December
27
/ 2025
New research examining 7,000-year-old mummies from Chile's Atacama Desert has revealed that prehistoric hunter-gatherers possessed significantly more sophisticated artistic and emotional capabilities than previously understood. A new study published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal proposes that the world's oldest artificial mummification practice may have originated as a form of art therapy, helping ancient communities cope with devastating infant mortality. 7,000-Year-Old Chinchorro Mummies are the World's Oldest The Deadly Toxin Found in the World's Oldest Mummies The Chinchorro people, who inhabited the coastal regions of what is now northern Chile and southern Peru beginning around 7000 BC, developed the earliest known artificial mummification techniques - predating ancient Egyptian practices by approximately 4,000 years. According to research by Bernardo Arriaza published in
