Pusharo

The "Petroglyphs of Pusharo" constitute a unique and extensive ancient rock art site in southeast Peru's Manu National Park, a jungled expanse that still contains unexplored and little known areas, and for which an official government permit is required for entry. The Pusharo site is made up of a dizzying array of deeply incised rock carvings that cover up to a height of 9 feet, and more, a perpendicular rock face that is over 100 feet long and 75 feet high. Its location is on the south shore of the Río Palatoa (designated on some maps at this location as the Porotoa, and known by others as the Palatoa Chico), at 71 degrees 28 minutes west longitude. The glyphs are thought by some researchers to be purely pan-Amazonian in origin, and of mistico-religious or shamanic significance to those Amerindians of past centuries who must have been their creators. Others believe that there is an Incan component that is now coming to light, and that the glyphs constitute parts of a map. Definitive word on the meaning of Pusharo's glyphs must wait until further research is conducted and completed. The glyphs contain elements such as heart-shaped faces, some with double borders, spirals, zigzags, suns, "curlicue X's" and others that defy verbal description. Some believe that the site will bear out a connection with a lost city, most specifically the "Paititi" of Andean/Amazonian legend.

It appears that a rubber tapper on an Indian raid in 1909 may have been the first non-native to encounter the petroglyphs, with the next visit having been made by a Dominican missionary, Vicente Cenitagoya, in 1921. A smattering of adventurers began to arrive at the site in the 1950's, and in 1969 the site was visited by the Peruvian physician/explorer Dr. Carlos Neuenschwander (who would return in later years accompanied by Peruvian explorer Sr. Santiago Yábar). In 1970 another peripatetic Dominican, Padre Adolfo Torrealba, reached the site, followed by Japanese explorer Yoshiharo Sekino, and the French-Peruvian explorers Herbert and Nicole Cartagena in 1978. Two years later came the Peruvian archaeologist Federico Kauffmann Doig, followed by the Peruvian Fernando Aparicio Bueno and a trickle of others. In 1991 the party of North American explorer Gregory Deyermenjian, including Peruvian explorer Paulino Mamani and the previously mentioned Santiago Yábar, arrived at Pusharo. The site has since been visited and studied by rock art scholar Rainer Hostnig, as well as by the French explorer Thierry Jamin.

The most extensive works devoted to describing and attempting to explain something of the Petroglyphs of Pusharo are those of Gregory Deyermenjian ("The Petroglyphs of Pusharo: Peru's Amazonian Riddle" in the 2000, Volume 2/Number 3 issue of Athena Review, also at <>); of Rainer Hostnig (at <>); and of Thierry Jamin (book "PUSHARO: La Memoria Recobrada de los Incas" 2007, and at <>). Kim MacQuarrie's book, "Peru's Amazonian Eden: MANU," 1992, also contains useful information concerning Pusharo.