“The buyer came from Chiclayo and didn’t know its value, so he sold it for a pittance,” Villarreal said. He recalled finding and trading erotic-themed masks, seashell necklaces, gold breasts, and ceramic sculptures.
At the new location, he carefully packed the skull and helped transport it to Carida’s laboratory for further investigation. “We would have thrown all this away,” Villarreal said.
Carida archaeologist Roberto Quispe said the newly discovered tomb was likely part of a cemetery used for hundreds of years by various groups of farmers along the Chillon River. Archaeologists first recognized it after viewing aerial photographs taken in the 1940s that showed telltale signs of raids on the tomb.
“There’s some farmland and next to it is an empty lot that’s completely full of potholes,” Quispe said. “The cemetery was completely looted and people started living on it.”
As Quispe worked in the tomb, cumbia music blared in a nearby restaurant, prompting passers-by to stop to look and take pictures.
“I came to see my children and my nephews,” said Roland Torres, a local resident, as children in school uniforms peered into one of the graves. A neighbor sent him a video of the discovery, and he immediately came to see the scene. “For us who live here, this is part of our ancestors,” he said.
Objects found in the tombs correspond to the Chancay culture, which occupied the area north of Lima from 1200 to 1450 AD, and an early cultural development known as Waula. Artifacts unearthed include a ceramic flute, a figurine possibly representing a goddess, an early version of Cucimilco, and a ceramic figurine with an expression of awe or amazement placed in Chancay’s tomb to accompany the dead. increase.