Chinchorro mummies

The Chinchorros were a South American nomadic people. They lived in the 5th millennium BC in northern Chile and southern Peru around the water holes in the desert of Atacama, as well as on the coast of the Pacific and subsisted chiefly from fishing. They became known by its richly groomed children mummies, otherwise we know little about them.

Science has remained unclear why the simple living nomads practiced such a highly developed elaborate death ritual. Today we know that a natural occurring high concentration of arsenic in drinking water in northern Chile. The resulting high infant mortality may have led to the bizarre practices. Initially, the children's bodies were covered with mud and dried in the sun, and later took them to the intestines, the bodies were filled with plants and decorated.