Peruvian police discovered an ancient mummy inside the cooler bag of a delivery man when they searched him, while he was acting drunk at an archaeological site in Puno.
The man was living with the bandaged mummy in his room and considered it as “a kind of spiritual girlfriend.”
Ha had nicknamed the mummy “Juanita”, which was kept in a box in his room beside his TV. The mummy was also kept by his father, but he did not explain how it came to his father’s possession.
He said he had kept the remains of the mummy in his bag to boast about it to his friends.
Experts stated that the bandaged mummy was between 600 and 800 years old and that it was the body of an adult male rather than that of a woman, as the man keeping the body had believed.
The mummified adult male was older than 45 years of age when he died and 1.51m tall (4ft 11inch).
The mummy was taped with bandages in a foetal position which is common in many pre-Hispanic burials in the area.
Before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors, mummification was performed by many different cultures in the region which is currently Peru. Some of the mummies were buried while others were excavated and displayed at key festivals.
The police confiscated the mummy and delivered it to Peru’s ministry of culture which is designated to take care of the country’s heritage.
The man who was carrying it and his two friends, aged between 23 and 26, were arrested and are undergoing investigation for possible crimes against Peru’s cultural heritage.
