Original scientific paper

Artificial Mummies from the Andes

Sonia E. Guillén

Abstract

In 1997 agricultural workers, turned into looters, found an intact funerary site in the
cloud forest in northeastern Peru. A prompt archaeological rescue project permitted the
recovery of an important collection of mummies and artifacts that are providing important
insights about the archaeology of the Chachapoya people that established in this
area around 900 AD up to the Inca conquest of this territory around the year 1475. The
mummies recovered showed evidence of cultural practices devised and used to assure
the preservation of the human bodies. Such practices are also reported for among Chinchorro
and Chiribaya mummies in the Andes. A cultural interpretation of these funerary
activities is discussed connecting the practice of the cult to the ancestors to the access
and management of resources and territory.

Keywords

artificial mummies; embalming; Andes; Chachapoya; Chinchorro; Inca

Hrčak ID:

27988

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/27988

Publication date:

28.12.2004.

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