Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: What is the oldest human mummy?
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,[1] the oldest anthropogenically modified Chinchorro mummy dates from around 5050 BC.
The Plomo Mummy (also known as Boy of El Plomo, El Plomo Mummy, or La Momia del Cerro El Plomo in Spanish) is the well preserved remains of an Incan child found on Cerro El Plomo near Santiago, Chile in 1954. It was discovered by Guillermo Chacón Carrasco, Jaime Ríos Abarca, and Luis Gerardo Ríos Barrueto. The mummy was brought to the attention of Grete Mostny at the Chilean National Museum of Natural History; she later proved instrumental in the museum's acquisition of the specimen. The Plomo Mummy was the first notable frozen mummy discovery of high-altitude human sacrifice by the Incas, a practice called "qhapaq hucha".
The oldest natural mummy in Europe was discovered in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps on the Austrian-Italian border. Nicknamed Ötzi, the mummy is a 5,300-year-old male believed to be a member of the Tamins-Carasso-Isera cultural group of South Tyrol. Despite his age, a recent DNA study conducted by Walther Parson of Innsbruck Medical University revealed Ötzi has 19 living genetic relatives.
The European continent is home to a diverse spectrum of spontaneous and anthropogenic mummies. Some of the best-preserved mummies have come from bogs located across the region. The Capuchin monks that inhabited the area left behind hundreds of intentionally-preserved bodies that have provided insight into the customs and cultures of people from various eras. One of the oldest, and most infamous, mummies (nicknamed Ötzi) was discovered on this continent. New mummies continue to be uncovered in Europe well into the 21st Century.
In addition to the well-known mummies of ancient Egypt, deliberate mummification was a feature of several ancient cultures in areas of America and Asia with very dry climates. The Spirit Cave mummies of Fallon, Nevada in North America were accurately dated at more than 9,400 years old. Before this discovery, the oldest known deliberate mummy was a child, one of the Chinchorro mummies found in the Camarones Valley, Chile, which dates around 5050 BC. The oldest known naturally mummified human corpse is a severed head dated as 6,000 years old, found in 1936 AD at the site named Inca Cueva No. 4 in South America. 
"Egyptian Mummies" uses two mummies and their tomb artifacts to teach how the ancient civilization of Egypt preserved its dead. In 2016, the mummies were subjected to CT scan at multiple wavelengths at the Children's Hospital in Aurora, Colorado, to determine what is wrapped with the mummies
For a brief time in Europe, an unusual form of cannibalism occurred when thousands of Egyptian mummies preserved in bitumen were ground up and sold as medicine. The practice developed into a wide-scale business which flourished until the late 16th century. This "fad" ended because the mummies were revealed actually to be recently killed slaves. Two centuries ago, mummies were still believed to have medicinal properties against bleeding, and were sold as pharmaceuticals in powdered form (see human mummy confection and mummia).
Egyptians believed that the afterlife would be a continuation of this one, allowing for the transportation of items from this life to the next. In order to bring food to the afterlife, Egyptians would surround human mummies by what are known as victual mummies. These animals were prepared by dehydrating the meat and wrapping it in linen bandages, to indicate that the animals were food, not pets. They were not mummified to the same meticulous extent that a pet or human mummy would be, but the animals were nonetheless carefully preserved using natron and other special salts. This food was included in tombs in order to sustain the deceased person’s soul, called the ka, during the journey to the next world. A variety of food has been found in many tombs, mostly breads, meats, and fowl. King Tutankhamen’s tomb held several coffin shaped wooden boxes containing this type of mummified animal, in his case duck and other types of meat.
Ötzi (), also called the Iceman, the Similaun Man (), the Man from Hauslabjoch, the Tyrolean Iceman, and the Hauslabjoch mummy, is the well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived between 3400 and 3100 BCE. The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, hence the nickname "Ötzi", near Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy. He is Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and has offered an unprecedented view of Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Europeans. His body and belongings are displayed in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy.
The oldest tool finds in the region, evidence of human settlement are approximately thousands of years old. Most famous example is 
a well-preserved natural mummy of a man who lived around 3,300 BCE with the nickname Ötzi; he is also called the Iceman, the Similaun Man, the Man from Hauslabjoch, the Tyrolean Iceman, Homo tyrolensis, and the Hauslabjoch mummy. Ötzi was found in 1991 in the nearby Schnalstal glacier near the Fineilspitze and the Similaun. The Ötzi monument is located about an hour's walk from the Similaun Hut.
