page_title: Muisca mummification
section_title: Mummy SO10-IX
hierarchical_section_title: Muisca mummification / Description / Mummy SO10-IX
caption_attribution_description: Cañon del Chicamocha. Via Giron - Zapatoca. 2005
context_page_description: The Muisca inhabited the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the Colombian Andes before the arrival of the Spanish and were an advanced civilisation. They mummified the higher social class members of their society, mainly the zipas, zaques, caciques, priests and their families. The mummies would be placed in caves or in dedicated houses and were not buried.
  Many mummies from the Chibcha-speaking indigenous groups have been found to date, mainly from the Muisca, Lache and Guane. In 1602 the early Spanish colonisers found 150 mummies in a cave near Suesca, that were organised in a scenic circular shape with the mummy of the cacique in the centre of the scene. The mummies were surrounded by cloths and pots. In 2007 the mummy of a baby was discovered in a cave near Gámeza, Boyacá, together with a small bowl, a pacifier and cotton cloths. The process of mummification continued into the colonial period. The youngest mummies have been dated to second half of the 18th century.
  The early Spanish chroniclers Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, Pedro Simón, Pedro de Aguado, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés and others have provided the first historical data on the Muisca mummies.
context_section_description: The mummy from Sativanorte, named SO10-IX and belonging to the collection of Silva Celis in the Archaeology Museum of Sogamoso, has been studied in detail by various researchers. The mummy has been donated to the archaeologist by Abraham López Ávila in 1962. Interviews with López Ávila revealed that the mummy had been found by children in the vicinity of Sativanorte, Sativasur and Socotá on the western bank of the Chicamocha River.
  The mummy has been carbon dated by researchers at the University of Uppsala at 615 +/- 35 years before 1950; between 1300 and 1370 AD.
  The first analysis of the mummy SO10-IX has been performed in 2004, by a group of researcher of the UPTC in Tunja. The mummy was unwrapped in flexion, simulating the fetal position, missing the upper left limb, with partial loss of the right lower limb, conserving the leg and foot. Loss of skin and soft tissue to the bone at the pelvis and the abdominal region have been noted. The upper limbs were flexed, the hands interlaced and tied with a cotton cord; they were placed on the right side of the head. Three fragments of cotton blankets accompanied the mummy. The body showed evidence of perforations caused by cadaveric fauna.
  Remains of Coleoptera (Ancognatha and Phyllophaga) were identified and remains of the left lung have been described in the thoracic cavity. The cranium was undeformed and showed remains of straight black hair with signs it had been cut. Cotton was found inside the ear and nostrils. One of the vertebrates showed an abscess. The mummy has been identified as probably a male of an established age of 30 +/- 5 years old. The length of the individual has been estimated at 166 centimetres (5.45 ft). The teeth of SO10-IX did not have cavities and in the mouth remains of algae and diatoms have been discovered.
  Analysis of the mummy provided that it probably had been a shaman, based on the perforated ears, and that he suffered from illnesses in his limbs, cared for by the Muisca community.
caption: Mummy SO10-IX has been analysed in great detail and found on the right bank of the Chicamocha River in the north of the Muisca territory bordering the Guane terrains, as here in the Chicamocha Canyon
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