Old 49

When the ancient Peruvian mummy bundle was unwrapped at New York City's American Museum of Natural History (TIME, Oct. 3, 1949), the archeologists paid little attention to the dry old bones at its center. They were more interested in the fancy wrappings. The mummy and his extraordinary wardrobe were later taken back to Peru, where Peruvian archeologists gave the bones close attention. Last week they made a report.

Radioactive dating, done in the U.S., proved that "No. 49" (his mummy was the 49th which the Peruvians unwrapped) died about 600 B.C., when Rome was younger than Cincinnati is now. He was buried with other leaders of his people on the desert Paracas peninsula on Peru's southern coast. For perhaps 1,000 years his descendants lived near by, spinning their delicate, brilliant textiles, making beautiful pottery and ornaments of gold.

Then something happened; perhaps a river that watered their irrigated fields dried up or changed its course. At any rate, the "Paracas Culture" was swept away, and vanished from human memory. The mummies buried in the desert are the only traces of it that have been found so far.

But old bones still tell tales. Peruvian doctors and radiologists who studied No. 49 decided that he was once a soldier, and about 5 ft. 7 in. tall. He suffered a terrible blow from a star-shaped mace that broke his nose and crushed the skull above his right eyebrow. This must have happened during a battle with Andean Indians, for only they used such maces. No. 49 recovered, perhaps with the help of skull surgery, which his people knew something about.

Later he became a very important citizen, perhaps the king of his people, and lived until he was about 70 years old. By that time he could not have been too unwilling to die. He was suffering from pyorrhea (infected jaw) and two painful and deforming diseases of the spine which even modern doctors cannot cure.

When the bones had told their tale, the Peruvian archeologists made a model of No. 49, as he had been in his prime, and dressed it in the clothes that he wore at ceremonials. They hoped it would give some idea of the strange and brilliant culture that flourished so long ago in a place where the humblest plant can hardly stay alive today.

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