Gas workers in Peru stumble across 1,000-year-old mummy: See photos
The mummified remains were discovered not even two feet beneath the Earth's surface in Peru's capital of Lima. reported the Associated Press. Workers for the gas company Cálidda initially unearthed a makeshift tomb maker fashioned from the trunk of a huarango tree in June, under which a child-sized body was found sitting upright, wrapped in cloth and surrounded by ceramics, rope and food items.
Archaeologists believe the well-preserved remains belonged to an adolescent, aged between 10 and 15 years old, of the pre-Inca Chancay culture, Cálidda said in a Facebook post. Dark hair and pieces of skin were still attached to the body, which Jesus Bahamonde, archaeologist and scientific coordinator for Cálidda, told AP and the Agence France-Presse was likely buried between 1000 and 1200 CE.
Because discoveries of this nature are common in Peru, utility companies are generally required to have archaeologists on staff to oversee digs.
"Great stories aren't just told: they're lived, discovered, and shared," Bahamonde said in a LinkedIn post, translated from Spanish, about the discovery. "This is a new story added to the more than 2,200 archaeological remains discovered along our path. Millennia-old testimonies that lie beneath our streets, waiting to be interpreted with respect and returned to the collective memory."
The Chancay culture flourished from around 1000 to 1470 CE, before later being absorbed into the Inca Empire, according to the University of Missouri's Museum of Art and Archaeology. The coastal Chancay civilization is recognized by archaeologists for its people's accomplishments in producing distinct ceramics and textiles.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: See photos of 1,000-year-old-mummy discovered in Peru
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WIRED
6 hours ago
- WIRED
These LGBTQ+ Archives Defy Erasure, One Memory at a Time
Jul 13, 2025 5:30 AM In Latin America, LGBTQ+ history collections are a form of resistance. Grassroots projects are using the memories of community members to fight against systematic violence and demand justice. For a long time Argentina's Trans Memory Archive was only a virtual space, but today it is a hybrid one. Its staff is responsible for the preservation and protection of items that share the story of trans life in the country. Trans Memory Archive of Argentina Being queer, often, means feeling unseen. 'We come from a history of erasure that is manifested not only through hate crimes and discrimination, but also through a lack of representation, symbolic violence, and the absence of legal protections,' explains André Mere Rivera, director of the Queer Memory Archive of Peru (Archivo de la Memoria Marica del Perú). The project Mere leads is part of a growing wave of collaborative projects in which Latin American LGBTQ+ communities preserve and share their struggles and triumphs. They digitize photos, collect testimonies, and build databases of letters, personal memories, and other items that have survived dictatorships, censorship, and stigma. Community members scour libraries and newspapers, and dive deep into other, more conventional, archives to show how their identities have been denied. They are also reinventing the idea of a family album, creating alternative ones based on networks of affection. In their hands, technology is used to preserve memory, care for communities, and demand justice even as old prejudices are being reignited with the rise of far-right rhetoric. In Argentina, trans women like Sofia Beatriz Hernández fight for the rights of their community and to assure it is recognized. Trans Memory Archive of Argentina Sonia Beatriz Hernández never imagined she would one day be using a computer to digitize memories that included her. A transgender woman and a senior citizen, she learned everything she knows about being an archivist at her current job. Hernández is part of the Trans Memory Archive of Argentina (Archivo de la Memoria Trans Argentina), an initiative that not only preserves the history of gender and sexual dissidence, but has also inspired others throughout Latin America and the Caribbean to create their own collections. 'The archive was born out of the need to find each other and know that we are alive,' says María Belén Correa, founder and director of the Trans Memory Archive, the largest project of its kind in the region. It's a space that brings together the past struggles and current demands of trans communities. 'Creating an archive is a way of situating ourselves, of showing that we are here, and that we have always been here,' says Queer Memory Archive of Peru's Mere. 