An untouched Chimu funerary platform opened at Chan Chan after six centuries

Archaeologists working at the ancient city of Chan Chan, on Peru’s northern coast, have opened a funerary platform that had lain undisturbed for more than six centuries. The excavation, carried out inside the city’s Utzh An walled complex, uncovered the remains of 38 people along with an unusually rich set of grave goods, giving researchers a rare, unlooted view of how the Chimú elite buried their dead.

The find was announced on 8 September by Peru’s Ministry of Culture, which has led the research and conservation work through the special project responsible for Chan Chan. Unlike most known Chimú burial platforms, which were plundered and disturbed after the Spanish conquest, this one was recovered essentially intact, with skeletons and offerings still arranged much as they were left roughly 600 years ago.

Chambers built into the Gran Chimú Palace

The platform sits inside Utzh An, formerly known as the Gran Chimú Palace, one of the walled compounds that made up the core of Chan Chan. It consists of a central chamber flanked by two larger side chambers. The central chamber measures about 1.2 metres wide and five metres deep; an entrance leads down a staircase descending roughly 2.5 metres to a floor that also holds a niche, where archaeologists found the remains of a single individual surrounded by objects made from shell and metal.

The two side chambers are larger still, each about 1.5 metres wide, eight metres long and reaching 3.5 metres beneath the working surface. Their contents diverge sharply. One held no human remains at all, only weapons and metal emblems. The other has so far produced the remains of 20 people. Combined with another 18 individuals recovered elsewhere on the platform, the total number of identified individuals now stands at 38.

An extended burial that breaks with Chimú tradition

One skeleton, found toward the rear of a chamber, stood out immediately. Chimú funerary custom typically placed the dead in a flexed or seated-flexed position, but this individual was laid fully extended. Archaeologists are weighing two explanations: that the person was the victim of a sacrificial ritual, or that the unusual posture marked a sharp difference in status between that individual and everyone else interred on the platform. Researchers say further study of the remains will be required before either interpretation can be confirmed.

Red pigment and other signs of high rank

The objects accompanying the burials point toward an elite context. Excavators recovered fine metal ear ornaments, headdresses, necklaces made from shell and quartz, carved wooden boxes with metal appliqués, weapons and ceremonial pieces. Several of the dead carried traces of red pigment on their heads, and the same colour turned up on a number of ceramic vessels. According to the Ministry of Culture, red pigment of this kind was reserved for high-status burials across Andean societies, reinforcing the view that those buried on the platform belonged to the Chimú elite.

Why this platform survived where others were emptied

Jorge Meneses, the archaeologist overseeing the project, said most existing knowledge of elite Chimú tombs had come from platforms looted and damaged since the colonial period. “What was known about elite Chimú tombs before this discovery came from platforms looted and destroyed since colonial times, with altered and incomplete contexts,” Meneses said. This platform is different: because it was never emptied, researchers can study human remains and artefacts in the positions where they were placed almost six centuries ago, information that looting normally destroys long before archaeologists arrive.

Peru’s culture minister, Alberto Beingolea Delgado, framed the discovery as a case for continued public investment in the site. “Identifying findings of this magnitude, with atypical burials and evidence that raises new questions about possible sacrificial rituals, demonstrates that public investment in archaeological sites like Chan Chan generates incalculable value,” he said.

Recording fragile remains before they can be moved

Centuries of exposure to humid coastal air have left the bones and organic materials extremely fragile, so the team cannot simply lift them out of the chambers. Instead, specialists are using high-precision photogrammetry to document each burial before excavation proceeds, taking hundreds of photographs from different angles and processing them into three-dimensional models accurate to the millimetre. Only once the position of every skeleton and object has been recorded digitally will archaeologists begin the delicate work of removing them.

What the platform might reveal about Chan Chan’s final chapter

Henry Gayoso Rullier, head of the project’s research, conservation and enhancement unit, said investigators also hope the platform will help clarify how Utzh An was used over time, including what happened at Chan Chan after the Inca Empire expanded into the region. How and when the Incas occupied the city following their conquest of the Moche Valley remains poorly understood archaeologically, and the newly opened chambers could add evidence to that timeline. Chan Chan was the political centre of the Chimú civilisation and grew into one of the largest pre-Columbian cities in the Americas; a book presenting the team’s full interpretation of the find is planned once work on the wider project is complete.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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