Update on Mummified Human Remains Uncovered in Peru

LIMA, PERU—The AFP reports that the remains of six children have been found wrapped in cloth in an underground structure at the site of Cajamarquilla, a city built in central coastal Peru around 200 B.C. and occupied until about A.D. 1500. Archaeologist Pieter Van Dalen Luna of the State University of San Marcos thinks the children may have been sacrificed between 1,000 and 1,200 years ago in order to accompany the owner of the grave to the underworld. This man is thought to have been about 20 years of age when he died. His remains were tied with rope, with his hands covering his face, in the local funeral custom. The grave also held the bones of seven adults whose bodies had not been mummified, the remains of llama-like animals, ceramics, stone tools, and traces of vegetables. To read about a mummy unearthed at the site of Pachacamac on the Peruvian coast, go to "All Bundled Up."