Washington ? Thousands of ancient Inca mummies, some bundled together in small groups with their possessions, have been discovered beneath a shantytown near Lima, Peru.

Archaeologists say the find may solve some of the mysteries surrounding the Inca civilization.

A villager in a shantytown outside Lima, Peru, prepares a massive, undisturbed mummy bundle for removal from a schoolyard. He stands in what once was a huge Inca cemetery that has yielded hundreds of mummy bundles.

So far, researchers have uncovered the remains of 2,200 individuals. More are thought to remain buried.

“The mummies are starting to ‘chat’ with us, telling some amazing stories,” lead archaeologist Guillermo Cock said.

The finds are “a perfect sample, each social class, each group of age is represented,” he said. It “enables us to look into an Inca community, to study their life, their health, their culture.”

One of the bundles included some 300 pounds of raw cotton, the body of an Inca noble and a baby, as well as 70 other items, including food, pottery, animal skins and corn to make a fermented drink known as chicha.

“Mummy bundles are like time capsules from the Inca,” said Johan Reinhard, explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society. “The huge number of mummies from one period of time provides an unparalleled opportunity for new information about the Incas.”

The burials are thought to have occurred between 1480 and 1535, with the site serving as a central cemetery for the Inca, who ruled a powerful South American empire before the Spanish conquered them.

More than 50,000 artifacts have been retrieved, with many of the individuals apparently elite members of Inca society still wearing the headdress feathers that marked their rank.

Cock said the quantity of burials represents an unprecedented opportunity to solve some of the mysteries of the Inca. The mummies represent a wide spectrum of Inca life, from infants to the elderly and from the very poor to the very rich.

Previous information on the Inca culture has come from scatterings of burials, most of only a few individuals, not enough to allow many firm conclusions about Inca ways.

Cock and his team have worked for three years, trying to stay ahead of development in the area known to archaeologists as Puruchuco-Huaquerones. It is called Tupac Amaru by the 1,240 families living there. People began to settle there in 1989 after fleeing guerrilla activity in the Peruvian highlands.

According to National Geographic, archaeologists transformed the town into a dig, turning the narrow streets into trenches. Bridges had to be built for people to cross the streets in front of their makeshift homes. Many of them went to work on the project.