'We are not all the same, we are not mere bodies, nor are we an idea imported from abroad. We have been here since the homoerotic huacos [ceramic representations of homosexual intercourse created by the ancient Moche and Chimu cultures of Peru]. We have lived and continue to live through situations that are heartbreaking and that demand justice. Hate crimes must not go unpunished and reparations must be made.' For Aldri Covarrubias, manager of the Transmasculine Memory Archive of Mexico (Archivo de la Memoria Transmasculina México), this struggle is still ongoing: 'The uniformity that cisheterosexuality seeks to impose is not real. Memory is not a nostalgic aspect of the past; it must serve as a tool in building a path to a place with room for everyone.' LGBTQ+ archives in Latin America provide glimpses of daily life, from activist efforts to intimate moments. Trans Memory Archive of Argentina The wave that began in Argentina challenges the very notion of a shared heritage. Those who are exploring new ways of archiving collective memories today are searching to give voice, both privately and publicly, to what has long been silenced or stigmatized. Their efforts break with simplistic and heteronormative representations of gender, reclaim what has been hidden, and denounce the systematic persecution of their identities. 'The vision for the archive began with Claudia Pía Baudracco, who spent her entire life collecting material: letters, film negatives, postcards, and souvenirs from her travels throughout Argentina, the rest of Latin America, and Europe,' recalls María Belén. Carolina Nastri, the lead archivist of the project, explains that Pía was a pioneering trans activist and a leader in the fight for Argentina's Gender Identity Law. She died months before it was enacted in 2012. Her collection of items capturing personal and collective memories ended up in the hands of Belén, a fellow activist and cofounder of the Association of Transvestites, Transsexuals, and Transgender People of Argentina. Starting with that box of memories, Belén organized several exhibitions. 'We look to the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo as a model,' María Belén explains. The organization was founded in 1977 to locate children kidnapped during the Argentinian military dictatorship which lasted from 1976 to 1983. 'It began to build an archive in a context where the state had taken it upon itself to destroy all evidence of its crimes. They did so by turning to the memories of those who survived.' The digitization work of the archives allows stories and images to be shared in different formats and in different countries. Trans Memory Archive of Argentina The Trans Memory Archive of Argentina started as a closed Facebook group where friends from the 1980s and 1990s could reconnect. It was successful and the digital space was soon filled with anecdotes, letters, and chronicles. Then, photographer Ceci Estalles proposed 'expanding it beyond anecdotes,' says Nastri. The big leap forward was the exhibition This One Left, This One Was Killed, This One Died ( Esta Se Fue, a Esta La Mataron, Esta Murió ), featuring intimate portraits of friends in prison, exile, or otherwise absent. Soon after, the archive's team started to dream of building a bigger presence. Today, Nastri works with the archive's managers, who are generally older adult witnesses to the community's history, as they archive, conserve, and digitize documents. For them, going to work is an act of resistance. In Argentina, 9,000 people (as of 2021) have amended their national identity documents to reflect their gender identity. People between the ages of 40 and 79 accounted for only 17 percent of that figure with those over the age of 60 accounting for just 4 percent. The Trans Memory Archive of Argentina holds more than 100 documentary collections with 25,000 items dating from 1930 to the early 2000s: photos, film, audio recordings, letters, brochures, posters, press releases, police files, magazine articles, identity documents, and personal diaries. Their work is self-financed through projects, book sales, and monthly contributions. On the website, there are images from childhood, exile, activism, letters and postcards, carnival celebrations, private parties, birthdays, sex work, everyday life, shows, portraits, as well as ones from people's professional lives. The documentary archive that Pia created now lives alongside 40 other similar archives in Latin America. At the end of June, during Argentina's winter, Hernández tells me in a video call that future generations must know about the repression they experienced. Her generation survived persecution and harassment from the police during the dictatorship. Without this archive, Nastri believes that not only would a crucial part of history be lost, but many moments of joy would also be forgotten. 'Something that this community has are strong family bonds,' she explains. 'They have a tragic history but it's shared in a very joyful way.' The Trans Memory Archive of Argentina organization receives materials documenting the community's history both as donations and loans. Trans Memory Archive of Argentina Covarrubias affectionately calls the staff at the Trans Memory Archive his 'Argentinian mothers and grandmothers.' They led him to a realization that since an archive like it didn't exist in Mexico, he'd have to be the one to build it. 