Cradled in the basin of the Peruvian-Bolivian altiplano, the
Titicaca
region is currently densely populated by the Aymara Indians,
who eke out an agricultural existence, subsisting primarily on
maize, frozen potatoes, and chicha, a fermented alcoholic
beverage made of cornmeal. But there is evidence that such was not
always the case. Just 12 miles southward of the southernmost tip of
Lake Titicaca lie the remains of
Tiahuanaco, the site of a technologically advanced culture
considered by many archaeologists (romantic not orthodox) to be the
oldest ruins in the world.
Although some misguided
scholars have attributed the buildings of Tiahuanaco to the
Incas, it has now been established that the city was already in
ruins when the first Incas came upon the scene. In 1540 the Spanish
chronicler, Pedro Cieza de Leon, visited the area and his
description of the statues and monoliths compares very closely to
what we see today. The site is at an altitude of 13,300 feet, which
places it some 800 feet above the present level of Lake Titicaca.
Most archaeologists agree that in the distant past Tiahuanaco
was a
flourishing port at the edge of the lake, which means that the
water has receded almost 12 miles and has dropped about 800 feet
since then. All concur that the lake is shrinking, due mainly to
evaporation, since no rivers flow from it.
The Tiahuanaco culture, as it is called, is unique in its
sculpture and its style of stone construction. The figures depicted
in the statuary have a rather square head with some covering like a
helmet; they have square eyes and a rectangular mouth. The stone
works at the ruins consist of such structures as the Gate of the
Sun, a portal carved from a single block of stone weighing 15 tons.
The stone steps of the Kalasasaya, each of which is a
rectangular block of stone about 30 feet wide; the so-called "idols,"
which are giant about 23 feet tall representatives of unusual
looking beings with typical Tiahuanaco
head and trace; and the enormous monolithic stone blocks, many of
which appear to have been cast rather than carved, are some
of these unusual features.
At the area called Puma Punku, which is about 1 mile distant
from the principal part of the ruins, the gigantic stones are
bluish-gray in color and appear to have been "machined", and
they have a metallic ring when tapped by a rock. There is also a
reddish "rust" or oxidation covering many of the stones. Many
of these enormous stone blocks probably have not been moved since
they fell thousands of years ago.
Archaeologists however speculate
that the stones were dressed, but never erected that the
construction for which they were intended was interrupted. It is
equally valid, however, to assume that the buildings were completed
and then toppled by some natural catastrophe, such as the eruption
of the Andes mountain chain or a world-wide deluge.
It is interesting to observe the archaeological excavation work, which
is under way at the site. At this altitude of 13,300 feet some of
the remains are found at a level 6 feet below the earth's surface.
The mountain ranges which surround the area are not high enough to
permit sufficient runoff of water or wind erosion to have covered
the ruins to such a depth. This remains a mystery.
Legends have persisted
over the centuries that there are stone structures beneath the
waters of Lake Titicaca, much the same kind as can be found on the
lake's shore.
The Indians of that legion have frequently recounted
this tradition, but until recently there has been no proof of such
structures. In 1968 Jacques Cousteau, the French underwater
explorer, took his crew and equipment there to explore the lake and
search for evidence of underwater construction.
Although severely hampered
in their activities by the extreme altitude, the divers spent many
days searching the lake bottom, in the vicinity of the islands of
the Sun and Moon, but found nothing man-made. Cousteau
concluded the legends were a myth.
Recently in November 1980,
however, the well known Bolivian author and scholar of pre-Columbian
cultures, Hugo Boero Rojo, announced the finding of
archaeological ruins beneath Lake Titicaca about 15 to 20 meters
below the surface off the coast of
Puerto Acosta, a Bolivian port village near the Peruvian
frontier on the northeast edge of the lake. Based upon information
furnished by
Elias Mamani a native of the region who is over 100 years old,
Boero Rojo and two Puerto Ricans cinematographers, Ivan and
Alex Irrizarry, were able to locate the ruins after extensive
exploration of the lake bottom in the area, while filming a
documentary on the nearby Indians.
