Chinchorro Culture

Chinchorro Culture
Photo by Walter.

The Settlement and Artificial Mummification of the Chinchorro Culture in the Arica and Parinacota Region represent the long-practiced mortuary techniques and associated beliefs of this Pre-Columbian civilization.

The Chinchorro were marine hunter-gatherers who lived in these coastal areas of the arid Atacama Desert from 7,400 BP to 2,840 BP. They are known for their advanced mummification practices, and the oldest known artificially mummified human bodies have been found here. The area illustrating the Chinchorro habitat also consists of settlements, cemeteries, and shell middens.

Community Perspective: This site has 3 components, and the only reviewer so far (Walter) visited them all. Colon 10 in Arica is the location where you can get the closest to the mummies. Also, he found the Atacama desert landscape of this area spectacular.

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Walter

Switzerland - 20-Sep-22 -

Chinchorro Culture by Walter

The property centers around the Chinchorro people who lived in the arid coastal area of the Atacama Desert (in northern Chile and southern Peru), from around 5000 BC to 1000 BC. They were marine hunters-gatherers and are known for having left behind the oldest know artificial mummification of bodies (predating the Egyptian mummies).
The Chinchoro mummified all the dead, including children and even miscarried fetuses.
Over the centuries, the mummification process complexified with dismembering and reassembling the bodies and the use of artificial clay face masks.
The mummies have become a landmarks in the area around Arica, with monumental statues figuring the mummies in many places, among them along the Highway 10,  and many urban street art depicting them (statue in Desemboca top picture; street art on Morro de Arica bootm right picture)

I visited the three components of this property in June 2022. The two first are within Arica city limit, so are easy to visit. The third more of less necessitates a car to be reached.
- The northern face of the Morro de Arica: located on the slope of a hill above the city of Arica. Cemeteries where found and excavated. Nowadays, not much remains, except a look at the arid desert soil and an exceptional view over the city of Arica and the plains beyond.
- Colón 10: a small museum, next to the Morro de Arica, preserving in situ an old cemetery. It was discovered in 2004 while reconstructing a house on the hillside of Arica city. The mummies are covered with a glass floor on which you can step. Therefore, we can get a very close view of the mummies (picture bottom left). Entrance fee of $2000 (about 2 US$)
-100 km south of Arica is the Desembocadura de Camarones. It lies 10 km west of Highway 10. The road is paved all the way, but I don’t think there is any public transportation. It is a spectacular unspoilt natural location in an area of coastal cliffs, centered around the Camarones river mouth. It includes remains of settlements and cemeteries is a spectacular landscape. A monumental statue representing a mummy was constructed in 2010 next to some of the excavation site.

Even though not part of the property, I would strongly encourage a visit to the Anthropology Museum in San Miguel de Azapa, some 10 km inland from Arica (with bus connection). It helps better understand the lives of the Chichorro people, the way they lived and the mummification process. The museum shows the Chinchoro culture in all details and preserves many of the mummies, among them those recovered in Morro de Arica and Camarones. It costs $2000 (about 2 US$).

Altogether, it is worth the effort to get to this remote but magnificiant area of Northern Chile; the OUV is clear, especially with the in situ museum of Colón 10. The city of Arica is nice (cheap direct flight from Santiago) and the Atacama desert landscape of this area is spectacular.

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Site Info

Full Name
Settlement and Artificial Mummification of the Chinchorro Culture in the Arica and Parinacota Region
Unesco ID
1634
Country
Chile
Inscribed
2021
Type
Cultural
Criteria
3 5
Categories
Archaeological site - Pre-Columbian
Link
By ID

Site History

2021 Advisory Body overruled

ICOMOS advised Referral

2021 Inscribed

Site Links

Unesco Website
Settlement and Artificial Mummification of the Chinchorro Culture in the Arica and Parinacota Region
Official Website

Site museum of Colón 10

In the News

Chile’s archaeologists fight to save the world’s oldest mummies from climate change (2022.03.26)

Locations

The site has 3 locations

Chinchorro Culture: Faldeo Norte del Morro de Arica
Chinchorro Culture: Colón 10
Chinchorro Culture: Desembocadura de Camarones

