The Nazca 'Alien Mummies'
Two small, three-fingered, elongated-skulled bodies in glass cases were shown to Mexico's congress as 'non-human' beings a thousand years old. Peruvian forensic scientists and the country's culture ministry concluded that the figures were assembled from human and animal bones, paper and glue.
- Date
- 12 September 2023
- Place
- Congress of Mexico, Mexico City; specimens from Nazca, Peru
- Witnesses
- Presented by journalist Jaime Maussan to a congressional session
- Status
- Hoax claimed
What happened
At a hearing on unidentified phenomena in Mexico's Chamber of Deputies, the television journalist Jaime Maussan unveiled two desiccated bodies about sixty centimetres long, with three long fingers on each hand, elongated skulls and no visible ears or nose. He said they had been found in the Nazca region of Peru, were around a thousand years old, and that their DNA was 30 percent unlike anything known. Lawmakers took an oath to consider the material; the images went around the world within hours.
The specimens
The bodies belong to a group of similar figures that first appeared in 2017, promoted through Maussan's programmes and a website that charged for access to 'research'. They are covered in a white powder later identified as diatomaceous earth. Radiocarbon dates on organic material are genuinely old, which is consistent with old bones and old paper being used.
Aftermath
Peru's Ministry of Culture had already reported the figures to prosecutors as looted and altered pre-Columbian remains. In January 2024 forensic archaeologists at Peru's prosecutor's office announced, after examining two seized specimens, that they were dolls assembled from human and animal bones held together with modern glue, and that the elongated skulls came from ancient Andean cranial-shaping practices. Maussan rejected the findings and has continued to present the figures at events.
Explanations
The scientific consensus is that the Nazca figures are constructed objects: a llama skull, human bones and paper, arranged into a humanoid form. The three-fingered hands were found to be assembled from finger bones stacked to look longer. Peruvian officials have described the affair as the trafficking of looted human remains under the cover of ufology. The case is filed as a claimed hoax; no reputable laboratory has supported the 'non-human' claim.
Sources
- Nazca mummies
- Peru Ministry of Culture statement (2023) and forensic report (January 2024)
Book links go to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, XenoAtlas earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Every book the Atlas cites is shelved in the Reading Room.