THE ANCIENT ANDEAN PEOPLE MUMMIFIED THEIR DEAD.

Mummification was a type of burial employed by the ancient Andean People as a manifestation of their sacred respect to their ancestors illustrating a deep reverence for them (Ayllu) and the kinship within its communities.
They believed that the soul of the dead person was immortal was transferred to a different Pacha (Realm) that was understood as a parallel reality, then the soul had to pass a number of tests, and then return and be reunited with the buried body. At the point of return, the soul (personality or character), had to be able to recognize its body in which the active life force was present when it was alive and fuse together forming an enhanced supernatural body in order to live forever.
High status individuals were clothed and wrapped in particularly fine textiles and jewelry and buried with fine pottery and their possessions and the tools of their particular profession they had when they were alive. Periodically they were removed from their resting place and given places of honor and offered food and drink as if they were still living persons. They were involve in such ceremonies as marriages, sowing, and harvesting. Also, they were consulted on occasions when long (cosmic) journeys had to be undertaken by individuals (shamans) within the living community. The mummy were considered a link between the living and the other to realms (Pachas) maintaining their rank in the world of the living as well as in the world of the dead.
Their beliefs was rooted in what they observed each day. The sun fell into the horizon each evening and was reborn the next morning. New life sprouted from grains planted in the fertile area of the mountains and valleys, and the moon waxed and waned. As long as harmony and order was met with the very specific laws or conditions required by the energy force invested in it, the highly dependable and sacred cycle of life and death was maintained in between the Pachas.
Thanks to the dry climate of the Andes region, the preservation of those mummies (Quechua: Mall-Qui) which escaped looters have, in most cases, been excellent, and they provide a living scenario and a unique insight into the ancient Andean culture, their sacred religious practices, and a glimpse of their everyday life.
The mummification was achieved by desiccation or freeze-drying processes, helped by the natural climate conditions in certain areas such as deserts and the high sierras. Bodies also were treated and preserved using alcohol made from maize (chicha). Earlier andean cultures used salt as a preservative and often de-fleshed the corpse and removed bodily fluids prior to internment.
Mommies were placed in fetal position and wrapped into bundles using several layers of textiles, bound with cords, and sometimes with a cloth head added. Then they were interred in caves or dedicated rooms within a community. They were placed often in groups, and the chambers reopened every time new mummies were added.
Sacrificial individuals, including children (Capa-Cocha), chosen and prepared from birth, were also mummified and placed in mountain-top shrines and other sacred sited (Huacas) known as cosmic energy points of communication in between the Pachas (Realms). The processes of mummification were the usual freeze-dried and their primary function were to reinforce the cosmic power of the Inca over the land conquered by them and the mutual respect between the forces of live in the earth and the human been as a mediator in the middle of it.
One of the most remarkable sites for mummified remains is the area around Caja-Tambo in the highlands of Central Peru. No fewer than 1,825 ancient mummies were recorded to be found by the europeans in the 17th CE. The mummies were stored in sacred caves known as Machay and, dressed in finery garments, they were periodically offered food and drink so that, having become part of the landscape themselves in unifying the energy forces of the Pachas, their consultation would guarantee a fruitful harvest. Ironically, the same number of years pass until the land become free from the hand of the Europeans that desecrated it.