Inca archaeological research. Restoration of an Inca ceramic vessel in a laboratory. Grave goods buried with Inca mummies are often found smashed by grave looters. Archaeologists then attempt to piece the fragments back together again. This vessel is from Puruchuco-Huaquerones, a large Inca cemetery on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. The site has been excavated several times since 1999, with many well-preserved mummies being found. The Inca, a pre-Hispanic people from Peru, ruled an extensive empire in the Andean regions of northern South America in the 15th and 16th centuries.