Mysterious civilization in the Western Hemisphere

A special group of journalists from the German Geo Journal published in Hamburg recently made a trip to the westernmost part of Colombia in South America, infiltrating the Autonomous Region of Tumaco on the Pacific coast.

The biggest discovery on the trip is the native Tumaco people, belonging to an extremely mysterious civilization that has not been known to mankind. Below is an account of this fascinating trip.

The story of the statue thief

Antonio Dakas and Marco Medina meet once a year by convention, at the location of the Los Turcos cafe in the heart of the city of Cali, the second largest metropolis in the Republic of Colombia.

Today, Antonio bought a 'bunch' of statues from Marco right before our eyes. Marco is the one who specializes in stealing ancient tombs. Here it is an unwritten 'profession' accepted by the authorities, because it provides a source of revenue for the local 'budget' .

Marco spread a yellowed white velvet towel on the small table and pulled out the contents from the bag. He stripped off the old newspaper and wrapped the statues one after the other. More than a dozen heads representing three continents exist on this table. These priceless masterpieces we have never seen in all of South America, like that white clay sculpture .

'This picture?' Marco picked up and asked. 'Yes,' said Antonio. 'It's a Phenicia,' asserted Antonio proudly, then adding: 'Phenicia, that's my ancestor! They were once kings in astronomy and shipbuilding. They came to Colombia more than 2,000 years ago. '

A. Dakak's words were right, because right from the VI-IV century BC, the Phoenicians organized and led the fleet of the First Persian Empire - at that time including India. In the 2nd century BC, Phoenician traders imported mustard from England and iron from China.

'Yes, everything went as it was. Please come to Tumaco with me. We will look in the jungle together. There is a lot of physical evidence and will definitely find them, ' Marco said.

The affirmation of the two discerning traders drove us confused about our historical knowledge. We know that the Phoenicians used to trade by land to China via the ' Silk Road', that they also traveled along the coasts along the 'Pearl's Road' or 'The Spicy Road' ', but these are only coastal trips: the land never leaves their sight. Why must Phoenician people cross 2,000km across an unfamiliar ocean?

Tumaco location on South America map.

Studying old forest with canoe

After an appointment before meeting Marco at Tumaco, a self-governing district in the westernmost province of Narino province, we went to see Professor Julio Cesar Kubilios, a knowledgeable archaeologist who first described the artifacts. Found in Tumaco.

Along the shelves on the shelves surrounding the office are hundreds of bust, masks, heads . We asked the professor about the origin of these items, he said: 'Oh, There is only one supplier here, Marco, who used to sell fruit baskets. But now the authorities don't even have much money to pay for the statues he finds. So the most sophisticated works have gone to private hands. These are tons of real national tragedies. Also excavation is also not careful, not exploring the depth, not properly preserved . so it is difficult to determine the perfect of each artifact . '.

'Can they be dated, Professor?' Asked the representative of the traveling group. 'Yes. We have serious research. Although it was a result of a Frenchman - Professor Jean-Francois Bursar of the Museum of Anthropology in Paris, he applied the radioactive isotope method of carbone -14, showing that the artifacts were in the earlier period. 2000 years'.

We decided to go to the town of Tumaco. Looking down from the plane is an endless green space. Marco waited for us on the runway by the jeep as agreed before.

In the early morning the next day, we set out for a canoe along the Ohal river amidst the dense vegetation. The air is moist and salty, and mosquitoes and insects are countless. Occasionally there were some flickering lights of nearby houses. The jungle was inhabited by black peasants, descendants of slaves from Africa until ancient times.

As we passed by, several people called and followed Marco's appointment to excavate their property. The reputation of the 'collector' Marco stretches 600km along the Ohal stream, to the border with Ecuador in the southwest. It is rumored that Marco's hoe was 'soulful' , always hoarding gold and silver. Whenever picking an object, Marco often 'generously' rewards the guide and the landowner.

In fact Marco is very careful so that the farmers cannot know, how valuable the statues are. Later we had the opportunity to witness Marco spending several small denominations of pesos to buy dozens of precious ancient statues.

