Climate change turning Earth’s oldest mummies into black ooze

Chinchorro mummies dating as far back as 5000 B.C. are displayed at the University of Tarapacas San Miguel de Azapa museum in Arica, Chile. Photos: TNS

For thousands of years, the mummies lay buried beneath the sands of the Atacama Desert, a volcanically active region along the northern Chilean coast with virtually no rainfall.

When the first ones were discovered 100 years ago, archaeologists marvelled at the ancient relics, some of them foetuses, their little bodies amazingly intact.