Archaeologists Found a Stunningly Preserved 5,000-Year-Old Mummy—in a Garbage Dump

An archaeological site that used to be a garbage dump has revealed the extraordinarily preserved mummy of an elite woman from the ancient Caral civilization of Peru.
The woman was buried with luxury grave goods and a headdress that distinguished her as a member of the aristocracy.
This find shows that, despite previous evidence proving rulers were men, women were allowed to hold high social rank in Caral society.

In ancient Peru, those of high rank were buried with both treasures and dignity—so why were the mummified remains of a noblewoman languishing in a garbage dump for decades?

The site where the mummy was found this past December had not always been covered in trash. She was buried in Aspero, once a scared site in the city of Caral, which rose around 3,000 BC. Caral emerged from the fertile Super Valley and flourished around the same time as other illustrious ancient civilizations such as Mesopotamia, China and Egypt. It even boasts a pyramid to rival the towering Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara. It only became a dump in the 1960s until it later turned into an archaeological site in the 1990s.

Archaeologist David Palomino, who led the excavation on this site, is convinced that even tough most rulers in Caral society were men, this woman was had to be a member of the elite. The find shows that women could hold high social positions. She was shrouded in several layers of fabric, wore a headdress made of twisted threads to show her status, and was covered with a mantle of blue-and-gold macaw feathers. Among her grave goods were a stone bowl, a straw basket and a toucan’s beak, but what was really exceptional about this mummy is her state of preservation.

“This is an exceptional burial due to the preservation of skin, hair and nails, a rare condition in this area, where usually only skeletal remains are recovered,” said the culture ministry of Peru in a press release.

Whoever this woman was in life, preliminary analysis has shown that she was about five feet tall and somewhere between the ages of 20 and 35 at the time of death, though what caused her death remains unknown. She joins the “Lady of the Four Tupus” as another female elite burial unearthed in Caral. While only skeletal remains of this individual, known for being buried with four brooches carved into the shapes of animals, remained, she is another example of an aristocratic woman from the same region and time period.

Like the newly discovered Caral woman, the Lady of the Four Tupus was covered in layers of shrouds and went to the afterlife with luxury grave goods. The bone brooches placed at her shoulders were howler monkeys and exotic birds with chrysocolla eyes. Around her neck was an impressive string of mollusk shell beads crowned with a spondylus, or spiny oyster, shell. Her head was also bound, another indicator of wealth and status. Whether the newer mummy had her head bound has not been determined yet.

Something curious about the Lady of the Four Tupus was that, despite her having been part of the top echelon of society, her bones give away signs of hard physical labor. Caral thrived from fishing and agriculture. This could mean that even the elites of the city were not exempt from work, hardly the stereotypical picture of ancient royals and aristocrats at the height of leisure, fanned and fed by their loyal servants. Further analysis may be able to tell whether the woman found beneath the former garbage dump also had an obligation to do some sort of labor.

“A multidisciplinary team is currently investigating aspects related to health, death, diet, and the origin and use of the recovered objects,” the culture Ministry of Peru also said.

Caral, which was inhabited by the Norte Chico people, was around for four millennia before the rise of the Inca Empire and saw no outside influence. It might even be the oldest known city in the Americas. Some archaeologists suggest its splendor ended because of internal strife or political upheaval, which is difficult to prove. Why it was abandoned without any evidence of being conquered is still a mystery.

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