Peruvian archaeologists unearth extraordinary thousand-year-old mummy of a teenager

Peruvian archaeologists have discovered a pre-Incan teenage mummy on the outskirts of the modern capital, believed to be more than 1,000 years old, in the latest in a series of finds from that period.

The mummy was probably a teenager and was found in an underground tomb wrapped in a burial bundle, along with pottery and ropes, and including pieces of skin and hair.

The mummified teenager was found in a “good state of preservation,” said archaeologist Yomira Huamán, head of the Cajamarquilla research project, affiliated with the National University of San Marcos.

While best known for the mountaintop Inca royal retreat of Machu Picchu, Peru was home to several pre-Hispanic cultures that thrived in the centuries before the Inca empire rose to power, primarily along the country’s central coast and in the Anca region.

The teenager lived between 1,100 and 1,200 years ago and may have belonged to the Lima or Ichma cultures. The mummy was discovered about 200 meters from where the first Cajamarquilla mummy was found, Huamán said, referring to another mummy found nearby last year.

The remains of eight children and 12 adults were also found at the archaeological site, who were apparently sacrificed between 800 and 1,200 years ago.

The sprawling Cajamarquilla complex features the ruins of four pyramids and other buildings, including walls arranged like a labyrinth. The complex is the second-largest adobe city in Peru after Chan Chan in the north of the Andean country.

Cajamarquilla was likely occupied by people from the coast and the Andean highlands, Huaman said. Located in a dusty area about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Lima, the site was thought to have been a thriving trading center.