Two of the oldest mummies ever found in Peru — so well-preserved that one had an eye and internal organs intact — went on display Monday after being discovered by construction workers at a school.Officials from the National Institute of Culture said the two mummies — a boy roughly 5 years old and a farmer in his mid-30s — were 700 to 900 years old. They came from a culture that predated the Incas, who dominated a vast swath of South America from Colombia to Chile until they were toppled by Spanish conquerors in the 1530s.“What is striking is the level of conservation (of the mummies),” Lucy Linares, an archaeologist at the National Culture Institute, told reporters. Linares told Reuters the man had one eye open and “you can see his eyeball. It’s perfectly preserved.”When the workers moved the body, they accidentally made a hole in his side, displaying his intestines, she added. Fat adhering to the skin was also extremely well-preserved.

The mummies were found on Feb. 12. They were put on display at the institute for 30 minutes on Monday. They will now be cleaned and studied by archeologists. Linares said the man “was one of the oldest (mummies) ever found.”

View: Full Article | Source: MSNBC