National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Pre-Columbian Tribes Had BBQs, Parties on Grave Sites


Email to a Friend	<< Back to Full Story

Remants of earthen ovens (above) indicate that some 12th- and 13th-century cultures in Argentina and Brazil built elaborate celebration sites at their cemeteries.

Complete with feasting and drinking grounds similar to modern-day barbecue pits, the party sites imply that the Jê people had complex social and political structures, according to a December 2008 study.

Photograph by José Iriarte