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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Amelia Neath

Mystery of Peru ‘alien’ figures finally solved

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

“Alien mummies” that were found in a Peruvian airport last year are not aliens after all, according to forensic experts.

Instead, the “aliens” have turned out to be dolls made from earthly animal bones stuck together with glue.

On Friday, Peruvian forensic experts finally put extraterrestrial claims to bed about two doll-like figures that were seized by customs authorities in Peru last October from a shipment heading to Mexico, The Associated Press reported.

Flavio Estrada, the forensic archaeologist who led the analysis, said that some people believed that these figures came from an “alien centre or come from another planet, all of which is totally false”.

“The conclusion is simple: they are dolls assembled with bones of animals from this planet, with modern synthetic glues, therefore they were not assembled during pre-Hispanic times,” Mr Estrada, from Peru’s Institute for Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, told reporters at a press conference in Lima.

“They are not extraterrestrials; they are not aliens.”

The dolls are reported to be made from the bones of birds, dogs and other animals
— (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The experts showed reporters a couple of dolls, around two-foot-long and dressed in multicoloured clothing.

Upon examining these objects, they said they were made from the bones of birds, dogs and other animals.

An alleged three-fingered hand also found was X-rayed and found to be a “very poorly” hand-made structure made out of human bones.

The prosecutor’s office has yet to find out who owns the objects, which turned up in a Lima airport in a cardboard box, looking like mummified bodies in traditional Andean dress, Reuters said.

The Mexican journalist and ufologist Jaime Maussan, polarised scientists, experts and UFO enthusiasts back in September, when he appeared in front of the Mexican congress with similar objects, claiming they were “non-human” bodies recovered from Cusco, Peru, and were around 1,000 years old.

The experts did not say on Friday if these dolls were related to the “alien bodies” presented to Congress in Mexico, Reuters reported.

However, they emphasise that the “remains” in Mexico were also not extraterrestrial, the outlet said.

Forensic archeologist Flavio Estrada squashed the alien rumours surrounding dolls found in a Peruvian airport
— (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Mr Maussan testified under oath to Mexican lawmakers that the specimens are not part of “our terrestrial evolution”.

He doubled down on his claims again in November, alleging that over 30 per cent of the specimens’ DNA is “unknown” or “not from any known species”.

“We are not alone in this vast universe; we should embrace this truth,” he said at the time, according to The Daily Star.

Scientists have weighed in on the subject, pointing out that there is no substantial evidence that the corpses are either real or extraterrestrial.

It is not the first time Mr Maussan has made claims about aliens that have later been debunked, including five mummies found in Peru in 2017 that were later discovered to be human children.

The dolls found in the Peruvian airport are most certainly not of a different planet, Mr Estrada told reporters at the conference organised by the Peruvian ministry of culture.

"They are not extraterrestrials, they are not intraterrestrials,” Mr Estrada argued, according to CBS.

“They are not a new species, they are not hybrids, they are none of those things that this group of pseudoscientists who for six years have been presenting with these elements.”

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