ANCIENT MUMMIES OF CHILDREN WHO WERE LIKELY SACRIFICED FOUND IN PERU

Wed 16 February 2022:

Six mummified children thought to have been sacrificed hundreds of years ago, apparently to accompany a dead nobleman to the afterlife, have been unearthed in a tomb near Lima, archaeologists reported.

The tiny skeletons, wrapped tightly in cloth, were found on Sunday in the grave of an important man, possibly a political figure, discovered last November at the dig site of Cajamarquilla about 24 kilometers (15 miles) east of Lima.

“The children could be close relatives and were placed…in different parts of the entrance of the tomb of the (nobleman’s) mummy, one on top of the other,” archaeologist Pieter Van Dalen, in charge of the dig, said.

“The children, according to our working hypothesis, would have been sacrificed to accompany the mummy to the underworld,” says Van Dalen.

Van Dalen said the mummies were about 1,000 to 1,200 years old.

The pre-Inca period

¡𝑯𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒛𝒈𝒐 𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒏𝒐! Un equipo de arqueólogos de la @UNMSM_ , hallaron seis niños envueltos en fardos funerarios y los restos de siete personas adultas colocados a la entrada de la tumba de la momia de #Cajamarquilla.

🔗 https://t.co/5cThNoR8Xd pic.twitter.com/Eu2dweVb3T

— Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (@UNMSM_) February 15, 2022

Cajamarquilla was a city built out of mud in about 200 BC, in the pre-Inca period and occupied until about 1500.

It could have been home to 10,000-20,000 people.

Nearby the dig site of Cajamarquilla, the team also found the bones of seven adults who had not been mummified as well as the remains of llama-like animals and earthen ware.

The remains of the supposed nobleman were found last year in a tomb some three meters (9.8 feet) long and 1.4 meters deep in Cajamarquilla, one of the largest archaeological complexes near Lima.

He had been about 20 when he died and was entombed with his hands covering his face and tied up with rope.

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