It was a joint team of scientists carrying out excavations in the highlands of the Peruvian Andes. And he discovered an ancient collective burial site with more than two dozen mummified children’s bodies. But the way their packaging was made was very unusual. This is the story of the Peruvian newborn mummies.
The site is on the outskirts of the city of Barranca, on the Cerro Colorado hill. The site has been known to researchers of the past for several decades. These are four mounds with pre-Columbian structures underneath. Joint excavations began at this site in 2022. The complex had been established as early as the third millennium BC. c.
Serial burials
Partially destroyed burial sites were found on the top of the highest mound. 22 intact burials were also found, including children’s burials. «They are bodies wrapped in fabrics and plant material, what in archeology we call funerary bundles. Between the layers of these fabrics we find artifacts. “There are pottery and tools and cult objects.” It Explain for Nauka w Polske the bioarchaeologist Lukasz Majchrzakone of the heads of the investigation.
Six burials belonged to adults. The others were children of different ages. However, archaeologists were not surprised by this. «At that time, high infant mortality was normal. Especially after the child was weaned. But it is surprising how the children’s packaging was made,” adds Majchrzak.
The tombs were dug into the ground. The children’s mummies were placed at a shallower depth, approximately at the height of the heads of the deceased adults. All the children were buried lying down, in a horizontal position. The bodies of the adults were in the fetal position. The adult mummies look similar to each other, as if they were a series. They were wrapped in dense cloth and tied with rope.
CT scans
«It is difficult to give a definitive interpretation of this finding. It is very possible that the entire community limited itself to burying children in this place. They appear to be children no more than two years old, some of whom must have been newborns. Maybe older children were buried in other parts of the cemetery for some reason.
Peruvian newborn mummies will be studied with computed tomography. They will then do chemical analysis and isotopic analysis, including an isotope of strontium. This will clarify if it is a local population.
