He was buried alongside fishing tools, so the researchers determined he likely came from a fishing community. One male mummy likely came from the Arica culture in what is now northern Chile. Radiocarbon dating revealed that the mummies were between 740 and 1,120 years old, meaning they predated the colonial Spanish period. In this case, researchers studied mummies that were preserved in the very dry environments of South America and being held by museums in Germany and Switzerland. Human bodies can be naturally mummified in dry, cold or other extreme environments, as these environments interfere with the process of decay that normally destroys soft tissues and organs.
