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First Mummies May Have Been Inspired by Field of Corpses
sciencehabit writes with a story about a field strewn with corpses in shallow graves. From the article: "Trekking through Chile's Atacama Desert 7000 years ago, hunter-gatherers known as the Chinchorro walked in the land of the dead. Thousands of shallowly buried human bodies littered the earth, their leathery corpses pockmarking the desolate surroundings. According to new research, the scene inspired the Chinchorro to begin mummifying their dead, a practice they adopted roughly 3000 years before the Egyptians embraced it."
Out of all the years I've been watching /., I don't think I've ever seen a more bad-ass story title.
It was space aliens. Ancient civilizations were all developed by space aliens who came to Earth for some unknown reason, and decided to teach us everything.
I can only answer one of those questions, but as far as how it supported a human population, the Atacama desert is an odd place: almost all of it is extremely dry and uninhabitable, but there are several oases that host some of the earliest sites of advanced civilization in the Americas.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Hard to say, really. They may still be out there, or they may have been rounded up and (mostly) buried when the region was converted to Christianity back in the 16th-17th century or so. Probably a bit of both, considering that scientists are still stumbling across the things.
Hell, for all we know, they may have suffered the same fate as all too many Egyptian mummies, which were used as literal firewood and train boiler fuel, among other things.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
I lived in the Atacama dessert for a couple of years so I can attest to the oasis concept, at least in part. For the most part I lived in cities and didn't know where I got my water, although I know there is one main river that makes it down to Antofagasta (the Loa river). But one time I took a trip a few hours inland. Now, keep in mind, the Atacama dessert (apart from the cities) isn't like your Mojave or anything like that, with tumbleweeds and Joshua trees and cacti. It's more like the surface of the moon (in fact there is a "valle de la luna"). Between cities there is nothing but dirt.
At any rate, we eventually arrived at any incredible oasis. A nice stream flowing in a small valley, or more like a tunnel or crevice. I don't know if they were planted but there were tons of fruit trees (membrillo). Lots of lush vegetation. It was truly amazing, like something out of a movie, except you didn't see it until you were there because it was down below the surface.