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These beautifully preserved mummies were made through a long and painstaking process. Sadly, the future for the ancient Chinchorro mummies is uncertain thanks to the forces of climate change. Rising temperatures are allowing microbes to flourish, threatening to turn the mummies in “black ooze.”

The Chinchorro people were the first in the world to preserve their dead in this fashion, and it was not an easy process for them.

First, the body’s organs were removed and replaced with natural fibers and ash.

Then, the body’s skin was removed and replaced with clay. The face was also covered in a clay mask before the entire body was wrapped in reeds to dry.

What made mummification in Chinchorro culture even more notable is how people of all social classes underwent the process. In ancient Egypt and other mummy-producing cultures, mummification was only reserved for the elite.

Sadly, climate change is now threatening these remarkably well-preserved mummies.

Increases in humidity have allowed microbes on the mummies’ skin to flourish, which could potentially lead to rapid decomposition.

Scientists say they are already seeing some signs of decomposition of the 120 mummies at the University of Tarapaca’s archeological museum in northern Chile.

While humidity levels can be controlled in a museum, there are still hundreds of mummies buried in the valleys of northern Chile. For these undiscovered mummies, help may not come fast enough to escape decomposition.

Climate change now threatens to erase our past as well as our future. I hope researchers can get to those still-buried mummies before it’s too late.

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Up until now the Tomb of Osiris had only been a myth in Egypt. Now archaeologists are able to look upon this wonder with their own two eyes.

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5000 years of awesome cat ladies.

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Snow in Egypt for the first time in 100 years.

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Images circulating on social media Friday of a snow covered Sphinx are in fact of a miniature model at Tobu World Square theme park in Japan. These two images of a snow covered Sphinx were widely shared on social media Friday.

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