- A 26-year-old was caught carrying an ancient mummy in his delivery bag in Peru.
- The man said the mummy was his ‘spiritual girlfriend,’ and that he shared a bedroom with it.
- The mummy is believed to be an adult male that died between 600 and 800 years ago.
The police had a surprise when they searched a young man who was caught drunk with two of his friends at an archeological site in Puno, western Peru.
Inside his cooler bag they found an ancient mummy believed to be 600 to 800-years-old, cowered in the fetal position.
The 26-year-old, named Julio Cesar Bermejo by the newswire France24, referred to the mummy as his “spiritual girlfriend,” which he said he had named Juanita.
“At home, she’s in my room, she sleeps with me. I take care of her,” he said in a video, according to AFP.
Authorities, who have since examined the mummy, have concluded the remains are of a 4 foot 11 inches tall 45-year-old man who died between 600 and 800 years ago.
“It’s not a Juanita, it’s a Juan,” a specialist at the Peru Ministry of Culture told France 24.
Bermejo claimed he been given the mummy by his father, and it had been in his family for over 30 years. It’s not clear where his father would have acquired the mummy, per AFP.
Bermejo said he kept the mummy in his bedroom in a box, next to his television.
Bermejo added that he had taken the mummy to the archeological site to show it off to his friends, per France24. He denied trying to sell the mummy, per France 24.
Bermejo and his two friends are being detained while police investigate possible crimes against Peru’s cultural heritage, per the BBC.
Mummification was common in ancient Peru before the Spanish colonization. The body was mummified and bound in a fetal position, which was a common burial practice at the time.
Mummies were often placed in graves above the ground that were easy to pillage and they were often ransacked, an expert previously told Insider.
Source: Vietnam Insider