Peruvian archaeologists have found six pre-Inca mummies of children, between 1,000 and 1,200 years old, who were buried in an apparent sacrifice along with an important social figure in the ancient clay urban complex of Cajamarquilla, on the outskirts of Lima.
“The remains of six children wrapped in funerary bundles were found near the grave of an elite character [da época]”, whose mummy had already been found last November, explained to AFP the archaeologist Pieter Van Dalen, coordinator of the project in Cajamarquilla.
“The children, according to our working hypothesis, would have been sacrificed to accompany the mummy on the way to the world of the dead,” emphasized Van Dalen.
Along with the mummies of the six children, bones of seven adults were also found who, unlike the children, were not wrapped in bundles.
The discovery brought to 14 the total number of remains that San Marcos University researchers have uncovered in the area since November 2021.
“The children could be close relatives and were placed, inside funerary wrappings made of fabrics, in several parts of the entrance of the mummy’s tomb”, explained the researcher. “The antiquity of these mummies would be between the year 800 and the year 1000 AD.”
Bones of camelids such as llamas were also found at the site.
Lord of Cajamarquilla
The discovery took place near the burial chamber about three meters long and at a depth of 1.40 meters, where in November the mummy of what is now presumed to be an important person was found.
This character “achieved economic and social status, was a possibly political authority”, and could even be called “the lord of Cajamarquilla”.
The mummy found in late November 2021 is of a man who was possibly between 18 and 22 years old at the time of his death.
His face was covered by his hands and he was tied up with ropes.
Cajamarquilla “was an urban center where multiple functions were developed”, with “administrative, domestic, residential” sectors, added Van Dalen.
Cajamarquilla is considered a pre-Hispanic city that could have housed between 10,000 and 20,000 people on a total of 167 hectares. It was built around 200 BC and occupied until 1500.
The city is located 24 km east of Lima and is one of the largest archaeological complexes in the Peruvian capital, a metropolis that today has 10 million inhabitants.
