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The fibers attached to the Peruvian weaver's body told us when she died. As to where she was born and lived, however, we have to rely on circumstantial evidence.

Her radiocarbon date...

We know that the short delicate woman now resting in Cornell's McGraw Hall is Peruvian, a 19th century donation from one of Cornell's Peruvian supporters. To find out when she died, we took a sample of fiber from the unwoven cotton that was attached to her feet, and with the help of the people at the “Mummy Road Show,” carried out radiocarbon dating. The date range obtained placed her death between 1370 and 1450AD.

...and now for the circumstatial evidence - was she Chimú?

We have tentatively placed her in the North-Central coast of what is now Peru, near Trujillo, because that is where her donor, Rafael Larco Herrera lived and excavated mummies. At the time of her death, the Chimú state was in its ascendency, so there is a strong possibility that she was Chimú.

Who were the Chimú?

While the Chimú are not nearly as well known as the Inca (by whom the Chimú were conquered), they were certainly the equals of the Inca in city and civilization building. In fact, the Inca borrowed Chimú organizational structures and road building for their empire, and brought Chimú artisans to work in their capital, Cuzco, for their elite.

The Chimú appeared in the Northern coast of what is now Peru around 850 CE, succeeding another advanced culture, the Moche. Their major center was the city of Chan Chan, near present-day Trujillo. Chan Chan was the largest city in pre-Columbian America and is the largest adobe city in the world. Currently Chan Chan is a World Heritage Site and is on the list of Most Endangered Sites, because of weathering and of neglect due to limited funds and immense size.

Chimú agriculture, fishing, and nutritional status

The Chimú survived in their arid environment by developing a complex system of waterworks, which made maximum use of the short rivers descending from the Andes to the Pacific Ocean. The waterworks consisted of canals, covered irrigation channels, and wells, which allowed for an extensive irrigation-based agriculture. In fact one weapon the Incas used to conquer the Chimú in 1460-1470 was the destruction of their irrigation systems.

In addition to the cultivation of maize, the Chimú grew cotton that they wove into extraordinary textiles. Through commerce with Andean highlands and the Amazon basin, they were able to import feathers and camelid hair (llama and alpaca) to add further interest and value to their woven products.

The Chimú people's major source of animal protein was seafood, which was abundant except in El Niño years, of which there was one, for example, in 1000CE. Because of the fishing and advanced agriculture, the population as a whole, and our Peruvian weaver in particular, were reasonaably well nourished. Her chronic anemia was the only sign of nutritional problems we found in her bones.

...or was she Chancay?

There remains the possibility that she was from the Chancay culture, that existed at roughly the same time as the Chimú culture, but further to the South, near present-day Lima. While the majority of the textiles and artifacts that were donated with her were Chimú, the plainweave textiles attached to her body were probably Chancay. The Chancay and Chimú were allied by commerce, and the Chimú conquered the Northern reaches of the Chancay territory at the time of our weaver's death, so it is also possible that her wrapping cloth was imported from Chancay territory, or that she was a Chancay who lived in Chimú territory.

Were her tattoos significant?

One interesting feature of her skin was the presence of tattoos. To the best of our knowledge, there has not been any systematic study of tattoos in pre-Columbian Peru, though these were noted in an illustration by Reis and Stubel (1887), and observed on mummies and pottery figures since. Whether these tattoos have any relevance to her origins is therefore not known.

To learn more about the artifacts that accompanied our Peruvian Weaver, please go to Her Life and Work, and to learn more about her health go to Her Health