Peruvian police have confiscated an 800-year-old mummy from a man who claimed it was his ‘girlfriend’.

Peruvian police have seized a mummified man between 600 and 800 years old from a portable cooler bag of a man who claimed to be his “girlfriend”.

Julio Cesar Bermejo, 26, a former food delivery man, claimed to have had the mummy at his home for three decades and even slept with her in his bed.

“At home she is in my room, she sleeps with me. I take care of her,” he said in a video that went viral on social media.

Police approached Bermejo at the Mantaro lookout in the Peruvian city of Puno, known for its important archaeological significance.

Although mummification is synonymous with Egypt, some of the oldest mummies in the world date back 7,000 years ago in South America.

Peruvian police have confiscated a mummified man from a former food delivery man who claimed to have kept him at home for three decades.

Peruvian police have confiscated a mummified man from a former food delivery man who claimed to have kept him at home for three decades.

Bermejo will remain in custody while investigators investigate the case, a government official told AFP on Tuesday.

Mummy or skeleton?

Unlike a skeleton or a fossil, a mummy is a dead body that retains some of the soft tissue it had when it was alive—skin, muscles, or even organs.

This tissue preservation can happen by chance or due to human intervention. This happens when bacteria and fungi are unable to grow on the corpse and cause it to decompose.

Historically, the most common method of mummification has been quick drying, as bacteria and fungi cannot grow without water.

Source: PBS.org

Local resident Can commented: “Which virtual store do you buy these things from?”, while Gabriela joked: “My order for mom did not come, what should I do next?”

Another, Juan Carlos, said, “So he can’t go out with his mom anymore?”

Bermejo told local media that the mummy, which he referred to as “Juanita” and referred to as “she”, “looked like my spiritual friend”, although the remains had once belonged to a man, according to authorities.

According to the former courier, his father brought the mummy home 30 or 40 years ago after plans to donate it to the museum fell through.

According to him, his family bought it for 2,000 Peruvian sols (£434) – “a lot of money” at the time.

According to the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, the pre-Hispanic relic was a “mummified adult male”.

It was “presumably from eastern Puno,” a region in the Peruvian Andes about 1,300 kilometers (over 800 miles) southeast of Lima.

According to the Ministry of Culture, the pre-Hispanic relic was

According to the Ministry of Culture, the pre-Hispanic relic was “a mummified adult male believed to be from the eastern region of Puno.”

Arrested?  Julio Cesar Bermejo, 26, is a former food delivery man who claims his family has owned the mummy for years.

Arrested? Julio Cesar Bermejo, 26, is a former food delivery man who claims his family has owned the mummy for years.

'My order for a mummy has not arrived, what should I do next': the exact origin of the mummy is unclear

‘My order for a mummy has not arrived, what should I do next’: the exact origin of the mummy is unclear

This photograph, released on February 25, 2023 by Puno TV, shows members of the Puno Decentralized Directorate of Culture and police examining a mummy inside a refrigerator.

This photograph, released on February 25, 2023 by Puno TV, shows members of the Puno Decentralized Directorate of Culture and police examining a mummy inside a refrigerator.

Police approached Bermejo at the Mantaro lookout in the Peruvian city of Puno, known for its important archaeological significance.

Police approached Bermejo at the Mantaro lookout in the Peruvian city of Puno, known for its important archaeological significance.

The remains appear to be well preserved, suggesting that they date from an era of efficient embalming techniques.

“This is not Juanita, this is Juan,” the ministry’s specialist confirmed, adding that at the time of death, the mummy belonged to a man no younger than 45 years old.

Police found the remains in Bermejo’s bag on Saturday while he was patrolling a park in the city of Puno where he was hanging out with friends.

Bermejo was reportedly one of three men drinking alcohol at the location before they were approached by the police.

The body was found wrapped in bandages in a fetal position inside a package named PedidosYa, a delivery service similar to Deliveroo that serves Latin American countries.

But Bermejo denied trying to sell the mummy and said he carried it with him because “my friends wanted to see it.”

The Ministry of Culture said it took possession of the mummified remains “for the purpose of protecting and preserving this heritage.”

Puno is located near the Atacama Desert along the western coast of Chile and Peru, an area of ​​extreme aridity that has preserved human remains and cultural materials from thousands of years ago.

Scientists believe that the Atacama is similar to the dusty plains of Mars, so it was used as a proxy for Mars exploration and a filming location for television shows and films such as the series A Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets.

The alleged owner said the mummy was in his family's possession for 30 years after plans to donate it to the museum fell through.

The alleged owner said the mummy was in his family’s possession for 30 years after plans to donate it to the museum fell through.

One of the most famous mummies, known as the “Mummy of Juanita”, a girl believed to have been killed as a human sacrifice to the Inca gods sometime between 1440 and 1480, was found on Mount Ampato in southern Peru in 1995.

Peru is rich in historical sites including Huaca del Sol, a brick temple built by the Moche civilization (100-800 AD), and Choquequirao, large Inca ruins built between the 15th and 16th centuries.

The country’s most visited tourist destination is Inca Citadel Machu Picchubuilt in the 15th century near Cusco.

Machu Picchu has had the wrong name for over 100 YEARS: the ancient Inca city was known to the inhabitants as “Huayna Picchu”.

It is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world and an enduring symbol of the Inca Empire.

But according to a study, the ancient citadel of Machu Picchu in Peru has been misnamed since it was “rediscovered” more than a century ago.

The historic site, high in the Peruvian Andes, was built in the 15th century and later abandoned before being discovered by American explorer Hiram Bingham in 1911.

The researchers studied Bingham’s original field notes, early 20th-century maps of the region, and centuries-old land records from various archives.

The finds suggest that the Incas originally called the ancient citadel

The finds suggest that the Incas originally called the ancient citadel “Huayna Picchu” after the rocky peak that is closest to this place, a little further north, and not “Machu Picchu”, as the highest mountain near the ancient city was called. in the south, Machu Picchu was built as the estate of Emperor Pachacuti, who, according to historical records, came to power in 1438 before conquering the area where the site is located.

Their finds suggest that the Incas originally called it “Huayna Picchu” after the rocky peak that is closest to this place, a little to the north, and not “Machu Picchu”, the name of the highest mountain near the ancient city to the south

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