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The Arica region of Chile beat Egypt and the rest of the world, as we know it, to the tomb. The Chinchorros, found in northern Chile and southern Peru, embalmed their dead around 5,000 B.C. [12], thousands of years before the Egyptian mummies. Now Arica’s oldest treasure is part of an expedition called "Chinchorro Culture, Roots, Heritage and Identity in Northern Chile.” It was unveiled on July 19 at the David J. Guzmán Anthropological Museum in San Salvador. 

The exhibit took a team effort acording to an article by Ada Rivas [13]. The Embassy of Chile in El Savlador and the University of Tarapacá in Arica helped manage the project. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile put forward the cash to make it happen. The coordinator of Chinchorro history Sergio Medina Parra is stationed at the museum on behalf of  the university.

One part of the expedition shows off an artistically replicated infant Chinchorro. To mummify a body, the Chinchorros began by defleshing the corpes. After reenforcing the  sketeton  with sticks, they would refill the body with dried  plants, clays and naturally found objects. The skin would be reapplied, and the body was covered in an ash-type paste.  The Chinchoros would carefully craft the person’s face and external organs with clay and cover the body with a shiny black or red finish.

According to mummy expert, Bernardo T. Arriaza [14], the purpose of this labor-intensive practice was to provide the Chinchorros with a link to their dead. Unlike the Egyptians, who saved this burial for their nobility, mummification for the Chinchorros was an equal-opportunity venture.

The exhibit is comprised of a dozen boards painting a picture of daily life in Chinchorro culture and exploring mummification practices.  Visitors can see how University of Tarapacá  and the Arica region are spreading their stores of artificacts, anthropological knowledge  and  scientific work to the world.

Media Penia seems over the moon about how things came together. He said, “It’s a beautiful  job, our friends at the embassy are overjoyed.”  Soon he will host a conversation with his Salvadorian collegues to discuss Chinchorro heritage with local middle school students.

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