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CHILEAN MUMMY 87 
The special exhibits in the gallery rail cases include quipus used to 
keep accounts, charms and medicines, coca which was chewed with lime, 
and shells that were found in mummy bundles and in the graves. A 
number of the chicha jars are on exhibition on top of the cases. 
In the first case to the left (south side) is a collection of skulls showing 
many examples of trephining, artificial deformation, and 
pathological conditions, together with a number of normal 
Peruvian skulls for comparison. 
The wall case at the left of the entrance contains mummy bundles and 
various objects showing the burial customs of the Peruvians. In no part 
of America are found so many and so extensive burial 
a places as in the coast region of Peru. Here were interred 
countless thousands of the ancient dead. In the huacas or 
graves, with the bodies, were placed such articles as had been most 
useful and highly prized during life, and such as it was considered would 
be most serviceable in a future life. 
To this custom we are indebted for no small part of our knowledge of 
the daily life of the ancient Peruvians. From the mummy bundles and 
graves all the objects in the extensive collections in this hall, illustrating 
their civilization, have been obtained. The wonderful state of preserva- 
tion shown in the textile fabrics and other perishable materials from the 
coast regions is due to the extreme dryness of the climate and the nitrous 
character of the soil. [See Guide Leaflet No. 24.] 
The mummy in the case at the west end of the room was found in a 
copper mine at Chuquicamata, Chile. The body is that of 
an Indian miner who was killed by the falling in of rocks 
and earth while engaged in getting out the copper ore 
(atacamite) used by the Indians in making implements and ornaments in 
prehistoric times. The tissues of the body have been preserved by 
copper salts with which it is impregnated. The implements he was 
using at the time of his death are shown beside him in the case. 
On the south side of the hall are the ethnological collections from 
Brazil, British Guiana, Paraguay and Colombia. War implements, 
basketry, featherwork, and musical instruments, etc., are arranged in 
these cases. 
Trephined 
Skulls 
Chilean 
Mummy 
