Europe’s oldest mummies discovered in Portugal
During excavations carried out between 1958 and 1964 in Arapouco, in the Vale do S., in southern Portugal, a kind of excavation of remains of shells, molluscs and fish was found, as well as stone or metal tools, pieces of ceramics and weapons. . A “real mine” for researchers, as information about everything that was found was also discovered about human behavior during prehistory.
In addition to the animals and objects, archeologists also have more skeletons of 100 people from the Stone Age. Most of these mummies have been dated between 8,150 and 7,000 years ago. However, its record “left a lot to be desired”.
According to the secret, the exact files on the excavation site were missing, so the original position of the skeletons and the discovered location were not created in the information files to be accurately reconstructed. Fortunately, Portuguese archaeologist João Luís Cardoso recently discovered two undeveloped film rolls from the initial excavation.
With the help of these images, a team from Uppsala University in Sweden, led by R Stje, managed to get the burials with more detail and “really impressive” results.
First, stone age settlements in Europe were recorded, “giving the oldest evidence of stone in Europe”, “giving the oldest evidence of stone in Europe”, with the study published in the European Journal of Archeology.
The fact that this deliberate mummification practice has existed in Europe for 8,000 years is, according to 8 experts, “relevant”, since the oldest preserved mummies in the world come from the Chinchorro culture (there are many older preserved mummies in Chile). in the world) ). This culture managed to muify their dead more than two thousand years before the Egyptians, about 5 thousand years ago, to preserve them after death.
The two mummies in Portugal “stand out for the unusual position of the bodies”. For mummification, his “arms and legs were so bent that there was almost no space between the bones”. The research team first suspects that “the dead were wrapped tightly and then air- or fire-dried for a while before being buried.
Furthermore, those responsible believe that all the characteristics of the people “clearly indicate that these people were not inserted immediately after their death but were prepared in a previously unknown way before burial”, highlights the study. Likewise, investigators also suspect that this mummification procedure was intended to “facilitate the transport of the dead to another burial place”.