Unlike a fossil or a skeleton, a mummy is a body which retains soft tissue such as skin and muscle. Although the word “mummy” is most commonly associated with the Ancient Egyptians, other mummies have been found worldwide, some deliberately embalmed, others mummified accidentally by nature.
Mummies of South America
Around 5000 BC, small groups of fisherman called the Chinchorro practiced embalming their dead in South America. Although seemingly primitive hunter-gatherers, the Chinchorro developed complex and elaborate ways of preserving their dead long before the Egyptians.
Unlike the Ancient Egyptians, whose mummification practices centered on wealth and status, the Chinchorro embalmed everyone in their small communities including infants and fetuses. After the skin and organs of the deceased were carefully removed, the body would be reinforced with twigs, reeds, and sticks, then painted and wigged.
Bodies were mummified in an upright sitting position, allowing gravity to drain away body fluids. This form of mummification evolved until it was adopted by other South American cultures such as the Nazca and Chiribaya. Later the Incas also mummified their dead, however much of their mummies were destroyed by Spanish Conquistadors in 1532.
Mummies from Other Parts of the World
Aside from Egypt and South America, mummification was practiced in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Off the coast of Alaska on the Aleutian Islands, the Aleut people preserved a body by removing the organs, stuffing it with grass, and washing it in a stream until only sinew and skin remained. The body was then wrapped in leather and clothing and left to rest in a cave.
Many other cultures around the world preserved their dead, including tribes in southern Russia who mummified their dead kings during 300 – 700 BC, and the Guanches of the Canary Islands in Europe, whose mummification process suggest a relation with ancient Egyptian mummification techniques. In Japan, some Buddhist monks even mummified themselves, drying their bodies out with candles until they died from deliberate starvation.
Naturally Preserved Mummies
Natural elements such as extreme temperatures can also preserve a human body, sometimes better than deliberate mummification. The “Iceman”, discovered in the Alps near the Austrian-Italian Border, is one example of a body preserved naturally by freezing temperatures. Nicknamed “Otzi” after where he was found, the Iceman wore very well-preserved clothes of fur and grass despite the fact he died around 5000 years ago.
Other bodies mummified by ice include the “Greenland Mummies”, a small group of two children and six women found at two gravesites in Greenland. At around 500 years old, the cause of their deaths is mostly a mystery, although one woman had a malignant tumor and the four-year old child had Calve-Perthes disease.
The acidic composition and lack of oxygen in peat bogs of Europe have also created many “accidental” mummies, leaving behind preserved bodies that still retain very life-like appearances. Dating from the Iron Age (400 BC – 400 AD), many of these “Bog Mummies” appear to have died from deliberate means such as slit throats and strangulation, suggesting that they were sacrifices.
More about Mummies
Deliberately mummified to naturally preserved, many more mummies can be found worldwide, from the Anasazi mummies of the American Southwest to the smoke-cured mummies of Papua New Guinea. To learn more, there are many websites and books on the subject, such as the book Mummies, Disease, and Ancient Cultures by Thomas Aidan and Eve Cockburn and Theodore Reyman.
Sources:
“Mummies Around the World”. Retrieved on January 1, 2009.
“Mummies of the World”. Retrieved on January 1, 2009.
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