'It was essential to find others like us. There are fewer works on transmasculinity than on any other gender identity,' he explains. Tired of only seeing texts from the global north, he decided to look closer to home. This is how the first Transmasculine Memory Archive (Archivo de la Memoria Transmasculina) in Mexico was born. Two years later, the Spanish-language collection has grown to eight boxes filled with fanzines, flyers, photographs, graphic art, and 50 books. It includes interviews with drag artists, writers, bike messengers, researchers, sex workers, biologists, and retirees. Covarrubias emphasizes that he understands the limits of the archive. 'We're not going to cover everything,' he says while expressing a desire that the effort doesn't end with the archive he has helped to build. He hopes other local archives will preserve the history of other communities in other parts of the country. Aldri collects and preserves memorabilia while also always pursuing new opportunities to add more material to the archive. In libraries and other official collections, he searches for 'the unsaid and the overlooked.' When efforts to silence certain stories have spanned decades, it can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. 'We've had more luck at flea markets, gathering oral memories, and talking to survivors,' he says. 'We may not always find something, but it's important that we look.' 'I'm not an archivist or a historian,' says Mere of the Queer Memory Archive of Peru. It is a sentiment repeated by many who are involved with these archives. It is said not as a humble excuse, but instead as part of a call to imagine what a different approach, free from the limitations of academia, might look like. They are asking fundamental questions: What is archiving? Who is doing the archiving? For whom is the archive being created? Mere shares that he, too, was inspired by the work of the archive in Argentina. At the archive in Argentina, publications are created so members of the community can share their memories while helping to finance the project. Archivo de la Memoria Trans Argentina Peru's archive began with official documents about LGBTQ+ life that Mere had gathered. He then wrote to his friends asking them to share items they had published. Today, they have books, flyers, posters, leaflets, pins, booklets, embroidery, and works by queer artists such as Javi Vargas, which address HIV, power, and authority. They also have preserved costumes from a short film and memorabilia from a festival with the slogan 'Make Peru Gay Again.' Mere directs the archive, while Fernando Correa coordinates the research and oversees the methodology of interviews they have conducted to document certain places and moments in the history of the community. 'Talking about memories can be a sensitive topic in communities like ours, which are often impacted by violence. Many memories revolve around the violence we have experienced and continue to experience, from discrimination and murders to misrepresentations in the media, but our memories are also our relationships, the bonds of our communities, and our actions caring for one another,' says Mere. At Argentina's Trans Memory Archive, the work of the trans women who catalog its materials grows every day. The items are varied: Some are virtual, some physical, and some hybrid. All of them are centered on a collective memory, including interviews with trans people in different formats. 'The landscape begins to change when we have access to archival tools and then train people to create other similar spaces throughout Latin America,' Belén says. At times when dissenting voices have been silenced, the archive preserves them for future generations. Archivo de la Memoria Trans Argentina From another part of the southern end of South America, other artistic exercises in memory are emerging, such as Felipe Rivas San Martín's The Inexistent Archive ( Archivo Inexistente ). The Chilean artist used artificial intelligence to construct a speculative album of LGBTQ+ couples from the working class of Abya Yala (an indigenous name for the Americas) using fiction to highlight and overcome the challenges created by the lack of records at the beginning of the 20th century. The Queer Memory Archive of Peru, together with WikiAcción Perú, organized training sessions about using Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons to create entries and upload images of marches, role models, and community events. It also works with the organization Ruta Colectiva on a long-term pride mapping project: a map of community centers, nightclubs, hospitals, churches, and other spaces that are or have been significant to the community. A similar initiative is hosted on the website of Brazil's Bajubá Museum where a collaborative map highlights locations related to LGBTQ+ cultural heritage. But it is in disseminating the research they have collected that technological advances are more important in this new archival wave. This was clear at the First Latin American Trans Archives Congress, which brought together 21 self-managed projects from 14 countries in the region. Many projects use social media to share materials, events, and profiles, as well as to showcase their processes, social demands, and achievements. At the same time, harassment and censorship also occur on social media. It is more common, Covarrubias adds, for transmasculine bodies to be censored than cisgender bodies. Materials from the archive were used to create a book that resembles a family photo album. Archivo de la Memoria Trans Argentina Beyond the collection of archival material and the use of new technology to preserve and share personal stories, the archives understand their place in the context of daily life. Sometimes it's more necessary to focus on material needs—rent, a surgery, hormones for a friend—than it is to buy a book. Nastri shares that in Argentina, there are demands for legislation to provide reparations to transgender people, granting them the right to comprehensive healthcare so they can age with dignity. 