Archaeologists discover an ancient Moche temple and 14 tombs including those of two rare decapitated bodies in northern Peru.
Archaeologists uncovered an ancient Moche temple containing 14 tombs from possibly different ancient Peruvian cultures dating back to between 300 and 500 A.D.
The effort to unearth the temple and the tombs is headed by archaeologist Ignacio Alva Meneses who on Tuesday (July 26) told Reuters they have discovered some curious fines since the excavation began in May of last year.
Alva said the site is of significance for many reasons, not least among them the fact that they discovered two decapitated bodies among the 14 tombs uncovered thus far.
Decapitations, he explains, are very rare finds in archaeology and as far as he knows these are the first tombs containing decapitated individuals in the area of Peru's northwest coast near the city of Chiclayo about 750 kilometres (460 miles) north of Lima.
A team of workers was brought in to uncover the temple which is attributed to the Moche culture and is believed to have been abandoned decades before the bodies were laid to rest there.
The bodies mostly belonged to children and there was is also one tomb that Alva believes belongs to a priest.
Alva believes the tombs could belong to later cultures in the area, perhaps the Sican or Chimu cultures that also laid claim to the region.
Another curious find were two connecting tombs that researches have yet to explain with any certainty.
Alva believes the two bodies in the connected tombs along with the priest may have been the first buried at the site.
"We have found two connected tombs that come from just after the temple was abandoned. The temple was built, prepared, manufactured, remodeled several times by the Moche, in the early days," Alva said.
Archaeologists uncovered an ancient Moche temple containing 14 tombs from possibly different ancient Peruvian cultures dating back to between 300 and 500 A.D.
The effort to unearth the temple and the tombs is headed by archaeologist Ignacio Alva Meneses who on Tuesday (July 26) told Reuters they have discovered some curious fines since the excavation began in May of last year.
Alva said the site is of significance for many reasons, not least among them the fact that they discovered two decapitated bodies among the 14 tombs uncovered thus far.
Decapitations, he explains, are very rare finds in archaeology and as far as he knows these are the first tombs containing decapitated individuals in the area of Peru's northwest coast near the city of Chiclayo about 750 kilometres (460 miles) north of Lima.
A team of workers was brought in to uncover the temple which is attributed to the Moche culture and is believed to have been abandoned decades before the bodies were laid to rest there.
The bodies mostly belonged to children and there was is also one tomb that Alva believes belongs to a priest.
Alva believes the tombs could belong to later cultures in the area, perhaps the Sican or Chimu cultures that also laid claim to the region.
Another curious find were two connecting tombs that researches have yet to explain with any certainty.
Alva believes the two bodies in the connected tombs along with the priest may have been the first buried at the site.
"We have found two connected tombs that come from just after the temple was abandoned. The temple was built, prepared, manufactured, remodeled several times by the Moche, in the early days," Alva said.