Natural History Collections in the Science of the 21st Century. Группа авторов
and the beginning of the 16th century (de Cieza de León 1984). Their territory extended approximately 65,000 km2, in the north of the Andes in modern-day Peru, between 2,000 and 3,200 m of altitude (Cornejo García 2002). For pre-Hispanic Andean societies, the dead participated in creation myths and in defining local families or ayllu (Doyle 1998), over whom they could exercise power, beneficial or otherwise (Mantha 2009; Lau 2013). These influential ancestors thus required care and attention from the living (de Arriaga 1968). The Chachapoya dead were found in a variety of contexts and funereal structures: in individual anthropomorphic or purunmachus sarcophagi, inside collective structures with the appearance of limestone houses, chullpas, and sometimes in caves (Kauffmann et al. 1989; Nystrom 2003; Schjellerup 2005; Knutson 2006; Fabre et al. 2008). Corpses could be buried until the flesh decomposed, then exhumed so that their bones could be gathered and wrapped in cloth (Nystrom 2003; Friedrich et al. 2010). Other bodies were, on the contrary, voluntarily preserved through embalming. Evisceration was performed through an anatomical orifice of the corpse (vagina, anus), which was then plugged with a rolled up cloth pad. In order to preserve a certain volume of the body, cotton balls were inserted between the teeth, cheeks, and nose (Guillén 1998; Wild et al. 2007). The body was finally placed in a folded position, knees brought to the face, fingers bound and tied to the head, and then wrapped with several layers of cloth made up in fardo.
Figure 4.1. Current state of the discovery site of the Chachapoya mummy MNHN-HA-30187, photo © S. Ziemendorff
It was in 1877 that the explorer P. Vidal-Senèze discovered the Chachapoya mummy, in the heart of the Utcubamba valley of the Piedra Grande mountain. According to the descriptions given by P. Vidal-Senèze, this one was laid to rest, with others, in a tomb in the shape of a “spherical cap, or of a beehive of bees” (Vidal-Senèze 1877), made of stone and clay, overhung by a sculpted top and nestled in the side of cliff (Figure 4.1). The mummies were wrapped in cloth and rope at the time of their discovery and accompanied by objects, bags and pottery. Four of them were sent to France (Vidal-Seneze 1877; Vidal-Senèze and Noctzli 1877).
The mummy MNHN-HA-30187 entered the collections of the Musée d’ethnographie du Trocadéro’s (MET) Department of America in 1879, two years after its discovery; it was registered in the inventories under the number 1879.1.22 (“Vidal-Senèze collection”). Less than 20 years later, E.-T. Hamy, director of the MET, gave a description of it in a book dedicated to the American gallery of the Muséum (Hamy 1897). We learn here that the mummy was presented to the public, stripped of its cloth envelope. It was cordoned off and accompanied by a tapestry bag with geometric designs. Next to it was another mummy from the Vidal-Senèze collection (no. 1879.1.21) swaddled in its original wrapping (Figure 4.2(a)). The mummy remained on public display after the creation of the Musée de l’Homme, in the section dedicated to “New America” (Figures 4.2(b) and (c)). It became part of the Muséum’s anthropology collection in 1981.
The closing of the Musée de l’Homme for its refurbishment, which lasted between 2009 and 2015, was an opportunity for a detailed assessment of the mummy’s state of conservation. It was found that it had not undergone any substantial degradation since the description made by E.-T. Hamy in 1897. However, since that date, the bag that had accompanied it has been removed and kept separately. In the absence of any alteration other than soiling due to the years spent in the exhibition spaces, the mummy was subjected to a superficial dusting and cleaning5. A pedestal system was created in order to allow good maintenance without compromising its initial position. Since the reopening of the Musée de l’Homme in 2015, the mummy has been displayed in the showcases of the permanent exhibition space dedicated to funereal treatment, “Living, Dying and Being Aware” (Figure 4.2(d)).
Figure 4.2. Museum history of the Chachapoya mummy MNHN-HA-30187 at the Palais de Chaillot
COMMENT ON FIGURE 4.2. – (a) 1895: Exhibited at the Musée d’ethnographie du Trocadéro, photo © Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/ image Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. (b) 1939: Inauguration of a new section of the Musée de l’Homme, dedicated to “New America” by Jean Zay, Minister of National Education, in the presence of Paul Rivet, a French physician and ethnologist who initiated the creation of the Musée de l’Homme in 1937, photo: © Excelsior – L’Équipe/Roger-Viollet. (c) Same showcase, 1939, photo © Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/image Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. (d) 2015: Exhibited in the permanent exhibition of the new Musée de l’Homme, showcase devoted to funereal treatment, photo © MNHN – JC Domenech.
4.2. Materials and methods
4.2.1. The MNHN-HA-30187 mummy: position of the body, measurements and external appearance
The mummy is sitting on its buttocks, in the “fetal position” (Figure 4.3(a)). The lower limbs are bent, the knees brought up toward the chin, the legs bent over the thighs and the thighs up to the chest. The feet are positioned on top of each other, the left over the right, brought back against the pubis. The upper limbs are folded, the arms along the body and the forearms against the chest. The closed hands come in contact with the cheeks, with the palms against the mandible. The head is slightly tilted to the right, slumped into the shoulders, and the mouth is open.
A tie made of four strands, wound in pairs, maintains the folded position of the limbs by surrounding the mummy (Figure 4.3(c)). It passes to the front below the knees, opposite the middle of the forearms, then backwards at the level of the scapula and the upper thoracic spine. In this “hyperflexed” position, the mummy occupies a minimum space of 73 centimeters in height, 36 centimeters in bilateral width, and 38 centimeters in anteroposterior width.
The skin is gray-beige in color. It appears distended, especially on the face, where it covers part of the upper right orbit, or the occlusal surface of the lower teeth. The skin is eroded in places, and part of the skeleton is sometimes visible, especially on the extremities of the limbs: ankles/feet and hands (Figure 4.3(d)). On most of the body, the skin shows multiple traces of activity of necrophagous insects.
On the back of the skull, the skin is cut away to reveal a cranial cavity, which retains the trace of a large perforation of anthropic origin (Figure 4.3(b)). This craniectomy, commonly called cranial trepanation, is located at the level of the left lambdoid suture, straddling the left parietal bone and the occipital bone. It is subcircular in shape and has a “serrated” appearance at its edges, which suggests a multi-drilling technique for the extraction of a bone flap.
Figure 4.3. Current state of the mummy MNHN-HA-30187. (a) General photographs of the mummy. (b) Detail of the trepanation at the back of the skull. (c) Detail of the rope that binds the mummy. (d) Detail of the erosion of the skin observed on the feet, photos © MNHN – JC Domenech
4.2.2. Medical imaging protocol and technique
To transport the mummy to the hospital center for a CT scan6, and in anticipation of the examination itself, the mummy was packaged using radio-transparent material for two main reasons. The first was of a conservationist nature in order to limit direct contact