'For many years, even under democratic rule, they did not have the same rights as the rest of the population,' Nastri says. 'They couldn't go to school under the names they identified with, they couldn't work, they were displaced, and they had to find ways to survive in the face of state persecution.' 'They explain that certain aspects of the current repression and censorship that these communities face recall ones that they experienced when they were younger,' she adds. Covarrubias points out that 'in many contexts there is a need to fight for social, restorative, epistemological, and communicative justice. Fascist discourses are resurfacing around the world, and they aren't always as transparent about their goals as the Proud Boys. Fascism often takes on subtle forms.' No matter how small the effort, these organizations' commitment to visibility and recording the history of their communities is inextricably tied to demands for justice. In the last three years, the organization Letra S reported that there were 233 murders of people of diverse sexual and gender identities in Mexico: 87 in 2022, 66 in 2023, and 80 in 2024. In Peru the situation is also dire. The feminist lesbian organization LIFS has documented 78 murders of LGBTQ+ people in that country between 2014 and 2020. Currently, Peru doesn't recognize same-sex marriage. 'The case of Las Gardenias [an LGBTQ+ bar where eight patrons were assassinated in 1989] which took place during Peru's long war against leftist guerillas, is the only one addressed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but it was not the only violent attack from that period,' Mere notes. 'People had to flee, change their identities, leave their families, and reimagine their lives. That is a type of violence to which we have been exposed and for which we have not received any kind of redress.' 'If a place to record our collective memories becomes a museum that merely stores things that belonged to us, but it doesn't share them and it isn't proactive in terms of shaping public policy for these vulnerable communities, then it's just an empty monument,' Mere says. This article was originally published by Wired en Español . It was translated by John Newton.
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
How Greece and Germany helped make the marvels of archeology modern
Watching an American icon like Indiana Jones battle Nazis in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' it's hard to believe that it was actually a German cultural institute which played a pivotal role in transforming reckless Jones-style treasure hunting into the modern science of archaeology we know today. That institute, the German Archaeological Institute at Athens (DAI Athens), has just completed the year-long celebration of its 150th anniversary — just as Greece welcomes record numbers of summer tourists to marvel at the archaeological wonders the institute helped unearth. Widely regarded as one of the birthplaces of modern archaeological science, the DAI pioneered the transition from indiscriminate digging at archaeological sites to the systematic excavation and meticulous study that continues to inspire researchers and amateur archaeology buffs across the globe. Until the mid-19th century, archeology was often more about treasure hunting and indiscriminate looting than detailed research and science. Take Lord Elgin's controversial removal of sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens, between 1801 and 1812. Although Elgin claimed to have obtained permission from Ottoman authorities — a claim recently refuted by the Turkish government — his sale of the sculptures to the British Museum remains a major cultural and diplomatic dispute between Greece and Britain. Many view Elgin's deeds as one of the most notorious colonial-era lootings, alongside famous antiquities brought to museums around the world like the Rosetta Stone. Even Luigi Palma di Cesnola, the first director of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, was accused of looting classical treasures from Cyprus, where he served as US Consul General in the mid-1860s. Many of the artifacts di Cesnola was said to have plundered were sold, ironically, to the Met itself. During this period, Greece, newly independent from the Ottoman Empire in 1830, was rich in history but in economic decline owing to decades of war. But it was finally possible for the philhellenists (lovers of Greek culture) to travel to Greece and study its ancient remains. In the later part of the 19th century, Greece's ancient ruins also became magnets for the era's great expansionist powers like the United Kingdom and France. Their ultimate goal? Securing rights to excavate Greece's most coveted archaeological sites while bolstering diplomatic ties through what we now call 'cultural diplomacy.' Germany was just one of the many countries aspiring to gain excavation rights in Greece. 