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."