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Parrots and macaws are not native to Atacama, which is the world’s driest desert, but mummified feathers and birds have been found at archaeological sites in the area, according to a press release from the Penn State. University, published Monday.
Many parrots have been mummified after death, some with their mouths open and tongues sticking out, and others with their wings outstretched as if they were flying.
“It’s hard to interpret,” study co-author José M. Capriles, assistant professor of anthropology at Penn State, told CNN, but the practice can be part of an ability-related ritual. birds to imitate human speech.
Researchers visited museums in northern Chile for nearly three years to study the remains of parrots and macaws found in the area. Scientists have used zooarchaeological analysis, isotopic food reconstruction, radiocarbon dating, and ancient DNA testing to build a picture of bird life.
The team found that the birds had been brought to Atacama from the Amazon, about 500 miles away, between 1100 and 1450 CE.
This period saw a lot of trade, with an increasing number of llama caravans moving between different parts of the Andes mountain range, Capriles told CNN.
“The fact that live birds crossed the Andes over 10,000 feet high is incredible,” Capriles said in a press release. “They had to be transported across immense steppes, in cold weather and over difficult terrain to the Atacama. And they had to be kept alive.”
The arrival of birds preceded the Inca Empire and the Spanish colonization of the region, which brought horses to South America for the first time.
“Llamas aren’t the best pack animals because they’re not that strong,” Capriles said in the press release. “The fact that llama caravans brought macaws and parrots across the Andes and across the desert to this oasis is incredible.”
Once the birds arrived in the Atacama, they would have been kept as pets, but also regularly plucked for their feathers, which were used in headdresses denoting wealth and power, Capriles told CNN.
The birds were fed the same food as the people who looked after them, but their relationship with humans was complicated, he said.
“What we considered to be acceptable interactions with the animals in our care was very different back then,” said Capriles. “Some of these birds did not live happy lives. They were kept to produce feathers and their feathers were plucked out as soon as they grew up.”
Many questions remain about the birds and how they were used, and Capriles plans to continue research in the area.
The article was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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