Scientists race to halt decomposition of world's oldest mummies

Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - 06:30 in Paleontology & Archaeology

At least two thousand years before the ancient Egyptians began mummifying their pharaohs, a hunter-gatherer people called the Chinchorro living along the coast of modern-day Chile and Peru developed elaborate methods to mummify not just elites but all types of community members—men, women, children, and even unborn fetuses. Radiocarbon dating as far back as 5050 BC makes them the world's oldest man-made mummies.

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