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The Peruvian Ministry of Culture has released this picture showing human remains from the Chan Chan archaeological complex
Photo: HANDOUT / AFP
Centuries before Christopher Columbus climbed the Santa Maria to find the sea route to India, the Chimú lived on the west coast of South America.
They built their capital, Chan Chan, in what is now Peru, out of adobe bricks.
In this city archaeologists have now found a mass grave from the time of the Chimú.
According to the Peruvian archaeologist Jorge Meneses, the remains of 25 people were found in the so-called Citadel of Chan Chan.
Meneses led the excavations in the city of Trujillo, a 20-minute drive north of the capital, Lima.
Most of the remains found are women aged 30 or under.
The remains of some small children and young people have also been brought to light.
The skeletons are very well preserved.
The scientists also found textiles and around 70 ceramic vessels.
Chan Chan, the capital of the Kingdom of Chimú, covered an area of more than 20 square kilometers.
You can still find streets, narrow corridors and wide squares, terraces and pyramid bases in it.
There are also ten palaces on the site.
In its heyday, the city was home to around 30,000 people.
Chan Chan has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986, but is now on the Red List of World Heritage in Danger.
The Inca put an end to the Chimú culture
The Chimú empire existed from around 900 to the middle of the 15th century and stretched along the Pacific coast of what is now Peru to Ecuador.
In 1470 the last king of the Chimú is said to have been defeated by the Inca ruler Túpac Yupanqui.
Thereupon the land of the Chimú was annexed to the state of the Inca.
Artifacts from the pre-Columbian era are discovered again and again in Peru.
In October, workers in Lima came across the remains of a burial site with 2,000-year-old ceramic vessels.
Between 2011 and 2016, scientists dug a grave that contained the bones of 140 children and more than 200 llamas.
The researchers suspect that the Chimú ritually sacrificed the children and animals.
vki / AFP