'The oldest foreign archaeological institute in Athens is the French School of Athens, founded in 1846,' explains Katja Sporn, director of the DAI Athens. 'But Greece's allure was such that many countries fought to establish archaeological institutes at the time. Today, there are 20 foreign institutes based in Athens.' The DAI Athens was founded in 1874, just three years after German unification, during a period of growing German nationalism. Part of the German Archaeological Institute based in Berlin, the DAI Athens' creation reflected the importance of Greek history to Kaiser Wilhelm I and the close political ties between Germany and Greece, whose first king, Otto, hailed from a Bavarian royal family. Many Germans at the time saw parallels between Greece's struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire and their own aspirations for national unification. In the same year the DAI Athens was founded, Sporn explains, the 'DAI became subordinate to Germany's Foreign Office 'as a permanent base for internationally active research.' Today, the DAI Athens is housed in a neoclassical building in downtown Athens where an exhibition for its 150th anniversary showcases its storied history. Among the figures featured is Heinrich Schliemann, an 'amateur' archaeologist and businessman who promoted archaeology to a wider public by his emblematic excavations in Troy and Mycenae. The figure who truly transformed archaeology was the institute's fourth director, Wilhelm Dörpfeld, who arrived at the DAI Athens in 1887. An architect trained at the excavations in Olympia, Dörpfeld pioneered stratigraphic excavation and both archaeological and architectural documentation methods. These revolutionized the field by allowing archaeologists to piece together detailed site histories while preserving them for future study. 'Dörpfeld's work was a turning point,' says Sporn. 'Archaeologists then worked methodically rather than destructively.' Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan, the Doreen C. Spritzer Director of Archives at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA), agrees. 'Dörpfeld's techniques were taught to archaeologists from Germany, Britain, France and the United States, who then applied and passed them on worldwide,' she says. This shift — from looting the ancient world to rigorous excavation and research — became the gold standard, paving the way for discoveries such as the tomb of King Tutankhamen by Howard Carter in 1922 and inspiring the swashbuckling tales of Indiana Jones. Some 150 years ago, in 1875, the German Kaiserreich began excavating the ancient sanctuary of Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games — and the place from which the Olympic torch is now lit 100 days before the start of the modern Olympics every four years. Olympia wasn't just another dig; it was governed by a bilateral treaty between Greece and Germany, setting unprecedented levels of oversight for excavation and preservation. Funded by the German government and backed by King George I of Greece, the dig benefited from both financial investment and diplomatic backing. 'Olympia remains one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece,' says Sporn. The excavation uncovered iconic treasures like sculptures from the Temple of Zeus and the statue of Hermes by Praxiteles, but mainly the actual buildings and places where the famous Olympic games were held in antiquity. Yet the dig — partially overseen by Dörpfeld before he led the DAI — is not only important for what it found, but how it was conducted. An interdisciplinary team, including archaeologists, architects, historians and conservators, ensured a holistic approach to the study of the site and created a global model for archaeological collaborations that remains the gold standard to this day. Starting from the old excavations in Olympia, the DAI Athens sought to preserve the fragile remnants of Olympia's past by systematically recording findings and by publishing results in a series of reports. The approach facilitated scholarly research across Europe, shaped future standards for transparency and data-sharing and established archaeology as a rigorous academic discipline. Crucially, the collaboration with the Greek state ensured that artifacts remained in Greece rather than being shipped off to a museum or private collection abroad, as was common practice at the time. This led to the creation of a dedicated museum at Olympia financed by a Greek patron as early as 1886 — the first on-site museum in the Mediterranean — where the site's most important finds could be studied and displayed in their original cultural context. Today, museums aligned with excavation sites have become common across the globe. Ultimately, the dig established 'responsible excavation' standards and early conservation techniques that remain in practice to this day. Back then, Olympia's success sparked fierce competition among nations vying for other important Greek sites. 