Funeral bundle

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Thanks to the excellent conservation of the funeral bundles of Paracas, we know with detail the funeral ritual that they used. The naked body of the deceased was accommodated, before the rigor mortis was disabling it, in fetal position, with the strongly timid members, on a basket or bundle. Associated with the bodies, we find, like gifts, several garments with traces of use, some vegetable food accompanied possibly of a mate, scraps of cloth or dressed – miniature with religious embroidered motives, small badges of gold, etc. A long strip of coarse cotton cloth wraps the body and the gifts constitute his nucleus. In the adults' burials, one usually deposits on this nucleus an additional layer formed by some pieces of ceremonial garment, decorated with embroideries and protected by several returns of cotton cloth. These were later cooked and moored with cord to facilitate the transport of the bundle. Opposite to the bundle, the celebrants were depositing some pieces of ceramics, generally between one and seven. A pole or a cane, with a bundle of pens, it was indicating the precise place of the burial. The individuals of major status, were receiving more textile gifts and, in this case, the number of layers was increasing substantially: up to three successive layers they could get over on the nucleus. These layers, and in particular the last one, usually contained sumptuous embroidered cloaks.

The burials have collective character and it is of supposing that bonds of nearby kinship were joining the buried together individuals in the "caverns" dug in the rock or in the sand. In several cases, it was possible to be proved that the mortal remains deposited in the camera were moved of some another place of provisional burial, some years after the decease. The areas of burial are located next to the establishments. Very often, there was selected, for this end, a zone that earlier was inhabited, and there were re-used the ruins of the houses and of the public godforsaken buildings.