At a press conference the Bolivian author stated "we can now say
that the existence of pre-Columbian constructions under the waters
of Lake Titicaca is no longer a mere supposition or science-fiction,
but a real fact. Further," he added, "the remnants found show
the existence of old civilizations that greatly antecede the Spanish
colonization. We have found temples built of huge blocks of stone,
with stone roads leading to unknown places and flights of steps
whose bases were lost in the depths of the lake amid a thick
vegetation of algae". Boero Rojo described these
monumental ruins as being "of probable Tiahuanaco origin".
The Polish-born Bolivian archaeologist Arturo Posnansky has
concluded that the Tiahuanaco culture began in the region at
about 1600 B.C. and flourished until at least 1200 A.D. His
disciple, Professor Hans Schindler-Bellamy, believed
Tiahuanaco to have reached back 12,000 years before the present
era, although a more conservative Peruvian archaeologist, Professor
Kaufmann-Doihg, dates the site's flourishing at about 300-900
A.D.
What happened to the
advanced ancient culture, however, has not yet been determined.
Boero Rojo's discovery nevertheless may prove to create more
problems than it solves. If, over the past 3 or 4000 years Lake
Titicaca has slowly receded, as appears to be the case-as all
scientists agree, then how can we explain the existence of stone
temples, stairways, and roads still under water'?. The only answer
is that they were built before the lake materialized.
We must go back, then, to the remnants of Tiahuanaco and
reexamine the more than 400 acres of ruins, only 10 percent of which
have been excavated. We have pointed out that dirt covers the
ancient civilization to a depth of at least 6 feet. The only
explanation for this accumulation is water.
A large amount of water had to have inundated the city; when it
receded it left the silt covering all evidence of an advanced
civilization, leaving only the largest statues and monoliths still
exposed. It is logical to conclude, therefore, that Tiahuanaco
was built before the lake was created, and not as a port on
its shore. As the waters today continue to recede, we should be able
to find more evidence of the city's remote peoples.
Scientists theorize that the area of Lake Titicaca was at one
time at sea level, because of the profusion of fossilized marine
life which can be found in the region. The area then lifted with the
Andean upheaval and a basin was created which filled in to form the
lake. No one has suggested the marine life might have been brought
to the altiplano by sea waters which were at flood stage.
Peruvian legends clearly relate a story of world-wide flood in the
distant past. Whether it was the biblical flood of Noah, or
another one, we cannot say, but there is ample physical evidence of
a universal inundation, with the world-wide deluge described in
more than a hundred flood-myths.
It
is evident there was a world-wide deluge 19,000 years ago.
Global doomsdays are conspicuous in the
Hopi Indian
legends, the Finnish Kalevala epic, the Mayan
Chilam Balam and
Popol Vuh, and in
the Aztec calendar, the last of which
predicts that our present civilization will be destroyed by "nahuatl
Olin" or "earth movement," that is, devastation by earthquake.
Due to Aztec cyclic theory this will become the fifth doomsday after
the "death of the Jaguars," "the death of the Tempests,"
"the death of the Great Fire" (volcanism), and "the Great
Deluge."
If a flourishing advanced civilization existed on the
Peruvian altiplano many thousands of years ago and was reached by the
flood waters, many problems would be solved, such as the existence
of
Tiahuanaco's ruins under 6 feet of earth at an elevation
of 13,300 feet. The presence of stone structures still under the
lake's waters and the existence of marine life at an impossible
altitude would also make sense.
In my 1978 and 1984 trips to Peru I was impressed by agricultural
terracing on the sides and very tops of the steep peaks. These
appear to be the oldest - and now unused - portions of the
terracing. As you look down the mountains you see more and more
terraces of more recent origin. We are told that only the Inca
(specifically the Sapai Inca, i.e. the ruler) could use the
lower portions and the fertile valleys; the "peons" had to climb to
the very peaks to cultivate the soil for their own subsistence. This
seems highly unlikely in what we know to have been a pure
communistic-theocratic society.
Pondering the logistics involved, I see no problem with the spring
planting. It would not be difficult to carry a sack of seed to the
mountain tops, scratch out some of the soil, and plant them. But
then, I wondered, it must have been very tough in the fall to carry
the harvest 2 to 3000 feet down to the valley floor.
