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Moment 600 years ago that terror came to Mummies of the Amazon
Last updated at 22:52pm on 10.01.07
The horror: This woman is thought to have lived 600 years ago
Frozen in time: A mummified baby
Hands over her eyes and her face gripped with terror, the woman's fear of death is all too obvious.
The remarkable mummy was found in a hidden burial vault in the Amazon.
It is at least 600 years old and has survived thanks to the embalming skills of her tribe, the Chachapoyas or cloud warriors.
Eleven further mummies were recovered from the massive cave complex 82ft down.
The vault - which was also used for worship - was chanced upon three months ago by a farmer working at the edge of northern Peru's rainforest. He tipped off scientists who uncovered ceramics, textiles and wall paintings.
The Chachapoyas were a tall, fairhaired, light-skinned race that some researchers believe may have come from Europe.
Little is known about them except that they were one of the more advanced ancient civilisations in the area. Adept at fighting, they commanded a large kingdom from the year 800 to 1500 that stretched across the Andes.
It is not known what the Chachapoyas actually called themselves - they are identified by the name given to them by their rivals and eventual conquerors, the Incas.
It comes from the Inca's Quechua language and means 'cloud people', because of the high forests in the clouds that the Chachapoyas inhabited.
Virtually all record of the tribe was lost when the Incas were themselves overrun by the Spanish conquistadors who landed in 1512.
They have, however, left behind a spectacular citadel, called Kuelap, 10,000ft up in the Andes.
It has more than 400 buildings and defensive towers, many of them with decorated walls, cornices and friezes.
Some experts rate Kuelap more highly than the Incan ruins at Machu Picchu.
Herman Crobera, the leader of the archaeological team that explored the cave, said: 'This is a discovery of transcendental importance.
'It is the first time any kind of underground burial site this size has been found belonging to Chachapoyas or other cultures in the region.'
He said walls near the mummies in the limestone cave were covered with paintings of faces and warriorlike figures which may have been drawn to ward off intruders and evil spirits.
'The remote site for this cemetery tells us that the Chachapoyas had enormous respect for their ancestors because they hid them away for protection,' added Mr Crobera.
'Locals call the cave Iyacyecuj, or enchanted water, because of its spiritual importance and its underground rivers.' The archaeologists have not yet established an accurate age for their finds.
Once they have finished exploring and excavating the tomb, Peruvian authorities want to turn it into a museum. The mummies are going on show at the Museum of the Nation in the capital Lima.
Reader views (42)
i cant seriously believe you guys with your responses...in reguards to their ethinicity, do u really think scientists would say they were light skinned if they hadnt genetically tested them? pshaw! theyve not only tested them theyve re-created them in clay. as for the other comments about things? sigh..its sad that you guys arent thinking in a scientific light. dont believe me? google it! duh! or to make it easier on those who cant think on their own check national geographic records for starters.
- Melody, iowa city usa, 05/02/2010 21:56
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Many South American cultures (and more then a few North American) believed that evil entered a person through their eyes. So the fact she was mummified in this position makes sense. If, even in death, she cannot see evil it cannot enter her soul.
- Mark, San Antonio, USA, 28/01/2010 01:25
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I contemplate a trip to Peru next year or so and would like to know if the burial ground is open to the public now or will be by that time. Also are the mummies still in the museum?
Thank you,
Zulema Soto
- Zulema Soto, Houston area, USA, 17/06/2009 21:03
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How was she 'mummified' if she was still alive?
- G, US, 18/05/2009 02:58
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The mummy is expressing horror at the thought that Hillary Clinton will soon be president of the USA.
- Al, Des Moines, IA, 11/01/2007 15:53
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Hey Donald, lighten up!
- Cledus Ledbetter, Dallas, Texas, 11/01/2007 15:53
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I think she might have been shot with a tazer from a Martian space craft.
- Andy Kaufman, Belmentia, Wistrimala, 11/01/2007 15:53
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Rest In Peace has always been a hopeful request, but never a rule. I find the fairhaired light-skinned comments interesting, considering they left no color detailed pictures, there appear to be no bundles of "hair" lying around, and the whole lot of them dissapeared hundreds of years ago. The whole magical lost European myths again. If anyone really thinks that is possible, then they have lots of dead bodies to do DNA testing with.
