On the outskirts of Lima, Peru, locals stumbled upon some dusty items in a vacant lot. They didn’t know it at the time, but they’d just discovered a cache of 500-year-old treasures.
Locals in Puente Piedra district alerted officials about some historic-looking artifacts in an empty lot, Peru’s Ministry of Culture said in an April 7 news release. A joint team of archaeologists and police went to investigate.
At the site, archaeologists unearthed dozens of pre-Hispanic artifacts and human remains from the Late Horizon period, which lasted from 1476 to 1532, officials said.
Photos show a few of the colorful ancient textiles and fabric bags found at the site. Other 500-year-old artifacts included metal tupus, a type of pin, weaving tools such as spindles with threads, a shell, a decorated band and several bags, one of which had cotton inside.
Archaeologists identified the ancient human remains as a fractured infant skull, 25 limb and rib bones as well as a mummified head with skin and hair.
The 500-year-old finds were taken for conservation and further analysis, officials said.
Archaeologists did not say how the remains and finds came to be buried in Puente Piedra district.
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