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South American Mummies (Peruvian; Inca; Pre-Inca; etc.)

Peru archaeology: Ancient mummy found under rubbish dump​



An archaeologist works at the excavation site of a pre-Hispanic burial next to a mummy believed to be from the Manchay culture, which developed in the valleys of Lima between 1,500 and 1,000 BCE, in Lima, Peru, June 14, 2023.



Archaeologists in Peru conducting a dig at the site of a rubbish dump in the capital Lima have found a mummy they think is around 3,000 years old.

Students from San Marcos University, who are helping with the dig, first spotted the mummy's hair and skull.
Archaeologist Miguel Aguilar said they had removed eight tonnes of rubbish from the location before their careful search for historic remains began.

The mummy is thought to date back to the times of the Manchay culture.
The Manchay lived in the area around modern-day Lima from around 1500BC to 1000BC.
An archaeologist works at the excavation site of a pre-Hispanic burial next to a mummy believed to be from the Manchay culture, which developed in the valleys of Lima between 1,500 and 1,000 BCE, in Lima, Peru, June 14, 2023.

The body had been laid out flat inside a U-shaped temple
They are known for building U-shaped temples oriented towards the rising sun.
Mr Aguilar explained that the mummy had been placed in a tomb in the centre of such a U-shaped temple. He said the body had been laid out flat, which is characteristic for the Manchay culture of the "formative era", around 3,000 years ago.
The body was wrapped in cloth made from cotton and vegetable fibre.
People stand near the excavation site of a pre-Hispanic burial with a mummy, believed to be from the Manchay culture which developed in the valleys of Lima between 1,500 and 1,000 BCE, in Lima, Peru, June 14, 2023.

The archaeological site was underneath a rubbish dump in the Rímac neighbourhood in the capital, Lima
The archaeologist said that the person "had been left or offered [as a sacrifice] during the last phase of construction of this temple".
Mummification was practiced by a variety of cultures in what is now Peru before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors - people who travelled to the Americas as part of the Spanish conquest.
Some mummies were buried, many in a foetal position, while others were brought out and paraded during key festivals.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-65915074
 
More Mummies plus other finds along Lima gaslines excavations.

Some archaeologists describe Peru's capital as an onion with many layers of history, others consider it a box of surprises. That's what some gas line workers got when their digging uncovered eight pre-Inca funeral bales.

"We are recovering those leaves of the lost history of Lima that is just hidden under the tracks and streets," Jesus Bahamonde, an archaeologist at Calidda, the company that distributes natural gas in the city of 10 million people, said Friday.

He said the company's excavation work to expand its system of gas lines over the last 19 years has produced more than 1,900 archaeological finds of various kinds, including mummies, pottery and textiles. Those have mostly been associated with burial sites on flat ground.

The city also has more than 400 larger archaeological sites that have turned up scattered through the urban landscape. Known as "huacas" in the Indigenous Quechua language, those adobe constructions are on top of hills considered sacred places.

The number of relics isn't surprising. The area that is now Lima has been occupied for more than 10,000 years by pre-Inca cultures, then the Inca Empire itself and then the colonial culture brought by the Spanish conquerors in 1535.

Bahamonde showed the bales of ancient men sitting, wrapped in cotton cloth and tied with ropes braided from lianas that were in trenches 30 centimeters (nearly a foot) below the surface.

Workers uncover eight mummies and pre-Inca objects while expanding the gas network in Peru


Gas workers dig where bones and vessels were discovered by workers laying a natural gas line for the Calidda gas company in the Carabayllo district on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. Eight burial offerings from the pre-Inca Ychsma culture have been identified by archeologists so far, according to lead archaeologist Jesus Bahamonde. Credit: AP Photo/Martin Mejia

The company's archaeologists believe the finds belong to the pre-Inca culture called Ichma. The Ichma culture was formed around A.D. 1100 and expanded through the valleys of what is now Lima until it was incorporated into the Inca Empire in the late 15th century, scholars say.

https://phys.org/news/2023-09-workers-uncover-mummies-pre-inca-gas.html
 
What the Ice Maiden looked like

Archaeologists have revealed a model showing what Peru's most famous mummy would have looked like in real life.

The mummy, known as "Juanita" or the "Inca Ice Maiden", was an Inca girl who is thought to have been sacrificed in a ritual more than 500 years.

Scientists worked with a specialist in facial reconstruction to build a silicon bust of the mummy.

Johan Reinhard, the US archaeologist who first found the mummy in 1995, said the bust "makes her even more alive".

A team of Peruvian and Polish scientists worked with Oscar Nilsson, a specialist in facial reconstruction from Sweden, to build the silicon bust of the teenage girl. The scientists said body scans, skull measurements, DNA studies and ethnological characteristics guided their reconstruction.

Mr Nilssons told the Associated Press that it took "about 400 hours of work" to model the face, which has pronounced cheekbones, dark eyes and brown skin.

US archaeologist Dr Reinhard sitting with silicone bust of the Inca Ice Maiden

Dr Johan Reinhard, the US archaeologist who first found the mummy, said the bust 'makes her even more alive'

Dr Reinhard said: "I thought I'd never know what her face looked like when she was alive. Now 28 years later, this has become a reality thanks to Oscar Nilsson's reconstruction."

Dr Reinhard and Peruvian mountaineer Miguel Zárate found Juanita's frozen body at an altitude of 6,400m (21,000ft) during an expedition to the Ampato volcano.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67215649
 
More on the Lima Wari Mummies.

Archaeologists in Peru have unearthed the burials of at least 73 people dating to around 1,000 years ago, a few hundred years before the Inca took over parts of western South America.

Each of the 73 individuals was bundled in fabric — some of it colorful — and rope. Some of the male and female bodies were buried wearing masks of carved wood and ceramic, which are known as "false heads," Krzysztof Makowski, head of archaeological research at the site and an archaeologist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, said in a post on Archeowieści blog, which is managed by the Faculty of Archaeology of the University of Warsaw. Colorful ceramics were also found in some of the graves.

The burials, discovered near Lima at the archaeological site of Pachacámac, belong to the Wari culture. They were buried near the Wari's Painted Temple and date to between 800 and 1100, a time when the Wari Empire was expanding in the region, according to the post.


The Wari are known for their well-preserved mummies, elaborate art, including intricately designed ceramics and fabrics. They also practiced human sacrifice and made use of hallucinogens during religious rituals.

The remains of an individual wearing a carved mask.


Remains of an individual wearing a carved mask. (Image credit: © PUCP Archaeology Program "Valley of Pachacámac"; (CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED))

Additionally, archaeologists found two wooden staffs near the cemetery in the remains of the nearby settlement. They were discovered in a deposit of "thorny oyster" (Spondylus princeps) shells that would have been imported from what is now Ecuador, which sits north of the Wari Empire, the blog post stated.

The two staffs have carved iconography that suggests the people at Pachacámac had some level of contact with people in the Tiwanaku kingdom, located to the south of the Wari Empire in what is now part of Peru, Bolivia and Chile.


Some of the people were buried with ceramics.


People at the archaeological site of Pachacámac were buried with ceramics. (Image credit: © PUCP Archaeology Program "Valley of Pachacámac")

https://www.livescience.com/archaeo...alse-heads-unearthed-from-wari-empire-in-peru
 
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