LIMA, PERU—A team of archaeologists from Peru’s Culture Ministry excavating at El Paraiso, the oldest known site in Lima, has discovered the head of a ceramic figure and the tomb of a woman. The presence of the ceramic fragment, which dates to around 4,000 years ago, is notable, says project director Joaquin Narvaez. “That a ceramic object should turn up among remains from the Late Preceramic Period shows us one of the earliest attempts by the first inhabitants of this complex to fire clay in order to harden it,” he told EFE. The team estimates that the woman was aged around 30 when she died around 3,500 years ago of blunt trauma to the head, according to Peru Reports. Based on the presence of knitting implements, seashells, and seafood residues in her tomb, they believe that she was a textile weaver and that her diet was largely made up of fish and seafood. To read more about archaeology in Peru, go to “Peru’s Mummy Bundles.”
