History

Looking Back At The History
Thousands of Mummies Beneath The Streets

In the middle of last April, it was reported that thousands of Inca mummiesÑmany with hair, skin, and eyes intactÑhave been rescued from beneath the streets of a sprawling settlement on the outskirts of Lima, Peru.

The 500-year-old bodies of more than two thousand men, women, and children were excavated from a large Inca graveyard that may contain as many as 10,000 dead. Above the ground, a few feet over the mummies, thousands of their descendants were going about their daily lives.

Archaeologists recovering the bodies found many of them in "mummy bundles," large cocoons that held up to seven individuals and weighed as much as 180 kilograms (400 pounds ). Some of the bundles bound adults and childrenÑperhaps entire familiesÑtogether, wrapped in layers of raw cotton and exquisite textiles.

About 40 of the large mummy bundles are topped with false heads, known to archaeologists as falsas cabezas. Such heads, some covered with wigs, were known to be attached to mummy bundles that encased members of the Inca elite. Until this discovery, only one falsa cabeza from the Inca period is believed to have been documented. Also recovered with the mummies were 50,000 to 60,000 artifacts, from personal valuables to food and everyday utensils. The items formed part of Inca funerals, perhaps interred with the dead to ease their existence in the afterlife.

"This is one of the most significant finds in the history of Inca archaeology," said Guillermo Cock, project leader at the excavation site, known as Puruchuco, which is a few kilometers east of downtown Lima, Peru's teeming capital. "We have so much that we will be kept busy for years sorting it out. With this, we will rewrite the history of Inca culture."

Guerrilla activity in the mountains during the 1980s drove thousands of refugees to the relative sanctuary of Lima. Hundreds of families erected makeshift homes on top of the Inca burial ground at Puruchuco. They named the settlement Tupac Amaru, after the last Inca ruler, who was executed by Spanish conquerors in 1572.

Cock's team employed Tupac Amaru residents to help with the digging and guarding of the excavations. Many of the townspeople were relieved to see the mummies removed, Cock said. "They are afraid of the dead; they believe they cause them da–a [illnesses], which is why they would prefer it if the mummies are moved."

The mummies were entombed in ideal conditions for preservationÑthe extremely dry soil of the coastal Peruvian desert, where no rain may fall for as long as 20 years. "Preservation conditions are so good, we can determine the sex of people simply by looking at their genitals," said Cock. "Even the eyes are still there." After being well preserved for centuries, the mummies have been deteriorating rapidly as a result of disturbance from human occupation.

Residents of Tupac Amaru have scraped the surface of the ground to build makeshift dwellings, ripping up mummies in the process. Because the settlement has no sewerage, residents dump water and wastes in the dirt streets. Some of the mummies have decomposed as a result of the seepage.

Cock estimates that some 60 percent of the occupants of the Inca burial ground have not been recovered.