Part of M.Medina's collection with statues of 'hidden' civilizations of the Tumaco people.

Hunt the tomb

Come with Marco and we are the woodcutter Aureliano Colorado, who promised Marco a 'mine'. The party came to his tent on a giant tree, lying on the edge of the Ohal River. But where is the 'mine' that Aureliano says? .

The surrounding is a dark watercolor. The tide is coming down, the sun's rays come in through the foliage to illuminate the moist soil layer. Suddenly, in the middle of the soft ground, there were protruding edges.

The group approached and stunned: in front of the 'carpets' from ceramic pieces, with the shape that shows that it is a living appliance of humans. We held hands and shouted cheerfully together. The ceramic pots that people have been waiting for 2000 years are now in our hands.

But Marco seemed dissatisfied, saying: 'We will look in the tombs. Tumaco people often bury their treasures in graves' . The group climbed back into the canoe and continued along the river. A farmer called and informed him that someone in Santo Domingo had found a huge 'doll' .

We circled around to that side. Santo Domingo is a village with 15 huts arranged in a semicircle along the cornfield. In front of a tent, three children were playing soccer. Scary, the 'ball' is the inside of the 'doll'.

'A beautiful doll, taller than a glove. My husband immediately smashed it to see if there was gold hidden inside. But please don't worry, there is no gold. There is only that ceramic ball, ' the mother said.

Marco went nuts: 'We are useless. The doll has thousands of years of history in it. ' He spread out 5 100 pesos and called out the whole village. Marco said: 'Listen, gold is very expensive and you all know that. In ceramic dolls there is never gold. Do not smash them to find gold. I bought them just for you. Do you promise to keep them for me? ' 'Yes, monsieur, we promise we will keep it for you next time,' the village chief both received the money and cowered at him.

The whole group continued to search for the tomb. Suddenly the front of the ground suddenly 'protruded' . It turned out to be a 5-6m high embankment wall . 'Tomb. I'm looking for this very place, ' exclaimed Marco. Then he pulled out a shovel and digged it. At the depth of 15cm, the artifact was seen as a colorful ceramic vase. Medina eagerly continued digging .

After about 2 hours of crumbling the tomb, Marco cleaned the found objects and placed them on wild banana leaves. There was a statue that caught our attention: an Asian face.

The next morning, Marco divided the group into three groups of people digging in separate areas, about 10 meters in diameter inside the catacombs. Bustling work begins. Many hours passed . Suddenly in lot 6 there were many cheers. We ran over to see two men lifting a 25cm-clay house.

Marco took hold and said : 'An extremely rare artifact. A temple. ' Truly true. The lines are reminiscent of Chinese or Japanese arches. This temple resembles an ancient artifact found in China of an ancient civilization 4,000 years ago. In Lot 3, a few statues with hats similar to T minor Asian were found. Particularly lot 4 is very rich: in addition to the rhombus gold rings are the types of jewelry carved in many different shapes. Pottery statues of people and animals are also found, like a cramped shrimp; a shark has 6 holes, when blowing in it makes a different sound. True whistles! . A statue was named 'Cleopatra' by Medina because of its rare beauty.

In the following days, the excavation continued. We had a chance to look at the whole tomb area, and realized that the ancient Tumaco people who built their constructions all took into account flood prevention. We marvel at the last artifact, the hand-made 'badges', made of ceramic and the middle of which has a hollow to hold sand, reminiscent of an ancient civilization in India 5,000 years ago.

An artifact of a Tumaco was discovered by an archaeological team.

Instead of the conclusion

In the famous Guimet Museum in Paris (France), a team of experts on Asia are quietly watching the photos of the delegation. We showed them pictures of plaster heads, curved roofs, badges . Paul De Decker, an erudite historian of the ocean, could not hide his surprise.

We only hope one day, the mysteries of the ancient Tumaco people will be revealed, once the international anthropologists pay attention to the mysterious civilization in the Western Hemisphere. known.