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Guide to Patagonia's Monsters & Mysterious beings

I have written a book on this intriguing subject which has just been published.
In this blog I will post excerpts and other interesting texts on this fascinating subject.

Austin Whittall


Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Dwarf at Gualicho Cave?

 

 
Gualicho Cave
Rock Art at Gualicho Cave. Dwarfs?. The black and white image is from [1]


Gualicho Cave is located by the shore of Lake Argentino about 10 km (6 mi) east of the town of Calafate in Santa Cruz province, Argentina, (50°17’ S, 72°10’ W) . It was discovered by chance by Francisco Moreno in the 1870s when he explored the area. He named it Gualicho, after the evil spirit of the Mapuche natives. The name is not the one given to it by the local Aonikenk. In it he found the mummified remains of a native which can be seen at the La Plata Science Museum.

It has ancient (about ten thousand years old) rock art. The example shown above is an interesting one.

The colored one (below)shows two figures, with three digits on their feet and three fingers on their hands. Salesian priest Manuel Jesús Molina believed that these were depictions of the fuegian monkey (Yosi), because they were drawn to show movement just like monkeys. He included other images (above in black and white) which are tailed, and one of them has three fingers.

I will quote Molina extensively below:

On a rock wall at Gualichu Point at Lake Argentino are some humanoid paintings of a faded purple color which may depict these fuegopithecus. They are drawings totally different from others of human hunters like the hunting scenes of the upper Pinturas River or in the dancing scenes at Charcamac Gully.

In one of them it is sitting on its legs [...] with its arms open like making signs with its hands. In others it is seen in the ungainly position it adopted while it walked [...] what can not be seen in these figures is the weapon the fuegian monkey used to attack or defend itself.
[1]


The small figure in the colored image, on the right has a tail (though it could be a young boy and what hangs between his legs may be his penis not a tail). The three digits may be a stylized way of depicting people. Hard to tell after ten thousand years!

Now, if it is a dwarf, it may be Tachwull, the aonikenk dwarf and not Yosi, the Fuegian monkey.

Sources.

[1] Molina, M., (1973). El yóshil o mono fueguino. Karukinká. B. Aires. v.1:10-14.


Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia
2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

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