In Mapuche society, the last trip for the deceased was made in a wampo, a small wooden canoe that allowed them to cross the great puddle of water that separated the kingdom of the living and that of the dead. This boat was built from the hollowed out trunk of an oak, a Chilean laurel or a raulí.
The southernmost example of this practice has just been discovered at the Newen Antug archaeological site in Argentine Patagonia. Inside the wampo, archaeologists have found the remains of a young woman who lived around 880 years ago and who had a ceramic funerary offering characteristic of the Late Ceramic period.
In addition to being the first burial of these characteristics found in Patagonia, the offering made with objects from the Bichrome Red on White tradition is the oldest in Argentina, which expands the repertoire of characteristics shared between the two slopes of the Andes Mountains. during the pottery periods (which extend from the 3rd century BC to the 16th century AD).
Researchers from the Catholic University of Temuco (Chile) explain in an article published in the journal PLOS ONE that canoes “built with a single trunk were widely used throughout the American continent”, especially in “societies whose way of life revolved around around water, whether marine or lacustrine”.
Burials in boats were part of a set of funerary customs called “water graves”. Some cultures placed the bodies of the deceased in boats and then left them adrift, another bet on sinking the boat, there were also those who left the wampo outdoors on land or buried them underground or in burial mounds.
“In the southern cone, specifically in the Northwest of Patagonia (Argentina) and La Araucanía (Chile), the records mention the three modalities of terrestrial burial. They describe that the coffin-canoe is placed in trees or hung from poles, while some are covered with earth to create burial mounds”, the authors of the study point out.
The remains analyzed in this case were found at an excavation site called Newen Antug, located near Lake Lacár, in the western part of Argentina. Radiocarbon dating showed the woman was between 17 and 25 years old when she died, although investigators have not yet been able to determine her cause of death.
They also found a pitcher placed near his head, on a bed of freshwater clams. The girl was also surrounded by almost 600 pieces of wood from a single Chilean cedar. There were also signs that the trunk had been charred, which is exactly what happened with the wampo, which was hollowed out with fire.
Tests of the bone fragments of the woman showed that she was from around 1142 AD, which means that she was probably a member of the Mapuche culture and that she lived and died before the Spanish arrived (the expedition of Juan Díaz de Solís did not reach the Río de la Plata until 1516).
The find not only represents the first canoe-type burial in Argentine Patagonia, but also represents an especially rare discovery. It must be taken into account that the majority of burials of these characteristics were reserved for men. The researchers suggest that the practice may have been more widespread than previously believed.
Previous research suggested that burying people in a canoe was part of a ritual intended to allow the deceased to make a final journey through mystical waters to another land known as Nomelafken, where they would reside in a place known as the “destiny of the dead.” souls”.
