Police in Peru made a surprise discovery when they searched a delivery man who had come to their attention for acting drunk at an archaeological site in Puno.
An ancient mummy was found inside his cooler bag.
The man said that he had been sharing his room with the wounded mummy and considered it “a kind of spiritual girlfriend”.
He’d put the remains in the bag to show off to his friends, he explained.
He explained that he kept “Juanita,” as he had nicknamed the mummy, in a box in his room, next to the TV. He added that it belonged to his father, without explaining how it came into his father’s possession.
Experts said the body was between 600 and 800 years old and that it was that of an adult male rather than a woman, as the man who was discovered with it had assumed.
The mummified male is estimated to have been more than 45 years old at the time of his death and 1.51m tall (4ft 11in).
The mummy was wrapped in bandages and placed in the fetal position, as is common in many pre-Hispanic burials in the area.
Before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, a variety of cultures in what is now Peru practiced mummification. Some mummies were buried, while others were paraded during important festivals.
The ancient mummy in the cooler bag was seized by police and turned over to Peru’s Ministry of Culture, which is in charge of the country’s heritage.
The man transporting it, as well as two friends aged 23 to 26, were detained and are being investigated for possible crimes against Peru’s cultural heritage.
