Secrets Under the Schoolyard

A villager prepares a massive, undisturbed mummy bundle for removal from the excavated schoolyard. It took four men and a sturdy plank to raise the 380-pound (172 kilograms) bundle from its grave without breaking the brittle bones inside. We call such mummy bundles falsas after the false heads (textiles stuffed with cotton) propped on top. Headdress feathers, a sign of high status, still cling to the scalp of a mummy found nearby. The copper star, unearthed south of the school, once embellished a warrior's shield made of cane and reeds. The dry climate helped maintain these treasures, but so did the people who buried them—by sealing the tombs with sand, rubble, and ceramic sherds.

A Funerary Bundle Unfurled

We nicknamed one truly unique mummy the Cotton King because he was bundled in some 300 pounds (136 kilograms) of raw cotton. Typically the Inca wrapped their nobles in finished cloth. Weeks into the unveiling, members of my team were still picking through the stuffing with their fingers, making sure no tiny artifacts were left tangled within. A baby, probably related, shared his bale; the baby's removal left an eerie gap in the cotton. The extensive packing and wide assortment of items buried with them suggest an elite pair.

Their souls were thought to keep in touch with the living, so the Inca dead were well tended. The Cotton King was buried with every-day items—food, pottery, animal skins, and corn to make chicha, a fermented drink. Other objects signified his high place in society: Exotic bird feathers adorned his headband, which doubled as a slingshot; his mace, or club, signified a powerful warrior; and his sandals were a type worn by the upper class. Most revealing of his wealth were offerings of Spondylus, oyster shells imported from warm waters off the coast of Ecuador.

The baby who shared his bundle lay with its legs straight out, but the man's pose, like the cotton stuffing, puzzled us: Rather than tucked in the fetal position typical of adults, his knees were bent as if kneeling, his toes pointed like a dancer's. Is there meaning in this eccentric city? We aren't yet sure.

Bound for the Afterlife

The Cotton King's leathery hands clutch fabric, a shell, and a chalky ball of lime made from an aggregate of minerals. Locals today still chew lime with coca leaves to extract the stimulant within. The mummy is cleaned and sketched, finally free of cotton and most of the 170 items buried with him. These artifacts include corn, peanuts, sweet potatoes, beans, and a gourd filled with lime powder; silver and copper tupus—pins to hold a garment closed; and a wooden comb with tines from a spiny plant and silver tweezers, black with corrosion. A figure unearthed nearby still decorates the handle of a ceramic vessel.

Textiles for Eternity

Peruvian weavers were masters of elegance. An elaborate headdress with imported bird feathers and fish designs had a foot-tall crown, two earflaps, and a long panel that draped down the back of the wearer, who would have been a person of high rank. Even a simple woven bag was a medley of colors and fabrics. Decorative cloth also cloaked the youngest mummies, for us the saddest finds. Nearly half of those buried here were children, who often suffered from anemia and were vulnerable to infection. Carefully tended after death, both young and old were well equipped for immortality.