LIMA, Peru (AP) — They're not aliens. That's what forensic experts in Peru said Friday about two doll-like figures and an alleged three-fingered hand that the South American country's customs authorities seized from a shipment to Mexico last year.
Peruvian prosecutors' forensic experts said the objects were made from paper, glue, metal and human and animal bones.
The results challenge some people's belief that the figures come from an “extraterrestrial center or from another planet, which is all completely false,” said forensic archaeologist Flavio Estrada, who led the analysis.
“The conclusion is simple: these are dolls assembled from the bones of animals from this planet and using modern synthetic adhesives. Therefore, they were not assembled in pre-Hispanic times,” Estrada told reporters. “They are not aliens; They are not aliens.”
The prosecutor's office has not yet determined who the objects belong to. Officials said Friday only that a Mexican citizen was the intended recipient of the items before they were seized by customs officials in October.
Mexican journalist José Jaime Maussan and some Mexican lawmakers drew international ridicule in September when he presented two boxes of alleged mummies found in Peru to the country's Congress.
Along with others, he claimed they were “non-human beings who are not part of our earthly evolution.”
In November, Maussan returned to the Mexican Congress with a group of Peruvian doctors and spent more than three hours advocating for “non-human beings” that he said were found in Peru, where he made similar claims in 2017. A report by the Peruvian prosecutor's office this year found that the suspected alien bodies were actually “newly made dolls covered with a mixture of paper and synthetic glue to simulate the presence of skin.”
“These are not the remains of the extraterrestrial ancestors they were trying to portray,” the 2017 report said.
Experts showed reporters Friday a pair of 2-foot-long dolls dressed in red, orange and green clothing. They said investigations revealed that bones from birds, dogs and other animals were used to make the dolls.
Meanwhile, an alleged three-fingered hand underwent an X-ray examination. Estrada said the “very poorly built” hand was created from human bones.