Archaeologists in Peru have announced the discovery of 5,000-year-old human remains believed to belong to a high-status woman from one of the world's oldest civilizations. The tomb was found at Aspero, part of the Caral archaeological site on Peru's central coast — an area that once served as a municipal dump.
Reuters reports that archaeologist David Palomino said the remarkable preservation of the woman's skin, hair and nails indicates she held high rank in the ancient Caral civilization. 'This is an important burial because it has elements that correspond to a woman of high status,' Palomino said. Researchers estimate she died between the ages of 20 and 35.
The burial was richly furnished: the woman was wrapped in a mantle of blue and brown feathers believed to come from an Amazonian bird, and the tomb was surrounded by baskets of offerings, vases, gourds and a toucan's beak. Palomino said the discovery shows that 'not only men had an important association in this civilization, but this was also complementary with that of women.'
Caral is recognised by UNESCO as the oldest centre of civilization in the Americas, inhabited by around 3,000 people during the Late Archaic Period of the Central Andes. It flourished at the same time as the ancient Egyptian, Chinese and Sumerian civilizations, and is one of only six sites worldwide where civilization is believed to have originated independently, according to Fox News Digital.
The exact date of the burial remains under study, but the find adds a striking new chapter to the story of the Americas' first great urban society. The site's significance was established through decades of work led by Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady, who revealed Caral's pyramids, plazas and irrigation systems. UNESCO has inscribed the Sacred City of Caral as a World Heritage Site, recognising a civilisation that built monumental architecture without warfare — no battlements or weapons have ever been found there.
Photo: Johnattan Rupire, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons