What am I talking about? The Chinchorro mummies, which are the world's oldest mummies, the inspiration for today's post, and the reason I work in northern Chile. This post is going to discuss the people that created these mummies, and this post is dedicated to my amazing friends and colleagues in Chile.
The Chinchorro people inhabited
the South Central Andes with concentrations in the Atacama Desert. Their settlements were spread from the modern
day cities of Antofagasta, Chile to Ilo, Peru. They inhabited the region during the Archaic
Period (10,000 B.C.-3500 B.C.) from 7000-1000 B.C. The Chinchorro culture and mummies were first
discovered along the Arica coast on the Chinchorro Beach by German
archaeologist Max Uhle in early 20th century. Other individuals who excavated Chinchorro
mummies during the early 20th century were Carl Skottsberg and
Ancker Nielsen. Skottsberg worked with
Uhle in 1924 in and around Arica, Chile, while Nielsen excavated Chinchorro
mummies around the city of Iquique, just south of Arica, in 1920 and 1925.
In the 1960s archaeologist Lautaro Nuñez hypothesized that the Chinchorro were a hunter-gatherer society, and in the 1970s Bente Bittman and Juan Munizaga investigated the meaning and purposes behind the Chinchorro mummification practices. It was Virgilio Schiappacasse and Hans Niemeyer who first started excavating in the Camarones Valley in the 1980s, discovering several new Chinchorro mummies and stating that the mummification practices began in that valley. They also determined that the first individuals artificially mummified were four infants, leading to one of the prevailing hypotheses concerning the origins of their mummification practices.
The Chinchorro are recognized as an egalitarian, preceramic culture. The Chinchorro peoples were fishermen who subsisted mostly on marine plants and animals, such as shellfish, seaweed, sea lion, sea birds, and fish. Marine resources made up 80% of their diet, while terrestrial plants and animals each made up 10% of their diet respectively. Their fishing technology consisted of harpoons with lithic and bone points, shell fishhooks, vegetal fishing lines and nets, and lithic weights.
There is evidence that shows the Chinchorro were a semi-sedentary people. This evidence includes house structures, middens, hearths, and cemeteries. Archaeological data suggest the Chinchorro lived in semi-circular house structures which were easily taken down. Large and numerous shell middens are found near these dwellings, further suggesting semi-permanent settlement, as well as hearths that were identified due to the ashen and burnt remains found in association with these features. The mummies and cemeteries of the Chinchorro were an anomaly to scholars who claimed the Chinchorro were a mobile hunter-gatherer society, but these characteristics are now used as evidence to support the hypothesis that the Chinchorro were a semi-sedentary society.
The Chinchorro are best known for their mummies, which are the world’s oldest. The Chinchorro practiced both natural and artificial/anthropogenic mummification found in equal representation. The Chinchorro morticians were very skilled anthropogenic mummification. Typically, the morticians would first remove the head and extremities, carefully remove the skin from the body, dry the skin and extremities, remove the internal organs and muscle tissues, fill in the body with vegetal matter, clay, and feathers, reinforce the body with sticks, replace the skin, head and extremities, remodel the genitals and face with clay, place a wig of human hair on the deceased’s head, and paint the bodies. They would then bury the mummies with a variety of grave goods of utilitarian nature, such as fishing implements.
There are several different types of anthropogenic mummies: the black, red, bandage, mud coated, statuette, and natural mummies. The black mummies are the oldest and most complicated artificial mummies created and are so called because they were painted with black manganese paint. The red mummies are less complicated than the black mummies in that there was less care and preparation used in their creation, and they were painted with a mixture of iron oxide and manganese paint. The iron oxides gave the paint a reddish appearance. The bandage mummies are artificial mummies wrapped in human or animal strips of skin and treated similarly to the red mummies. These mummies’ bodies were painted red with the face painted black. Mud coated mummies were created through the smoking of the body and the covering of the body with mud or cement upon burial. Statuette mummies are believed to be either dolls or representations of fetuses. They were molded out of clay and had individual face masks. Some of these mummies have been x-rayed and both human fetal and animal bones have been imaged. Others appear to be without bones. Natural mummies are desiccated because of natural processes with no intentional human manipulation. The hot, arid Atacama Desert is ideal for creating natural mummies.
