MEAD, PERUVIAN MUMMIES 11 



Burials in stone towers or "chulpas" seem to have been confined 

 chiefly to the Armani 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 Illimani 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. von 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: 1 " Primarily these chulpas r , 

 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 

 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, 1\ feet face by 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 



JJa f, 111*3, 1 



not collapsed on the bones, as in the mummies found usually „ 

 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 



1 Squier's Peru, p. 243. 



