Peruvian workers find 8 mummies buried on a road leading to the country's only nuclear power plant

• Workers expanding gas lines accidentally dug up eight mummies in Lima, Peru.
• The mummies are older than Incan culture and were likely buried hundreds of years ago.

Peruvian workers expanding gas lines were shocked when they dug up eight mummies on the side of the road in Lima.

Surrounded by chicken restaurants near the road leading to Peru's sole nuclear power station, the funeral bales are thought to predate the Inca empire, the Associated Press reported.

The mummies were wrapped in cotton cloth and were sitting about a foot below the ground. One archeologist working in the trench said the bundles probably held two adults and six adolescents.

Jesus Bahamonde, an archeologist for Calidda, Lima's natural gas distributor, said the company was discovering forgotten artifacts as it developed.

"We are recovering those leaves of the lost history of Lima that is just hidden under the tracks and streets," Bahamonde told AP.

Per AP, Bahamonde and the company's other archeologists think the mummies are likely relics from the Ichma or Ychsma culture.

According to previous reporting from Insider, the Ychsma people were part of an ancient society that built at least 16 pyramids on Peru's central coast before being absorbed into the Inca Empire in the 15th century.

"When the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century, they found an entire population living in the three valleys that today occupy Lima ... what we have is a kind of historical continuation," Bahamonde told AP.

It's not the only ancient discovery made in Peru lately. As Peru has expanded its natural gas lines, it has discovered almost 2,000 ancient artifacts over nearly two decades.

Earlier this month in the country's capital, archeologists discovered a mummy with a full head of hair in a cemetery near a wealthy neighborhood. That mummy was likely about 1,000 years old.

Archeologists also found a 3,000-year-old mummy in June, which researchers said was probably a religious sacrifice from the Manchay people.