The Chinchorro People of the Atacama Desert Made the World's Oldest Mummies Using a Highly Complex Process
Learn more about Chinchorro mummies, some of the oldest in the world, and the mineral ingredient used to create them.
The Chinchorro, a fishing and hunter-gatherer community residing in the Atacama Desert around 7,000 years ago, left behind no written records but pioneered one of the most intricate funerary techniques in antiquity. Their artificial mummies, now classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were fashioned up to two millennia prior to those in Egypt, showcasing an advanced level of technical, artistic, and even sculptural intricacy.
These mummies are considered the earliest instances of pre-Hispanic art in the Americas, according to Bernardo Arriaza, the director of the Chinchorro Management Center and a researcher at the University of Tarapacá in Chile.
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