Connections

The site has

Constructions
Cemeteries: the archaeological remains of ... cemeteries (AB ev)
Damaged
Affected by Climate Change: The Atacama's dry weather has helped preserve the Chinchorro mummies for thousands of years, but some have rapidly deteriorated in the past decade, their skin melting into black ooze. According to Harvard scientists, climate change is causing microorganisms to attack the mummies' collagen. Stronger El Niño currents are behind the region's increasing humidity, meaning the mummies are endangered whether they're in a museum or buried in the desert.
Ecology
Lagoons: In the area surrounding the mouth of the Camarones River, current surface run-off conditions generate a small lagoon adjacent to the beach area, where the wetlands are located. (Chinchorro Culture Nomination Text, p. 130)
Geography
Pacific Ocean: Component 1 and 3 border the Pacific Ocean
Desert Cultural Landscapes: The property is made up of the places where the Chinchorro groups coexisted in equilibrium with their desert environment, which in itself is perhaps what made their complex forms of expression possible. (Chinchorro Culture Nomination Text, p. 88)
History
Shell Mounds (Middens): dense shell middens (AB ev)
Pre-Inca cultures: Chinchorro culture
Sieges and Battles: The Morro del Arica was the site of the battle in which Chile captured Arica from Peru during the War of the Pacific in June 1880.
Archaeological 'Type Sites': The Chinchorro type site is located in Arica, Chile; it was discovered by German archaeologist Max Uhle in the early 20th century.
Human Activity
Mummies: The Chinchorro innovated continuously in their mummification practices to create artificial mummies that possessed extraordinary material, sculptural, and aesthetic qualities (AB ev)
Textiles: In river mouth environments, an important diversity of species emerges when there is good irrigation, forming wetland areas locally known as chimbas. In these wetlands, abundant swordgrass and southern cattails can be found, the main components of diverse Chinchorro textiles. The characteristics of these wetlands can still be seen today (...) in Camarones, in areas that have suffered little intervention and are closely associated with the remains of the Chinchorro occupation. (Chinchorro Culture Nomination Text, p. 91)
Masks: The faces of the mummies received artificial treatment, like mud or clay masks. (Chinchorro Culture Nomination Text, p. 111-113)
Geoglyphs: Two geoglyphs from the Late Period have been found at the mouth of the Camarones River. The first is located inside the valley, six kilometers from the mouth of the river and is made up of a panel of camelid figures. The second is a circular figure located at the top of the southern slope of the river mouth, created using a subtractive technique and with red pigment on its borders. Both geoglyphs are related to trails that connect the river mouth to the middle of the Camarones Valley. (Chinchorro Culture Nomination Text, p. 143)
Ongoing Archaeological digs: Studies of Chinchorro archaeological sites at the mouth of the Camarones River have been carried out as a result of research initiatives initiated at the end of the fifties and continue to this day, motivated by different research aims that intend to reveal the presence of the territory's intense occupation. (Chinchorro Culture Nomination Text, p. 157)
Hunter-gatherers: The Chinchorro were a society of marine hunter-gatherers who lived between 7400 BP and 2840 BP approximately. (Nomination Text, p. 17)
Individual People
Max Uhle: Nearly one hundred mummified individuals were excavated there by German archaeologist Max Uhle, who proposed the first typology of bodies with artificial treatment. (AB ev)
Female Archaeologists : Vivien Standen - Between January and March 1984, Vivien Standen took over the excavations at the Morro 1 Site, recovering another 73 complete and incomplete individuals. Standen also studied the Colón 10 Site between 2004 and 2010. (Chinchorro Culture Nomation Text, p. 163, 166)
Science and Technology
Recently discovered: The Colón 10 site is a cemetery that was discovered in 2004 during an excavation to salvage the interior of the house located at N° 10 Colónstreet. It was decided to leave the bodies in situ and design a site museum around them. (Chinchorro Culture Nomination Text, p. 126)
Recorded cultural discoveries: The Chinchorro type site is located in Arica, Chile; it was discovered by German archaeologist Max Uhle in the early 20th century. He excavated nearly a hundred individuals during the twenties.
Archaeological potential: At present, both the settlement and the artifactual evidence in situ below the surface in the Desembocadura de Camarones area are intact and a potential source of scientific information for both the present and the future. At domestic sites such as Conchal Sur, Camarones 14, Camarones 17, Camarones 1, Camarones 2 and Camarones 8, the possibility of future studies into the relationship between different populations and between them and their surroundings is assured. (Chinchorro Culture Nomination Text, p. 184)
Timeline
Built in the 6th millennium BC: Chinchorro, a society of marine hunter-gatherers who lived here from approximately 7,400 BP to 2,840 BP (5,450 BCE to 890 BCE).
Trivia
Longest WHS names: The Settlement and Artificial Mummification of the Chinchorro Culture in the Arica and Parinacota Region – 104 letters
World Heritage Process
Reduced from broader TWHS: The broader TWHS (Archaeological sites of the Chinchorro culture) included a location in Antofagasta as well

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