Now to provide a few more ‘scratch your head’ mysteries. The Paracas Candelabra or “Candelabra of the Andes” that is carved into a Peruvian hill of petrified sand is similar to the Nazca Lines, but it presents its own mystery. The mysterious “Candelabra of the Andes” could represent anything from a god’s trident to a hallucinogenic plant.
The 600-foot-long artifact is a massive geoglyph, created around 200 BC, but no one is sure what it represents or its origin. Thanks to carbon dating of artifacts found near the enormous work, it has been dated back to around 200 BC, but the purpose and creators of the symbol are still unknown. The design, which takes the general form of a bulbous three-pronged fork, is etched a good 2 feet into the petrified sand of the hill and runs almost 600 feet from tip to tip.
Its description as a candelabra is a misnomer as it has never been thought to represent one. There an abundance of theories about its significance. One theory suggests that the geoglyph is meant to evoke the trident of Incan creator god Viracocha, the god of creation, created in order to curry his favor.
Another theory suggests that the symbol is meant to stand in for the local Jimson weed which has hallucinogenic effects and may have held a ritual significance, the large design acting as a beacon home for people tripping on the drug. Still others believe that the etching was simply a sign meant for sailors looking for the Paracas coast.
Few people have heard of Thonis-Heracleion, as opposed to Babylon, Pompeii, or Atlantis. The city was presumably established in 8th century BC and eventually sank completely under the waters of the Mediterranean in 8th century AD. About 2,700 years ago, the Egyptian port city of Thonis-Heracleion, served as the gateway to the Mediterranean. It became lost between myth and reality until 1999 when a group of divers stumbled upon ancient artifacts.
Eventually an entire city was found buried underwater on the Egyptian coast. It was complete with bridges, 16-foot statues, animal sarcophagi, and other ancient marvels. Archaeologists can’t be sure how an entire city ended up in the Mediterranean Sea, but they believe that toward the end of the first century BC, a combination of tsunami, earthquake, and rising sea levels caused the soil to liquefy enough to sink fully before AD 800.
The city was crisscrossed by canals and populated with harbors, wharves, temples, and tower-houses. It was linked together by a network of ferries, bridges, and pontoons and controlled the majority of the nautical commerce entering Egypt from the Mediterranean.
So far only an estimated 5% the city has been exposed. The excavated items depict the city’s beauty and splendor, the magnificence of their enormous temples, and the richness of historic evidence: colossal sculptures, inscriptions, and architectural components, jewelry and coins, ritual goods, and ceramics – a civilization trapped in time.
Two distinct but similar writing styles—Linear A and B—have been found on ancient Minoan relics. Linear A and Linear B were linear forms of writing used by certain Aegean civilizations during the 2nd millennium BC.
Researchers are still scratching their heads over Linear A. Greek-based Linear B was cracked in 1952 and represents syllables rather than letters. Still, that knowledge hasn’t opened the door to deciphering Linear A, which was used between 1800 and 1450 BC.
Linear A appears in Crete and on some Aegean islands from approximately 1850 BC to 1400 BC. Its relation to the Minoan script is uncertain. It is a syllabic script written from left to right and is presumed to have been a pre-Hellenic language of Minoan Crete.
Linear B script is an adapted form of Linear A and is displayed on clay tablets and on some vases dating from about 1400 BC to roughly 1200 BC. The script was exclusively used for the economic administration of the Mycenaean palaces. Linear B’s 90 syllabic signs express open syllables (syllables ending in a vowel). They generally begin without a consonant or with only one consonant. Thus, the script is unable to represent groups of consonants or final consonants clearly. For instance, sperma ‘seed’ is spelled pe-ma. The Linear B texts are extremely important for Greek linguistics. They represent the oldest known Greek dialect, elements of which survived in Homer’s language as a result of a long oral tradition of epic poetry.
Then there is the mystery of the Dogū. Created during Japan’s Neolitic period, the Dogū are clay figures, a cross between human and animal. Archaeologists have uncovered about 18,000 of them, ranging from 2,300 to 10,000 years old, but they still aren’t sure what they were used for. Some theorize the objects were used as toys, while others think they may have been fertility symbols. Others believe that Dogū represented the owner and held magic powers that would transfer misfortune to the figure. If the figures were broken, then it would release the misfortune. Some evidence suggests they were aids in childbirth as well as fertility symbols. They have been found in simulated burials, suggesting some kind of ceremonial function.
