Here are coupled the front views of two mummies taken from a common grave. The equipment of both while equally simple still testifies to the great affection lavished by the people on their dead.
Fig. 1. The outer wrapping of the mummy, put together of a coarse cotton material, is partly hid by a brown and white striped cloth hanging in front. No special distinction is implied even by the false head decked by long tresses of black-dyed aloe leaves and parrot feathers. The face was veiled by the white cloth hanging over the breast, and still showing the string with which it was fastened. A strap serves as a fillet, and the head is also swathed in a long, cotton bandage about a hand-width, the suspended ends of which are adorned with brown interwoven designs such as are peculiar to these wrappings.
On the shoulders, breast and back lie five small unskilfully woven cotton pouches, made fast together and in a way suspended round the mummy’s neck. In some of these pouches are still some decayed leaves, probably those of the Coca plant so endeared to the Indians. The lower portion of the mummy is girded with cords for the purpose of lowering it into the grave.
Fig. 2. This mummy, in its equipment substantially agreeing with the previous, is of small size. The pack is wrapped in a veil-like cloth, and the artificial head was originally shrouded in a similar material. The face is concealed by a round, straw-plaited, but brimless cap. The head is decked with ribbons and plumage, the former partly as ties, partly as fillets with coloured ends.
Both mummies were found in a state of decay, which rendered their preservation very difficult.
Source: The necropolis of Ancon in Peru: a contribution to our knowledge of the culture and industries of the empire of the Incas being the results of excavations made on the spot by Wilhelm Reiss and Alphons Stübel, 1880.
