Lady of Cao

The Lady of Cao is a name given to a female Moche mummy discovered at the archeological site El Brujo, which is located about 45 km north of Trujillo in the La Libertad Region of Peru.

The Lady of Cao was discovered in 2006 by a team of Peruvian archaeologists led by Regulo Franco Jordan of the National Cultural Institute of Peru with the financial cooperation of the Augusto N. Wiese Foundation.

The mummy, which was heavily tattooed and wrapped in many layers of cloth, was found with a number of ceremonial items, including weapons and jewelry.

The richness of the burial site, as well as the presence of weapons, suggest that the woman might have been a high ranking priestess or even a Moche ruler, possibly governing what is now known as the Chicama District region of northern Peru.

According to Peru's Ministry of Culture, the replica was made using 3D imaging technology and forensics archaeology based on her skull structure and ethnographic research which took 10 months to create.