False Heads

"False heads" - including this one found in 2012 during excavations at the site of Pachacamac - were made out of wood or clay and have been found sewed to the upper surface of mummy bundles.
The false heads found in 2012 during the excavation of a tomb at the site of Pachacamac didn't cover the faces of the deceased but were placed on or wedged into their curled-up bodies.
According to archaeologist and National Geographic grantee Matthew Piscitelli, the artifacts "likely served to bestow an identity or persona to the [mummy] bundle and to aid in that individual's passage to the afterlife."
Text Source: Owen, James. “Pictures: Huge Peru Tomb Found—80 Bodies, Ring of Babies.” National Geographic News June 2012.
Photograph Courtesy:
- Peter Eeckhout