Peru gas workers find thousand-year-old mummy
The workers found the trunk of a huarango tree (a species native to coastal Peru), "which served as a tomb marker in the past," at a depth of 50 centimeters (20 inches), archaeologist Jesus Bahamonde, scientific coordinator of Calidda gas company, told reporters.
The mummy of a boy aged between 10 and 15, was found at a depth of 1.2 meters, he added.
"The burial and the objects correspond to a style that developed between 1000 and 1200," he said.
The remains discovered on Monday were found "in a sitting position, with the arms and legs bent," according to Bahamonde.
They were found in a shroud which also contained calabash gourds.
Ceramic objects, including plates, bottles and jugs decorated with geometric figures and figures of fishermen, were found next to the mummy.
The tomb and artifacts belong to the pre-Inca Chancay culture, which lived in the Lima area between the 11th and 15th centuries.
They were discovered while gas workers were removing earth from an avenue in the Puente Piedra district of northern Lima.
In Peru, utility companies must hire archaeologists when drilling the earth, because of the possibility of hitting upon heritage sites.
Calidda has made more than 2,200 archaeological finds since 2004.
Lima is home to over 500 archaeological sites, including dozens of "huacas" as ancient cemeteries are known in the Indigenous Quechua language.
ljc/sf/cb/sla
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
a day ago
- New York Times
Corrections: June 29, 2025
An article this weekend on Page 12 about the Brazilian artist Luana Vitra includes outdated information. Hélio Menezes is no longer the director of the Museu Afro Brasil in São Paulo. Errors are corrected during the press run whenever possible, so some errors noted here may not have appeared in all editions. To contact the newsroom regarding correction requests, please email nytnews@ To share feedback, please visit Comments on opinion articles may be emailed to letters@ For newspaper delivery questions: 1-800-NYTIMES (1-800-698-4637) or email customercare@
Fox News
a day ago
- Fox News
Viking-era burial site with elite family treasures and gifts discovered, plus an 'unusual casket'
Archaeologists recently found an artifact-filled Viking-era burial site in Denmark — revealing treasures that once belonged to an elite family. The discovery was announced by Moesgaard Museum (MOMU), a regional Danish museum, in a June statement. The graveyard was found in the village of Lisbjerg, located north of the major Danish city of Aarhus. Archaeologists found 30 graves containing a vast number of burial gifts, including beads and coins. Ceramics were also found at the site, along with gold thread, scissors and "an unusual casket with beads," officials said. The site also retained the bones and teeth of the deceased. In a statement translated from Danish to English, officials noted the graves "contain a number of spectacular items that may indicate connections to the Danish royal power." They added, "Aarhus was one of Denmark's most important and oldest cities during the Viking era, serving as a center for the king and international trade … Aros and Lisbjerg were closely connected by the old main road, which ran from the Viking city to the manor." One discovery of particular interest was a silver-plated oak casket that likely belonged to a high-status woman. "Together, [the finds] paint a picture of an aristocratic environment linked to royal power, which was part of the Vikings' extensive and dynamic world." The grave contained a brooch, needle and a filigree bead, made by twisting fine threads of metal into ornate designs. Mads Ravn, head of local cultural heritage at MOMU, said the grave site is "very likely" connected to a Viking-era manor less than a mile away. He noted, "The items we have found in the graves tell us that those buried were people of high status – it could be the very family from the manor that is buried here." Kasper H. Andersen, a historian at MOMU, said the recent finds are "part of a series of previous remarkable discoveries in the Aarhus area." He added, "Together, they paint a picture of an aristocratic environment linked to royal power, which was part of the Vikings' extensive and dynamic world." The Viking Age lasted from roughly 800 A.D. to 1050 A.D. Artifacts from that era continue to be discovered throughout Europe by archaeologists and hobbyists alike. In April, Swedish archaeologists announced the discovery of an "unusual" Viking-era coffin. Before that, two curious metal detectorists found a 1,000-year-old Viking "wallet" last year.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Reason tradies faced 'absolute challenge' fixing deceptively simple old hut
Tradies have discovered that faithfully repairing a hut from the 1950s is more challenging than modern builds. The simple one-room dwelling had become dilapidated after decades of rain and wind that blast New Zealand's South Island. Shooters employed to cull invasive red deer once lived in the historic Slaty Creek Hut near a river in the Grey Valley. They'd fashioned it by hand using available logs because there was no ability back in 1952 to carry or fly in materials from a sawmill, and they used a unique building method that was not found in the Northern Hemisphere. In 2025, Mike Gillies, a Department of Conservation senior heritage advisor, was called in to advise rangers about specific historical building methods used to originally create the deceptively simple slab hut. 'For some reason, this really bizarre building type of building sprang out of our part of the world, and I don't know why,' he told Yahoo News. Log cabins were widely used by pioneers in the United States and Canada, but slab huts, which are made from split timber, appear unique to Australia and New Zealand. Today, they're rare in New Zealand, and only 12 remain on public land across the entire South Island. Related: Rare find inside Kiwi cave after tourists banned for years DOC was adamant it didn't want to destroy the slab hut's original character by replacing its rotten beams with those cut with a machine. And so instead of quickly repairing the damage, Gillies schooled the rangers on how to break down beech logs and hew them into hand-shaped panels. He delighted in watching how the two rangers, Casey Rhodes and Matt Ainge, reacted to his workshop. 'All of a sudden, they had a deep understanding of the craft, and they looked at the building in a completely different way,' he said. He has run several workshops on bush carpentry and has seen the skills needed 'absolutely challenge modern tradies' for a number of reasons. 'You don't have modern power tools to break the timber down and manipulate it quickly. But also, it's slow and it's deliberate work,' he said. 'There's a real romanticism to that because it's really peaceful, quiet and considered. Whereas modern building sites are noisy and you're often working with chemically-treated materials.' Gillies has a lot of respect for the men who worked in remote parts of the country and were able to fashion huts using only the materials they had around them. 'Builders aren't trained any more to use an adze to dress timber, they'll use a power plane. They won't use an axe to reduce the size of a post, they'll use a saw,' he said. 'These skills are becoming really rare. And the risk is we can't maintain these structures, or in the manner they deserve, adding in modern tools and materials and reducing its authenticity.' The Slaty Creek Hut was constructed 50 years after the first high-rise, Cathedral House, was built in Auckland. The huts continued to be made simply out of necessity in the back country. 🪨 Inventor's valuable secret hidden beneath pile of rocks in outback 📸 Rare colour footage of extinct Australian animal seen again after 90 years 📍 Huge change to multi-million dollar block of land in busy suburb Gillies suspects it was the development of the helicopter that led to the disappearance of the hand-hewn slab hut, as it quickly became easier to fly in pre-fabricated materials. 'Every time a job like this is done using modern tools or materials, you're one step closer to old crafts becoming extinct,' Gillies said. 'By learning how to do this work, the rangers will keep this craft alive. And next time another hut comes up in need of repair they'll have the understanding of how to fix it.' Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
