TÚCUME, PERU—According to a Reuters report in the New York Times, two dozen burials dating to the time of the Inca Empire have been found in the Pyramid of the Bees at the Lambayeque site of Tucume, which is located in a desert valley near Peru’s northern coastline. Archaeologist Jose Manuel Escudero said the space had been reused by the Inca, but there is no evidence at this time that they took it over by force. The cave-like tombs within the adobe pyramid contain human remains and pottery. The remains of men holding spiked spondylus shells were found in five of the tombs. One of the bodies in another tomb had been wrapped in more than four shrouds and set on a bed of ceramic pieces. One of these shrouds had been quilted. “You’re not going to bury an ordinary person that way,” Escudero said. He thinks burial in the Pyramid of the Bees may have held “great significance for them to be buried there.” To read more about ritual in the Inca Empire, go to “The Water Temple of Inca-Caranqui.”
