The villagers were murdered by Shining Path rebels in April 1983 near the town of Lucanamarca, 220 miles (350 kilometers) southeast of Lima.

The Lucanamarca massacre shocked Peruvians and was the forerunner of mass killings by rebels and army troops as Peru sank into savage conflict.

Two teams from Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission began digging Saturday near the hamlets of Muylacruz, Llacchua, Ataccara and Yanaccollpa. The remains will be sent to Lima on Friday for identification, the commission said in a press release.

Peruvian, Argentine and Guatemalan forensic anthropologists conducted the exhumations with the help of villagers, who led investigators to grave sites and identified deteriorated clothing worn by the victims.

The Shining Path, a Maoist-inspired rebel movement that tolerated no opposition, used terror to force peasants to support its drive to overthrow Peru's elected governments.

Rebel ideologues first entered the Lucanamarca region in the late 1970s from the Huamanga University in Ayacucho, where Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman had been a professor.

After guerrillas killed a handful of peasants in 1982, community self-defense groups known as "ronderos" began to fight back armed only with clubs and slingshots.

In March 1983, a rondero patrol rounded up ten guerrillas, marched them into Lucanamarca's central plaza and killed them, burning one man alive.

Shining Path guerrillas retaliated the following month, shooting or hacking villagers to death with machetes. Guzman took credit for the massacre in 1988.

"Faced with reactionary military action we responded with action: Lucanamarca," he told the guerrilla's clandestine newspaper El Diario.

Shining Path violence dropped off significantly with Guzman's capture in 1992.

The truth commission began working in July of last year to shed light on atrocities that occurred from May 1980 to November 2000 in fighting between government security forces, insurgents and civilians.

At least 30,000 people died in the fighting and another 6,000 people disappeared.

The commission plans to publish a final report based on exhumations, open hearings and individual testimonies in July of next year.

In addition to the Lucanamarca digs, investigators have exhumed the remains of peasants massacred by army troops.

Commission president Salomon Lerner told newsmagazine Caretas this week that the military has not responded to truth commission inquiries and that of the 13,000 people that have testified so far, none have included army personnel.

Lerner also said the commission, which almost shut down earlier this year for a lack of money, has funding lined up through February.