A team of archaeologists has uncovered the undamaged antique tomb of a pre-Incan leader who lived 1,600 years ago and the discovery may be of great use in solving the mysteries regarding Peru's ancient Moche culture, the group's Canadian lead scientist said on Saturday.

The tomb, named Huaca del Pueblo, was unearthed in the region of Lambayeque, 770 km north of Lima, a coastal arid area where the Moche civilization flourished between 100 BC and 600 AD. The find is somehow similar to the Sipan complex, which was detected in the same area approximately 20 years ago and is generally regarded as one of the world's most significant archaeological discoveries of modern times.

Both locations consist of tombs assembled for well-known personalities of the Moche civilization, whose works can be easily distinguished by their complex structure and construction.

Steve Bourget, a Canadian archaeologist, informed Reuters upon the fact that the tomb contains 14 crowns, masks, jewelry and technologically refined objects fabricated from copper. The body was found wearing a gold funeral mask, earrings, nose pieces and ear flaps inside a wooden sarcophagus. However, he said that the find is less significant than Sipan.

Scientists reported that the tomb was in good condition, differing from many other archaeological discoveries in Peru, which has an extended record of tomb robbers that uncover ancient objects in order to sell them to collectors. Two years ago, British authorities delivered a golden treasure from the Moche civilization that had been found in a house in London. The treasure represented a mythical octopus with human-like characteristics and had lifted from a rather anonymous archaeological site in 1988.