Archeologists in Peru discover 800-year-old 'peculiar' mummy

Archeologists working on a site in the outskirts of Peru's capital Lima have unearthed a mummy which was, surprisingly, bound with rope.

The mummy was found  in a burial chamber that is about three meters (10 feet) long and at a depth of about 1.4 metres at the dig site in Cajamarquilla, a historic city.

The find is "peculiar and unique" Archeologist Pieter Van Dalen, who is in charge of the Cajamarquilla project, said on Tuesday.

"The mummy would have been buried sometime between 800 and 1200 AD," he added, meaning it would be at least 800 years old.

The remains are thought to be of a man aged 18-22 at the time of his death.

The most "peculiar" part of the remains, however, was that the man, bound with rope, was mummified with his hands covering his face.

Funerary rites

"The main characteristic of the mummy is that the whole body was tied up by ropes and with the hands covering the face, which would be part of the local funeral pattern," said archaeologist Pieter Van Dalen Luna.

Several offerings were found alongside the mummy, possibly as part of funerary rites.

On one side of the mummy, experts found the skeleton of an Andean guinea pig and what appears to be a dog, according to the researchers at the University of San Marcos.

Traces of corn and other vegetables were also found in the burial chamber, along with ceramics and stone tools.

Cajamarquilla, the site of the finding, is about 24 kilometres (15 miles) east of Lima.

It was an urban centre that could have been home to 10,000-20,000 people, Van Dalen explained.

The city was built in around 200 BC and was occupied until about 1500.