Peruvian police discovered a mummy inside the cooler bag of a delivery man at an archaeological site in Puno in southern Peru, according to a report by the BBC.
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The man in Tuesday’s report by the British broadcaster said that he had been sharing his room with the mummy and considered it “a kind of spiritual girlfriend.”
He had reportedly put the remains of the bandaged mummy he had nicknamed “Juanita” in the bag to show them off to his friends.
He explained that he kept her in a box next to the TV, the BBC said, adding that it was previously owned by his father.
Experts said the body was between 600 and 800 years old and that it was that of an adult male not a woman.
It is estimated to have been more than 45 years old at the time of his death and 1.51m tall. The mummy was reportedly wrapped in bandages in the foetal position, which is typical of many of the pre-Hispanic burials in that area.
Mummification was practiced by a variety of cultures, such as in Egypt, in what is now Peru before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 1500s.
Police in the South American country have seized the mummy carried in the cooler bag and handed it to Peru’s culture ministry.
The man who was transporting it and two of his friends, who are between ages 23 and 26 years, were detained according to the BBC and are being investigated for possible crimes against Peru’s cultural heritage.
Read more:
Egypt unveils renovations of venerable Tahrir Square Museum
British explorer arrives in Saudi Shoubra Palace after a 13-day journey on foot
Egyptologists uncover Pharaonic tomb containing possibly oldest mummy found in Egypt
