Three-Fingered Hand From Peruvian Tunnel Divides Believers and Doubters

CUSCO, PERU — A mummified hand bearing three fingers, each eight inches long, was taken from a tunnel behind a stone door in the Peruvian desert, according to the opening of a recent episode of the Weird Darkness podcast. Physicians in Cusco who X-rayed the specimen are said to have found real bone and skin.

The episode, titled "The Three-Fingered Mummies of Peru: Alien or Hoax?", states that the X-rays were made for Brien Foerster. It draws its account from three listed sources: Anomalien, Ancient-Origins and the skeptics' forum Metabunk.

The show notes acknowledge that the mummies were eventually deemed a hoax, but pose the question of whether new evidence says otherwise. The episode reports that DNA tests in 2018 called the Nazca mummies human. It adds, however, that a later study of one specimen, named Maria, found an elongated skull showing no sign of deliberate shaping, and feet with only three toes.

The mummies share the programme with a varied bill: the death of Marilyn Monroe, two European werewolf scares, a Texas murder case, the Hellfire Club and the Oakville Blobs, the gelatinous matter said to have fallen on a Washington town in 1994. The host notes that no AI voices are used in the narration.

As is usual in such matters, the question in the title remains open to the listener. The episode itself records both the hoax verdict and the later findings that keep the debate alive.