, _BC
Video_, in New York, won an Emmy Award 20 years ago for _The Mystery
of the Sphinx_, which aired on NBC Television, where it was seen by
more than 40 million viewers. His latest effort is no less deserving
of recognition.
_The Mysterious Stone Monuments of Markawasi, Peru _is a two-DVD set,
with a total running time of 183 minutes ($24.95 plus $6.50 S&H) from
BCVideo, Inc.,
152 West 25th Street,
New York, NY 10001.
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