Edhat Staff
By the edhat staff
The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (SBMNH) has returned the ancestral remains of two Peruvians back to their homeland.
The remains of two ancestral Indigenous Peruvians have been part of an archeaological collection at the local musuem since the late 1870s .
They were excavated from the Ancón Necropolis in northern Lima Province, Peru in 1877 by French archaeologist Léon de Cessac.
Cessac then studied the native populations in the Channel Islands and eventually donated the Peruvian remains to Santa Barbara State College in 1878 who then donated it to SBMNH in 1925.
As part of a collection review, SBMNH decided the remains should return to Peru. The Peruvian Ministry of Culture stated the remains qualified as part of Peru’s National Cultural Heritage.
“We have been honored to care for these remains for many years and are grateful that we can transfer custody to the Consulate General of Peru in Los Angeles,” said SBMNH President Luke Swetland.
The remains were transported to Peru’s consulate in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
