The world's oldest artificial mummies were created by a coastal society in the Atacama Desert.

Countries & Cities · Published 29 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Long before the pharaohs of Egypt, the Chinchorro people of northern Chile were meticulously preserving their dead. Unlike other ancient cultures that reserved such rites for the elite, the Chinchorro practiced a democratic form of mummification, treating men, women, and children of all statuses with elaborate, artistic care.

The Chinchorro culture thrived along the Pacific coast of northern Chile and southern Peru for over 5,000 years, from approximately 7000 BCE to 1500 BCE. While they were a preceramic and partly nomadic society, they established small, stable communities near river mouths, relying on the sea for about 90 percent of their diet. Their tradition of artificial mummification, which began around 5050 BCE, predates Egyptian practices by millennia and represents the earliest known instance of such deliberate preservation in human history.

Rather than a single, static process, Chinchorro mummification evolved through several distinct, overlapping styles over 3,000 years. The earliest 'black' mummies involved disassembling the body, cleaning the bones, and reinforcing them with wooden poles before covering the structure in clay and manganese-based paint. Later 'red' mummies were created by removing organs through incisions and packing the cavities with materials like feathers and soil. These bodies were often fitted with human-hair wigs and painted with red ochre, allowing them to be displayed or carried during rituals.

The exceptional survival of these remains is due to both human ingenuity and the hyper-arid environment of the Atacama Desert. The region's soil, rich in nitrates and salts, naturally inhibits bacterial growth, which explains why roughly 29 percent of the 282 documented Chinchorro remains were preserved naturally. Today, these mummies are recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, though they face modern threats; fluctuating humidity in storage facilities can trigger rapid microbial decay, forcing researchers to balance the need for study with the delicate requirements of long-term conservation.

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