A few years ago, archeologists working at Peru’s Huaca Pucllana ruins pulled a mummy from a tomb, thought to be from the ancient Wari culture that flourished before the Incas. Besides the female mummy, the tomb contained the remains of two other adults and a child.

Archaeologists working at the Huaca Pucllana site in the Miraflores neighbourhood of Lima unearthed the mummy on Tuesday along with the remains of another two adults and a child.

The tombs are thought to belong to members of the Wari tribal culture who lived and ruled in Peru from 600-800 AD.

Huaca Pucllana contains the ruins of an ancient plaza, a partially excavated mound of rocks, bricks and dirt. So far about 30 tombs have been unearthed there, but yesterday’s discovery was the most exciting.

“We’d discovered other tombs before,” said Isabel Flores, the director of the ruins. “But they always had holes, or were damaged. Never had we found a whole tomb like this one – intact.”

The mummy sat in a deep hole walled in with crumbling bricks. A pair of large blue eyes glared menacingly from its wooden face mask.

“Her face startled me at first,” said Miguel Angel, 19, who was working with the archaeologists at the dig. “I wasn’t expecting to find anything like that.”

The workers carefully covered the mummy in tissue paper before lifting it onto a wooden board.

Next to the mummy were an array of tools and other objects including ceramics and textiles.

The Wari had a capital near the modern city of Ayacuho in the Andes, but they developed an extensive road network and travelled across the whole region.

The Incas did not start to conquor and dominate Peru until the 13th century AD.