Archaeologists have uncovered a 600-year-old, large underground cemetery belonging to a Peruvian warrior culture, thought to be the first discovery of its kind, an official said.
After a tip-off from a farmer in Peru’s northern Amazon jungle, archeologists from Peru’s National Culture Institute found the 250-meter deep cave that was used for burial and worship by the Chachapoyas tribe.
So far archeologists have found five mummies, two of which are intact with skin and hair, as well as ceramics, textiles and wall paintings, the expedition’s leader and regional cultural director Herman Corbera told Reuters.
“We think this is the first time any kind of underground burial site this size has been found belonging to Chachapoyas or other cultures in the region,“ he added.
The Chacapoyas, a white-skinned tribe known as the “Cloud People“ by the Incas because of the cloud forests they inhabited in northern Peru, ruled the area from around 800 AD to around 1475, when they were conquered by the Incas.
But their strong resistance to the Incas, who built an empire ranging from northern Ecuador to southern Chile from the 1400s until the Spanish conquest of the 1530s, earned them a reputation as great warriors.
“The remote site for this cemetery tells us that the Chachapoyas had enormous respect for their ancestors because they hid them away for protection,“ Corbera said.
Corbera said the walls in the limestone cave near the mummies were covered with wall paintings of faces and warrior-like figures that may have been drawn to ward off intruders and evil spirits.
“The idea now is to turn this cave into a museum, but we’ve got a huge amount of research to do first and protecting the site is a big issue,“ Corbera said, adding that looters had already vandalized a small part of the cave in search of mummies or gold.
(Original headline: Ancient Burial Cave Discovered in Peru )