Then it struck
me. If there really had been a world-wide deluge covering most of
the earth's surface—leaving only mountain tops protruding in the
sunlight—then the few remaining survivors of the deluge would
naturally plant their seeds on mountain tops. They had no problem
getting produce down, because they lived at the top. Also, they used
boats to move from one peak to another. As the flood waters receded
the terracing began to creep down the mountain sides, as can be seen
today, with the ones near the bottom being the freshest.
As Boero Rojo
stated, the discovery of Aymara structures under the waters of Lake
Titicaca could pose entirely new thesis on the disappearance of an
entire civilization, which, for some unknown reason, became
submerged.
The Tiahuanacans could have been victims of
world-wide flood, their civilization all but wiped out when their
homes and structures were covered with sea water.
Because of the basin-like
geography of the area the flood waters that became Lake Titicaca
could not run off and have only gradually evaporated over the
centuries.
Professor Schindler-Bellamy as a disciple of Posnansky
and
Horbiger
(who created the world famous Glacial-Cosmogony theory in the
1930's) has worked dozens of years in the Tiahuanaco area and
has written books on the subject.
According to him the large monolithic Sun Gate of
Tiahuanaco was evidently originally the centerpiece of the most
important part of the so-called Kalasasaya, the huge chief
temple of Tiahuanaco. Its upper part is covered with a
stupendously intricate sculpture in flat bas relief. This has been
described as a "calendar" almost as long as the monolithic
gateway has been known to exist; thus the Sun Gate has also
been called the Calendar Gate.
This calendar sculpture,
though it undoubtedly depicts a "solar year," cannot however
be made to fit into the solar year as we divide it at present. After
many futile attempts had been made, by employing a Procrustean
chopping off of toes or heels to make the calendar work, the
sculpture-which indeed has a highly decorative aspect-was eventually
declared generally to be nothing but an intricate piece of art. (See
Arturo Posnansky and F. Buck.)
Professor Schindler-Bellamy and the American astronomer
Allen have nevertheless continued to insist the sculpture was a
calendar, though one of a special kind, designed for special
purpose, and, of course, for a special time. Hence it must refer
exclusively to the reckoning of that time, and to certain events
occurring then. Consequently we cannot make the calendar "speak"
in terms of our own time, but let it speak for itself - and listen
to what it says and learn from it.
When we do so we gain an immense
insight into the world of the people of that era, into the manner of
thinking of their intellectuals, and generally into the way their
craftsmen and laborers lived and worked. To describe these things in
detail would make a long story; it took Dr. Allen and
Professor Schindler-Bellamy and their helpers many years of
hard work to puzzle out the Tiahuanaco system of notation and
its symbology, and to make the necessary calculations (before the
age of computers).
The result was a book of over 400 pages, The Calendar of Tiahuanaco,
published in 1956. Thorough analysis of the Sun Gate
sculpture revealed the astonishing fact that the calendar is not a
mere list of days for the "man in the street" of the
Tiahuanaco of that time, telling him the dates of market days or
holy days; it is actually, and pre-eminently a unique depository of
astronomical, mathematical, and scientific data- the quintessence of
the knowledge of the bearers of
Tiahuanacan culture.
The enormous amount of information the
calendar has been made to contain and to impart to anyone ready and
able to read it, is communicated in a way that is, once the system
of notation has been grasped, singularly lucid and intelligible, "counting
by units of pictorial or abstract form".
The different forms of those units attribute special, very definite
and important additional meanings to them, and make them do double
or multiple duty. By means of that method "any number" can be
expressed without employing definite "numerals" whose meaning
might be difficult, if not impossible, to establish. It is only
necessary to recognize the units and consider their forms, and find
their groupings, count them out, and render the result in our own
numerical notation. Some of the results seem to be so unbelievable
that superficial critics have rejected them as mere arrant nonsense.
But they are too well dove-tailed and geared into the greater system
(and in some cases supported by peculiar repetitions and
cross-references) to be discarded in disgust; one has to accept them
as correct. Whoever rejects them, however, also accepts the onus of
offering a better explanation, and Professor Schindler-Bellamy
has the "advantage of doubt," at any rate.
