A 600-year-old pre-Inca tomb resurfaces in Peru: the exceptional discovery that calls into question the Chimu culture

A staircase descends for approximately two and a half meters into the central chamber. There, among shell and metal objects, archaeologists found a completely stretched-out individual. A little further on, weapons, emblems and other bodies. In all, the burial platform discovered at Chan Chan, Peru, returned the remains of at least 38 people remained underground for about 600 years. And one of them had been buried in a way that, for the Chimu culture, is decidedly unusual.

The discovery occurred in Utzh Anthe large walled complex once called Gran Chimú Palace, on the country’s northern coast, near the city of Trujillo. The excavations are part of the research and conservation work conducted by the Proyecto Especial Complejo Arqueológico Chan Chan. The Peruvian Ministry of Culture defined the discovery as unprecedented: the structure has reached us almost intact, a rather concrete fortune in a site that has also seen looting over the centuries.

The burial that does not follow the Chimú ritual

The platform includes a central chamber and lateral rooms. The first, approximately 1.2 meters wide and 5 meters deep, can be reached via a staircase that descends into the ground. A character associated with numerous shell and metal objects was found here. In the side chambers the situation changes: in one they appeared above all Metallic weapons and emblemswhile in another twenty individuals were recorded. Adding up the other remains identified on the platform, the count has so far reached 38.

What struck archaeologists above all was one of the bodies, placed at the bottom of a room completely relaxed. In known Chimu funerary contexts, the deceased were most often placed with the body flexed or seated with bent limbs. That stretched position therefore breaks a fairly recognizable pattern.

For now it breaks the pattern, in fact. She still does not say on her own why that person was deposed like that, what role she had or what relationship tied her to other individuals. The analyzes have just begun and the Minister of Culture Alberto Beingolea himself has called for caution regarding interpretations: the value of the discovery lies precisely in the possibility of studying remains and objects still in their original context.

Two hundred vases and some traces that already look towards the Incas

The land has given back quite a lot more. During the presentation of the find, the responsible archaeologist Jorge Meneses also spoke about approx 200 black ceramic vases with red pigmentsin addition to metal objects associated with burials. Some materials show characteristics that could belong to the later phases of Chan Chan history, when the Chimú world had already come into contact with the Inca.

This is a particularly interesting detail because Utzh An had already returned clues from that phase. In the official program of the The chronology indicated for the new discovery, about 600 years ago, falls in the last centuries of Chimú history, shortly before the Inca conquest of the 15th century.

Being in front of an almost undisturbed context makes the discovery much more useful than a nice collection of objects pulled out of the earth. Location of bodies, distribution of weapons, ceramics, textiles and ornaments can be read together. It is from these relationships that archaeologists will be able to try to understand who the main character was, who the other people buried next to him were and what happened during those ceremonies.

Chan Chan was the great land capital of the Chimu

Chan Chan is not just any site. It was the capital of the Chimú kingdom, one of the most important powers in the Andes before the Inca expansion. The city was organized into large walled complexes with palaces, squares, warehouses, ceremonial spaces and funerary platforms. Built mainly in raw earth, it is considered one of the largest pre-Columbian urban settlements of this type.

Since 1986 the Chan Chan archaeological area has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Utzh An is the largest of its walled complexes and continues to be the subject of systematic excavation and conservation work.

The most precious part of the new discovery, however, may be the least flashy one. Archaeologists are faced with bodies and objects that for centuries have remained almost exactly where someone had left them. At Chan Chan, where many burials have been disturbed or looted, 600 years of silence have also preserved the context. Now it’s up to the excavators to figure out what he was saying.