'A rivalry developed between Germany, France and the United States over the most significant excavations,' says Vogeikoff-Brogan. They became a battle for prestige among great powers, fueling political alliances between Greece and other countries. For the first time, economic considerations, like trade, would be factored in by Greece to determine who would get the rights to dig the most coveted archaeological sites. Archaeology became an expression not just of Greek national culture — but its newly emerging political might. The French secured Delphi, aided by trade negotiations involving, of all things, Zante currants, while the Americans started excavations in Corinth and eventually the Agora in Athens, leveraging political alliances and personal relationships. 'Social capital and political connections were just as important as archaeological merit in these decisions,' Vogeikoff-Brogan adds. The positive relationship between the Greek state, its people and the DAI Athens faced a severe setback during WWII. The institute's ties to Nazi Germany through its director being leader of the German Nazi party in Greece deeply damaged its standing in the country — underscoring the entanglement between DAI Athens and Germany's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 'After WWII, it took time for the DAI Athens to regain the trust of the Greek community and reopen,' Sporn explains. The war left lasting scars, and Greeks remained wary of German institutions due to the atrocities committed during the occupation. Meanwhile, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) gained prominence in Greece by deliberately distancing itself from politics, establishing itself as another of Greece's most prominent foreign archaeological and historical education and research institutes. Today, the DAI Athens has long embraced modernity, digitizing its vast archives for global access and integrating new technologies into its research, particularly in the context of past human-nature relations, ancient land use and climate change. Like all Greek foreign archeological institutions, the DAI works in close collaboration with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. And by studying how ancient communities adapted to environmental shifts, the institute aims to offer insights into resilience strategies relevant today. 'By examining the past, the DAI Athens continues to research important topics of the present, which may offer perspectives for the future,' Sporn says. Cheryl Ann Novak is deputy chief editor at BHMA International Edition — Wall Street Journal Publishing Partnership
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Yahoo
Archaeolgists Find Largest-Ever Ceremony Hall, Weapons Hoard
Archaeologists in Scotland have discovered the largest Neolithic wood hall ever found in the country alongside a hoard of Bronze Age weaponry, including a gold spearhead, according to a report published in Guard Archaeology. The wood hall, which dates back to around 4,000 B.C., was found by construction workers underneath the future soccer field at Carnoustie High School in Angus. The main area was built using oak wood and measures 115 feet long by 30 feet wide, while a smaller 'companion hall' measuring 66 feet long by 26 feet wide was erected next door. This is a particularly unique arrangement for ancient Scotland, where buildings were often designed as singular entities and were significantly distanced from one another. "The halls were probably close to routeways where people might have congregated naturally at various seasons of the year,' said fieldwork director Alan Hunter Blair. 'The availability of hazelnuts in autumn is a strong indicator that that season was an important one for meeting, feasting, and celebrating."Inside the smaller hall, archaeologists discovered a stove which was filled with charred hazelnuts and cereal grains, indicating that the facility was used as a communal dining and food preparation space. The larger space, meanwhile, contained evidence suggesting it was used as a ceremonial space for the farmers. Found artifacts included an axe crafted from garnet-albite-schist as well as agate, quartz, and chalcedony, which are believed to have been provided by the community. "This monumental timber hall, completely alien to the culture and landscape of the preceding Mesolithic era, was erected by one of the very first groups of farmers to colonize Scotland, in a clearing within the remains of natural woodland,' explained study co-author Beverly Ballin Smith. 'It was fully formed, architecturally sophisticated, large, complex, and required skills of design, planning, execution, and carpentry."Archaeolgists Find Largest-Ever Ceremony Hall, Weapons Hoard first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 12, 2025
