Archaeologists have unearthed a 1,200-year-old ancient tomb, with mummified royal women and treasures filled with gold and silver funeral offerings, in Peru.
The stunning discovery brought to fore the first unlooted imperial tomb of the ancient Wari civilisation that built South America's earliest empire between 700 and 1000 AD.
Milosz Giersz, an archaeologist at the University of Warsaw in Poland, realised at once that if word leaked out that his team had discovered a 1,200-year-old "temple of the dead" filled with precious gold and silver artifacts, looters would descend on the site in droves.
"I had a nightmare about the possibility," said Giersz.
Therefore, Giersz and project co-director Roberto Pimentel Nita kept their discovery secret.
"We are talking about the first unearthed royal imperial tomb," said Giersz.
Digging quietly for months in one of the burial chambers, the archaeologists collected more than a thousand artifacts, including sophisticated gold and silver jewelry, bronze axes, and gold tools, along with the bodies of three Wari queens and 60 other individuals, some of whom were probably human sacrifices.
Giersz suspected that a mausoleum remained hidden deep underground, the 'National Geographic' reported.
In January 2010, the team scrutinised the area using aerial photography and geophysical imaging equipment. On a ridge between two large adobe-brick pyramids, they spotted the faint outline of what appeared to be a subterranean mausoleum.
Digging through the rubble tomb robbers had long dumped rubble on the ridge, Giersz and his team uncovered an ancient ceremonial room with a stone throne last September.
Below this lay a large mysterious chamber sealed with 30 tons of loose stone. Inside the fill was a huge carved wooden mace.
"It was a tomb marker and we knew then that we had the main mausoleum," said Giersz.
As the archaeologists carefully removed the fill, they discovered rows of human bodies buried in a seated position and wrapped in poorly preserved textiles.
Nearby, in three small side chambers, were the remains of three Wari queens and many of their prized possessions, including weaving tools made of gold.
Mourners had also interred many other treasures in the room: inlaid gold and silver ear-ornaments, silver bowls, bronze ritual axes, a rare alabaster drinking cup, knives, coca leaf containers, brilliantly painted ceramics from many parts of the Andean world, and other precious objects.
