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The Chinchorro mummies are mummified remains of individuals from the South n Chinchorro culture, found in what is now northern Chile and southern Peru. They are the oldest examples of artificially mummified human remains, becoming popular by up to two thousand years before the Egyptian mummies. To put this in perspective, the earliest mummy that has been found in Egypt dated around 3000 BC, while the oldest mummy recovered from the Atacama Desert is dated around 7020 BC.〔Arriaza, Bernardo T. Beyond Death: The Chinchorro Mummies of Ancient Chile. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1995. Print.〕 The artificial mummies of Chinchorro are believed to have first appeared around 5000 BC and reached a peak around 3000 BC. 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. Shell midden and bone chemistry suggest that 90% of their 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 hi. Radiocarbon dating reveals that the oldest discovered Chinchorro mummy was that of a child from a site in the Camarones Valley, about 60 miles south of Arica in Chile and dates from around 5050 BC. The mummies continued to be made until about 1800 BC, making them contemporary with Las Vegas culture and Valdivia culture in Ecuador and the Norte Chico civilization in Peru. == Chinchorro mummification == 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 often burdensome members of society (meaning those who could not contribute to the welfare of others; the elderly, children, infants and miscarried fetuses. In fact, it is often the case that children and babies received the most elaborate mummification treatments.〔〔 Since 1914, when the father of Andean Archaeology Max Uhle began his work in Arica, an estimated 282 mummies have been found by archaeologists.〔 Morro-I, located at the base of the Morro de Arica, revealed 96 bodies at the unstratified (i.e., there are no discernible layers of stratigraphy, hindering relative dating techniques), mostly loose sand at the slope of the hill. 54 adults were found - 27 female, 20 male and 7 of indeterminate sex; 42 children were also found - 7 female, 12 male, 23 indeterminate.〔Rivera, Mario A. "The Preceramic Chinchorro Mummy Complex of Northern Chile: Context, Style and Purpose." Tombs for the Living: Andean Mortuary Practices. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1991. 43-77. Print.〕 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,〔Guillén, S. E. "Mummies, Cults, and Ancestors: The Chinchorro Mummies of the South Central Andes." Interacting with the Dead: Perspectives on Mortuary Archaeology for the New Millennium. Gainesville: University of Florida, 2005. 142-49. Print.〕 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.〔Moseley, Michael Edward. The Incas and Their Ancestors: The Archaeology of Peru. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001. Print.〕 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.〔 However, since the society is a preceramic one, as well as slightly nomadic, it is somewhat difficult to determine through archaeological records the reasons why the Chinchorro felt the need to mummify the dead. The representatives of the Chinchorro culture was determined by mitochondrial haplogroup A2.〔(Genomic evidence for the Pleistocene and recent population history of Native s )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chinchorro mummies」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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