Recently, archaeologists in Peru unearthed a burial site that dates back 1,900 years and in which the inhabitants were buried with extra limbs.
According to information from Ancient Origins, one of the fishermen unearthed was buried with two extra left legs.
“The National Geographic has now revealed that out of the 54 burials, around 30 of them include additional human limbs – usually arms or legs. In one case, an adult, believed to be a shark hunter based on the artifacts found in his grave, was found with two additional left legs placed beside his body.”, you can read in the article.
Another curious fact is that those skeletons found with extra human parts were more likely to show signs of trauma, “including cut marks to their bones and evidence of blunt-force trauma”, Ancient Origins explains.
It is believed that these graves belong to the little-known Virú Culture, which was a pre-Inca culture that made a living in the Virú Valley, in the north-west of Peru.
The leader of this excavation, Gabriel Prieto said that the discovery of burials containing extra limbs is unique, so far, to the Virú Culture. A speculation about this particular finding is that the additional body parts may have served as a sacrificial offering to accompany the deceased in the afterlife.
“Grave goods found in the burials suggest that many of the inhabitants of the small coastal settlement were fishermen and may have been particularly skilled at catching sharks. In one grave, researchers found a 4-inch-long copper fish hook wrapped in gold foil.”, informed the website Ancient Origins.
