page_title: Chinchorro mummies
section_title: Preparation of mummies
hierarchical_section_title: Chinchorro mummies / Chinchorro mummification / Preparation of mummies
caption_attribution_description: English: Head of a mummy from the Chinchorro culture, found in Northern Chile.
context_page_description: The Chinchorro mummies are mummified remains of individuals from the South American Chinchorro culture, found in what is now northern Chile. They are the oldest examples of artificially mummified human remains, having been buried up to two thousand years before the Egyptian mummies. Although the earliest mummy that has been found in Egypt dated around 3000 BCE, the oldest anthropogenically modified Chinchorro mummy dates from around 5050 BCE.
  The oldest naturally mummified corpse recovered from the Atacama Desert is dated around 7020 BCE.
  Shell midden and bone chemistry suggest that 90% of the people's diet was seafood. Many ancient cultures of fisherfolk existed, tucked away in the arid river valleys of the Andes, but the Chinchorro made themselves unique by their dedicated preservation of the dead.
context_section_description: While the overall manner in which the Chinchorro mummified their dead changed over the years, several traits remained constant throughout their history. In excavated mummies, archaeologists found skin and all soft tissues and organs, including the brain, removed from the corpse. After the soft tissues had been removed, sticks reinforced bones while the skin was stuffed with vegetable matter before reassembling the corpse. The mummy received a clay mask even if the mummy was already completely covered in dried clay; a process which the body was wrapped in reeds left to dry out for 30 to 40 days.
caption: Head of a Chinchorro mummy.
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