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A new video from Gaia.com - showing a strangely deformed ancient mummy from Nazca, Peru - has gone viral over the past week, with over a million and a half views on YouTube, and over 20 million views on Facebook. The video is part of a 'Special Report' at Gaia.com titled "Unearthing Nazca", some of which is freely view-able, while other parts are restricted to members of the site.
While it's an exciting idea to speculate, as the video does, on whether this mummy is a 'non-human species', as always with cases like this, there's a lot to be skeptical about. The Black Vault has a detailed discussion on some of the causes for concern, but in short:
And, remembering that this is likely a human body, we should be very careful to not turn it into a freak show for the sake of click-through and Fortean fascination.
Here's another skeptical take discussing problems with this 'alien mummy':
While it's an exciting idea to speculate, as the video does, on whether this mummy is a 'non-human species', as always with cases like this, there's a lot to be skeptical about. The Black Vault has a detailed discussion on some of the causes for concern, but in short:
- Key players in the 'expedition' have questionable reputations - most notably Mexican 'ufologist' Jaime Maussan - a 21st century P.T. Barnum involved in numerous 'weird corpse' PR stunts, from the Roswell Slides debacle from a couple of years ago to the Metepec creature hoax.
- The strange elongated skull of the mummy is actually a reasonably common body modification practiced by the local ancient culture.
- There are known 'fake mummies' already in circulation in South America.
- There are numerous suggestions of this being an actual ancient mummy that has been recently modified, from the white plaster-like covering through to the long 3-fingered hands.
- While the Gaia people are certainly circumspect in their approach to this investigation - not making any great claims, and confirming they will follow the evidence where it leads - there really is no excuse for having the likes of Maussan closely involved. Hopefully the scientific investigation is properly handled, by experts, rather than done through an in-house crew - and the results openly published, rather than announced to paid subscribers like a circus sideshow (roll up, roll up!).
And, remembering that this is likely a human body, we should be very careful to not turn it into a freak show for the sake of click-through and Fortean fascination.
Here's another skeptical take discussing problems with this 'alien mummy':
