Photographer Page

Patrycja Przadka Giersz

Bending to his work inside the burial chamber, archaeologist Milosz Giersz brushes away sediments from a small cane box. Giersz and his colleagues found gold weaving tools tucked inside such boxes. The Wari queens, they now surmise, wove cloth with gold instruments.

Still caked in earth, strings of semi-precious stone beads from the tomb await cleaning and conservation.

As archaeologists dug in one side chamber, they unearthed the remains of a Wari queen and several regal offerings, including a brilliantly painted ceramic flask (right) and an alabaster drinking cup (left).

Wari attendants placed most of the dead in a sitting position, then bundled them with precious possessions in cloth woven from llama wool and cotton. But archaeologists found six of the bodies lying in an extended position: these may have been human sacrifices or offerings to the gods.