(Image: Milosz Giersz)
After death comes eternal rest – unless your sleep is rudely disturbed by grave robbers. Not much chance of that if you have 30 tonnes of rubble protecting your tomb, like this Wari queen. She was found lying just where she was buried around 1200 years ago.
One of the mausoleum's discoverers, Krzysztof Makowski Hanula, called it a "pantheon where all the Wari nobles of the region were buried". It also contains the remains of two other queens and 60 further seated bodies – probably human sacrifices buried alongside their rulers.
(Image: Daniel Giannoni)
Archaeologists discovered the burial site in 2010, but have only announced the discovery now that the artefacts have been safely stored. Even modern-day burglars would be tempted by riches such as these silver and gold ear ornaments decorated with winged, supernatural beings, and the golden tools that the queens used to weave cloth.
(Image: Daniel Giannoni)
The tomb also contained this pot decorated with a boldly painted staring Wari lord, along with ceramics traded from around the Andean world.
See more images of Wari treasure at the National Geographic website.
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.
Have your say
Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.
Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article
All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.
If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.
