Peruvian gas workers made a stunning discovery under the ancient road of Lima this week — uncovering eight mummies and several Pre-Inca artifacts.
“We are recovering the lost leaves of Lima’s history that are just hidden under the tracks and streets,” said Jesus Bahamonde, an archaeologist with Calidda, the company that distributes natural gas to the 10 million inhabitants of the Peruvian capital.
Since the company began developing its gas pipeline system nearly two decades ago, they have amassed more than 1,900 archaeological finds – including mummies, pottery and textiles, Bahamonde said.
In the latest discovery, eight male mummies were found in a ditch, wrapped in cotton cloth and tied with ropes made from vines. Workers found the body about a foot underground.
Archaeologists with the gas company believe the men belonged to a pre-Inca culture called Ichma, which formed around 1100 AD and flourished in the valley around Lima until it was absorbed into the Inca Empire in the late 15th century.
Roberto Quispe, an archaeologist working in the trench, told the Associated Press that the mummified bodies were likely two adults and six minors.
Lima, now the city’s economic hub, has been occupied by humans for more than 10,000 years, from the Pre-Incan culture to the Spanish conquistadors who claimed the land in the 16th century.
“We are recovering the lost leaves of Lima’s history that are just hidden under the tracks and streets,” said Jesus Bahamonde, an archaeologist with Calidda, the company that distributes natural gas to the people of Lima, Peru.AFP via Getty Images
Many archaeological discoveries have been proven in recent times.
In 2018, Quispe and other archaeologists working in the La Flor neighborhood found a wooden coffin containing three Chinese immigrants buried in the 19th century.
The body was found along with an opium pipe, hand-rolled cigarettes, shoes, Chinese playing cards, a Peruvian silver coin minted in 1898 and a certificate of completion of an employment contract, written in Spanish and dated 1875.
The eight mummies were found in the middle of a stewed chicken restaurant and a road leading to Peru’s only nuclear power station.
“When the Spanish arrived in the 16th century they found the entire population living in the three valleys that now occupy Lima … what we have is a kind of historical continuity,” Bahamonde said.
Most of the archaeological sites discovered by Calidda were burial sites found on flat land, Bahamonde said.
Spread throughout the urban Aso are more than 400 larger archaeological sites, known in the native Quechua language as “huacas,” which are sacred adobe structures typically found on hilltops.
By Post wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
