Chinchorro mummies
The oldest artificial mummies, 2,000 years before Egypt's
Fishers of the Chinchorro culture began mummifying their dead around 5000 BC, roughly two millennia before the Egyptians. Bodies were taken apart, reinforced with sticks and reeds, coated in clay and given a mask. Everyone was preserved: the elderly, children, even unborn infants. The mummies became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021.
Wikipedia (English) · Prehistory
Did you know
Chinchorro fishermen on the Chilean coast were mummifying their dead by about 5000 BC; their mummies predate Egypt's by some two thousand years.