Seven Chinchorro mummies and the prehistory of northern Chile

Abstract

The mummification methods of an ancient maritime population on the northern coast of Chile are reviewed and the findings in an additional seven individuals are reported. Members of this cultural group, Chinchorro, practiced a selective, elaborate form of artificial mummification which persisted more than 4,000 years. Its complexity diminished with time, gradually disappearing after 2,000 B.C. One of the seven individuals herein reported is a rather poorly but spontaneously ("naturally") preserved body that may represent the oldest mummy reported to date--about 9,000 years old. Chemical reconstruction of their diet demonstrates that the principal component was derived from marine resources with only minor supplementation from terrestrial hunting as well as food gathering from river mouth vegetal sources, confirming the marine dependence of their adaptational strategy.

El Innovativo Legado De Arthur Aufderheide a La Paleopatología

“…Arthur fue pionero en Chile en los estudios arqueométricos "tan en boga en la actualidad". Hace justo 20 años, con su espíritu visionario ya aplicaba los métodos y técnicas de la química analítica para reconstruir la dieta de las antiguas poblaciones de Arica y de Acha en particular (Aufderheide et al 1993 (Aufderheide et al 1993). Through the study of isotopes of 12 C, 13 C, 15 N, 34 S, 87 Sr, Arthur determined that the prehistoric populations of these regions, which correspond to some of the earliest along the South American Pacific coast, had a diet consisting mainly of maritime resources (fish, mollusks, and sea mammals) which they supplemented with some wild vegetables and land mammals.…”

“…Estos resultados se plasmaron en la publicación del libro sobre Acha-2 (Muñoz et al 1993) y fueron plenamente consistentes con la información de la tecnología y los análisis malacológicos e ictiológicos del sitio. Además realizó estudios de isótopos a los cuerpos procedentes de Chinchorro-1, Camarones-8 y Camarones-17 (Aufderheide et al 1993). Estudios posteriores de isótopos en las poblaciones Chinchorro y Alto Ramírez, y esta vez en colaboración con Mario Rivera, confirmaron la dieta básicamente marítima (Aufderheide et al 1994).…”

“…En relación con la presencia de enfermedades infecciosas, determinó mediante métodos y técnicas histológicas y de la biología molecular, junto a Bernardo Arriaza, Willmar Salo y colaboradores, la presencia de diversas bacterias, en particular la Mycobacterium tuberculosis y el Treponema responsables de la tuberculosis y consistent with information obtained from malacological and icthyological analyses of the site. These results were published in a book about the Acha-2 site (Muñoz et al 1993). He also carried out isotope studies on the prehistoric bodies from Chinchorro-1, Camarones-8, and Camarones-17 (Aufderheide et al 1993).…”

Mummies

“…in South America (Guillen, 2004;Cardenas-Arroyo, 2003), where indeed also the oldest artificial mummies in the world, associated with the Chinchorro culture, have been found (Guillen, 1992). A mummy associated with this culture, has been dated to approximately 7800 BC (Aufderheide et al, 1993). Indeed, the mummification techniques employed by the Chinchorros have been said to rival the Egyptian methods in terms of complexity: internal organs were removed and replaced with straw, and after defleshing or decay of limb musculature these were reaffixed to the trunk, and then covered in black mud, which finally could be painted with, e.g., the facial details (Arriaza et al, 1998;Brier, 1998;Aufderheide, 2003).…”

“…Chinchorro mummies from Peru also show application of paint to nails (Aufderheide, 1993) and skin (Guillen, personal communication).…”