In Peru (South America), there is a cemetery that makes people’s hair stand on end when they mention it, because the cemetery has strange skeletons that always have their jaws wide open as if they were “smiling from ear to ear”.
The 1,000-year-old skeletons in Chauchilla cemetery , located only about 30km from Nazca city, are located on the edge of the desert. According to scientists, this is an indigenous cemetery, established in the 9th century, more than 1,000 years ago. The owners of the graves in the cemetery belong to the Nazca civilization.
The Nazca civilization flourished from about 100 to 800 AD. However, this civilization declined and mysteriously disappeared. It is possible that desertification caused the civilization to disappear quietly. The Nazca cemetery was also buried by the desert and was only discovered in the early 20th century.
For a long time, this area was shrouded in terrible, ghostly rumors. People called this place the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Desert, or Death Valley, to indicate the deathliness of the land. Murders and robberies often took place here, making no one dare to pᴀss through.
Archaeological excavations have uncovered many interesting things. Dry skeletons were discovered in a sitting position in the tombs. Scientists have explained that the natives here may have buried their ᴅᴇᴀᴅ in a sitting position. The strange thing is that the living intervened to make the skeletons “smile with their mouths wide open”.
What is hard to explain is that the hair of these skeletons is still intact, even soft after 1,000 years in the tomb. Most likely, the skeletons in the large tombs deep in the desert belong to the chiefs, or prestigious people in the tribe.
Scientists also discovered traces of wealth in the tombs. However, most of the tombs were broken into and robbed of their wealth. All that remained in the tombs were dry skeletons “smiling with their mouths wide open”.
Scientists have not found any mummification techniques. However, ancient people knew how to take advantage of the dry, H๏τ climate of the desert to bury their ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. The desert environment has preserved the remains extremely well. In any case, the Chauchilla cemetery with its strange smiling skeletons is still a place with many mysteries that need to be explored by scientists.
