Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Unexpected Pre-Incan Tomb Findings





After 18 years of excavating in San Jose where only female

remains have been found, an unexpected male was uncovered

among priestesses of the pre-inca society located in Peru. He was

found in a double chambered wooden tomb with a copper lattice

and a gilded mask, sitting on a raised platform inside of the

coffin.This unexpected find may uncover why so far only

female elite bodies have been found even though both men

and woman were seen through art work as rulers. Excavation

leader Castillo Butters suspects that this mask might have been

removed from another coffin because it was similar to another

mask that was found.


The bottom left is a picture of the unique double chambered tomb in which the elite male

was found. He is believed to have ruled along side more famous priestesses and

then buried with these women. The tomb is fairly empty which means that items

and bodies were most likely removed. The males coffin is found pushed up

against the upper right side of the tomb and appears that "the male was not

actually the tomb's primary resident," as stated by anthropologist Steve Bourget.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/photogalleries/moche-pre-inca-treasure-dig/index.html

Jessica Paiva

Period 3


2 comments:

Unknown said...

I liked this, it's really cool that the tomb was found so close to where we are. It makes me wonder what other artifacts could be only a few hundred feet away.

Anonymous said...

It's always intresting to see a society led by women.