June
21
/ 2025
Hidden under the urban hubbub of Lima's Puente Piedra area, workers laying out Peru's network of natural gas pipelines have inadvertently made an astonishing archaeological discovery: the mummified body of a young woman buried more than 1,000 years ago. Only 0.5 meters (1.64 feet) under Santa Patricia Avenue, enveloped in a funerary package and fenced in by ceramics and organic offerings, this pre-Inca grave is linked to one of coastal Peru's lesser-known ancient cultures: the Chancay civilization. A Burial in the Shadow of the City The mummy, unearthed by Cálidda utility workers, sat upright, her dark brown hair still intact after a thousand years underground, reports The Associated Press. Even buried under decades of urban expansion, the tomb was surprisingly
