Workers installing new gas pipes outside Lima, Peru, discovered eight mummies and objects from pre-Inca times last week.
Like an onion with multiple layers, Peru’s capital region has layers of history that sometimes peel away as new infrastructure is installed.
Last week, gas pipeline workers installing new pipes discovered eight pre-Incan burial balls.
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Archaeologists discover vessels and bones discovered by city workers digging a natural gas pipeline for the Calidda company in the Carabayllo district on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, Friday, September 22, 2023. Eight grave goods from the pre-Inca period Ychsma cultures have been identified by archaeologists so far, according to lead archaeologist Jesus Bahamonde. The pipe running through the site is an illegal water pipe. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
“We are recovering the remnants of Lima’s lost history, hidden only beneath the tracks and roads,” Jesus Bahamonde, an archaeologist with Calidda, the company that distributes natural gas in the city of 10 million, told the Associated Press Friday.
Over the past 19 years, the company has been excavating to modernize and expand its gas pipeline systems. The teams uncovered more than 1,900 archaeological finds, including textiles, pottery and mummies, most of which were associated with flat-ground burial sites.
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In addition, more than 400 other archaeological sites larger than the burial sites have been excavated across the urban landscape.
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Archaeologists uncover bones and vessels discovered by city workers digging a natural gas pipeline for the Calidda company on Friday, September 22, 2023, in the Carabayllo district on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. Eight pre-Inca grave goods Ychsma cultures have been identified by archaeologists so far, according to senior archaeologist Jesus Bahamonde. The pipe running through the site is an illegal water pipe. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
Adobe constructions on hilltops and sacred sites are considered “huacas” in the indigenous Quechua language.
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For an area that was inhabited for over 10,000 years by pre-Inca cultures, the Inca Empire and the culture introduced by Spanish conquerors from 1535 onwards, the number of finds is not surprising.
Last week’s finds included bales of ancient men in a sitting position, wrapped in cotton sheets and tied with liana-woven ropes in trenches almost a foot below the surface.
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An archaeologist unearths an ancient mummy amid vessels discovered by city workers digging a natural gas pipeline for the Calidda company in Carabayllo district on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. Eight grave goods from the period before -According to lead archaeologist Jesus Bahamonde, the Inca-Ychsma culture has so far been identified by archaeologists. The pipe running through the site is an illegal water pipe. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
Calidda archaeologists believe the bales come from the pre-Inca culture called Ichma, which developed in 1100 AD and spread throughout the valleys until becoming part of the Inca Empire in the late 15th century.
One of the archaeologists who worked in the trench, Roberto Quispe, said the uncovered burial bundles could accommodate about two adults and six teenagers.
All eight grave sites were found near fried chicken restaurants and a road leading to the country’s only nuclear power plant.
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Ancient vessels lay next to an illegal water pipeline that ran through the site where archaeologists uncovered bones and vessels discovered by workers constructing a natural gas pipeline for the Company Calidda dug. 22, 2023. Eight grave goods from the pre-Inca Ychsma culture have been identified by archaeologists so far, according to lead archaeologist Jesus Bahamonde. The pipe running through the site is an illegal water pipe (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
Some of the other discoveries that have been made over the years are more recent. For example, Quispe was working in the La Flor neighborhood in 2018 when he and other archaeologists came across wooden coffins containing three Chinese immigrants buried there in the 19th century.
The Chinese bodies were found alongside opium pipes, handmade cigarettes, shoes, Chinese playing cards, an 1898 Peruvian silver coin and an 1875 graduation certificate.
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“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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.