N.G. Mummies

Some Interesting Theories

SINCE the presence of mummies in a New Guinea cave was reported in July by Dr. Atcherley, world-wide interest has" been manifested by anthropologists and scientists.

Professor Raymond Firth, of New Zealand, and formerly of the Sydney University, who is now secretary of the Anthropological Society of London, de clared that the discovery was very im portant, because mummies had previously been discovered on Torres Strait islands, showing remarkable similarity to those of Egypt. Details were eagerly awaited regarding the funeral practices of those

responsible for the mummies, because they would shed light on the purpose of preservation, and the ideas of life after death.

It would be very desirable for an ex perienced anthropologist such as Dr. Reo Fortune, who is at present working on the Ramu Plateau district in New Guinea, to investigate the find with a view to deriving the maximum of value from the evidence, added Dr. Firth.

Commenting upon Professor Firth’s statement, Rev. G. F. Cox, a well-known Sydney writer on scientific subjects, said that from correspondence he had had with Dr. Atcherley it appeared that the remains did not show the finish of Egyp tian mummies, being devoid of any elaborate cartouch or trimmings, but there was prima facie evidence of some rudimentary form of mummification.

Interviewed in Sydney, where he is spending his furlough, Dr. C. Mervyn Deland, of the N.G. Public Health Dept., said that the mummies had been found in a limestone cave at a great height above sea-level; they were preserved artificially and, as far as is known, were not cal cified. They were in such a state of preservation that one of them, on being brought down into a warm, humid climate, was attacked by ants, and special measures were taken for its safeguard.

The mummies were found in a sitting position, he continued, and to an un trained observer they were strangely suggestive of a relationship with Inca or other South American remains. In the hands of experts, this apparent relation ship might be the means of opening up what was at present merely a conjectural chapter of Pacific Islands history.

It might confirm the idea, he concluded, that Polynesia and certain of the South American civilisations might have had a common ancestry in a race originating somewhere in the equatorial regions of Asia and Africa, and that a branch may have been left in the interior of New Guinea.