The Ica stone complex is distinguished by an amazing variety of images of mammals from the last geological era - the Cenozoic era, which began, according to modern periodization, 65 million years ago. After the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, the era of mammals began. Already in the first periods of the Cenozoic - the Paleocene and Eocene (65 - 40 million years ago) - almost all species of mammals and birds known today appeared.
It is believed that South America was separated from North America for most of the Cenozoic era and served as a kind of reserve for the evolution of a special conglomerate of animal species, most of which were marsupials and the so-called non-toothed mammals. About 4-3 million years ago, according to modern geologists, the Isthmus of Panama was formed, which connected both American continents. And a stream of various herbivorous mammals poured into South America, which had previously evolved in isolation in North America.
It should be noted that the overwhelming majority of animal species depicted on the Ica stones refer precisely to the last geological periods - the Pleistocene and Holocene, that is, to the last 2 million years, according to the existing geological scale. Moreover, many species, especially large mammals of the South American continent, died out about 10-12 thousand years ago.
The most common images in Dr. Cabrera's collection are images of extinct kangaroos, horses, deer and camels. The stones on which these types of mammals are engraved are numbered in dozens, making up whole series, similar in plot and style of drawings. Quite an extensive series of stones depicting kangaroos is very remarkable. Most of them are small pebbles with one or two animals engraved on them.
Today it is believed that the first marsupials appeared in North America in the middle of the Cretaceous period (about 100 million years ago). Fifty million years later, already in the Eocene, they spread across South America and Australia. It is generally accepted that by the time more or less developed human communities appeared in the Andes, kangaroos had long been extinct, although the very question of populating South America with humans still remains unresolved.
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According to modern paleontological data, horses existed in America until the end of the last ice age and became extinct about 10-12 thousand years ago, along with camels, elephants and a number of other large mammals. During the period of the existence of horses in America, the development of local peoples, according to archeology, was at a primitive level, corresponding to a hunting and gatherer economy. Nevertheless, in different places in the Americas, specimens of fine art have been found on which a horse is depicted.
In the collection of engraved stones of Dr. Cabrera, horses are depicted precisely as domestic animals, and, judging by the images, they were used both as riding and as draft animals. One of the stones is engraved with a horseman wearing a traditional feather headdress.
The horse is covered with a blanket decorated with geometric patterns; harness and stirrups are missing. Other stones show that people used a primitive rein to control the horse, although this is not yet a bridle. And there are several dozen such stones with images of horsemen in the collection.
But what is more surprising is the presence of stones with images of horse-drawn carts. When the Europeans discovered the New World, wheeled transport was unknown to the Indians. This is an established historical fact. On the stones of Ica, wheeled transport is depicted. Judging by the uniformity of the drawings, these are one and the same type of carriage. And we can assume that this is a war chariot that can carry one or two soldiers.
People in a chariot are usually depicted wearing headdresses and carrying weapons. Interestingly, war chariots similar in design can be found in the visual arts of Ancient Mesopotamia. Despite the simplicity of the drawings, you can easily see the elements of the primitive reins, with the help of which the driver controls the horse. Thus, representatives of the ancient culture, who left the Ica stones, knew wheeled transport and draft, as well as riding animals.
And not only horses were used as riding. On single stones, you can find drawings depicting people riding an elephant or camel, as well as on other ungulates, whose species it is sometimes difficult to determine. After the horse, as a mount in the Cabrera collection, images of a two-humped camel are most often found. As in the case with the drawings of horses, the images of riding camels are quite the same type.
In general, relict mammals are not very diverse in the Ica stone complex. In addition to the already mentioned horses, kangaroos and camels, one can note the presence of images of a giant big-horned deer, a giraffe camel (epicamel), an elephant, and a giraffe. It is believed that these species of animals became extinct in America 12-10,000 years ago.
The museum contains about a dozen stones with drawings of a giant ground sloth - megatheria. It is believed that this species was widespread throughout South America in the Quaternary and could survive until the end of the last glaciation. The last giant sloths are believed by paleontologists to have died out 10,000 years ago.
Surprisingly, the back of this animal shows dorsal triangular plates similar to those depicted on the backs of dinosaurs. This anatomical detail in no way corresponds to modern ideas about this extinct animal.
There are also several stones depicting a cow in the collection. Moreover, just as a pet, since there are images of people caring for these animals next to it. The cow is depicted very realistically: the cloven hooves are clearly traced, the skin has a spotted color, the udder is shown. A collar is put on the animal's neck.
In addition to the described representatives of the ancient fauna, on the Ica stones there are images of several more extinct animal species, which, according to modern concepts, disappeared from the face of the Earth tens or even hundreds of millions of years ago. One of these animals, Dr. Cabrera identified as agnata - an ancient jawless fish that existed, according to modern concepts, in the Devonian period (410-360 million years ago), that is, long before the era of dinosaurs.
It is surprising that in the collection of Cabrera there are 205 stones depicting this animal. No other creature (except, of course, a person) in the museum is represented by so many images. Moreover, different stones depict different stages of development of this animal, and together, this series of stones illustrates sequentially, in stages, its reproductive cycle. True, the identification of this creature with an ancient jawless fish seems very hasty.
The drawings of this creature are very detailed, unlike many other images on the Ica stones. Upon closer examination, it turns out that almost all adults of this animal have a very clearly traced mouth, studded with teeth. In addition, attention should be paid to another detail of the structure, namely, a pair of articulated limbs emanating from the upper body and ending in claws. What kind of fish can we talk about here? However, this animal clearly does not belong to the living.
If you try to find an analogy to these images among the known fossil animals, then most of all these images resemble representatives of eurypterids. They are also called crustaceans. These marine predators, reaching 2 meters in length (such as the pterygotus), existed, according to paleontological data, in the Paleozoic 500-350 million years ago.
One should not forget what attention is paid to this animal in the complex of images on the Ica stones. Moreover, on a pair of stones this creature is depicted together with a person. On one of them, a small man is placed inside the head of this animal.
Another stone is engraved with a complex composition: an adult of this animal grabs with its toothy mouth the leg of a person who, in turn, tries to stab the head of a dinosaur with a knife. Moreover, the type of dinosaur is very typical - a sauropod with a body covered with triangular plates. It is obvious that this scene is not a simple everyday sketch, but carries a certain symbolic meaning. And this symbolism is associated, apparently, with the described mysterious creature.
Another animal that has received considerable attention in the Cabrera collection is the giant tailed bat known as the Megacheiroptera. It is officially believed that she lived during the early Cenozoic period, about 60 million years ago.
Similar mice today live only in the forests of Africa and Australia. In South America, such species are currently unknown. Cabrera's collection contains 48 stones depicting this animal, and within the series, as in the previous case, the development process of this creature is shown.
Author: Andrey Zhukov, candidate of historical sciences, photographs from the author's archive