Archaeologists Discover 800-Year-Old Elite Graves in Peru

Archaeologists in Peru have recently discovered the remains of elite members of a pre-Inca society dating back approximately 800 years.

Knewz.com has learned that the discovery was made at Chan Chan, the ancient capital of the Chimu civilization located near the present-day Peruvian city of Trujillo.

The Chimu civilization was the one that maintained the largest and the most significant political system in ancient Peru before the Inca civilization came along.

The civilization began to take shape in the first half of the 14th century A.D., during which they constructed cities and developed large-scale irrigation systems.

Somewhere between 1465 and 1470 A.D., the civilization was conquered by the Inca under the leadership of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui and his son Topa Inca Yupanqui.

Following the conquest, the Inca adopted several aspects of Chimu culture, notably their political organization, irrigation systems, and road engineering.

Notably, the ancient Chimu capital of Chan Chan is known for its elaborate architecture of mud bricks, which made it one of the largest cities in the world built with "adobe"—a certain type of brick made using a sun-dried mixture of clay and straw.

A team of archaeologists discovered the remains during an excavation project aimed at restoring the perimeter walls of a palace complex in the ancient capital.

Overall, the team found the remains of eleven individuals, and judging by the adornments found with them – including necklaces, earrings, and bracelets – it was determined that they belonged to the wealthy class of the ancient city.

Britannica explains that the ancient Chimu society was distributed into social classes, from peasants to nobility.

Sinthya Cueva, the lead archeologist of the project, commented that the people found buried at the site "were probably members of the Chimu's governing class."

However, the lead archaeologist also pointed out that the remains have been "disturbed" and that they showed signs of "violent death ." She further noted that the graves were found in an area that did not have "the common characteristics of a cemetery ," per a Reuters report.

Peru has been the site of several exciting discoveries this month, as earlier in July, a team of archaeologists discovered a 5,000-year-old ceremonial temple in the South American nation.

The discovery was made at the Los Paredones de la Otra Banda-Las Ánimas Archaeological Complex in the Zaña Valley in Peru, where a team of archaeologists had been carrying out excavations since June 3.

Dr. Luis Armando Muro, an archaeologist from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and the leader of the research, described the ceremonial site in a statement, saying:

"We are possibly in front of a religious enclosure of five thousand years old that constitutes an architectural space defined by walls. We have what would have been a central staircase from which you would ascend to a kind of stage in the central part."

"We are still waiting for radio-carbon dating to confirm the date, but the evidence suggests this religious construction could be part of a religious tradition of temples built on Peru's northern coast during that period," Dr. Muro said in a separate statement, per reports .

The team of archaeologists also found the skeleta l remains of three adults between the walls and bases of the site, which Dr. Muro believes was once a multi-storied structure.

One of the skeletons was accompanied by offerings that could have originally been wrapped in cloth or linen, according to the assumptions made by the Pontifical Catholic University archaeologist.