- Jim, Minneapolis, USA, 11/01/2007 15:52
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I don't think she died in fear. The skin dehydrates and pulls the muscles to awkward positions.
- Cathleen, Oregon USA, 11/01/2007 15:50
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First of all, these people would have existed long after Nephites ceased to exist as a people (350-400 C.E.) even in the Book of Mormon account. Secondly, calling the belief system of a living religion mythology is equivalent to calling a butterfly a bird. It has wings, yes, but would choke on a worm.
Personally, I believe that the world (including North America) has experienced greater connectivity between civilizations and continents as much in the past as now.
- Nate, The Woodlands, TX, 11/01/2007 15:33
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Her hands do not appear to be "tied," as some suggest. It appears more that something was intertwined around her fingers and wrists: a rosary-like object, perhaps.
- Stan M, Myrtle Beach, SC, 11/01/2007 15:32
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How long do the dead have to remain interred until it becomes archeology rather than grave robbing? It's been 400 years since the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, and nearly 400 years since the Mayflower set sail. Would it be ok if we started digging up the graves of the dead from those early European settlements and put their remains on display? What if we waited another century or so? Would it be ok then?
- Donald Mihokovich, Tampa, Florida, 11/01/2007 15:32
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Nowhere does it say they called themselves Nephites, except the book of Mormon. And same for the Incas. "Virtually all record of the tribe was lost when the Incas were themselves overrun by the Spanish conquistadors who landed in 1512."
There is no archeological evidence for the existance of the Nephites or the Lamanites in the Americas, except the book of Mormon. You're peeping at stones in a hat.
- Bruce, Marysville, USA, 11/01/2007 15:32
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Caucasions have traveled the world for many centuries (i.e vikings found america long before columbus) Also Caucasion remains have been found in parts of China and we there long before the Chinese or mongols arrived in those areas. Caucasions were not just limited to Europe in ancient times. Inca and Aztec culture have legends of the "white man living agmong them at one time and then returning to them or the area".
We must remember that Europeans were traveling east west and all over as well the Romans, Phoenecians and other of antiquity.
- John, Leavenworth Kansas, 11/01/2007 15:32
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Haha, very nice Derek. I was thinking the same thing.
- Nathaniel, Edwardsville, IL, 11/01/2007 15:31
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I don't have much to add except thank you Eric and Dc for your comments.
- Jonathan, USA, 11/01/2007 15:30
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I think it is sad that we would take someone out of their grave and put them in a museum. What ever happened to "Rest In Peace?"
- Christie, Warner Robins, GA, 11/01/2007 15:16
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Would be interesting to have a profiler recreate them with clay, to see what they actually looked like. It seems that the embalmer would've had to recreate the look of terror. People just don't freeze in positions such as that.
- Valerie, OKC, USA, 11/01/2007 15:06
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"How can you tell if she died in fear?"
Her face would not have settled that way if she didn't die that way - not likely. She may have been mummified alive.
- Ben, Tallahassee, FL USA, 11/01/2007 15:06
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The look of fear is a result of the drawing back of her lips and the disentigration of her finger flesh over 600 years. For all the evidence this single photo shows, she could have been buried with her hands covering her placid face with her head bowed in peaceful repose.
- Tom, Nashville US, 11/01/2007 15:05
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Either the picture shows the skills of the embalmers who manipulate the corpse throughout the embalming process -or- it shows a person frozen in time at a moment of terror and mummified by natural processes... not both.
Note that the skin tends to shrink, thus exposing teeth. Check out the Egyptian mummies. They have their lips pulled back. The S.American undertakers seem to prefer this pose for their mummies.
- Frank, Richmond, VA, USA, 11/01/2007 15:04
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I believe that they were also called the Nephites who were wiped out by a people called the Lamanites.
- Derek D, Tempe Arizona, 11/01/2007 14:57
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If the Chachapoyas "had enormous respect for their ancstors because they hid them away for protection", why are these experts exhuming these bodies for all the world to see. What good does it do to see a dead 600 year old baby. Makes no sense. Let the dead rest in peace.
- Dc, fairfax va, 11/01/2007 14:57
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They didn't call themselves Nephites or anyone Lamanites. Those are names of tribes from Mormon mythology, not Incan or Chachapoyas.
They were a remarkable people, though I doubt greatly they were European. That tends to be one of the only way Europeans can validate the sophisticated civilizations of Native peoples in the Americas. Or aliens.
