Archaeologists Uncover Tombs at Peruvian Ruins

Scotsman.com ^ | May 17, 2005

[rdl6989]

Archaeologists have uncovered a multi-level grave site at Peru’s ancient ruins of Pachacamac, including mummy bundles containing whole families.

There were also bodies of pilgrims who presumably sought cures from an oracle deity for diseases like syphilis, tuberculosis and cancer, the project’s leader said.

“What is interesting in this cemetery is that it is totally intact, and we have mummies of different epochs, different periods, and they have their burial goods with them,” archaeologist Peter Eeckhout, of the Free University of Brussels, told The Associated Press.

[rdl6989]

Incan mummy ping.

[zarf]

Cool discovery. I think Strom Thurmond is among the corpses.

[SteveMcKing]

I question some of these South American burial studies - they're only going back a few hundred years, some of them. How long do we have to wait before some future professor wants to dig up your own family grave?

Seriously, what's the cut-off? 400 years? Are the Jamestown colonists are ready to be made travelling exhibits by now?

[nuconvert]

Peruvian mummy pong

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks rdl6989.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[Publius6961]

If I sign a release ahead of time, will you find a more meaningful direction to your life?
Perhaps have a life at all?

[SteveMcKing]

fu2

[Ciexyz]

Most interesting.

[Betis70]

I worked on a cemetery from the 1800s in CT. In that case they were unmarked, in the middle of a sand and gravel operation, found by a machine operator.

He thought it might have been a murder site, so the police were called in, then once they determined the age, we exhumed the bodies, did some analysis, then reintered them in a nearby marked cemetery.

But I guess this is a different situation, since these will probably be studied for a lot longer period. I dunno, graves/burials are always political flashpoints. One of the reasons I got out of Archaeology actually.

[rdl6989]

Thats interesting. I know a lot of times cemeteries in the past were "moved". I mean the tombstones were moved but the graves weren't. Later when a highway or other construction project comes along, people think they found a murder victim(s)

[Betis70]

I suspect the same thing happened in this case (moved headstones).

The cemetery had some creepy burials.

[rdl6989]

yikes, thats strange.

[SunkenCiv]

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