Древнейшие мумии Чинчорро: культура и ритуалы искусственного бальзамирования.

Prehistoric South American mummies

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. The earliest mummy that has been found in Egypt dated around 3000 BCE, while 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. The Chinchorro culture settlements and artificial mummification process in Arica and Parinacota were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2021.

While many cultures throughout the world have sought to focus on preserving the dead elite, the Chinchorro tradition performed mummification on all members of their society, making them archaeologically significant. The decision of egalitarian preservation is proven in the mummification of the relatively less productive members of society (meaning those who could not contribute to the welfare of others; the elderly, children, infants and miscarried fetuses). It is often the case that children and babies received the most elaborate mummification treatments. The artificial mummies of Chinchorro are believed to have first appeared around 5000 BCE and reached a peak around 3000 BCE. Often Chinchorro mummies were elaborately prepared by removing the internal organs and replacing them with vegetable fibers or animal hair. In some cases, an embalmer would remove the skin and flesh from the dead body and replace them with clay. Radiocarbon dating reveals that the oldest discovered anthropogenically modified Chinchorro mummy was that of a child from a site in the Camarones Valley, about 60 mile (97 km) south of Arica in Chile and dates from around 5050 BCE. The mummies continued to be made until about 1800 BCE, making them contemporary with Las Vegas culture and Valdivia culture in Ecuador and the Norte Chico civilization in Peru.

Since 1914, when Max Uhle began his work in Arica, an estimated 282 mummies have been found by archaeologists. This sample size suggests that the Chinchorro did not favor mummifying one sex over others. The mummies may have served as a means of assisting the soul in surviving, and to prevent the bodies from frightening the living. A more commonly accepted theory is that there was an ancestor cult of sorts, since there is evidence of both the bodies traveling with the groups and placed in positions of honor during major rituals and a delay in the final burial itself. Also, the bodies (which were always found in the extended position) were elaborately decorated and colored (even later repainted), and are thought to be reinforced and stiffened in order to be carried on reed litters and consequently displayed. Dr. Bernardo Arriaza is a Chilean physical anthropologist who contributed a lot of the knowledge about Chinchorro mummification. Starting in 1984, he published numerous studies on the subject. In 1994, Arriaza created a classification of the Chinchorro mummies that is widely used. His book "Beyond Death: The Chinchorro Mummies of Ancient Chile" was published by the Smithsonian and also translated into Spanish.

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.

Uhle categorized the types of mummification he saw into three categories: simple treatment, complex treatment, and mud coated mummies. He believed that these occurred chronologically, the mummification process becoming more complex as time went on. The two most common techniques used in Chinchorro mummification were the Black mummies and the Red mummies.

Of the 282 Chinchorro mummies found to date, 29% of them were results of the natural mummification process (7020–1300 BCE). Artisans no longer removed the organs of the dead; instead a thick coat of mud, sand and a binder like egg or fish glue was used to cover the bodies. Once completed the mummies were cemented into their graves. The change in style may have come from exposure to outsiders and their different cultures, or from the association of disease with the rotting corpses.

The bandage technique (guessed to be 2620 2000 BCE, but there is a lack of radiocarbon dating) has only been found to be present in three infants. The technique is a mixture of black and red mummies, in that the body was taken apart and reinforced in the style of black mummies but the head was treated in the same way as red mummies are. Animal and human skin were used to wrap the body in the place of clay. Further, the bodies were found to be painted with red ocher while the heads were painted with black manganese.