Ancient Mausoleum Complex Unearthed At Peru's Chan Chan Site

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Archaeologists have uncovered an untouched ancient mausoleum complex beneath a ruined citadel on Peru's northern coast, national officials announced this week. This marks the first discovery of an intact tomb within the historic city of Chan Chan, once the capital of the Chimu kingdom.

Chan Chan, located near present-day Trujillo, was the largest city in the Americas during its peak. Spanning nine square miles, it featured gardens, plazas, pyramids, and mausoleums. The site has been under excavation for decades, with much of it previously plundered by the Inca, Spanish colonizers, and other looters over centuries.

Archaeologist Jorge Meneses, who oversees the current excavations, described the moment of discovery to The New York Times, stating:“It was a feeling of anxiety and urgency, to know if we were really in front of a chamber that had never been looted. In that moment we realized that the chamber had not been looted.”

The mausoleum, constructed from adobe bricks, measures 55 feet along each side and stands 16 feet high. A stairway descends eight feet into its center, where a chamber is flanked by a larger room on each side. The central chamber contained the remains of one individual, while the eastern room was largely empty. The western room held numerous artifacts and the remains of approximately 20 people. An additional 18 human remains were found in other sections of the complex.

A bright red pigment, possibly cinnabar, was identified on the skull and some bones in the central chamber, as well as on two other remains on the funeral platform. Experts believe cinnabar, a mercury sulfide mineral, held significant spiritual and ritualistic importance for the Chimu, reserved exclusively for high-ranking members of society.

Among the artifacts found were ear ornaments, silver- or copper-plated necklaces, and jewelry made from quartz, shells, and semiprecious stones. A substantial quantity of metal weapons, heavy beads, and a wooden chest decorated with images of seabirds and monkeys, containing colorful textiles, were also recovered.

Gabriel Prieto, a professor of anthropology at the University of Florida, who was not involved in the research, informed The Times that the design of such Chimu tombs and evidence from Chimu art suggest they were“designed to be open.” He explained that Chimu people would deposit bodies or offerings and sometimes remove human remains from burials to be venerated as ancestors in plazas.

The tomb contained a total of 38 bodies and countless offerings, believed to be for the Chimu elite. Dating to approximately 600 years ago, the mausoleum predates or is contemporary with the Inca conquest of the region in the mid-1400s. Excavations at the site are ongoing, and the recovered remains are currently undergoing further analysis. This discovery is expected to yield extensive information on Chimu burial practices, their cultural elite, and a pivotal historical period when the established Chimu kingdom confronted the rising Inca empire.

We previously reported:

A joint Spanish-Egyptian mission has unearthed a well-preserved 5th Dynasty tomb of a high-ranking official near Saqqara, Egypt.

Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed the tomb of Sekhentiu-Ptah, a high-ranking Old Kingdom official, at the Saqqara necropolis.

Source: ARTnews

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