The "solar year" of the calendar's time had very practically
the same length as our own, but, as shown symbolically by the
sculpture, the earth revolved more quickly then, making the
Tiahuanacan year only 290 days, divided into 12 "twelfths" of 94
days each, plus 2 intercalary days. These groupings (290, 24, 12, 2)
are clearly and unmistakably shown in the sculpture. The explanation
of 290 versus 3651/4 days cannot be discussed here. At the time
Tiahuanaco flourished the present moon was not yet the companion
of our earth but was still an independent exterior planet.
There was another satellite moving around our earth then, rather
close, 5.9 terrestrial radii, center to center; our present moon
being at 60 radii. Because of its closeness it moved around the
earth more quickly than our planet rotated. Therefore it rose in the
west and set in the east (like Mars' satellite Phobos),
and so caused a great number of solar eclipses, 37 in one "twelfth,"
or 447 in one "solar year " of course it caused an equal
number of satellite eclipses. These groupings (37, 447) are shown in
the sculpture, with many corroborating cross-references. Different
symbols show when these solar eclipses, which were of some duration,
occurred: at sunrise, at noon, at sunset.
These are only a small sample of the exact astronomical information
the calendar gives. It also gives the beginning of the year, the
days of the equinoxes and solstices, the incidence of the two
intercalary days, information on the obliquity of the eliptic
(then about 16.5 degrees; now 23.5) and on Tiahuanaco's
latitude (then about 10 degrees; now 16.27), and many other
astronomical and geographical references from which interesting and
important data may be calculated or inferred by us.
Tiahuanacan
scientists certainly knew, for instance, that the earth was a globe
which rotated on its axis (not that the sun moved over a flat
earth), because they calculated exactly the times of eclipses
not visible at Tiahuanaco but visible in the opposite
hemisphere (one wonders whether they were actually able to travel
around the world, and speculate in what sort of vessel ! ).
A few more facts revealed in the calendar are both interesting and
surprising. As indicated by an arrangement of "geometrical"
elements we can ascertain that the Tiahuanacans divided the
circle factually astronomically, but certainly mathematically, into
264 degrees (rather than 360). Also, they determined, ages before
Archimedes and the Egyptians, the ratio of pi, the most important
ratio between the circumference of the circle and its diameter, as
22/7, or, in our notation, 3.14+.
They could calculate
squares (and hence, square roots). They knew trigonometry and the
measuring of angles (30, 60, 90 degrees) and their functions. They
could calculate and indicate fractions, but do not seem to have
known the decimal system nor did they apparently ever employ the
duodecimal system though they were aware of it (for a still unknown
reason, however, the number 11 and its multiples occur often). They
were able to draw absolutely straight lines and exact right angles,
but no mathematical instruments have yet been found.
We must take notice of the evident parallels with the markings of the Nazca Plain. We do not know the excellent tools they
must have used for working the glass-hard andesite stone of
their monuments, cutting, polishing, and incising. They must have
employed block and tackle for lifting and transporting great loads
(up to 200 tons) over considerable distances and even over expanses
of water from the quarries to the construction sites.
It is
difficult to see how all the calculations, planning, and design work
involved in producing the great city of Tiahuanaco could have
been done without some form of writing, and without a system of
notation different from the "unit" system of the calendar
sculpture. If they had such a system they must have used it only on
perishable materials (one is tempted to think all these Nazca
markings had been constructed by Atlanteans who fled to the
altiplano before or after the destruction of their island
continent 12,000 years ago).
I have so far dealt with some of the aspects of the Tiahuanacan
world, namely those connected with the calendar as a monument of
what
Schindler-Bellamy describes as "fossilized science".
But the calendar science-sculpture, and similar slightly older ones
also found at the site, must also be regarded and appreciated from
an aesthetic point of view, a great artistic achievement in design
and execution, and an absolute masterpiece of arrangement and
layout.
The most tantalizing fact of all is that the Tiahuanaco culture
has no roots in that area. It did not grow there from humbler
beginnings, nor is any other place of origin known. It seems to have
appeared practically full blown suddenly.
