MUMMIFICATION IN PERU
A
recent scientific breakthrough has enabled scientists to learn new
details about the ancient mummified remains of people from the Incan
civilisation and those that came before.
Mummification was an ancient Andean way to worship ancestors.
The Incas, and likely cultures before them, believed there was a link between the living and the gods.
As
a result, mummies would be 'consulted' on important occasions and were
often given 'places of honour' near temples and on high ground.
They used artificial techniques such as embalming and drying out the flesh, known as desiccation, to preserve their dead.
Others,
especially victims of an ancient ritual of sacrifice called capacocha,
were drugged before taken into the mountains to die, where the freezing
dry climate preserved their bodies.
Capacocha was the Inca practice of human sacrifice, mainly using children.
Spanish
conquerors during the 16th century were reportedly so disgusted by the
ritual they destroyed many mummies after looting their graves.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3336096/Mystery-SITTING-mummies-1-000-year-old-bodies-pre-Incan-civilisation-buried-looking-sea.html#ixzz3skmhiAsB
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