Peruvian gas workers made a stunning discovery beneath the ancient streets of Lima this week: They uncovered eight mummies and a number of pre-Inca artifacts.
“We are recovering the remnants of Lima’s lost history, hidden only beneath the tracks and roads,” said Jesus Bahamonde, an archaeologist at Calidda, the company that distributes natural gas to the Peruvian capital’s 10 million residents.
Since the company began expanding its gas pipeline system nearly two decades ago, it has collected more than 1,900 archaeological finds — including mummies, pottery and textiles, Bahamonde said.
In the most recent discovery, the eight mummified males were found bundled in the ditch, wrapped in cotton cloth and tied with ropes made from vines. Workers found the bodies about a foot underground.
Gas Society archaeologists believe the men belonged to a pre-Inca culture called the Ichma, which emerged around 1100 AD and flourished in the valleys around Lima until it was absorbed by the Inca Empire in the late 15th century.
Roberto Quispe, an archaeologist who worked in the trench, told the Associated Press that the mummified bodies were likely two adults and six minors.
Lima, now an urban economic center, has been inhabited by people for more than 10,000 years, from pre-Inca cultures to the Spanish conquistadors who claimed the land in the 16th century.
“We are recovering the remnants of Lima’s lost history, hidden just beneath the tracks and roads,” said Jesus Bahamonde, an archaeologist with Calidda, the company that distributes natural gas to residents of Lima, Peru. AFP via Getty Images
Many archaeological finds are proven to be from more recent times.
In 2018, Quispe and other archaeologists working in the La Flor neighborhood found wooden coffins containing three Chinese immigrants buried in the 19th century.
The bodies were found alongside opium pipes, hand-rolled cigarettes, shoes, Chinese playing cards, a Peruvian silver coin minted in 1898 and a certificate of completion of the employment contract in Spanish from 1875.
The eight mummies were found between stewed chicken restaurants and a road leading to Peru’s only nuclear power plant.
“When the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, they found an entire population living in the three valleys that now occupy Lima… what we have is a kind of historical continuation,” Bahamonde said.
Most of the archaeological sites uncovered by Calidda were burial sites discovered on flat ground, Bahamonde said.
There are more than 400 major archaeological sites known as “huacas” in the indigenous Quechua language throughout the urbanized city. These are sacred clay structures typically found on hilltops.
With post wires