A team of utility workers uncovered two ancient tombs while digging trenches for a gas project in Lima. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
Images show excavators working to remove the remains from the soil.
The tomb also contained four clay vessels and three "pumpkin shell artifacts," according to The Associated Press (AP).
"Lima is unique among Latin American capitals, in that various archaeological finds are unearthed during nearly every civil project."
The male skeleton was found in a torn cloth bundle in a sitting position. Its legs were against its chest.
Archaeologist José Aliaga told the AP the vessels contained iconography, along with some remaining black, white and red colors.
The discovery was part of ongoing work on a gas line project by the energy company Cálidda. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
Local mother Flor Prieto walked through the area with her 7-year-old daughter during the excavation.
She told the AP she’d assumed the area had always been uninhabited.
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"I always thought they were paths where no one had lived," Prieto observed.
"But now I know that people older than the Incas have lived there … It feels so exciting."
One of the pre-Incan tombs was found empty, while the other held a 1,000-year-old male skeleton, seen above in this close-up photo. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
This is far from the first skeleton that Cálidda has come across.
A local resident said she was surprised to learn ancient people had once lived along the modern footpath. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
Earlier in June, excavators in Lima unearthed a millennia-old preserved female mummy during the same utility project.
