Monday, March 16, 2015

Chinchorro change

Dating back 7,000 years – earlier than the Egyptians, the oldest mummies in the world are those of the Chinchorro, who lived along the coasts of northern Chile and southern Peru. Hundreds of them have been unearthed, with more being excavated regularly. Usually, the challenge is to conserve them after they are removed from their dry conditions under the desert sand. But these days, almost certainly due to climate change, they are deteriorating where they lay. Archaeologist Marcela Sepulveda of the Universidad de Tarapacá, observes, "When you excavate mummies you can see that degradation is already there."

No comments:

Post a Comment

You may add your comments here.

Labels