Mummified Inca remains uncovered in pyramid in Peru

Human remains including an Incan noble still wrapped in robes have been uncovered in an adobe pyramid in Peru.

Two-dozen tombs with human remains and Incan pottery have been found at the Tucume Archaeological Site.

The remains – far from the heart of the Incan empire – show the huge scope of the ancient civilisation, which finally fell to the Spanish in 1572.

The civilisation used a network of roads and a tax system where people had to work for the rulers of the empire.

Jose Manuel Escudero, director of the archaeological team, said that some remains of men held spiked spondylus shells, which were used in rituals.

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Another tomb seems to be made for a noble, because the body was buried on a bed of ceramic pieces, and carefully wrapped.

Escudero said, ‘It’s wrapped in more than 4 shrouds, one of which is quilted. You’re not going to bury an ordinary person that way.’

Escudero said archaeologists hope the discoveries will tell them more about the so-called Pyramid of the Bees where the tombs were found, one of the several adobe structures at the site.

‘The Pyramid of the Bees must have had great significance for them to be buried there,’ he said.