A 7,000-year-old mortuary tradition
On the coast of the Atacama Desert, a pre-ceramic culture of fishers and hunters known as the Chinchorro began artificially mummifying their dead around 5050 BCE. This practice predates the first known Egyptian mummies by approximately two millennia. The Chinchorro people inhabited the coastal regions of modern-day northern Chile and southern Peru, subsisting on a diet composed of about 90% seafood. Unlike other ancient societies that reserved mummification for elites, the Chinchorro performed this rite for all members of their community, including adults, children, infants, and even miscarried fetuses. This egalitarian approach provides a unique demographic record of a prehistoric society. German archaeologist Max Uhle first identified the mummies in 1917. Since then, nearly 300 have been discovered, providing detailed information about a complex mortuary practice that endured for over 3,000 years.
The mummification techniques evolved over time, categorized into three main styles: black, red, and mud-coated.
Black, red, and mud-coated bodies
The earliest and most elaborate method was the Black Mummy Technique, practiced from roughly 5000 to 3000 BCE. Artisans would completely disassemble the deceased's body. They removed the skin, organs, and muscles, and often extracted the brain through the base of the skull. After stripping the bones, they dried the skeleton with hot ashes or coals and reinforced it internally with sticks and reeds. The body was then reconstructed, with cavities packed with materials like vegetable fibers, animal hair, and ash paste. The skin was reapplied, sometimes supplemented with sea lion skin, and the entire body was coated in a black paste made from manganese. A sculpted clay mask with openings for the eyes and mouth was placed on the face, and the head was adorned with a wig of human hair.
Around 2500 BCE, the process shifted to the Red Mummy Technique. Instead of complete disassembly, preparers made precise incisions in the trunk and shoulders to remove the organs and dry the body cavity. The brain was still often removed. The body was then filled with materials to restore its volume, strengthened with sticks, and the incisions were sutured. Finally, the entire corpse, except for the face and hair, was painted with red ochre. A later, simpler method involved a "mud coat" applied directly to the naturally desiccated body. These figures were buried; evidence suggests they remained part of the community, perhaps as participants in social and ritual life.
One hypothesis for the origin of this intense focus on preservation points to environmental factors. The water in the Camarones Valley, a Chinchorro heartland, contains arsenic levels up to 100 times modern safety standards. Archaeologist Bernardo Arriaza suggests that chronic arsenic poisoning may have led to high rates of spontaneous abortions and premature births, prompting the community to develop mummification as a cultural response to overwhelming grief and loss.