There are currently several different hypothesizes to explain why the Chinchorro began to mummify their dead. These include the “Environmental Factors,” “Spiritual Concerns,” “Adoration of Children,” and the “Arsenic Hypothesis.” The “Environmental Factors” hypothesis puts forward the idea that the Chinchorro people created artificial mummies after observing the environmental processes that led to natural mummification. The “Spiritual Concerns” hypothesis posits that anthropogenic mummies were created out of a need to fulfill a spiritual/ideological need among the living Chinchorro people. The “Adoration of Children” is contingent on the dating of the four child mummies found in the Camarones Valley and puts forward the idea that the death of Chinchorro children required the living to assuage their grief by mummifying the children. The practice was then expanded to include adults at a later time. The “Arsenic” hypothesis expands on the previous hypothesis and associates the death of the Chinchorro children with arsenic poisoning.
More information about the Chinchorro can be found at the following:
http://momiaschinchorro.cl/joomla/
References available upon request or by reading my Masters Thesis.
References available upon request or by reading my Masters Thesis.
24 comments:
Dr. Boston,
Is the "wig of hair" human?
I've always been fascinated with cultures who adorn their beloved family member be it human or nonhuman. In my family it is custom to wash/cleanse the body of the deceases immaculately prior to being taken to the funeral home. The reasoning is to cleanse the body of the remaining soul so the person can pass into the after life. It also gives the person cleaning the body a sense of closure with the deceased.
Having worked in a clinical setting as a nursing assistant I can say that it was always so important to me to treat the dead with the utmost respect. I'm sure most of it is from my cultural upbringing but I also felt I should give the same respect to "the body" as I would the living being.
-Tammy W.
As far as all the tests have shown, it is human hair. It's believed to be the deceased's own hair, although I wonder if the living didn't donate some in the process, as well. There were no horses or other mammals that could provide that hair at that time, and as this process took several days, hair could have been lost, hence why skepticism that it was exclusively the deceased's hair.
In this whole mummification process, I do not understand why they take off the extremities and the head. That baffles me. Why take those off, when you can do what you need to do without doing that. It would have like preparing a seal for eating and such. The Egyptians mummified their dead as well. It is interesting to see the adornments that are put upon the remains. The paintings, the masks, the jewels, and so on. Some of the mummies are so ornate that it is amazing.
Hmm so you could say that the Chinchorro were the first Taxidermists. As far as your previous poster Amanda Granger goes, I might have a possible answer to her question about removing the head and extremities. Since they were in the process of learning how to preserve a body for display, it might stand to reason that they were proficient in preserving their game in a similar way. Has there been any evidence to suggest that humans were not the only things they mummified? Or has there been any evidence to suggest that they performed something similar on game and animals they wanted to display?
At the present time there is no evidence of them preserving anything other than humans. This could be due to one (or both) of the following reasons: the Chinchorro's diet was largely based on marine animals, such as sea lion, fish, mollusks, etc. None of these preserve well. Or it could be that they did not attempt to do this due to the lack of resources available to them given that they lived in what was and remains the world's driest desert and is one of the most inhospitable places to live.
I probably should not have bene eating breakfast while reading this post! I did not know that the Chinchorro's mummies were the World's oldest, that's very interesting. The process of removing the head, extremities, and the skin, seems so gory and gruesome... so I guess I'm just wondering how they could perform this ritual, especially on their loved ones including children. How did they stomach it?