The distinguishing factor between the process of non-human animal and human mummification is when the two types were mummified. Humans had been mummified consistently since the days of the early conquerors of Lower Egypt, hundreds of years before even the first non-human animal was mummified. The earliest signs of non-human animal mummies are dated to the Badarian Predynastic Period (5500–4000BC) after the unification of upper and lower Egypt. It is likely that animal mummies did not exist earlier on because mummification was less accessible primarily due to cost. 
In general, the mummifying of animals was not given the careful attention afforded to humans. Mummies sold to pilgrims as offerings were only minimally treated, and unlike humans, even the most sacred of animals, such as the Apis bulls, did not have their internal organs preserved. The large scale of production indicates that relatively little care and expense was involved in animal preparation compared to human mummies. However, recent radiological studies by archeologists indicate that animal mummification may more closely follow human mummification than was originally thought. The accepted view is that animals were merely wrapped in coarse linen bandages and/or dipped in resin after death. However, as with human mummification there was a range in terms of the quality of treatments. A simple visual analysis of the mummies suggests that some animal mummies were treated with the same complexity as those of humans. Egyptians treated animals with great respect, regarding them both as domestic pets and representatives of the gods. The presence of fats, oils, beeswax, sugar gum, petroleum bitumen, and coniferous cedar resins in animal mummies shows that the chemicals used to embalm animals were similar to those used on humans.
The artificial mummies of Chinchorro are believed to have first appeared around 5000 BC and reached a peak around 3000 BC. Often Chinchorro mummies were elaborately prepared by removing the internal organs and replacing them with vegetable fibers or animal hair. In some cases an embalmer would remove the skin and flesh from the dead body and replace them with clay. Radiocarbon dating reveals that the oldest discovered anthropogenically modified Chinchorro mummy was that of a child from a site in the Camarones Valley, about 60 miles (97km) south of Arica in Chile and dates from around 5050 BC. The mummies continued to be made until about 1800 BC, making them contemporary with Las Vegas culture and Valdivia culture in Ecuador and the Norte Chico civilization in Peru.
An Aztec mummy is resurrected in a ceremony in which the blood of a human sacrifice is dripped onto the mummified remains. The mummy possesses a scepter with a jewel that can be used to control people’s minds for purposes of world conquest. Mil Máscaras learns of the mummy’s plans and is determined to thwart him.
Mummies of humans and other animals have been found on every continent, both as a result of natural preservation through unusual conditions, and as cultural artifacts. Over one million animal mummies have been found in Egypt, many of which are cats. Many of the Egyptian animal mummies are sacred ibis, and radiocarbon dating suggests the Egyptian Ibis mummies that have been analyzed were from time frame that falls between approximately 450 and 250 BC.
At least one Chinchorro mummy bears remarkable witness to the antiquity of tattooing in the region. The remains of a male with a mustache-like dotted line tattooed above his upper lip and dating to 1880 +/- 100 BC (2563–1972 cal BC) is believed to represent the oldest direct evidence of tattooing in the Americas and the fourth-oldest such evidence in the world.[13][14]
The Spirit Cave mummy is the oldest human mummy found in North America. It was discovered in 1940 in Spirit Cave, east of Fallon, Nevada by the husband-and-wife archaeological team of Sydney and Georgia Wheeler.
Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi ("Long ago person found" in the Southern Tutchone language of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations), was found in August 1999 by three First Nations hunters at the edge of a glacier in Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada. According to the Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi Project, the remains are the oldest well preserved mummy discovered in North America. (It should be noted that the Spirit Cave mummy although not well preserved, is much older.) Initial radiocarbon tests date the mummy to around 550 years-old.
Only appearing in "Marvel Family" #79. The Mad Mummy, a denizen of the Nether World, wreaked havoc on ancient Egypt by indiscriminantly slaying men and women, cackling over his human carnage, and by attempting to overthrow the world of the living. The ancient Shazam imprisoned the Mummy in a pyramid tomb for the Mummy’s crimes. Shazam dropped the tomb to the bottom of the ocean.
Thousands of years later… archeologists Professor Joplin and Professor Beatty discovered the Pyramid of Peril after they deciphered ancient parchments leading to its location. When a giant octopus attacked Beatty during a dive to discover the entrance of the tomb, the Mighty Marvels flew in to rescue the terrified diver. Cap, Mary, and Junior also raised the pyramid and delivered it to dry land. In exchange for opening the pyramid, the Marvels struck a deal with Joplin so that their alter egos could join in on the discovery. Inside the pyramid, Joplin and his team ignored repeated warnings not to let loose the Mad Mummy, ignoring a warning written by the ancient wizard Shazam! Joplin cavalierly opened the mummy’s sarcophagus and then loosed the still animated mummy on the modern world. The mummy quickly overcame both Joplin and his party and the Marvels in their human guises of Billy, Mary, and Freddy—trapping them all in a giant stone Sphinx. The Kids were bound and gagged with strips of cloth. The mummy launched the Sphinx and his captives towards Fawcett City in an attempt to kill thousands. Billy was able to break his bonds by stretching them, then remove his gag in time to change to Captain Marvel and save the city. Cap quickly freed Freddy and Mary and the reunited Marvel Family took off to battle the Mad Mummy!
