1,000-Year-Old Cemetery Unearthed in Lima

Human remains suggesting a 1,000-year-old pre-Hispanic cemetery have been discovered in northern Lima during gas pipeline installation work. The tomb was found on a residential street, just two meters from a house's front gate.

Jose Pablo Aliaga, an archaeologist with the gas distribution company Calidda, stated that the bones of a man wrapped in burial shrouds next to ceramics indicate a burial complex. A skeleton was found nearby a month ago.

"The material evidence suggests that it could be a burial of the Chancay culture, from about 1,000 to 1,200 years ago," Aliaga said. This is a coastal culture based on fishing, known for its textiles and ceramics.

Last month, Calidda gas workers in the same Puente Piedra area discovered the bones of a mummified woman, which researchers estimate to be over 900 years old. Lima is home to over 400 archaeological sites.

Calidda has reported over 2,200 archaeological discoveries in the last two decades, most of which date back to the Chancay culture.

Sources: ΚΥΠΕ-Reuters