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1 1 A period in French history under the rule of Louis XIII and Louis XIV. The period was known for the development of art and literature.
4
Rediscovering Human Mummies: Unpublished data on the Chachapoya Mummy Exhibited at the Musée de l’Homme
Aline THOMAS1, Arnaud ANSART2, Christophe BOU3, Jean-Bernard HUCHET3,4, Véronique LABORDE5, Samuel MERIGEAUD6 and Éloïse QUETEL7
1 EA – CNRS, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Université Paris Diderot, France
2 Consultant
3 PACEA, UFR Sciences Odontologiques, CNRS – Université de Bordeaux, Pessac, France
4 AASPE, ISYEB – CNRS, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Université, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Université des Antilles, Paris, France
5 DGDcoll, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France
6 Clinique du Parc, Castelnau-le-Lez, France
7 Pôle Patrimoine, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
As a biological, archaeological and ethnographic vestige, the mummy is at the intersection of multidisciplinary issues and requires the use of adapted tools and techniques. By presenting the work carried out on the Chachapoya mummy, an emblematic figure of the Musée de l’Homme, this chapter presents the means used to study the mummified human remains of the Muséum’s anthropological collections. After a brief historical review (chrono–cultural origin of the mummy, context of its discovery, its entry into collections, up to its current exhibition), this chapter puts forward for the first time an illustrated scientific assessment of the mummy, obtained by means of various analyses: bio-medical exploration (virtual autopsy by scanner imaging), comparative experimentation (cranial trepanation) 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