Peru - Child Sacrifices
The skeletons of dozens of children killed as part of a ritual bloodletting sacrifice a thousand years ago have been discovered in north...ern Peru. The remains are the earliest evidence of ritualized blood sacrifice and mutilation of children that has so far been seen in the South American Andes. Seeds of a paralytic and hallucinogenic plant called Nectandra, which also prevents blood clotting, were found with the skeletons, suggesting the children were drugged before their throats were slit and their chests cut open. During the sacrifices, sharp bronze knives were used to hack the children to death. One skeleton had more than 25 cut marks on it. A few had their hands and legs bound with rope.
The skeletons of dozens of children killed as part of a ritual bloodletting sacrifice a thousand years ago have been discovered in north...ern Peru. The remains are the earliest evidence of ritualized blood sacrifice and mutilation of children that has so far been seen in the South American Andes. Seeds of a paralytic and hallucinogenic plant called Nectandra, which also prevents blood clotting, were found with the skeletons, suggesting the children were drugged before their throats were slit and their chests cut open. During the sacrifices, sharp bronze knives were used to hack the children to death. One skeleton had more than 25 cut marks on it. A few had their hands and legs bound with rope.
Sacrifice Children Not Considered Human?
Eighty-two skeletons of the Muchik people, including 32 that were mostly or completely intact, have been discovered since 2003 at the Cerro Cerillos site in the Lambayeque Valley on Peru's arid northern coast. It's unclear why their chests were cut open, but it may have been to cut out their hearts. In many Andean cultures children may have been seen as conduits to communicate with the supernatural. What's more, in the Muchik cosmology, children may not have been seen as humans at all. "When the Muchik began to sacrifice children, it's possible they were not sacrificing people in their eyes, as strange as it sounds".
After the bloodletting was over, the children were allowed to mummify in the desert air for at least a month, the study concluded. Empty fly pupas were found with the kids' remains, indicating that maggots ate their flesh during natural decomposition. In ancient beliefs, the hatched fly carried deceased children's souls away and signified a reverent burial. Llama remains were also found with the bodies, suggesting that the funerals of many victims were accompanied by "solemn and very serious" feasts that included llama meat. The heads and legs of llamas were "given" to the dead, presumably to feed them in the afterlife.
Sacrificial Evolution: War Captives to Children
More than 80 sacrifices from A.D. 900 to 1100 were carried out by the Muchik people, who occupied the northern coast after the fall of the Moche. The Moche was independently governed agricultural societies that ruled the region from about A.D. 100 to 800. The Moche culture's political and religious ideology had started to disintegrate around A.D. 550, in the wake of a devastating El Niño, a cyclical phenomenon that can dramatically alter climate. But some parts of the Moche culture persisted in the Muchik,, including human sacrifice. The ritualistic killing of war captives had played a major role among the Moche elite as a way to appease ancestors and natural spirits, experts say. The Muchik apparently developed a variation on the Moche sacrificial theme by sacrificing children, according to Klaus.
(Source: National Geographic)
Photo: The remains of a child and a llama unearthed in the fishing town of Huanchaquito, Peru
Eighty-two skeletons of the Muchik people, including 32 that were mostly or completely intact, have been discovered since 2003 at the Cerro Cerillos site in the Lambayeque Valley on Peru's arid northern coast. It's unclear why their chests were cut open, but it may have been to cut out their hearts. In many Andean cultures children may have been seen as conduits to communicate with the supernatural. What's more, in the Muchik cosmology, children may not have been seen as humans at all. "When the Muchik began to sacrifice children, it's possible they were not sacrificing people in their eyes, as strange as it sounds".
After the bloodletting was over, the children were allowed to mummify in the desert air for at least a month, the study concluded. Empty fly pupas were found with the kids' remains, indicating that maggots ate their flesh during natural decomposition. In ancient beliefs, the hatched fly carried deceased children's souls away and signified a reverent burial. Llama remains were also found with the bodies, suggesting that the funerals of many victims were accompanied by "solemn and very serious" feasts that included llama meat. The heads and legs of llamas were "given" to the dead, presumably to feed them in the afterlife.
Sacrificial Evolution: War Captives to Children
More than 80 sacrifices from A.D. 900 to 1100 were carried out by the Muchik people, who occupied the northern coast after the fall of the Moche. The Moche was independently governed agricultural societies that ruled the region from about A.D. 100 to 800. The Moche culture's political and religious ideology had started to disintegrate around A.D. 550, in the wake of a devastating El Niño, a cyclical phenomenon that can dramatically alter climate. But some parts of the Moche culture persisted in the Muchik,, including human sacrifice. The ritualistic killing of war captives had played a major role among the Moche elite as a way to appease ancestors and natural spirits, experts say. The Muchik apparently developed a variation on the Moche sacrificial theme by sacrificing children, according to Klaus.
(Source: National Geographic)
Photo: The remains of a child and a llama unearthed in the fishing town of Huanchaquito, Peru
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