Nazca’s “Alien Mummies”: What Do the Scans Actually Show?
The objects called the Nazca “alien mummies” are presented as preserved bodies that might be nonhuman. Images of three-fingered hands helped draw attention to the claims. But a scan of unusual bones does not establish that a body came from another world.
Reports concern different specimens, which have not all received the same findings. Hospital reports shared by the campaign describe two of them, María and Wawito, as human. Understanding the evidence means keeping each body's name attached to its own tests.
The Images Reach a Global Audience
On September 12, 2023, two small specimens were displayed at a public event in Mexico's Chamber of Deputies. Holding the event there gave the claims attention. It did not mean scientists had certified the objects as alien bodies.
The campaign continued afterward. The Alien Project's chronology, updated through October 2026, defended its interpretation and promoted more announcements. It also linked to scans and reports that readers can examine.
Inside the Nazca Mummy Testing Claims
CT scans can show structures inside a body without unwrapping it. As the American Museum of Natural History explains, the method combines many image slices. Researchers can use them to build a three-dimensional view of bones and preserve information about softer tissue.
A scan can therefore be a genuine examination while its meaning remains disputed. The museum's example concerns an Egyptian mummy. It explains the method rather than assessing the Nazca specimens.
Mummies of the World, a 2010 illustrated exhibition companion, offers broader background on preserved bodies and how they are studied. It predates the later Nazca claims.
- Explore preserved human and animal remains from around the world
- See how researchers study mummies and the lives they preserve
- Build context for understanding scans of ancient remains
María's Hands Get Conflicting Descriptions
María is one of the larger specimens. The Alien Project's promotional page gives a height of 1.68 meters and emphasizes three fingers. It says the hands have no metacarpals, the bones that form the palm.
A published paper describes the hands differently. In 2024, Edgar Hernández-Huaripaucar and colleagues reported studying María with CT images and a radiocarbon age test on a skin sample. Their paper proposed an unusual biological explanation and suggested more work might establish a new humanoid species.
That paper describes three palm bones and four bones in each finger. Its description therefore disagrees with the promotional claim that the palm bones are absent.
The paper also gives part of María's history. It says someone searching for buried archaeological objects found the body in 2016, and that it entered university custody in 2019. It does not describe an excavation carried out under controlled archaeological conditions.
Before researchers decide what kind of body it is, they need to resolve basic questions about its bones and the circumstances in which it was found.
The Hospital Report Calls Them Human
The hospital imaging reports shared by The Alien Project provide another interpretation. María's report describes a human specimen with little soft tissue and some missing finger and toe bones. It also lists palm bones.
The report for Wawito likewise describes a human specimen with little soft tissue and some missing finger or toe bones. These findings apply to those two named bodies. They do not identify every object shown in the wider campaign.
The documents are copies reproduced by the campaign. Their signatures have not been independently authenticated for this article. The finding of missing bones also does not establish when or why the bones were lost.
The campaign's Wawita page uses a different spelling for Wawito. It describes the three-fingered hands and feet as probably mutilated. Even the promotional pages offer different explanations for different bodies.
The Mexico Hearing That Put the Bodies on Display
A Date Tells a Smaller Story
Radiocarbon dating estimates the age of material by measuring its carbon. Mexico's National Autonomous University, UNAM, tested samples supplied by a client in May 2017 and delivered age results in June.
In a statement reissued in September 2023, the university explained what it had done. The tests determined the samples' ages, rather than where they came from. Laboratory staff had not collected the material at its original location or contacted its original source.
An old tissue sample would not prove that every feature of a displayed body had the same history. Dating a sample also does not identify an alien species. Those questions require different evidence.
Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World offers broader reading on unusual claims. Here, a useful starting point is to ask exactly what each test measured.
- Develop practical questions for assessing extraordinary claims
- Explore why compelling stories can feel more convincing than the evidence warrants
- Bring a thoughtful scientific perspective to UFOs, mysteries, and unfamiliar ideas
The Airport Dolls Tell a Different Story
In January 2024, Peruvian officials announced findings about two small objects seized at Lima's airport the previous year. The objects had been in a shipment intended for Mexico. According to the official forensic announcement, they had been assembled with animal bones and synthetic glue.
That finding concerns the two seized objects. It cannot identify María, Wawito or the two bodies displayed in Mexico unless evidence shows they are the same specimens.
A separate study by Flavio Estrada Moreno examined five pieces, including two small bodies and a three-digit hand. The work began in 2017, with further pieces examined later.
He compared bones and used imaging, microscopes and chemical tests. He reported parts made from human and animal bones, plant fibers and modern glue. Those findings apply to the pieces he examined.
Ancient Peruvian cultures preserved their dead and maintained ties to them, as the museum's account of Peruvian mummies explains. Burial locations and nearby objects help researchers understand those people. Possible human remains need that same care, whatever claims are made about them.
Our guide to biological evidence in UFO claims examines what samples can establish. For these specimens, the first check is simple: does the report actually concern the body being shown? Keeping those identities clear prevents one finding from becoming a claim about an entire collection.
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