Sarcophagi of Karajía

Interesting facts

The burial cave sits at around 2,550 metres above sea level, in a cliff above a gorge in the Utcubamba basin.

Paint on the figures shows feathered tunics and, on some, male genitalia, painted in ochre and two shades of red over white.

The clay was laid over an internal frame of canes or branches, with only the head and upper chest built solid.

Chachapoya purunmachus often carry a second, smaller head modelled on top of the main clay head.

Once the fallen figure opened holes in its neighbours, rodents and birds of prey got in and disturbed one of the burials.

The bodies are shaped only in outline, with no arms or legs, echoing the shape of mummy bundles from the Wari period.

The jutting jaw has parallels in the stone faces of Recuay monoliths, Chancay cuchimilco figurines and the gold Lambayeque tumi knives.

Peru's Ministry of Culture fixed the official spelling as Karajía in 2019, correcting the variant Carajía that had spread from 2003.

Other groups of clay sarcophagi in the area, at Tingorbamba and Chipuric, were recorded by the Antisuyo expeditions led by Kauffmann Doig and Giancarlo Ligabue.

Why it is worth it

High on a sheer cliff above a ravine in the mountains of northern Peru, a row of tall clay figures stands looking out over the valley. These are the Sarcophagi of Karajía, burial capsules of the Chachapoya people, up to about 2.5 metres high, each with a long face and a jutting, exaggerated jaw. Set in a shallow cave more than 200 metres above the bottom of the gorge, they were beyond the reach of looters, and as a result they are among the best-preserved monuments of their kind.

The figures are a type the Chachapoya made for their honoured dead, known as purunmachus. Each is a hollow shell built of clay mixed with sticks and stones around a seated, wrapped mummy; only the head and upper chest are solid. They were coated in white and painted in yellow ochre and two shades of red with details of clothing, ornaments and the body, and several of them carry real human skulls set on top of their heads. Local residents call them the "ancient wise men". The heads are thought to copy in clay the flat wooden funerary masks of the period, which explains the half-moon shape of the jaw.

Originally there were eight. One fell into the gorge, probably during an earthquake in 1928, and in doing so opened holes in its neighbours, which made it possible to study their contents without breaking them. Inside one, archaeologists found a mummy seated on an animal skin and wrapped in funerary textiles, accompanied by pottery and other offerings. Radiocarbon dating places the burials in the 15th century, around the time of the Inca conquest of the Chachapoya in the 1470s. Clay coffins of this kind were noted as early as 1791, but the Karajía group remained unpublished until the Antisuyo expedition of 1984, whose members, helped by climbers of the Club Andino Peruano, scaled a 24-metre rock face to reach the cave. The archaeologist Federico Kauffmann Doig took part in the work.

The site lies in the Utcubamba valley in Luya Province, in the Amazonas region, an area rich in Chachapoya remains; the fortress of Kuélap belongs to the same culture and region.

Getting there

Karajía is in Trita District, about 18 km north-west of Chachapoyas, the regional capital. The nearest airport is Chachapoyas Airport (CHH), about 19 km away.

From the encyclopaedia

The Sarcophagi of Karajía are unusually large pre-Inca Chachapoyas culture sarcophagi at the Karajía Archaeological Monumental Zone in the Utcubamba Valley, located 18 km northwest of the city of Chachapoyas, Peru in Trita District, Luya Province, Amazonas Region. The site contains eight Chachapoyan mummies located on a cliffside, referred to by local residents as the “ancient wise men”.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sarcophagi of Karajía

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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