Quake Rocks Mummy Center - Archaeology Magazine Archive


Quake Rocks Mummy Center	October 17, 2001
by Lynda Tharratt

Centro Mallqui after the earthquake (Dawn Sturk) [LARGER IMAGE]

Research at Centro Mallqui, a vital center for mummy studies, has been delayed in the aftermath of a destructive earthquake. The usually peaceful surroundings of the El Algarrobal Valley near Ilo, Peru, heaved, roared, and began to shake on June 23 at about 3:30 in the afternoon. Gerry Conlogue, co-director of the Bioanthropology Research Institute at Quinnipiac University of Hamden, Connecticut, along with colleagues from the scientific community quickly took refuge in the doorway to the second floor kitchen at Centro Mallqui. The brick and cement structure flexed as if alive and bricks began coming down, causing head injuries to Conlogue and his wife. When the trembling stopped, the buildings of the Centro Mallqui compound had been all but destroyed. The earthquake was graded as an 8.4 on the Richter Scale.

Centro Mallqui (mallqui means "mummy"in the Quechua language) is an important archaeological study center for mummies of the Precolumbian Chiribaya people who lived in this region about A.D. 1000 to 1400. The mummies have attracted scientists from all over the world. Because of special geographic and climatic conditions, these mummies exhibit unparalleled states of preservation as do the pottery and textiles found with them.

"There are few places in the world where an entire population of mummies can be examined," explains Conlogue. "These are not a few select royal mummies but everyday people who died and ended up as mummies. They provide us with a snapshot of what life was like when they were alive--the diseases they had, the type of work they did, etc." Work at the center has been featured in programs by the Discovery Channel and National Geographic, among others.

A mummy ready for X-ray examination before the earthquake. (Dawn Sturk) [LARGER IMAGE]

The head of Centro Mallqui, Sonia Guillén, had begun a program for radiology students and scientists from the United States to participate in eight one-week programs of excavation and X-ray analysis. Guillén, a Peruvian bioarchaeologist, has been the driving force behind research at Centro Mallqui since 1993. She is also well known for her work with the Chachapoyas mummies in northern Peru. Unfortunately, with the center destroyed the program has been halted until new funding can be found. Luckily, the mummy collection at the center and the adjacent museum suffered little damage, and although the remains of the center have now been bulldozed, there is hope that the it will be rebuilt.

More about Centro Mallqui and Sonia Guillén can be found at www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/4932/eng_idx1.html.