Two mausoleums, two continents: funerary archaeology between Albania and Peru

Two finds thousands of kilometers apart show, in the same period, how funerary archaeology continues to yield information about civilizations separated by era and continent. In Albania, in the Bulqize Valley, a hypogeum-mausoleum from the Roman era has been uncovered. The discovery has made the shortlist of five finalists for the award dedicated to 2025 archaeological discoveries, which will be presented on October 30 as part of the Borsa Mediterranea del Turismo Archeologico in Paestum, the Italian event that every year brings together the leading international finds.

On the other side of the planet, in Peru, the find concerns the walled complex of Utzh An, within the site of Chan Chan, the great city of dried mud that served as the capital of the Chimu kingdom before the Inca conquest. There, a funerary mausoleum attributed to the same Chimu civilization has been identified. The excavation is the result of work by the Proyecto Especial Complejo Arqueológico Chan Chan, the initiative promoted by Peru’s Ministry of Culture for the protection and systematic study of the site, a UNESCO World Heritage site recognized for the extent and complexity of its urban layout.

The two cases are not connected to one another except in the nature of the find — both mausoleums, both linked to elite funerary rites — and in the timing of their public disclosure. In the Albanian case, the discovery also gains significance from the selection mechanism: the Borsa di Paestum does not simply record a find, but places it in competition with four other international candidates, in a comparison that each year helps draw an updated map of the priorities of Mediterranean archaeological research. Knowing which excavations are put forward, by which institutions and with what arguments, also says something about the hierarchies and resources that today guide the discipline.

The Peruvian case, by contrast, originates entirely within an already ongoing state conservation project: not an isolated discovery, but the product of a continuous excavation program at a site that Peru considers a national heritage to be protected and promoted. Chan Chan, built by the Chimu kingdom before being absorbed into the Inca empire in the fifteenth century, remains one of the largest pre-Columbian dried-mud settlements ever built, and each newly uncovered space — such as this mausoleum within the Utzh An complex — fits into a research stratigraphy that has spanned decades.

It should be noted that, at present, news of both discoveries comes from a single source (Artribune, which draws on information released by Peru’s Ministry of Culture and by the organizers of the Borsa Mediterranea del Turismo Archeologico): no independent confirmation of the excavation details is currently available, nor is there a fuller description of the finds uncovered in Albania and Peru.

It remains the case that the selection among the five finalists for Paestum will be decided on October 30, a date that will reveal whether the mausoleum in the Bulqize Valley receives the award or whether the competition favors one of the other candidates in the running.