Multidisciplinary analysis of a mummy from the War of the Pacific (original) (raw)
Related papers
Most of the mummies present today, in European and North American collections and museums, originate from Egypt or Peru. Mummified bodies from Chile, such as the one found in the Anatomical Collection of the University of Rostock (Germany), the so-called, "Chilean Mummy", are rare. A preliminary macroscopic investigation, here presented, reveals interesting perspectives that enable further, in-depth and specific, analyses to recontextualize the Rostock mummy.
PLoS ONE, 2014
The paleopathological, paleoradiological, histological, molecular and forensic investigation of a female mummy (radiocarbon dated 1451-1642 AD) provides circumstantial evidence for massive skull trauma affecting a young adult female individual shortly before death along with chronic infection by Trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas disease). The mummy (initially assumed to be a German bog body) was localized by stable isotope analysis to South America at/near the Peruvian/ Northern Chilean coast line. This is further supported by New World camelid fibers attached to her plaits, typical Inca-type skull deformation and the type of Wormian bone at her occiput. Despite an only small transverse wound of the supraorbital region computed tomography scans show an almost complete destruction of face and frontal skull bones with terrace-like margins, but without evidence for tissue reaction. The type of destruction indicates massive blunt force applied to the center of the face. Stable isotope analysis indicates South American origin: Nitrogen and hydrogen isotope patterns indicate an extraordinarily high marine diet along with C4-plant alimentation which fits best to the coastal area of Pacific South America. A hair strand over the last ten months of her life indicates a shift to a more ''terrestric'' nutrition pattern suggesting either a move from the coast or a change in her nutrition. Paleoradiology further shows extensive hypertrophy of the heart muscle and a distended large bowel/rectum. Histologically, in the rectum wall massive fibrosis alternates with residual smooth muscle. The latter contains multiple inclusions of small intracellular parasites as confirmed by immunohistochemical and molecular ancient DNA analysis to represent a chronic Trypanosoma cruzi infection. This case shows a unique paleopathological setting with massive blunt force trauma to the skull nurturing the hypothesis of a ritual homicide as previously described in South American mummies in an individual that suffered from severe chronic Chagas disease.
CHILEAN INFANT MUMMY IN THE COLLECTIONS OF THE NÁPRSTEK MUSEUM: ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
This paper reports conclusions from an anthropological analysis of a mummy bundle from the Azapa Valley in northern Chile. The mummy was acquired by Dr. Václav Šolc in 1966–1967. The bundle was examined with the use of computed tomography (CT) and the results were compared to unpublished findings from 2009. The remains are that of an infant that died of unknown causes. The possible presence of Harris lines suggests that the individual suffered from stress during their life. The mummification process was in all probability spontaneous. KEY WORDS: Chile – South American mummies – CT
Acta Neurochirurgica, 2010
We describe the multidisciplinary findings in a pre-Columbian mummy head from Southern Peru (Cahuachi, Nazca civilisation, radiocarbon dating between 120 and 750 AD) of a mature male individual (40-60 years) with the first two vertebrae attached in pathological position. Accordingly, the atlanto-axial transition (C1/C2) was significantly rotated and dislocated at 38°angle associated with a bulging brownish mass that considerably reduced the spinal canal by circa 60%. Using surface microscopy, endoscopy, highresolution multi-slice computer tomography, paleohistology and immunohistochemistry, we identified an extensive epidural hematoma of the upper cervical spinal canal-extending into the skull cavity-obviously due to a rupture of the left vertebral artery at its transition between atlas and skull base. There were no signs of fractures of the skull or vertebrae. Histological and immunohistochemical examinations clearly identified dura, brain residues and densely packed corpuscular elements that proved to represent fresh epidural hematoma. Subsequent biochemical analysis provided no evidence for pre-mortal cocaine consumption. Stable isotope analysis, however, revealed significant and repeated changes in the nutrition during his last 9 months, suggesting high mobility. Finally, the significant narrowing of the rotational atlantoaxial dislocation and the epidural hematoma probably caused compression of the spinal cord and the medulla oblongata with subsequent respiratory arrest. In conclusion, we suggest that the man died within a short period of time (probably few minutes) in an upright position with the head rotated rapidly to the right side. In paleopathologic literature, trauma to the upper cervical spine has as yet only very rarely been described, and dislocation of the vertebral bodies has not been presented.
