After our Nazca flight, we went out to the Necropolis de Chauchilla to have a look at the mummies there. The area is a wide open plain with the extremely low rainfall and it seems to have been a cemetery for the Nazca. There were hundreds (if not thousands?) of burial holes, dug into the desert and brick lined, each with one or more mummies in it. It seems that these were probably family tombs, used for several generations before being sealed up when they were full.
The place is pretty desolate looking, amd you may wonder why there is such a large burial ground here, but only a mile or so away is a lush green valley with a river running through it that was inhabited by the Nazca 600 years. While there is very little precipitation in the Nazca desert, there are a number of rivers flowing out of the Andes with a good and regular supply of water to irrigate crops.
In standard Andean fashion, the mummies are wrapped in cloth in a fetal position, facing the rising sun. There are grave goods and offerings too. Like many other cemeteries, the Necropolis was plundered by grave robbers who left broken pottery and human bones scattered around the desert - it was kinda weird seeing human bones just lying about.
I was also very surprised that the site has mummies left sitting outdoors with only the low stone walls and sun shades for protection (and I suspect the sun shades are only there for the tourists!), but when I asked there were several reasons for this apparent lack of care.
1: The weather is so dry and still here all of the time, the mummies don't actually need very much protection.
2: There were so many mummies found here that they are 'common' and not that rare/valuable.
It was very interesting to see the Necropolis, though at the same time a bit weird and freaky!
Interesting stuff. know what you mean about weird and freaky - we've seen ossuaries in various places that gave me the creeps.
ReplyDelete