How old is the art of embalming the dead and where did it originate? This is one of those eternal archaeological questions that is constantly reinforced and altered with the arrival of new evidence. In the realm of popular history, mummification has been associated with the ancient Egyptian civilization and the grand pharaohs of yesteryear, but the Chinese, the ancient people of the Canary Islands, the Guanches, and many pre-Columbian societies of South America engaged in this practice . A new study published in the European Journal of Archaeology has found human remains from 8,000 years ago in the Sado Valley in Portugal, emerging as the oldest and first evidence of Mesolithic mummification in Europe.
A Brief History of Mummification
In terms of dating though, this is now officially the oldest evidence of mummification anywhere in the world, surpassing the deliberate mummification of the Chinchorro mummies found in the Atacama desert in Chile dated to 7,000 years ago, or Egypt, where the earliest evidence is from 5,600 years ago. The study was conducted by Uppsala University, Linnaeus University, and the Universidade de Lisboa in Portugal.
Read Full Article »