<P> The Chinchorro mummies are mummified remains of individuals from the South American Chinchorro culture, found in what is now northern Chile . They are the oldest examples of artificially mummified human remains, having been buried up to two thousand years before the Egyptian mummies . While the earliest mummy that has been found in Egypt dated around 3000 BC, the oldest anthropogenically modified Chinchorro mummy dates from around 5050 BC . </P> <P> The oldest naturally mummified mummy recovered from the Atacama Desert is dated around 7020 BC . </P>

When did cultures in peru begin the practice of mummification