How people smoke-dried the world's oldest mummies

HostWhen most of us hear the word mummy, we think of golden masks, giant stone tombs, and the dry sands of Egypt. But the oldest mummies ever found actually come from the coast of South America, made by a group of fishers thousands of years before the first pharaoh was even born. What's really wild is how they did it, because they didn't just wrap people up and hope for the best. How did these people actually manage to keep their loved ones from turning to dust for so long?

GuestIt's a bit of a shock to realize just how far back this goes. These people were the Chinchorro, and they lived in what's now Chile and Peru. This is in the Atacama desert, which is one of the driest spots on the whole planet. We used to think that the desert sand did all the work by just sucking the moisture out of the bodies, which does happen naturally. But about seven thousand years ago, these people started doing something much more active and, frankly, a lot more intense. They weren't just letting nature take its course. They were basically taking the bodies apart and building them back up from scratch to make sure they lasted forever.

HostBut if the desert is already that dry, why go through all that trouble? If you leave something out in the sun there, it basically turns into leather on its own, right?

GuestThat's how it started, but they eventually wanted more control over the result. They moved from just letting the sun do the work to a very hands-on craft. The way they made what we call the black mummies is pretty staggering. They would start by taking the body apart completely. They removed the skin, the muscles, and all the soft parts inside. They even took out the brain through the nose or a hole in the skull. Once they had just the bones, they would use heat and smoke to dry everything out. This is where the smoke-drying comes in. They would hang the skin up like pieces of cloth and use small fires to pull every bit of water out of the tissue. They did the same for the bones. If there's no water, there's no rot.

HostSo they're essentially working with a kit of parts at that point. Once everything is dried out by the smoke and the fire, how do you make it look like a person again?

GuestThey were like master builders. They would take the clean, dry bones and tie them together with sticks to make the frame of the body stiff. They used cords made of hair or plants to keep the joints in place. Then they would fill the empty space where the guts used to be with stuff like dried grass, animal hair, or even wood ash. Once the shape was right, they would fit the dried skin back over the frame, almost like putting a glove back on a hand. If the skin had torn or wasn't enough to cover it all, they would use pieces of sea lion skin to patch the gaps.

HostThat sounds like it would look pretty rough. Does it actually end up looking like the person who died?

GuestNot exactly. They weren't trying to make a perfect copy of a living face. They would cover the whole thing, head to toe, in a thick layer of black clay. They would model the face out of this clay, giving it a mouth and eyes. They would even put a wig made of human hair on the head. So you end up with this jet-black, stiff, heavy statue that contains the real bones and skin of the person. It was a very deliberate look. And they did this for everyone, not just kings or rich people. They did it for babies, for the old, and for everyone in between.

HostIt seems like a massive amount of work for a small group of fishers who are just trying to find enough food to survive. Why spend weeks rebuilding a person who's already gone?

GuestThis is where we have to change how we think about the dead. Most of the time, we think of mummies as things to be buried and hidden away in a deep dark hole. But the Chinchorro didn't hide them. These mummies have been found with wear and tear on them, and some even have holes in the bottoms of their feet where sticks could be pushed in to stand them up. It looks like they kept the mummies in their homes or brought them to big gatherings. They weren't saying goodbye. They were keeping the person as a member of the family who just happened to stop breathing.

HostSo the smoke and the clay weren't just about the afterlife, but about keeping them in the room with you.

GuestRight, it was about staying together. If you can see your grandfather every morning, even if he's covered in black clay, is he really gone? But there's a sad twist to this now. Because the world is getting warmer and the air in that desert is getting more damp, those mummies are starting to change. A type of tiny bug or mold that lives in the skin is starting to wake up because of the moisture. After seven thousand years of staying perfectly dry and solid, some of these mummies are actually starting to turn into a kind of black slime.

HostThe very air that those families breathed together is now what's finally pulling them apart.

GuestThose black faces are melting away because the desert isn't as dry as it used to be.

HostThe sticks and the clay kept the family whole for thousands of years, but even the driest place on earth can't hold back the change in the wind forever.