Only a few "older"
monuments, as can be inferred from the "calendrical inscriptions"
they bear, have been found, but the difference in time cannot have
been very great. The different, much lower cultures discovered at
considerable distances from Tiahuanaco proper, addressed as "Decadent
Tiahuacan" or as "Coastal Tiahuanaco," are only very
indirectly related to the culture revealed by the Calendar Gate.
Some of their painted symbols are somehow somewhat related to the
calendar symbols, but they make no sense whatever; they are, if
anything, purely ornamental Tiahuanaco apparently remained
for only a very short period at its acme of perfection (evidenced by
the Calendar Gate) and perished suddenly, perhaps through the
cataclysmic happenings connected with the breakdown of the former "moon".
We have at present no means of determining when Tiahuanaco
rose to supreme height, or when its culture was obliterated, and
naturally, the calendar itself can tell us nothing about that. It
will certainly not have been in the historical past but well back in
the prehistoric. It must indeed have occurred before the planet Luna
was captured as the earth's present moon, about 12,000 years ago.
The capture of the satellite and its later fall to the surface on our
planet imposed great stresses on the earth. The gravitational pull
caused floods and earthquakes until the moon settled into a stable
orbit one-fifth of today's distance. Hence the "moon" draws
the oceans into a belt or bulge around the equator, drowning the
equatorial region but leaving the polar lands high and dry.
When the
satellite approached within a few thousand miles gravitational
forces broke it up; according to the
Roche formula each planetoid or asteroid disintegrates when
approaching the critical distance of 50 to 60,000 kms. The fragments
shattered down on earth; the oceans, released from the satellite's
gravity, flowed back toward the continents, exposing tropical lands
and submerging polar territories. This is the simple explanation of
the Horbiger theory, and it seems to me the most
logical one.
Thus the approach of the "moon" caused a world-wide deluge,
effecting changes of climate and provoking earthquakes accompanied
by volcanic eruptions. The "ring" left by the satellite after
breaking into fragments caused a sudden drop in temperature of at
least 20 degrees, which geologists recognize as a "decline"
in temperature. It is evident, for example, in the discovery of
frozen mammoths in the Siberian tundra. Possibly gravity - and
therefore physical weight - was also changed on earth, and with it,
biological growth. This would explain the widespread construction of
huge megalithic monuments as well as the presence of giants - man
and animal - in fossil strata, tombs, and myths.
According to Horbiger
four moons fell on earth, producing
four Ice Ages; our present moon, the fifth one, will
similarly be drawn into the critical configuration of one-fifth of
its present distance (380,000 kms.) and will cause the fifth
cataclysm (remember the Aztec calendar's prediction of doomsday by
earthquake!). The theory of a falling moon has recently been
substantiated by Dr.
John O'Keefe, a scientist at the Coddard Laboratory for
Astronomy in Maryland.
Dr. O'Keefe claims that the
fragments of a moon's collision formed a ring around our planet that
could have kept the sun's rays from penetrating to earth, thus
causing world-wide decline of temperatures. After a while the
fragments showered down on earth, breaking into smithereens known as tectites. These tectites O'Keefe believes were
fragments of the fallen moon, thus proving Horbiger 's "World-lce-Cosmology."
The record nevertheless shows that a far-advanced culture made a
substantial attempt to plant its society at Tiahuanaco,
wanting to revitalize this region which had already been devastated
by floods caused by the close satellite. Their attempt eventually
miscarried, because they had underestimated certain dangerous
developments that ultimately happened contrary to all expectations
and calculations.
Such world wide cataclysms appear in myth, in the
Egyptian Papyrus Ipuwer ("The sun set where it rose")
or the tomb of Senmut (showing
Orion-Sirius
painted in reverse position), or in the Finnish Kalevala
("the earth turned round like a potter's wheel"), or the
Popol
Vuh (describing fire showering down from heaven), all of
which indicate that our planet more than once has suffered world
wide catastrophe.
Legends have persisted
over the centuries that there are stone structures beneath the
waters of Lake Titicaca, much the same kind as can be found on the
lake's shore. 
As Boero Rojo
stated, the discovery of Aymara structures under the waters of Lake
Titicaca could pose entirely new thesis on the disappearance of an
entire civilization, which, for some unknown reason, became
submerged.