Sujet

Peruvian Mummies, 1850. Creator: Unknown.

Légende

Peruvian Mummies, 1850. 'Two days' journey from Calama lies an old Peruvian burial-place, called Chin-Chin. The bodies are there in a semicircle, to the number of 500 or 600 - men, women, and children - all in a sitting posture, staring vacantly forward, and partly decayed, partly covered with sand...The general opinion is, that these bodies were buried here, but it is most probable that they buried themselves. For, in the first place, there is no place near where they could have lived; and, secondly, there are amongst these mummies several women with sucklings at their breast. Lastly, the fact of their being all in the same position, and with an expression of pain, which is yet visible on their countenances, may serve to shew that these miserable creatures withdrew themselves from the ravages of the Spaniards, and, in despair, sought death in this awful wilderness.' From "Illustrated London News", 1850.

Crédit

Photo12/Heritage Images/The Print Collector

Notre référence

HRM22A36_317

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

Licence

Droits gérés

Format disponible

64,2Mo (3,6Mo) / 38,3cm x 42,0cm / 4524 x 4960 (300dpi)

Mots clés

unusual mysterious country desert British geography dead dried death mystery location Victorian century Britain newspapers press Peru Peruvian concept mummy mummies B&W Atacama Desert engraved engraving gruesome dead body 19th century black & white black and white B W dead bodies mummification nineteenth century dessicated The Print Collector geographical feature Illustrated London News ILN newspaper Unknown mummified 19th-century