Chinchorro mummies
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The Chinchorro mummies are the oldest examples of mummified human remains, dating thousands of years before Egyptian mummies. They are believed to first appear around 5000 B.C. and reaching its peak around 3000 B.C. Often Chinchorro mummies were elaborately prepared by removing the internal organs and replacing them with vegetable fibers or animal hair. In some cases an embalmer would remove the skin and flesh from the dead body and replace them with clay. The Chinchorro lived in what is now northern Chile and southern Peru. Shell midden and bone chemistry suggest that 90% of their diet was seafood. Many ancient cultures of fisherfolk existed, tucked in the arid river valleys of the Andes, but the Chinchorro made themselves unique by their dedicated preservation of the dead.
These Chinchorro mummies were significant to history because during the periods of these mummies, everyone who died was mummified, including children, new-borns and fetuses. This shows us that it was not reserved for those of high rank or high status. The mummification was not a sign of stratification.
Radiocarbon dating reveals that the oldest, discovered Chinchorro mummy was that of a child from a site in the Camarones Valley, about 60 miles south of Arica. It was from around 5050 BC.
Experts such as Dr. Bernardo Arriaza have stated that the deliberate preservation of the dead by the Chinchurro was a deeply religious act that acted as a path between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
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[edit] Chinchorro mummification
While many cultures throughout the world have sought to preserve the dead elite, the Chinchorro tradition performed mummification on all members of their society, including children and miscarried fetuses. Because of this egalitarian preservation of people, hundreds of mummies have been excavated and hundreds more remain. The oldest mummies recovered from the Atacama Desert are dated between 6000 BC and 5000 BC, the oldest yet found. To put this in perspective, the earliest mummy that has been found in Egypt dated around 3000 BC.[1]
[edit] Preparation of mummies
The styles by which the Chinchorro mummified their people changed over the years, but several traits remained constant throughout their history. In excavated mummies, the skin was set aside and all soft tissues and organs, including the brain, were removed from the corpse. There is even evidence that the bone marrow was removed from the femurs of one mummy, but this is not yet supported as being a frequent occurrence. After the soft tissues were removed, the bones were reinforced with sticks and the skin was stuffed with vegetable matter before reassembling the corpse. The mummy was then given a clay mask, though some mummies were completely covered in clay, and wrapped in reeds. And to be dried out for 30 - 40 days.
[edit] Techniques
The two most common techniques used in Chinchorro mummification were the Black mummies and the Red mummies.
The Black mummy technique(5000 B.C. to 3000 B.C.) was when the Chinchorros literally took the dead person's body apart, treated it, and reassembled it. The head, arms and legs were removed; the skin was often removed, too. The body was heat-dried, and the flesh and tissue were completely stripped from the bone. After reassembly, the body was then covered with a white ash paste, filling the nooks and crannies left by the reassembling process. The paste was also used to fill out the person's normal facial features. The person's skin (including facial skin with a wig attachment of short black human hair) was refitted on the body, sometimes in smaller pieces, sometimes in one almost-whole piece. Sometimes sea lion skin was used as well. Then the skin (or, in the case of children, who were often missing their skin layer, the white ash layer) was painted with manganese--giving them a black color.
The Red mummy technique (2500 BC to 2000 BC) was a technique in which rather than disassemble the body, they made many incisions in the trunk and shoulders to remove internal organs and dry the body cavity. The head was cut from the body so that the brain could be removed. They packed the body with various materials to return it to somewhat more-normal dimensions, used sticks to strengthen it, and sewed up the incisions. The head was placed back on the body, this time with a wig made from tassels of human hair up to 60 cm long. A "hat" made out of clack clay held the wig in place. Except for the wig and often the (black) face, everything was then painted with red ochre.
[edit] External links
- Chinchorro Archaeological site in Peru
- Chinchorro Mummies Interview of specialist Dr. Arriaza
