BOGOTA (AFP).- Colombian archaeologists have identified three tombs dating back more than 2,000 years, pinpointed while working squarely in metropolitan Medellin, officials said Friday.

The "first find" was May 16 in Itagui, Antioquia central Colombia in an Andean valley, said Juan Pablo Diez, whose team was working with the municipality to try to protect national heritage treasures while a local park is being built.

The finds include ceramics, known as Incised Brown Ware, and metalwork bowls, some of which were funeral urns in these farming and metalworking communities.

"One of the urns was being used as a lid for the other, and in that one we found what are most likely cremated human remains," he explained.

The artifacts are now undergoing a number of lab tests. Diez said he hoped they will end up in a new local archaeological museum.



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