Word: chilca
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Chilca people, as Professor Engel calls them, lived on a desert flat near the mouth of a river that is now dry. In those days it must have carried plenty of water during part of the year, for it supported the Chilcas in some style. They lived in conical houses a dozen feet in diameter, made of reeds, straw and willow branches. Many of these houses still exist, covered with sand and preserved by the bone-dry climate. The carbon 14 test proves that at least 50 of them date from 3750 B.C., when the people of Egypt were...
From the point of view of modern archaeologists, Chilca burial customs were ideal, since they helped to preserve the remains. When a man died, he was laid on reed mats in his house and covered with other mats. Then heavy stones were placed over his chest and abdomen, presumably to keep his ghost from rising to haunt the living. Women's ghosts were considered more dangerous; sometimes five stakes were driven through female bodies...
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