Huaqueros probe the desert floor with 2m-long thin steel rods to find ancient grave sites. At night they dig, unearthing the pre-Inca mummies and looking for things they can sell, tearing up and discarding the mummies in the process, with no interest in learning. As you walk along these deserts, you can find lots of discarded cotton woven cloth, ropes, hondas(slings for throwing stones, often decorated ornately)and lots of bones and pieces of pottery, strewn around in the sand. Burrial grounds were used by successive cultures and contain Paracas, Tiahuanaco, Nazca, Wari, and Inca graves. (500 BC to 1500 AD). Poor people were just wrapped in plain cotton, while richer corpses have lots of ceramics, ornate cloth, jewelry, tools,(especially for weaving, needles made of thorns, bone), basketry, mumified animals, etc. burried with them. Both men and women wore long hair, that of women usually longer, braided, often up to 5 meters long. Also hair cut during lifetime was burried alongside the corpse, braided. Sometimes simple floral design tattoos on back of hand or forarm. A wealth of medical and cultural information being lost forever by these huaqueros.

I always ask the Huaqueros about Tiahuanaco graves. They say Tiahuanaco graves are found in the sandy soils of the seaside, and the Tiahuanaco mummies are always burried facing the sea, in their best clothes and finery, which suggests they revered the ocean as divine and came there to rest. I am in charge of providing info on Tiahuanaco art and culture to the Earthgardens for use in royal heraldry. Please contribute photos of Precolumbian or American Indian art which inspires you. I look forward to your emails to me, Juana, at earthgardens@fastmail.fm