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Live Science reports that analysis of feathers discovered in a 1,000-year-old Yschma tomb in coastal Peru near the temple of Pachacamac indicates that they came from scarlet macaws (Ara macao), red-and-green macaws (Ara chloropterus), blue-and-yellow macaws (Ara ararauna), and mealy Amazons (Amazona farinosa), all of which live in lowland tropical forests to the east, more than 300 miles away across the Andes Mountains. No evidence for keeping birds, such as parrot skeletons, eggshells, or bird shelters, have been uncovered at Pachacamac, said George Olah of the Australian National University. The chemical makeup of the feathers showed, however, that the parrots...

Mummies of different epochs were among the finds Archaeologists digging at the ruins of Pachacamac in Peru say they have discovered a multi-level burial site. Mummy bundles of entire families were found in the graves from various eras, built on top of each other, they say. The researchers described the find as "exceptional" as the previously ignored cemetery had not been looted and is completely intact. Pachacamac, south of the capital, Lima, is thought to have been ruled by the Ychsma lords from 900 to 1470. The Incas turned it into a place of pilgrimage and it was abandoned after...

A team of archaeologists from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) has discovered a spectacular tomb containing more than eighty individuals of different ages. This discovery -- provisionally dated to around 1000 years ago -- was made at the site of Pachacamac, which is currently under review for UNESCO World Heritage status. Pachacamac, situated on the Pacific coast about thirty kilometres from Lima, is one of the largest Prehispanic sites in South America... It was here -- directly in front of the Temple of Pachacamac -- that the most important discovery was made. A scatter of later period burials was...

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.