Well, Sam, as you learned in Cultural Anthropology each society and culture is different. What we find disgusting may be preferred in another culture and vice versa. You need to look at this mortuary ritual from the Chinchorros' perspective, not your own, to understand their desire to complete this ritual. You can reach this understanding by recognizing why they may have done this, and one of those reasons is to deal with grief due to the continued loss of children. So this may have been a coping mechanism for the Chinchorro, a coping method that worked for them. :)
Because of Hollywood most people only think of Egyptian mummies when in reality dozens of cultures utilized mummification. Its interesting to see the differences between each culture and how they apply their techniques.
Is there really a chance that so many mummies came about because these people watched it naturally happen? Perhaps it was a mixture of both, or many variations of events, that could explain this.
I'm genuinely surprised in how varied and diverse the mummies of the Chinchorro population are. Where certain materials used in mummifcation reserved for certain individuals holding a designated position? Were different bones removed dependent on the method of death?
I can only imagine the trauma and grief one would experience with the loss of a child. I can say that, thanks to cultural relativism, this is labor intensive and meticulous process is a deep way of honoring the memory of a child. How was the arsenic hypothesis developed? Were trace amound found within the specimens, or was it through the study of the environment?
We have found evidence of potential status differences, but it doesn't appear to associated with the mummy materials. No bones were removed from my knowledge.
As for the arsenic hypothesis, I believe Bernardo was drinking coffee when he read an article about the real effects of arsenic exposure. He has since tested the remains and discovered that arsenic present.
We have found evidence of potential status differences, but it doesn't appear to associated with the mummy materials. No bones were removed from my knowledge.
As for the arsenic hypothesis, I believe Bernardo was drinking coffee when he read an article about the real effects of arsenic exposure. He has since tested the remains and discovered that arsenic present.
What would the Chinchoros do with the skin and organs they've cut out? Did they refrigerate them out throw them away or anything?
As refrigerators were not available at that time that idea can be tossed out. :) We are not completely sure what was done with the organs but the skin was put back onto the deceased.
It's interesting that the Chinchorro people paint the bodies. Was there a specific reason for doing this?
Do you believe that there are mummies around that we have yet to discover? Taking an outlook on our world makes me reflect on how much imformation we actually know.
Jovie Black
I remember going over this in class. It creep me out because I think this looks like the Annabelle doll. How old was the person in the last figure, before being mummified?
It is amazing to me to see such an old civilization use this mummification method, and keep the mummies in the a decent state for this long. It truly is amazing to see how they do it, and lucky enough for us to find them.
Did they have one person or a few people who would take care of the duties of mummifying the deceased or would a family of the deceased do the mummifying duties?
--Kimberly Wilbers
Good question. We do not have much information on who was mummifying the dead or how the deceased individuals were handled. Based on the complexities of the mummification Dr. Bernardo Arriaza believes that it would have required a specialist to mummify the dead. The work would have required specialized training, and not everyone therefore would have had the time or dedication to do it.
Mummies are interesting and I only assumed they came from Egyptians. To learn that other countries did mummification for that long makes me wonder how was this so common or where did this become culturally appropriate. I like how unique one thing is for one culture but then in someones personal cultural that same thing could be huge culture shock or unimaginable.
Mummies have never been a topic for me that is very interesting but I also was not provided with information that attracted my attention. I never knew that The Chinchorro people would mummie their children as a sign of grief is astounding to me as I feel this would creep me out in today’s time . However could you compare these two, the cremation process and mummy-fying someone?
-Jazlyn Logan
The chinchorro people are interesting, and i find it amazing they they paint their paint their bodies but find it odd that they cut the skin off; i wonder what do they do with it afterward or why they even do it?
- Lavonza Marshall
My name Aleisha watts, I think this post was very interesting to know about this. This my first time hearing about this which made it a bit more interesting. I found some parts very disturbing to hear about. Removing the skin just doesn’t sit right with me. With open flesh wouldn't that bring a distraught smell? I wonder was family able to mummify their own deceased or there ruled where they couldn't.
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