“Four pre-Colombian mummies have been handed over to the government of Chile at the Ethnography Museum in Geneva. Two of them are among the oldest in the world,” said Switzerland’s federal cultural office.
A third mummy is from an undetermined date during the pre-Columbian period, which was before the appearance of Europeans.
The last mummy dates from the time of the first contact with the Spanish.
Besides the mummies, the private collection also included other human remains in an “advanced state of degradation”, which will therefore be buried in Geneva.
Experts had been unable to determine their cultural origin or date them, said the culture office.
The mummies are being handed to Chile’s Council of National Monuments and will be conserved in museums.
