LAURICOCHA MAN: CHARACTERISTICS, DISCOVERY, LOCATION - HISTORY - 2025

The man of Lauricocha is the name that has been given to the anthropological find made in the Peruvian Amazon and that allowed us to verify the existence of human life in this region in 10,000 BC

Thanks to this anthropological finding, it was possible to know the existence of a culture prior to the Inca empire, characterized by the nomadic condition of its hunter and gatherer men.

The Lauricocha region, located at the source of the Marañón River at 4,000 meters above sea level. in the Central Sierra of Peru, it houses numerous caves that were only explored until 1959 by the anthropologist Augusto Cardich.

Until now, it was believed that human life existed in the area from 4,000 BC. The first finds included pieces of stone on which traces and drawings were made.

Later, human remains were discovered which, when subjected to tests with plant carbon, confirmed that the Lauricocha area could be counted among those with the oldest human remains.

Cardich's investigations made it possible to establish the existence of the Lauricocha man during the lithic period, due to the nomadic condition of this community and its hunting and food gathering activity.

Discovery

This finding took place between 1958 and 1959 from the systematic excavation of two caves. It was the first time that anthropologists and archaeologists were interested in exploring them.

Augusto Cardich was sure that under the sediments and vegetation he could find traces of ancient civilizations, or at least of human life.

In the first place they found pre-ceramic samples of stones with lines or drawings, which were in some cases passed by fire.

When exploring the cave marked L-2 they discovered eleven human skeletons: four of adults and seven of children. The skeletal remains were found incomplete, as if they had been intentionally mutilated.

After the study with carbon-14 carried out in New Jersey, United States, the human existence in this region was confirmed since 10,000 BC

What was the exact location of the discovery?

The source of the Marañón River, near the discovery of the Lauricocha man. Waterloo1883 / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

The find was located in the Lauricocha caves, located in the town of Huánuco, in Peru. They are located near the source of the Marañón River, at a height of 3900 meters above sea level. The coordinates coincide with 10 ° 06′S 76 ° 36′W.

In addition to the Lauricocha man, other remains of individuals with less antiquity have also been found, possibly gatherers or hunters, although some of them were children.

These findings have allowed the caves to have the recognition of Cultural Heritage of the Nation since 2004.

Lauricocha caves location. Urutseg / CC0

Characteristics of the Lauricocha man

- How old are you?

The Lauricocha man lived in the Andean Lithic period, specifically between 10,000 - 7000 BC. C., which makes it one of the oldest human remains in Peru.

- Physiognomy

The physiognomy of the Lauricocha man consists of an elongated skull, broad face, short and muscular legs to move quickly, shovel-shaped teeth - which made it easy to bite the bodies of their prey - and an average height of 162 cm.

- Spirituality

He was an outstanding man in the spiritual life; it is possible to infer it in the caves of the children, according to Cardich, because they were prepared with bone and stone artifacts.

The reddish and yellow ocher was used and the skeleton was covered by oligisto, a kind of shiny metallic iron, which suggested that the bodies were subjected to a sacred ritual.

About funerals it is known that the bodies were generally buried with jewels, ornaments of that time and with colored earth.

- Practices

The Luirococha man was a hunter and gatherer, and the tools he used for these activities were made of stone; During the examination, many pieces with leaf-shaped, lanceolate, and rhombus-shaped tips were found.

The tools they used for their work were scrapers, perforators, knives, grinding stones, hammers or types of drills, and scrapers for scraping and cutting.

- Food

They fed mainly on the prey they hunted, which were, mainly, camelids, such as the vicuña and the guanaco; and deer, like the toruga; to a lesser extent they fed on small animals and also on collected plants or fruits.

- Interrelation with others

It is known that the men of Lauricocha had the concept of community, or at least that is how they developed their life.

They lived in groups of between twenty and forty people and moved in what is known as a regional nomadic behavior; they remained in the area, although they frequently moved their places of residence in search of food.

Social context

The discovery of the Lauricocha man allowed us to verify that these humans lived during the lithic period, which ranges from 15,000 BC to 7,000 BC.

At that time men lived in caves, rocky shelters, inlets or in camps covered with animal skins or ramadas, and they moved continuously from one place to another, forming small groups.

They practiced hunting animals similar to the current ones, such as archaic camelids, deer, rodents and various birds.

To carry out hunting and gathering they used instruments made of stone, bone and wood, among which bifaces, knives, scrapers, fulling mills and projectile points stand out.

The Lauricocha hunters, like most of the humans who inhabited the planet in the lithic period, had a nomadic life, dedicating themselves to hunting in the Chaco; that is, cornering the animal before killing it.

Work on stone

The study of the discovery of the man from Lauricocha allows us to recognize the great influence that the first settlers have left on those who preceded them.

It is common to find, in different periods of history, the elaboration of petroglyphs or cave paintings, writing on stone in ocher and black colors, which mainly contain drawings about hunting and the observation of nature and the sky.

These samples appear throughout the entire Andean mountain system and account for different periods, both pre-Inca and Inca.

But in addition to the use of stone as an instrument of expression, the use of stone made by the first settlers for the manufacture of hunting instruments and gathering is predominant.

In the Lauricocha area, the archaeologist Cardish identified three different eras marked by differences in the pre-ceramic objects found.

In a first phase they showed one or two sharp points; later, they had a spear-shaped tip; and finally they were shaped like a rhombus. The difference is also in whether or not the pieces were cooked in fire.

During the second and third phases there was a moment of decline in the use of stone and it was replaced by bone.

Tools with spear-shaped tips are currently used and are known as the lauricocha tradition.

About its discoverer: Cardish

Augusto Cardish (1923 - 2017) was the discoverer of the skeletal remains of the Lauricocha man. Graduated as an agricultural engineer, he stood out as an archaeologist and researcher working between Peru and Argentina.

He worked as a professor at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Museum of the National University of La Plata, being a full professor of American Archeology.

Among the distinctions obtained throughout his life are the Guggenheim scholarship and the title of International Scientist (2001) awarded by the Biographical Center of Cambridge.

References

1. Doig, FK Cardich, A. The deposits of Lauricocha. Buenos Aires. 1958. IRA Bulletin, (4), 429-431.
2. Cardich, A. (1983). About the 25th anniversary of Lauricocha. Andina Magazine, 1 (1), 151-173.
3. Cardich, A. (1964). Lauricocha: Foundations for a prehistory of the central Andes (Vol. 3). Argentine Center for Prehistoric Studies.
4. Dillehay, TD, Calderon, GA, Politis, G., & de Moraes Coutinho, MDC (1992). Earliest hunters and gatherers of South America. Journal of World Prehistory, 6 (2), 145-204.
5. Lumbreras, LG (1990). Archaeological vision of ancient Peru. Editorial Milla Batres.