The mummy used an ancient device named the Horn of Horror to release a plague of demons to slow the Marvels down but the Marvels quickly overcame the demons. After destroying the mummy’s pyramid, Billy, Mary, and Freddy paid a quick visit to Shazam, who told them of the grisly history of the mummy and charged them with stopping the mummy. In the meantime, the Mad Mummy has used his Horn of Horror to bring forth a horde of other mummies that captured the three kids. The muumy used his Sphinx Ray to silence the kids so that they could not say their magic words. He then tortured and forced the kids to build a new Pyramid of Peril. To escape the clutches of the mummy, Billy suggested that they play dead. Believing that the children had died, the Mad Mummy wrapped the children in mummy cloth and deposited them in open sarcophaguses in the new Pyramid of Peril. The kids then sneaked out of the tomb and up on the mummy—grabbing and destroying the mummy’s Sphinx Ray. Now able to speak, the kids changed to their Marvel forms and quickly defeated the mummy horde. The Marvel’s caused an earthquake, which swallowed up the mummy’s Horn of Horror. After quickly capturing the mummy, the Marvel’s delivered him to Shazam who sealed the mummy back in his sarcophagus. The Marvel’s dropped the new Pyramid of Peril in the deepest part of the ocean and the Mad Mummy has not been heard from since. Reappeared in "Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam" #18.
The site had previously been disturbed by relic hunters, who had dug a deep pit in what turned out to be the most productive zone of the excavation. The relic hunters appear to have stopped when they encountered a rock cairn that covered what proved to be a human burial site.
The museum was specifically established in 1998 to house "Ötzi", a well-preserved natural mummy of a man from about 3300 BC (53 centuries ago). This is the world's oldest natural human mummy, a wet mummy, as opposed to mummies preserved by dry conditions in a desert environment. It has offered an unprecedented view of Chalcolithic (Copper Age) European culture. The world's oldest complete copper age axe was found among his extensive equipment which also comprised a rather complex fire lighting kit and a quiver loaded with twelve arrows, only two of which were finished, clothing and a flint knife complete with its sheath.
Preserved tattoos on ancient mummified human remains reveal that tattooing has been practiced throughout the world for many centuries. In 2015, scientific re-assessment of the age of the two oldest known tattooed mummies identified Ötzi as the oldest currently known example. This body, with 61 tattoos, was found embedded in glacial ice in the Alps, and was dated to 3250 BCE. In 2018, the oldest figurative tattoos in the world were discovered on two mummies from Egypt which are dated between 3351 and 3017 BCE.
The oldest naturally mummified mummy recovered from the Atacama Desert is dated around 7020 BC.[2]
The OED defines a mummy as "the body of a human being or animal embalmed (according to the ancient Egyptian or some analogous method) as a preparation for burial", citing sources from 1615 AD onward. However, Chamber's "Cyclopædia" and the Victorian zoologist Francis Trevelyan Buckland define a mummy as follows: "A human or animal body desiccated by exposure to sun or air. Also applied to the frozen carcase of an animal imbedded in prehistoric snow".
Fanny The Mummy: Fanny the mummy, a very special little lady. Is the oldest active mummy in the world, making her also the strongest one. She is married to Manny the Mummy, and was once Queen of Mummydom before abdicating to follow Manny in his adventures in the human world.
She used to be a prophet and revered oracle in Ancient Egypt. She took Manny under her wing when he was just a child, and taught him the art of divination. She died of natural causes and was mummified by her followers who were certain she was an emissary from Isis. They performed a ritual to steal her prophetic abilities, but instead ended up reviving her as an active mummy. She was really upset.
Some of the early preceramic cultures flourished both in Peru and in Chile. This applies to the Chinchorro culture that was active in what is now northern Chile and southern Peru. This culture left us the Chinchorro mummies; these are the oldest examples of artificially mummified human remains in the world. The oldest mummy recovered from the Atacama Desert is dated around 7020 BC. This tradition is believed to have reached a peak around 3000 BC.