Archaeologists have discovered a mummy that is more than 1,000 years old near the Peruvian capital of Lima and is thought to date from pre-Inca times. The mummy is probably a teenager. The body was wrapped in a shroud and was found with pottery and rope from an underground grave. Even remnants of skin and hair were still present.
The mummified youth was found in a “good state of preservation,” according to archaeologist Yomira Huaman, who is in charge of the Cajamarquilla research project affiliated with the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima. Various pre-Hispanic cultures existed in Peru in the centuries before the rise of the Inca Empire, primarily along the country’s central coast and in the Andes. The youth lived around 1100 to 1200 years ago and may have been a member of the Lima or Ichma culture.
Huaman explained that the mummy was discovered about 200 meters from where the first mummy was recovered from Cajamarquilla in the last one. The remains of eight children and twelve adults were also found at the archeological site, believed to have been sacrificed some 800 to 1200 years ago.
The Cajamarquilla complex includes the ruins of four pyramids and other labyrinthine structures. This complex is the second largest adobe city in the country after Chan Chan in the northwestern Andes of Peru. According to Huaman, Cajamarquilla may have been inhabited by people from the coast and highlands of the Andes. The site, located in a dusty area about 20 kilometers from Lima, was probably a thriving commercial center.