Conservation process of the mummy from Cajamarquilla, Peru
Abstract Book – 10 th World Congress on Mummy Studies , 2022
In 2021, an important discovery was made in the Cajamarquilla archaeological complex, located within the City of Lima in Peru. It is a funerary context made up of a mummified individual placed inside a funerary cist. After recovery, the mummy was taken to the rooms of the National University of San Marcos where conservation work was carried out. This is the first intervention in mummies that has been carried out in Peruvian territory since there are no antecedents in this regard. As there were no antecedents, a complete bibliographic review of international cases was carried out to determine the methodology to be followed. The conservation diagnosis has been carried out, identifying the conservation pathologies and the main agents of deterioration. Cleaning, disinfection, consolidation and reintegration work was carried out; all this according to international protocols established for other cases of mummification. In addition to the intervention on the body of the mummy, conservation work was also carried out on the directly associated materials, such as the ropes that tied the body and the textiles. Likewise, the support of the mummy was conditioned so that it could not have complications during the exhibition process in the museum of the San Marcos University.
Forensic, anthropological and pathological analysis of the Guanche mummies from Necoche (Argentina)
Journal of Biological Research - Bollettino della Società Italiana di Biologia Sperimentale
The two Guanche mummies sold to Argentinean businessmen at the end of the 19th century are known as NEC-1 and NEC-2. NEC-1 is a young female, very gracile, showing severe stress markers. NEC-2 is a young male, tall and robust for the time in which he lived, and shows a lethal lesion in the skull with a trephination in the base. In this paper we present the most prominent forensic anthropological data of both mummies, as well as the pathologies observed, the differential diagnosis of the lesion in NEC-2, and the possible causes of death of both individuals along with the methods used in these studies.
Excavation and study of skeletal remains from a World War I mass grave
This study presents the excavation and multidisciplinary analysis of seven skeletons recovered in a World War I Mass Grave on the mountains of the Veneto Region, Italy. While it is not a rare phenomenon to these mountainous areas involved in the First Conflict, it is exceptional, on these mountains, to find a mass grave with soldiers in primary burials. Stratigraphic excavation was the mean used for recovery, along with 3D laser scanning documentation. Every skeleton but one was found complete and in anatomical connection. Four soldiers lay in the prone position; two subjects were lying on their side. Identification of the nationality was performed for two of the subjects, who both of whom had personal effects such as a badge for military vaccinations and religious medals. What remained of their uniforms gave clues about their Italian nationality. The entomological analysis conducted on fly puparia discovered close to the bones revealed that the bodies had not been buried immediately.
How to Make an Inca Mummy: Andean Embalming, Peruvian Science, and the Collection of Empire
Isis, 2018
As scientific objects, mummies were born of Europe’s encounter with two “ancient” bodily knowledges. The first is well known: the embalmed Egyptian dead who were ground into a materia medica named mumia and later were collected as “mummies” themselves. Yet mummies owe their global possibility— of ancient sciences of embalming and environmental manipulation apprehensible worldwide—to the sixteenth-century Spanish encounter with the Incas’ preserved dead, the yllapa. This article argues that their confiscation and display desecrated their sacred affect, but their recategorization as “embalmed” bodies allowed Indigenous Peruvian writers to argue for the Incas’ lost medical sophistication. European scholars then used that sophistication to establish “mummies” as a comparative category. The original yllapas decayed, blurring both Inca sovereignty and the colonial Latin American sciences that anatomized it, but their imagined resurrection in the preserved bodies of other “ancient Peruvians” turned the “Inca mummy” into a highly collectible scientific object, embodying a newly national past of ancient learning and anti-imperial indictment.