Skeletal remains believed to be person sacrificed during ritual unearthed by archaeologists in Peru

Archaeologists on Tuesday unveiled the skeletal remains of an adult they believe was buried as an offering near the base of Huaca Pucllana, an ancient adobe pyramid in Peru’s capital of Lima.

The remains are believed to be those of a man who may have been sacrificed during a ritual in which a canal linked to a ceremonial pool was closed.

The discovery has been preliminarily dated to around A.D. 650, so it would be approximately 1,400 years old, Peru’s culture ministry said in a statement, while releasing multiple images of the excavation site.

Gladys Paz, the archaeologist who led the excavation, said the bones will help researchers better understand “the rituals of the Lima culture” and reconstruct ceremonies performed hundreds of years ago.

Paz said that the body was buried inside a canal, resting on its left flank, with the skull facing the pyramid and the Pacific Ocean.

“One of the most significant aspects of the discovery is the architecture of the ceremonial well,” the culture ministry said. “Unlike other known structures at Huaca Pucllana, characterized by the use of small mud bricks, this well was built with river stones.” 

The Lima culture flourished between the first and seventh centuries along Peru’s arid central coast, about 700 years before the rise of the Inca Empire.

Huaca Pucllana was one of the most important ceremonial and administrative centers of the Lima culture, which disappeared centuries before a group of Spanish conquistadors founded Lima in 1535.

Today, the pyramid is surrounded by parks, leafy streets and upscale apartment buildings in the districts of Miraflores and San Isidro.

Huaca Pucllana is open to tourists, with a restaurant serving Peruvian specialties like ceviche, stir-fried beef and roasted alpaca meat.

According to Peru’s government, there are more than 400 archaeological sites across metropolitan Lima. Pieter Van Dalen, an archaeology professor at the National University of San Marcos who was not involved in the excavation, said that it’s common to find tombs, mummified remains and other burial-related items along Peru’s coast. Such discoveries have also been made while construction workers dig canals to install gas pipes.

In July 2025, utility workers excavating trenches to expand an underground gas network in Peru’s capital unearthed two pre-Incan tombs that were over 1,000 years old. A month before that, utility workers found a 1,000-year-old mummy of a child while installing pipes.

In April 2025, archaeologists announced they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred Peruvian city of Caral, in an area that for decades was used as a garbage dump.