Chachapoya mummies from the Laguna Huayabamba

Beyond the material recovered from the laguna de los Cóndores by Dr. Sonia Guillén and Adriana von Hagen, the nature of Chachapoya mortuary ritual and body processing techniques has rarely been described. This paper reports on another Chachapoya site that contained mummified remains, the Laguna Huayabamba. Located near the modern town of Uchucmarca, the Laguna Huayabamba consists of a large residential sector and a cliff-side funerary complex. The mummified and skeletal remains described here were recovered from a single tomb. The remains represent approximately 48 individuals including (1) mummy bundles with varying degrees of preservation, (2) disarticulated crania, and (3) primary interments. Textile samples taken from one of the mummy bundles have been radiocarbon dated to 1100 AD, well before the 1472 AD Inka invasion of the region. This paper presents new data on Chachapoya body processing techniques and explores some of the implications for our understanding of mortuary ritual.