What lies beneath might be a treasure

In terms of the antiquity, diversity and quality of its archaeological finds, Peru is the Egypt of South America. Hard to believe, but according to its National Cultural Institute, there are more than 100,000 archaeological sites here.

Just since my arrival five months ago a claimed "lost" city has been debunked, the remains of a 4,000-year-old human sacrifice have been identified and a gold necklace thought to be the oldest in the western world has been found. And that is only a sampling.

Incan temples are routinely uncovered deep in the Andes. Sites on the coast reveal mummies and ancient irrigation systems. Trumping all these, an uncontacted tribe, including two men painted bright red with arrows brandished skyward, was photographed from a helicopter just a week-and-a-half ago, making international news. Clearly, the pure romance of discovery flourishes here, as well as a keen sense of history's life after death.

With the newest Indiana Jones movie taking place in parts of Peru, it seemed like the right time to take in a shining example of the country's impossibly rich heritage.

Indy is the thinking boy's action hero, a professor with a pistol and an impeccable sense of timing. So it was with great pleasure that I went again to hear the crack of the bullwhip and to see the sepia map with the thick red line and the sound of whirring propellers tracing the intrepid archaeologist's flight to Cuzco.

My thick red line was a thin gray highway through a deceptively brown desert rich with wonder to an archaeological art museum of the first order, the Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipan.

Most knowledge of Peruvian history centers on the Inca, rulers of a vast mountain empire when the Spanish arrived in 1532. But the Inca were all-powerful for only about 300 years, while a number of smaller, lesser known, yet equally sophisticated societies had taken root centuries, even millennia, before, on the rivers that plunge from the Andes to the Pacific along a 220-mile stretch of Peru's otherwise arid, northern coast.

The Moche people farmed those fertile river valleys and thrived off some of the richest marine life in the world from roughly 100 A.D. to 700 A.D.

The tombs' discovery in 1987 had all the trappings of a classic Indy adventure. Usually looters beat the professionals to the punch and the archaeologists are left to, literally, pick up the pieces.

This time, though, the scientists arrived just in time. Or just about. Between them and haqueros (grave robbers) 13 tombs were uncovered in one year. Noticing a dramatic rise in intricate, heretofore unseen objects on the black market, Dr. Walter Alva traced them to a site near modern-day Chiclayo in northern Peru. What he found, and continues to unearth, is said to be the richest, most pristine tomb complex ever scientifically excavated in the Western Hemisphere.

The museum is shaped like the pyramid whose relics it houses. Visitors encounter objects in the same sequence as Alva did, winding their way through hammered gold breastplates and two-foot tall golden crowns. Highlights are intricate gold-and-turquoise ear ornaments and a gold-and-silver scepter. And finally, an exact replica of the burial chamber.

El Senor de Sipan was interred along with eight others in a multilevel royal mausoleum next to two larger adobe pyramids. Joining him on his journey through the afterlife was a warrior, three young women, two assistants, a child, a servant, two llamas and one dog.

Just like King Tut, it is a finding that rewrote the history of a dead culture. Exciting stuff, if you're into it. It's all here. Under spades.

Matt Wittmer is a columnist for the Southeast Missourian and an avid traveler and cyclist. He is teaching English at the University of Piura in Piura, Peru. Reach him at matt.wittmer@gmail.com.