800-Year-Old Cowering Mummy Discovered in Peru

Every time archaeologists discover an ancient mummy, excitement soon follows. Mummies, of course, are often so well preserved that they capture the essence of who ancient peoples wereOpens in a new tab when they were alive. As well as what ancient peoples decided to do with their bodies after they died. In a new discovery from an archaeological site outside of Lima, Peru, archaeologists have unearthed an 800-year-old mummy that had been tied up in ropes at the time of its burial. In a way such that its hands covered its face.

Two archaeologists unearth an 800-year-old mummy in Peru.
Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marco

Design TaxiOpens in a new tab picked up on the mummy discovery, which occurred inside one of the hundreds of archaeological sites in Peru; sites that continuously give new insights into native cultures from both before and after the Inca Empire.

 

Archaeologists found this particular mummy in an underground structure on the outskirts of the city of Lima. ReutersOpens in a new tab reports that the “mummified remains were of a person from [a] culture that developed between the coast and mountains” of Peru. Pieter Van Dalen Luna, one archaeologist responsible for the find, also told Reuters that he and his colleagues have yet to identify the mummy’s gender.

Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marco

“The main characteristic of the mummy is that the whole body was tied up by ropes and with the hands covering the face, which would be part of the local funeral pattern,” Van Dalen Luna, who’s at the State University of San Marcos, told Reuters. He added that identifying the exact age of the mummyOpens in a new tab will require radiocarbon dating.

Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marco

Alongside the mummy archaeologists also discovered small pieces of pottery. As well as stone tools, and even trace evidence of vegetables. A reasonable offering for somebody’s journey through the afterlife considering the region was a strategic place for commercial exchange. Also, a testament to the idea that, even in the afterlife, nobody wants to eat their vegetablesOpens in a new tab.

Related Posts

The DNA Detectives of Pompeii: Unraveling a Buried Civilization

Ancient Mysteries Revealed Through Genetic Analysis In the haunting ruins of Pompeii, where volcanic ash once captured a single, devastating moment, modern science is now reconstructing a…

Ancient Marvel: Ice Age Rhino Fossil Sheds Light on Mycenaean Mysteries

Prehistoric Relic Unearthed in Bronze Age Greece In a groundbreaking discovery, archaeologists have uncovered a fascinating relic from the Ice Age in the heart of ancient Mycenae….

Unraveling the Mysteries of the Cestius Pyramid: Cultural Fusion in Ancient Rome

In the heart of Rome’s historic landscape stands an architectural marvel that challenges our expectations – the Pyramid of Cestius. This remarkable monument, rising majestically against the…

The Stone Footprint – Evidence of Giants or Geological Enigma?

Nestled within a remote granite mountain in South Africa—near the town of Mpaluzi in Mpumalanga province—lies a mysterious indentation in stone: a mᴀssive footprint, nearly 1.2 meters…

The Luminous-Headed Being – Extraterrestrial Mystery or Sacred Symbol? (ca. 5000–1000 BCE)

Carved into rugged ancient stones somewhere in the Scandinavian region or the Altai Mountains, this enigmatic rock engraving has stirred controversy for decades among archaeologists and researchers…

Prehistoric Dog Handlers – The Memory Wall of the Sahara Desert (ca. 8000–2000 BCE)

Deep within the vast Sahara Desert, in the region of Tᴀssili n’Ajjer in Algeria, lies a rock wall etched with figures so precise, so human, that they…