Colorful bodies painted in vibrant reds or blacks, heads dressed in wigs of human hair, and masks with eyes and mouths wide open, as if still breathing – these were the mummies made by the Chinchorro people.
They were among the earliest ancient humans to settle on what’s now the coast of northern Chile and southern Peru. And the mummies are the oldest in the world, predating even the first mummified pharaohs of Ancient Egypt by a couple millennia.
But after thousands of years, Chinchorro mummies are beginning to decay. As experts work to save these cultural relics, they’re not only preserving a vital part of Chilean heritage, but also the memory of the Chinchorro society.
Are Chilean Mummies Decomposing?
Despite having lasted multiple centuries preserved in the arid desert, Chinchorro mummies began to degrade in recent decades – and rapidly.
