The Dead Speak

I've always been fascinated by mummies. Egyptian mummies marveled me as a child and as I aged I liked to research ancient cultures. The Inca of Peru for example astound me because within 500 years they dominated other cultures, engineered man made structures with no modern tools, and one of their most famous sites, Machu Picchu, remained hidden from human knowledge until Hiram Bingham discovered it in the beginning of the 20th century.

I enjoy learning of historical discoveries and no artifacts being stolen and harmed. Recently my newest fascination is Gobekli Tepe, a temple site unearthed on the highest hills of Turkey, which has been excavated for the past 13 years. Only 5% of this structure has been studied and no tools have been found so far. What makes this place special is it's age, dating back to 12,000 B.C, but also rumors the site was buried instead of destroyed.

Since my love of unknown cultures can't be studied academically with little sources available, I want to focus my concentration on the dead. Mummy is a word originated from the arabic Mumiyah means 'body preserved by wax'. All the mummies discovered throughout history were not mummified on purpose. Some cultures like that within Egypt used mummification for religious reasons and reserved it for people of status and wealth. I want to explore other cultures that have pursued the practice of body preservation and their reasons why.

I've done some preliminary research and have found a culture that mummified all of its citizens. The Chinchorro people of South America would mummify everyone including children and fetuses. These mummies are twice as old as Egyptian ones and were prepared in different ways. Besides materials and tools, how they prepared the body may have been influenced by religion or in part to preserve the body more.

Globally, why is mummification purposefully pursued within cultures and what methods were use? I want to examine cultures throughout recorded history and the world to uncover what motivated some to preserve their dead. 

Some differences in technique are interesting. The Chinchorro mummies have their bodies disassembled, disemboweled, and reassembled covered in clay with a sown wig and helmet. Egyptian culture removed organs as well, but took care not to harm the body too much.

Another culture that prepared their dead were the Aleut people off the coast of Alaska. They remove organs, the bodies laid in streams of running water to dissolve the body fat, positioned and dried, then covered in leather and continued to dry in a cave. Why? Power is supposed to continue after death.

Ultimately mummies are windows through which souls can still act. The acts involved with mummification may seem cruel or extreme, but in the cases involving purposefully preserved people, great care and concern was used with the bodies. Mummies are the best time capsules that survive history and can tell us so much about cultures.

There is a reason for everything. (491)