Archaeologists Discover Ancient Human Remains in Pre-Incan Peruvian Temple Dedicated to Water Cult

Archaeologists recently identified the remains of four human funerary burials from approximately 3,800 years ago in a space in northern Peru associated with a water cult.

The bundled funeral remains belong to two children, a teenager, and an adult. They were buried facing the Andean mountains and interred with symbolic offerings, such as stone pendants and snail shells.

The remains were found nestled between mud and stone walls near a valley in Peru’s dry, coastal Viru province by the Virú Valley Archaeological Research Project (PAVI) of the National University of Trujillo (UNT).

Feren Castillo Luján, an archaeologist at the National University of Trujillo in Peru who co-directed the archaeological research project PAVI, told Reuters that the discovery of four human remains in such a small space meant there could be many more buried in the area.

“It also shows the importance of the space. People have for a long time wanted to be buried in temples because these are very sacred spaces to them,” Castillo Luján told Reuters, noting that the remains and the walls were likely between 3,100 and 3,800 years old.

The excavation where the four human remains were discovered took place in a plot 51 square meters (549 square feet) in size, equivalent to 1 percent of the total area of ​​the site. A press release from the University of Trujillo said the research allowed archaeologists to identify cobblestone walls made of clay plaster, which correspond to five interconnected environments which have unique architectural elements (curved corners) from the Early Formative period.

“In addition, fragments of early pottery found at the site are similar to those observed in other important settlements such as Gramalote, in the Moche Valley, and Huaca Negra, near the coast in the Virú Valley,” Castillo Luján told the University of Trujillo.