Argentina seizes smuggled pre-Incan mummy, skulls

An ancient mummy and three skulls from a pre-Incan Peruvian culture that were smuggled as ceramics to be sold on Europe's black market were confiscated by Argentine tax agency officials on Friday, officials said.

The artifacts are presumed to be remains of the Paracas culture, an Andean society that prospered from about 500 BC to 200 BC, officials at the AFIP tax agency said.

The skulls, which still have hair and some teeth, and the mummy were sent from La Paz, Bolivia -- stuffed in ceramics or wrapped in valuable cloth -- to an Argentine citizen living in the affluent Buenos Aires neighborhood of Recoleta, the AFIP said.

The tax agency's officials said the archeological pieces were declared at Argentine customs as Peruvian ceramics and were on their way to be sold to museums and private collectors in Europe.

"We detected the three skulls and the mummy in the scanner," Abel Ferrino, a customs official who was part of the operation, told Reuters TV. "This is clearly looting of prehistoric tombs to be sold on the black market."

The artifacts are now being examined by archeologists in Argentina.

A hole had been drilled into one of the skulls, a common practice of Pre-Incan cultures to cure head wounds inflicted during battle. The other skulls have deformations, which are believed to have occurred as part of cultural and religious traditions, the AFIP said.