Under the streets of Lima, Peru, gas workers find eight mummies and pre-Inca artifacts, including opium pipes.
Under the streets of Lima, Peru, gas workers find eight mummies and pre-Inca artifacts, including opium pipes.
Under the city’s streets, gas workers in Lima, Peru, found eight mummies and Pre-Inca artifacts.
Eight mummies and other Pre-Inca artifacts were discovered this week by gas workers in Lima, Peru, beneath the city’s historic streets.
The archaeologist working for Calidda, the firm that provides natural gas to Lima’s 10 million citizens, stated, “We are retrieving those leaves of the lost history of Lima that are just concealed under the tracks and streets.
Over 1,900 ancient artifacts, including mummies, pottery, and textiles, have been discovered by Calidda while upgrading its gas line system over the course of over two decades, according to Bahamonde.
Eight males who had been mummified had been discovered tied together with vine-made cords and wrapped in cotton cloth. They were buried in a trench about a foot below the surface.
The individuals, according to archaeologists with Calidda, belonged to the Ichma civilisation, which originated around A.D. 1100 and ruled the lowlands surrounding Lima until the Inca Empire absorbed it in the late 15th century.
The mummies are most likely two parents and six children, according to Roberto Quispe, an archaeologist who worked in the trench, who spoke to the Associated Press.
From the Pre-Incan tribes to the Spanish conquistadors who claimed the land in the 16th century, human habitation in Lima dates back more than 10,000 years.
Numerous recent archaeological discoveries have been made.
Three Chinese immigrants were interred in wooden coffins in the La Flor area in the 19th century, according to Quispe and other archaeologists who were working there in 2018.
Opium pipes, hand-rolled cigarettes, shoes, Chinese playing cards, a silver piece struck in Peru in 1898, and a certificate of completion of an employment contract written in Spanish and dated 1875 were all discovered alongside the victims.
The eight mummies were discovered on a road leading to Peru’s sole nuclear power plant and among eateries serving braised chicken.
The three valleys that make up Lima were home to a sizable population when the Spaniards first landed there in the 16th century. What we have is sort of a continuation of history,” Bahamonde added.
According to Bahamonde, burial sites on level ground make up the majority of the archaeological sites discovered by Calidda.
Additionally, there are more than 400 larger “huacas,” or religious adobe buildings, distributed across the city. Huacas are often situated on hilltops. In the local Quechua language, they are known as “huacas.”
