and archeo-entomological study.
4.1. Introduction
The scientific appeal of the Musée de l’Homme’s Chachapoya mummy on the cultural, funereal, paleoanthropological and even medical levels is closely linked to museum and conservation issues. Exhibited at the Palais de Chaillot for more than a century, its long museographic history mirrors the scientific and scenographic evolution of the Muséum. It claimed its place in the “history of art” as the inspiration for Edward Munch’s The Scream and several other works by Paul Gauguin. It fascinates people far beyond the realm of natural sciences, and continues to be a key figure in the Muséum’s anthropological collections. In spite of its fame, the mummy MNHN-HA-30187 (formerly 1879.1.22) had only been the subject of occasional, scattered expert appraisals, which have remained unpublished to date. This chapter aims to bring together these different analyses and to present their main results. Medical imaging, which gives non-invasive access to the internal anatomy of the body – organic and skeletal remains – allows us to determine the biological and health identity of the deceased. Combined with experimental research aimed at reproducing the cranial trepanation seen on the individual, as well as a specific analysis of insect remains discovered on the subject’s skin, this data accurately documents the mortuary practices applied to the body of the deceased prior to mummification.
4.1.1. The Muséum’s collection of human mummies
Because of the quantity and chrono/geographical diversity of its specimens, the Muséum’s anthropology collection is one of the four largest of its kind in the world. It consists of approximately 200 complete or partial bodies from the five continents, dated between the 2nd millennium BCE and the 19th century CE. More broadly, the category of mummies extends to all human remains that include soft tissue: eviscerated and bandaged bodies, autopsy and skeletonized mummies, shrunken heads (“tsantzas”), anatomical preparations, dried skin, and even scalps. The term “mummy” does not presume the preservation method of the body, which may be the result of intentional preparation or of a favorable natural environment (cold and anaerobic, for example). It was from the 19th century onwards that the current collection of anthropological pieces of the Muséum, mummified or not, was essentially created (Froment and Mennecier 2014)1. However, some pieces were collected well before this date. The oldest complete mummy preserved in the collections, for example, was given to the Cabinet du Roi in 1756 2. The anthropology collection, which has grown through expeditions, donations, acquisitions and deposits, has been housed at the Musée de l’Homme since its creation in 1937, after having been merged with, on this same site, the collections of the former Musée d’ethnographie du Trocadéro.
In the context of the renovation of the Musée de l’Homme (carried out from 2009 to 2015), a major inventory work, coupled with a phase of protection and restoration of the mummified remains, was undertaken in 2006 by A. Raggi3. This work made it possible to update a detailed inventory of the collection to produce an illustrated condition report and to ensure an optimal conservation framework for each specimen through an adapted individual reconditioning. In 2018, the mummy collection, temporarily stored on the Jardin des Plantes site, was returned to the Musée de l’Homme, along with the rest of the Muséum’s anthropology collections. It now occupies a dedicated room, with controlled temperature and humidity, and can now be consulted again.
The laborious work of “technically” repairing the mummies was the sine qua non of any research work pertaining to the collection. The CNRS research group (GDR 3446) “Centre d’investigation et de recherche sur les momies” (CIRM), led by A. Froment4 from 2011 to 2015, laid the groundwork for a multidisciplinary scientific experiment, in collaboration with various research institutes, museums and health professionals. The definitive return of the collection to the Musée de l’Homme and its “reopening” to researchers was for us, former participants of the GDR and current Muséum staff attached to the mummy collection, an opportunity to initiate a new phase of collective work aiming, first of all, to synthesize the analyses carried out on the Chachapoya mummy MNHN-HA-30187.
4.1.2. Origin, discovery, donation and exhibition: a brief history of the mummy
The Incas named Chachapoyas, or “warriors of the clouds”, large populations with white skin who lived in the Inca province. Organized into autonomous regions between the 9th and 15th centuries CE, they were colonized by the soldiers of the Inca emperor Tupac Yupanqui between the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century (de Cieza de León 1984). Their territory extended approximately 65,000 km2, in the north of the Andes in modern-day Peru, between 2,000 and 3,200 m of altitude (Cornejo García 2002). For pre-Hispanic Andean societies, the dead participated in creation myths and in defining local families or ayllu (Doyle 1998), over whom they could exercise power, beneficial or otherwise (Mantha 2009; Lau 2013). These influential ancestors thus required care and attention from the living (de Arriaga 1968). The Chachapoya dead were found in a variety of contexts and funereal structures: in individual anthropomorphic or purunmachus sarcophagi, inside collective structures with the appearance of limestone houses, chullpas, and sometimes in caves (Kauffmann et al. 1989; Nystrom 2003; Schjellerup 2005; Knutson 2006; Fabre et al. 2008). Corpses could be buried until the flesh decomposed, then exhumed so that their bones could be gathered and wrapped in cloth (Nystrom 2003; Friedrich et al. 2010). Other bodies were, on the contrary, voluntarily preserved through embalming. Evisceration was performed through an anatomical orifice of the corpse (vagina, anus), which was then plugged with a rolled up cloth pad. In order to preserve a certain volume of the body, cotton balls were inserted between the teeth, cheeks, and nose (Guillén 1998; Wild et al. 2007). The body was finally placed in a folded position, knees brought to the face, fingers bound and tied to the head, and then wrapped with several layers of cloth made up in fardo.
Figure 4.1. Current state of the discovery site of the Chachapoya mummy MNHN-HA-30187, photo © S. Ziemendorff
It was in 1877 that the explorer P. Vidal-Senèze discovered the Chachapoya mummy, in the heart of the Utcubamba valley of the Piedra Grande mountain. According to the descriptions given by P. Vidal-Senèze, this one was laid to rest, with others, in a tomb in the shape of a “spherical cap, or of a beehive of bees” (Vidal-Senèze 1877), made of stone and clay, overhung by a sculpted top and nestled in the side of cliff (Figure 4.1). The mummies were wrapped in cloth and rope at the time of their discovery and accompanied by objects, bags and pottery. Four of them were sent to France (Vidal-Seneze 1877; Vidal-Senèze and Noctzli 1877).
The mummy MNHN-HA-30187 entered the collections of the Musée d’ethnographie du Trocadéro’s (MET) Department of America in 1879, two years after its discovery; it was registered in the inventories under the number 1879.1.22 (“Vidal-Senèze collection”). Less than 20 years later, E.-T. Hamy, director of the MET, gave a description of it in a book dedicated to the American gallery of the Muséum (Hamy 1897). We learn here that the mummy was presented to the public, stripped of its cloth envelope. It was cordoned off and accompanied by a tapestry bag with geometric designs. Next to it was another mummy from the Vidal-Senèze collection (no. 1879.1.21) swaddled in its original wrapping (Figure 4.2(a)). The mummy remained on public display after the creation of the Musée de l’Homme, in the section dedicated to “New America” (Figures 4.2(b) and (c)). It became part of the Muséum’s anthropology collection in 1981.
The closing of the Musée de l’Homme for its refurbishment, which lasted between 2009 and 2015, was an opportunity for a detailed assessment of the mummy’s state of conservation.
