LaPaz | Dozens of whale carcasses have been unearthed under Pre-Columbian earth mounds near the city of LaPaz at an altitude of more than 3,800 meters above sea level, a baffling discovery admit archaeologists from LaPaz University.
The archaeologists that were excavating earth mounds discovered in 2014 around the city of LaPaz were astonished to find the remains of 34 whales under 17 different earth mounds over an area of 300 km2. Fifty seven such earth mounds were revealed by LIDAR technology last year after local residents found 2,500-year old mummified human remains under one such mound.
PhD Franco Cucchi, head of the expedition, believes the whale remains could be linked to the ruins of Tiwanaku which lie only 64 km away.
“There are legends in this region of the Great Rain God who flooded the region for years, and people left their houses to flee to the mountains and found refuge here and built cities which became ports, because water levels had reached the top of the mountains. Quite similar to the Biblical deluge in fact” explains the archaeologist. “Even though this is but a legend, it is still mystifying how and why the people that once lived here brought up these whales up here” he admits, visibly puzzled.
Carbon dating tests reveal the whale carcasses are between 3,500 and 2,500 years old.
