Lady of Cao

For centuries, the warriors and rulers of the Moche civilisation were assumed to be men. Then, in 2006, archaeologists at El Brujo uncovered a tomb that made that assumption impossible to hold. The body inside was female. Her arms carried tattoos linked to power and transformation. Beside her lay a ceremonial club, gold ornaments, and regalia that matched the highest-ranking burials ever found on Peru's northern coast. The Lady of Cao follows the excavation, analysis, and ongoing debate surrounding this discovery and what it forces us to reconsider about ancient power, gender, and the stories we tell about the past