Pre-Incan skeleton found during routine utility work underground in Lima, Peru

Utility workers unearthed two pre-Incan tombs during a routine day on the job in Peru – one of many archaeological discoveries in the country this year.

The workers, employed by the energy company Cálidda, found the burials in Lima just recently. The employees have been digging trenches in the city as part of an ongoing underground gas network project.

Both tombs belong to the pre-Incan Chancay culture, which existed in Peru from 1000 to 1470 A.D. The Inca Empire spanned from roughly 1400 to 1533 A.D., with Spanish colonization beginning soon after. 

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The two tombs were remarkably different. 

One was empty, while the other held a 1,000-year-old skeleton.

Images show excavators working to remove the remains from the soil. 

The tomb also contained four clay vessels and three “pumpkin shell artifacts,” according to The Associated Press (AP).

“Lima is unique among Latin American capitals, in that various archaeological finds are unearthed during nearly every civil project.”

The male skeleton was found in a torn cloth bundle in a sitting position. Its legs were against its chest.

Archaeologist José Aliaga told the AP the vessels contained iconography, along with some remaining black, white and red colors.

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“[It] allow[s] us to establish a connection with the pre-Incan Chancay culture,” the archaeologist said.

He added, “Lima is unique among Latin American capitals, in that various archaeological finds are unearthed during nearly every civil project.”

The discovery was part of ongoing work on a gas line project by the energy company Cálidda. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

Local mother Flor Prieto walked through the area with her 7-year-old daughter during the excavation. 

She told the AP she’d assumed the area had always been uninhabited.

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“I always thought they were paths where no one had lived,” Prieto observed.

“But now I know that people older than the Incas have lived there … It feels so exciting.”

One of the pre-Incan tombs was found empty, while the other held a 1,000-year-old male skeleton, seen above in this close-up photo. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

This is far from the first skeleton that Cálidda has come across.

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Over the past 20 years, the company has made more than 2,200 archaeological discoveries.

A local resident said she was surprised to learn ancient people had once lived along the modern footpath. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

Earlier in June, excavators in Lima unearthed a millennia-old preserved female mummy during the same utility project.

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The skeleton, which still retained a small amount of brown hair, was found just 20 inches below the ground.