On tonight’s Mummies Unwrapped titled Cave of the Cloud People, Ramy investigates down in Peru and his good buddy will there too, as we reported that Expedition Unknown star and producer Josh Gates is exploring the Gates of the Gods.
But Ramy is on to some ancient mummified dead of a group called the Cloud People. These extremely light skinned Caucasians were a mystery to all the native peoples and the conquistadors who arrived from Europe hundreds of years ago.
These mysterious ancients are considered by experts to be one of the most unique and little known races in the world.
Who are the Cloud People?
These Chachapoya, also known as “Cloud People” lived during the ninth century and had carved settlements in the forests and mountains located in the northern Andes of Peru.
They have been described by scholars as “strong and powerful warriors” who were conquered by the Incas briefly, then survived.
According to the Chimu Blog, which curates academic white papers and research on these mysterious ancients, their appearance was startling to the Spaniards, who arrived on the continent certainly not expecting to see Nordic looking Caucasian people.
An excerpt:
Probably the most famous quote about the Cloud People comes from the Spanish conquers Pedro Cieza de Leon, he wrote that the Chachapoya were “the whitest and most handsome of all the people that I have seen, and their wives were so beautiful that because of their gentleness, many of them deserved to be the Incas’ wives and to also be taken to the Sun Temple.”
Orellana, another Spanish conqueror wrote a similar description, and also stated that the Cloud People were much taller than the Spaniards, and had extremely light skin and blonde hair, pointing to the fact that they were of European ancestry not Mediterranean. These facts continue to puzzle modern day scientists, as there is no evidence of previous European genes being present in this area of the world before the Cloud People.
What does Ramy discover?
As he climbs up a sheer behind a waterfall, an exciting discovery awaits him.
The cave is dark but he has enough light to show us the evidence. He says, “There are so many bones in here…all human bones… about seven skulls. This seems to be a full family buried together in one place and they’re completely destroyed with wrapping everywhere. I could see moss all over the bones.”
Looking over the lay of the bones and how they present, he adds, “This is an undisturbed tomb only disturbed by the waterfall but unlooted. The bones are old and dry and don’t have any mummified flesh on them, so I’m not really concerned about the antimony at this site.”
The official logline from Discovery:
In the episode, Ramy journeys deep into the jungles of Peru to investigate the origins of a mysterious tribe known as the Cloud People. He tracks down the clues that rest among this ancient society’s mummified dead, high up in remote cliffside caves that are said to be protected by a powerful curse. Could this bygone race be of European descent, thus rewriting history?
Mummies Unwrapped airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on the Discovery Channel.