{"id":2526,"date":"2015-07-16T09:56:44","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T08:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/?p=2526"},"modified":"2015-08-07T12:38:44","modified_gmt":"2015-08-07T11:38:44","slug":"2015-05-14-the-sarcophagi-de-karajia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/?p=2526","title":{"rendered":"2015-05-14: The Sarcophagi of Karajia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another day, more tours.\u00a0 After a strenuous bus drive with many curves, the tour arrived at the little village of Karajia. The sarcophagi are about 1 kilometer\u00a0 east of the village in a valley.\u00a0 It had rained heavily the days before, and the trail was slippery and\u00a0 soaked in mud.<\/p>\n

The Sarcophagi of Karajia<\/h1>\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n

The sarcophagi, or “Purunmachos” as the locals call them, were build by a Chachapoyan community about 600 years ago into the wall of a ravine. Although known to the locals, it was not until 1984 that Archaeologist Federico Kauffmann discovered them, and made their existence known to the scientific community.<\/p>\n

The Sarcophagi<\/h2>\n

The\u00a0 sarcophagi are constructed from clay, straw, and gravel that was modelled on top of a wooden structure, and painted. Each sarcophagus houses one mummified corpse in foetal position. The gender of the deceased is supposedly also painted on the sarcophagus. I was however not able to make it out as they are not really accessible (next time, I will bring my quadrocopter for some close up pics :-)). Some of the tombs have human skulls attached to the top. These are thought to be trophies of enemies or possibly human sacrifices.<\/p>\n

In Karajia, there are 3 clusters of sarcophagi. The most visible one had originally 8 sarcophagi. The third and the eight one collapsed during earth quakes. It is believed that this kind of burial was only reserved for important persons within the community. The\u00a0sarcophagi of Karajia are not the only ones in the Chachapoyan settlement area, but the nicest.\u00a0 There are others on the western bank of the Utcubamba River north of Kuelap.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Karajia:<\/a>
Karajia: Trail to Sarcophagi (before it became really muddy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Karajia:<\/a>
Karajia: Clouds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Karajia:<\/a>
Karajia: Mountain Vegetation — and Clouds, of course<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Karajia:<\/a>
Karajia: Entrance to Ravine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Karajia:<\/a>
Karajia: Sarcophagi in Wall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Karajia:<\/a>
Karajia: Sarcophagi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Karajia:<\/a>
Karajia: Sarcophagi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Karajia: Second group of Sarcophagi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Karajia:<\/a>
Karajia: Sarcophagus (It is pretty much in the middle of the picture and hard to see)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Karajia:<\/a>
Karajia: (probably human) Bones neatly arranged<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Karajia:<\/a>
Karajia: Sarcophagi in the Background and Tourist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Karajia:<\/a>
Karajia: Beetles doing their Thing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Karajia:<\/a>
Karajia: Waterfall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Karajia:<\/a>
Karajia: Waterfall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Karajia:<\/a>
Karajia: Waterfall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Karajia:<\/a>
Karajia: Little Girl with Rubber Boots<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another day, more tours.\u00a0 After a strenuous bus drive with many curves, the tour arrived at the little village of Karajia. The sarcophagi are about 1 kilometer\u00a0 east of the village in a valley.\u00a0 It had rained heavily the days before, and the trail was slippery and\u00a0 soaked in mud. The Sarcophagi of Karajia Introduction … Continue reading 2015-05-14: The Sarcophagi of Karajia<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2526"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2526"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3191,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2526\/revisions\/3191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gloetzner.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}