MEAD, PERUVIAN MUMMIES LE 
Burials in stone towers or ‘“‘chulpas” seem to have been confined 
chiefly to the Aymara Indians of the Callao, the great plateau of the 
Andes which includes the basin of Lake Titicaca and lies between the two 
maritime cordilleras and the eastern range, out of which rise the lofty 
volcanic peaks of Ilimani and Sorata. In plan these chulpas are either 
circular or rectangular and are spoken of as round or square towers. 
A round burial tower is shown on page 2. Dr. yon Tschudi found 
chulpas in the Department of Junin, which may have been built by 
Aymara mitimaes, or translated colonies. Describing the burial towers 
near Palca, E. G. Squier says:' “ Primarily these chulpas 
consisted of a cist, or excavation, in the ground about four 
feet deep and three feet in diameter, walled up with rough stones. A 
rude arch of converging and overlapping stones, filled in or cemented 
Chulpas 
together with clay, was raised over this cist, with an opening barely 
large enough to admit the body of a man, on a level with the surface 
of the ground, towards the east. Over this hollow cone was raised a 
solid mass of clay and stones, which, in the particular chulpa I am now 
describing as a type of the whole, was 16 feet high, rectangular in 
plan, 73 feet face by 6 feet on the sides. The surface had been rough- 
cast with clay, and over this was a layer of finer and more tenacious 
clay or stucco, presenting a smooth and even surface.” 
One of the most remarkable specimens that the Department of 
Ethnology has acquired is a naturally mummified body which was 
found in an old copper mine at Chuquicamata, Province of Antofagasta, 
Chile, and which is illustrated on page 10. The condition of the body 
shows that the unfortunate miner was caught by a cave-in of the roof 
and partly crushed. The mummification seems to have been produced 
in part by the action of copper salts and not to have been altogether a 
desiccation due to the dryness of the region. The skin has 
: 3 Natural 
not collapsed on the bones, as in the mummies found usually 
: ; ay 
in the region, but the body and limbs preserve nearly their 
natural form and proportions, except for the crushing already men- 
tioned. No analysis has yet been made of the tissues, so that it is too 
early to hazard any supposition as to the chemical changes which they 
have undergone. Mines in this neighborhood have been worked for 
an unknown length of time upon a peculiar deposit of atacamite, a 
*Squier’s Peru, p. 243. 
