First Pictures: Peru’s Rare, Unlooted Royal Tomb

South America’s Earliest Empire
Photograph by Daniel Giannoni
Images of winged, supernatural beings adorn a pair of heavy gold-and-silver ear ornaments that a high-ranking Wari woman wore to her grave in the newly discovered mausoleum at El Castillo de Huarmey in Peru.
The Wari forged South America's earliest empire between 700 and 1000 A.D., and their Andean capital boasted a population greater than that of Paris at the time. Today, Peru's Minister of Culture will officially announce the discovery of the first unlooted Wari imperial tomb by a team of Polish and Peruvian researchers. In all, the archaeological team has found the remains of 63 individuals, including three Wari queens.
—Heather Pringle
Published June 27, 2013
Human Remains
Photograph by Milosz Giersz
Peruvian project co-director, Roberto Pimentel Nita (left), bioarchaeologist Dr. Wiesław Więckowski (center), and archaeologist Dr. Patrycja Prządka-Giersz (right) starting digging the first layers of human remains at the main chamber. In the foreground, a massive carved wooden mace protrudes from the chamber—an ancient tomb marker. When the team found it, says University of Warsaw archaeologist Milosz Giersz, "we knew then that we had the main mausoleum."
Published June 27, 2013
Wari Queen
Photograph by Milosz Giersz
Protected from looters by an upper layer consisting of 30 tons of loose stone, the remains of this Wari queen lay exactly where Wari mourners left her some 1,200 years ago. Archaeologist Krzysztof Makowski Hanula, the project's scientific adviser, describes the mausoleum as a pantheon, where all the Wari nobles of the region were buried.
Published June 27, 2013
Human Sacrifices?
Photograph by Patrycja Przadka Giersz
Wari attendants placed most of the dead in sitting position, then bundled them with precious possessions in cloth woven from llama wool and cotton. But archaeologists found six of the bodies lying in an extended position: these may have been human sacrifices or offerings to the gods.
Published June 27, 2013
Ceramic Flask
Photograph by Patrycja Przadka Giersz
As archaeologists dug in one side chamber, they unearthed the remains of a Wari queen and several regal offerings, including a brilliantly painted ceramic flask (right) and an alabaster drinking cup (left).
Published June 27, 2013
Wari Lord
Photograph by Daniel Giannoni
With eyes wide open, a painted Wari lord stares out from the side of a 1,200-year-old ceramic flask found with the remains of a Wari queen. Giersz and his colleagues think the Wari may have displayed the body of the queen after death in a royal ancestor cult.
Published June 27, 2013
Alabaster Cup
Photograph by Daniel Giannoni
The newly discovered tomb contained many rare treasures, including this drinking cup carved from alabaster. It is the only such cup known from ancient Andean sites.
Published June 27, 2013
Semi-Precious Stone Beads
Photograph by Patrycja Przadka Giersz
Still caked in earth, strings of semi-precious stone beads from the tomb await cleaning and conservation.
Published June 27, 2013
Carved Wooden Artifacts
Photograph by Daniel Giannoni
One of the things that amazed and delighted archaeologists was the excellent preservation of wooden artifacts in the imperial tomb. Some 1,200 years ago, a Wari artist carved a supernatural winged being on the handle of this weaver's spoon.
Published June 27, 2013
Gold Tools
Photograph by Patrycja Przadka Giersz
Bending to his work inside the burial chamber, archaeologist Milosz Giersz brushes away sediments from a small cane box. Giersz and his colleagues found gold weaving tools tucked inside such boxes. The Wari queens, they now surmise, wove cloth with gold instruments.
Published June 27, 2013
See Next: Huge Peru Tomb Found—80 Bodies, Ring of Babies
Photograph courtesy Université libre de Bruxelles
Published June 27, 2013

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9 comments

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arun kottur

lovely

PsyLrn Sire

is amazing things are still intact ....

CindyInGram Sindy Maraj

let's see

mark nolan

I just let my imagination wander and not worry too much about statistics.......that's all guesswork and assumptions anyway.

Pat Heisler

That ceramic flask looks Nazca!

charlie linebarger

In 1000 a.d. Paris had a population of 20,000 (I googled it), London 5-10,000 and Constantinople, which today's Turks have called Istanbul had 300,000. Paris was at its nadir as far as population in 1000 after the Vikings etc. So, I understand the need to put the city's size in perspective and your wish to say it was big but comparing it to what is today and has for centuries been a huge city, but putting it in that time period is sort of disingenuous. I'm a curious guy and googled "Paris in 1000 a.d." Since the average reader will have vague misconceptions on Paris' population during the dark ages it might be better to have said "a population perhaps of 20,000 in its heyday, about the size of Paris at the height of the dark ages. But you wanted to imply it was a relatively large city and that comparison would not have met the criteria of what you were looking for. Maybe you should have compared it to the populations of other cities in Inca and pre-Inca times. So we would have a better grasp on the subject and this civilization's importance within the context of Andean civilization's multi-millennium pre-Hispanic existence. Brilliant photographs and a miraculous discovery of an un-looted, well-preserved site. Wood carvings surviving in that state of preservation. Miraculous almost.

Daniel Khork

Wow!They are in great shape.

David Bankson

@charlie linebarger It wasn't until after year 1000AD that Paris had a population explosion. There was a small spike in population in the 2nd century, but we're talking 600-900 years beforehand. I don't think it's unfair to say that it was comparable to Paris at the same time. What's not fair is to say Paris' population was at its nadir at a time right before their population exploded...for the previous 1000 years, it was a pretty normal population for Paris.

Steve Kasian

@charlie linebarger That's a bit like the pot calling the kettle black, don't you think Charlie? ...Cutting off one's nose to spite one's face; Throwing the baby out with the bath water; Seeing the world through rose colored glasses; When in Rome... ; Six of one, half dozen of the other - you know what I mean.

But for the most part, I do agree with you.

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