Archaeologists exploring the dunes of Peru’s northern coast uncovered 3,000-year-old remains of 14 men and women believed to have been sacrificed, reported the Straits Times.
The skeletons lay just beneath the sand, their bones flattened by centuries of wind-driven sediment near a beach in the La Libertad region about 675 kilometers north of Lima. Several bodies were face-down with hands bound behind their backs, and none were accompanied by ceramics, textiles, or metal objects, leading investigators to interpret the burial as a single episode of ritual killing meant to consecrate nearby sacred architecture.
The graves bordered a temple linked to the Cupisnique culture, which occupied valleys and coastal plains between roughly 1500 and 500 BCE. Cupisnique architects built adobe temples and stepped pyramids, and their pottery continues to inform scholars about belief systems that predated the Inca.
“The way in which these individuals were buried is atypical, as are the traumas and injuries they suffered during life and the violence they endured,” said archaeologist Henri Tantalean. He added that the prone posture with bound arms “represents a typical form of human sacrifice” within several pre-Inca traditions along the Pacific coast.
Researchers were analyzing botanical and faunal samples from the soil to determine whether perishable offerings once lay above the graves.
The find joins a growing list of archaeological discoveries across Peru. In June, workers from gas distributor Calidda found a mummified woman more than 900 years old while laying pipe in Lima’s Puente Piedra district. The same project exposed additional bones last month, pointing to a Chancay cemetery dated to between 1,000 and 1,200 years ago. Such episodes, along with the Cupisnique burial ground in La Libertad, illustrate the dense cultural layers beneath Peru’s urban and rural landscapes.
Written with the help of a news-analysis system.