After three years of work in the town of Pacopampa, a team of archaeologists led by Yuji Seki have found the outlines of an ancient temple that would have formed part of a larger complex located 20 minutes from the modern town of the same name. But far more impressive is what they’ve found buried inside the temple. The team discovered the tomb of a woman, whose social position quickly became evident.

On the highest terrace of the San Pedro mountain in what is today Chota in Cajamarca, the birth of a girl began what was to be a new episode of the Formative Period some 3000 years ago. Born in the archaeological complex that we now call San Pedro de Pacopampa, the healthy baby girl would be raised to one day lead her people...

... With help from his colleagues back in Japan, he discovered that the Lady of Pacopampa had a deformation in the back part of her skull, as well as other mysterious elements such as a bluish substance and cinnabar – usually found in the burials of the most important rulers of ancient Peru.

According to Kazuhiro Uzawa who studied the skull deformation back in Japan, the deformation was clearly pre-planned and deliberate. To do it, from the first days of life, planks of wood would have been tied to her head. The investigator explains that the deformation process ended when the girl was around 3 years old...