LIMA, Peru — Utility workers excavating trenches to expand the network of natural gas pipelines in Peru’s capital have uncovered a pre-Inca mummy approximately 1,000 years old, barely from the surface.

The mummy had gone unnoticed despite urban development in a district of Lima where former agricultural fields have been converted into working-class neighborhoods in recent decades.

Jose Aliaga, an archaeologist with utility Cálidda, on Wednesday said the unearthed mummy, found in a seated position and covered by a bundle, still has dark brown hair.

“We found remains and evidence that there could be a pre-Hispanic burial,” Aliaga said. He said workers made the discovery last week.

Lima, located in a valley irrigated by three rivers fed from the Andes, housed human civilizations thousands of years before the Spanish arrived in 1535.

“It is very common to find archaeological remains on the Peruvian coast, including Lima, mainly funerary elements: tombs, burials, and, among these, mummified individuals,” said Pieter Van Dalen, dean of the College of Archaeologists of Peru.