Dogū are made from high-quality pottery and come in a variety of shapes often featuring intricate decoration and geometric designs. The techniques include modelling, clay appliqué, marking with twisted plant fibers and burnishing.
And last, but not least, many questions surround the Incans’ stone structure in Cusco, Peru called Sacsayhuaman. It is thought to be a fortress, but some evidence suggests it might have been used for ceremonies. However, some maintain Sacsayhuaman was just a major Inca storage depot where arms, armor, foodstuffs, valuable textiles, ceramics, metal tools, and precious metals were kept.
No matter what its use, the architecture of Sacsayhuaman is beyond belief. Its stones fit together so perfectly that it remains sturdy without mortar holding them in place. The stones fit together snugly, but aren’t all the same shape.
The Sacsayhuaman fortress-temple complex lies at the northern edge of the former Inca capital Cuzco. Constructed during the reign of Pachacuti and his successors, its massive walls remain as a testimony to Inca power and the skills of Inca architects. Sacsayhuaman was the largest structure built by the Incas. It was constructed on an elevated rocky promontory facing the northern marshy ground outside the Inca capital of Cuzco.
The first structures were made using only mud and clay. Subsequent rulers replaced these with the stonework of finely-cut polygonal blocks, many over 4 meters in height and weighing over 100 tons. To complete such a massive project 20,000 laborers were drafted under the Inca system of extracting both goods and labor from peoples they conquered.
Working in a system of rotation, 6,000 were given quarrying duties while the other 4,000 dug trenches and laid the foundations. The walls of the fortress were built in vertical sections. The Incas were master stonemasons. Huge blocks were quarried and shaped using nothing more than harder stones and bronze tools. Marks on the stone blocks indicate that they were mostly pounded into shape rather than cut.
Blocks were moved using ropes, logs, poles, levers, and earthen ramps (telltale marks can still be seen on some blocks), and some stones still have nodes protruding from them or indentations which were used to help workers grip the stone. It is clearly indicated by unfinished examples left at quarries and on various routes to building sites that rocks were roughly hewn in the quarries and then worked on again at their final destination. The fine cutting and setting of the blocks on site were so precise that mortar was not necessary. Finally, a finished surface was provided using grinding stones and sand.
Experimental archaeology has demonstrated that it was much quicker than previously thought to prepare and dress the stones used by the Incas. Even so, it would have taken months to produce a single wall. The Incas also ensured that their blocks interlocked and the walls were sloped to maximize their resistance to earthquake damage. Time has proved their efficiency as 500 years of earthquakes have done little damage to Sacsayhuaman.
If the theory that all of Cuzco was laid out to form a puma shape when seen from above is correct, then Sacsayhuaman was its head. The fortress has three distinct terraces which recede backwards on each other. The walls, each reaching a height of approximately 59 feet, are laid out in a zigzag fashion stretching over 1771.65 feet so that each wall has up to 40 segments, which allowed the defenders to catch attackers in a crossfire. For a better defense, there is only one small doorway on each terrace which gave access to the interior buildings and towers on the hillside behind.
Inca architects often sought to blend their structures into the surrounding natural landscape and the outline of Sacsayhuaman was similarly built to mimic the contours of the mountain range which towers behind it. This is particularly evident when the sun creates deep triangular shadows between the zigzag terraces in exactly the same way that it does on the mountain range with its peaks and valleys.
On completion, the fortress was said to have had a capacity for at least 1,000 warriors, but it was rarely needed as the Incas did not suffer invasions from enemy states. Probably why Sacsayhuaman is thought to have been designed as more than a fortress. The complex appears to have included temples and used as a location for Inca ceremonies. It was also a major Inca storage depot where arms, armor, foodstuffs, valuable textiles, ceramics, metal tools, and precious metals were kept.
The Sacsayhuaman operated as a fortress during the Spanish conquest of Peru from 1532 AD. The Spaniards conquered Cuzco shortly after killing the Inca ruler Atahualpa in 1533 AD but faced an organized and sustained siege from a large Inca army. To survive, the Spaniards attacked Sacsayhuaman using cavalry and scaling the walls with ladders. The offensive was successful and the occupation of the fortress allowed the Spanish to resist the siege by the Inca army.
Following the collapse of the Inca Empire after the European invasion, most of the stones of the Sacsayhuaman were reused elsewhere in the colonial buildings of Cuzco. The ruins were covered in earth by the Spanish to prevent their use by rebel Inca forces and the site was not rediscovered until its excavation in 1934 AD. Time produces a great deal of mystery we may never understand.