Andean Indian

South of Nazca in Peru, thousands of skeletons and mummies, many still possessing the remains of hair and skin, have been preserved in desert burial grounds which date from around 800 AD. Remnants of Nazca civilisation pottery and textiles have also been found with the bodies.

Any indigenous inhabitant of the Andes range in South America, stretching from Ecuador to Peru to Chile, and including both the coast and the highlands. Many Andean civilizations developed in this region from local fishing-hunting-farming societies, all of which predated the Inca, who consolidated the entire region and ruled from about 1200.

The earliest pan-Andean civilization was the Chavin, about 1200–300 BC, which was followed by large and important coastal city-states, such as the Mochica, the Chimú, the Nazca, and the Paracas. The region was dominated by the Tiahuanaco when the Inca started to expand, who took them and outlying peoples into their empire, and imposed the Quechua language on all. It is now spoken by over 10 million people and is a member of the Andean-Equatorial family.