- Eric, Highland Park, NJ, 11/01/2007 14:57
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The statements "Hands over her eyes and her face gripped with terror" and " the embalming skills of her tribe" seem to be at odds with each other. As a lay person, I think the embalming process would not be associated with the events at the time of death.
- Bill Whatley, Longview, Washington USA, 11/01/2007 14:57
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Most burials are to preserve the identity of the individual by preparing the body in the most dignified manner but in this case the body has been left to preserve the manner in which death occurred. Very interesting.
- Terry, Arab, Alabama, USA, 11/01/2007 14:56
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I wonder if the woman pitcured above is the baby's Mummy?
- Hutt, Miami, Floirda, 11/01/2007 14:56
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How do we know it is horror? Could it be she is in a praying position just as the baby appears to have been? She appears bound and could it be the setting of the embalming that created the horror rather than the presumed terror? I assume she was dead when she was embalmed; however, embalming a live person would logically create the look.
Do we know? I guess that I want more information than this story provides.
- Don, DC, USA, 11/01/2007 14:54
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Sorry Jason, these people are not from your Book of Mormon stories. Please stop grabbing at straws, it's really embarassing for you Mormons.
- Stephanie, Chester, NH, 11/01/2007 14:54
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Let's see if anyone has the guts to do a genetic test and see if they have any mediterranian markers. And I look forward to the translations of any records found there - unless they're suppressed.
- Walt Nicholes, Orem, UT, 11/01/2007 14:53
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I am always sickened by archeologists and historians who say that people accepted being a human sacrifice was an honor. The photo of the terrified woman has brought me to tears.
Pre-Columbian America was not the paradise we are being made to believe.
- Stephen R. Harashack, Ashbur, VA, USA, 11/01/2007 14:52
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I agree with Jason from Colorado. Call it what it is, there is only one real documented history of these people. It is called the Book of Mormon.
- Chance, Arizona, 11/01/2007 14:51
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I think Jason of Colorado Springs is being disingenious in suggesting that the Chachapoyas were the imagined tribe related to the Mormons. More hocus pocus from the superstitious. I mean, please.
- Anonymouse, Toronto, Canada, 11/01/2007 14:51
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If they really did have a European ancestry could that be determined through DNA testing? If true that would really shake things up.
- Jimmy Stewart, Albany, United States, 11/01/2007 14:50
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Consider that if this woman were preserved due to expert embalming skills, that would mean that her body was handled/manipulated after her death. Any expression of fright, terror, etc. would have to have been "put" there by the embalmer. I think it more likely that her "terror" is either the result of the embalmer's interpretation/imagination, or perhaps even his version of a practical joke.
- Bob, Reno, NV, USA, 11/01/2007 14:50
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Looks like her hands were tied. Could this be a human sacrafice, someone buried alive, a prisoner executed? It doesn't look like a dignified burial of an honored family member.
- Jack, Greensburg, USA, 11/01/2007 14:48
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How can you tell if she died in fear? Maybe she was put that way when she died. Where you there? No, so stop assuming everything. That is what is wrong with the world, we assume, it becomes fact and everyone assumes it's the truth.
- Chris Morgan, San Antonio, TX, 11/01/2007 14:47
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How exciting! I've been to Machu Picchu and was fascinated by it. This will be even more thrilling. I'll never see it, so I will have to rely on future reports as the excavations go on.
- Adele Bowden, Mentor USA, 11/01/2007 14:45
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Don't be silly; they didn't come from europe. They are Native Americans! Native Americans are a complex, advanced and civilized people.
- Joe Bob, USA, 11/01/2007 14:45
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Fascinating! But I wish the article writer had given us some scientific speculation as to why the pictured mummy was embalmed in a state of terror - it's almost as if she were flash-frozen at the moment of death. Do scientists think she was a sacrificial victim? Embalmed in that chilling posture to ward off intruders? It appears her wrists are bound. I'd love to know more about her.
- Deborah Smith, Dahlonega, Georgia, USA, 11/01/2007 14:43
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That baby mummy got my attention, looks like something out of a Hollywood horror film.
- Jason, Kansas City, MO, 11/01/2007 14:42
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I believe they called themselves Nephites. They were a strong group of people until they were completely wiped out by the Incas, who they called Lamanites. Fascinating story, really.
- Jason, Colorado Springs, USA, 11/01/2007 14:41
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