In October 2026, archaeologists reported the first physical proof of Peruvian hairless dogs at Castillo de Huarmey — one skull still bare-skinned and smeared with red cinnabar. Were they guides for the dead?
The October 2026 announcement: 341 dog bones, at least 19 animals, and one naturally mummified male dog radiocarbon-dated to around 1,200 years old at a Wari burial center.
National Geographic on the cinnabar-painted skull and the theory that the Wari chose these dogs to escort the important dead — much as the Xolo did in ancient Mexico.
Archaeology Magazine explains the clever tell: the same gene that makes these dogs hairless also leaves them missing premolars, the clue that identified them in the bone pile.
An ancient coastal breed painted on Andean pottery for millennia, prized for its warm skin and declared part of Peru's national heritage. Meet the living descendant of the mummies.
The 110-acre hilltop complex where the dogs were found — a Wari administrative and funerary center 190 miles north of Lima, occupied from 600 to 1050 CE.
In 2013 the same site yielded the first intact Wari imperial tomb: three queens, dozens of noblewomen, gold, and signs the mummies were taken out and displayed.
Ancient Americas on the Andean superpower that built roads, cities, and an empire centuries before the Inca — the civilization these dogs belonged to.