[Aztlan] INCA CHILD SACRIFICEES FATTENED UP

[michael ruggeri]

 From Eurekalert
Public release date: 1-Oct-2007


Contact: Craig Brierley
c.brierley at wellcome.ac.uk

Scientists uncover Inca children's countdown to sacrifice



Hair samples from naturally preserved child mummies discovered at the  
world's highest archaeological site in the Andes have provided a  
startling insight into the lives of the children chosen for  
sacrifice. Researchers funded by the Wellcome Trust used DNA and  
stable isotope analysis to show how children as young as 6-years old  
were "fattened up" and taken on a pilgrimage to their death.

A team of scientists led by Dr Andrew Wilson at the University of  
Bradford analysed hair samples taken from the heads and from small  
accompanying bags of four mummies found in the Andes. These included  
the 15-year old "Llullaillaco Maiden" and the 7-year old  
"Llullaillaco Boy" whose frozen remains were found in 1999 at a  
shrine 25m from the summit of Mount Llullaillaco, a 6,739m volcano on  
the border of Argentina and Chile. The Maiden, described as a  
"perfect mummy" went on display for the first time last month in  
Salta, northwest Argentina.

Dr Wilson and colleagues studied DNA and stable light isotopes from  
the hair samples to offer insight into the lives of these children.  
Unlike samples of bone collagen and dental enamel, which give an  
average reading over time, hair growth allows scientists to capture a  
unique snapshot at different intervals over time, helping build up a  
picture of how the children were prepared for sacrifice over a period  
of months. The results are published today in the journal Proceedings  
of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

"By examining hair samples from these unfortunate children, a  
chilling story has started to emerge of how the children were  
'fattened up' for sacrifice," says Dr Wilson, a Wellcome Trust  
Bioarchaeology Fellow.

It is believed that sons and daughters of local rulers and local  
communities were chosen for sacrifice, possibly as a way for the  
ruling Incas to use fear to govern their people. Some girls, know as  
acllas, were selected from around the age of four and placed under  
the guardianship of priestesses; some would later be offered as wives  
to local nobles, others consecrated as priestesses and others offered  
as human sacrifices.

By analysing stable isotopes found in the hair samples, Dr Wilson and  
colleagues were able to see that for much of the time prior to  
sacrifice, the children were fed a diet of vegetables such as potato,  
suggesting that they came from a peasant background. Stable isotopes  
of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen from an individual's diet  
are deposited in their hair where they can remain unchanged over  
thousands of years.

However, in the twelve months prior to sacrifice, the isotopic  
evidence shows that the Maiden’s diet changed markedly to one that  
was enriched with plants such as maize, considered an "elite" food,  
and protein, likely to have come from charki (dried llama meat).

"Given the surprising change in their diets and the symbolic cutting  
of their hair, it appears that various events were staged in which  
the status of the children was raised" says Dr Wilson. "In effect,  
their countdown to sacrifice had begun some considerable time prior  
to death."

Changes in the isotopes in the hair sample in the final 3-4 months  
suggest that the children then began their pilgrimage to the  
mountains, likely from Cuzco, the Inca capital. Whilst scientists  
cannot be certain how the children died, it is believed that they  
were first given maize beer (chicha) and coca leaves, possibly to  
alleviate the symptoms of altitude sickness and also to inure them to  
their fate. This theory is supported by evidence of coca metabolites  
that the researchers found in the victims' hair, and in particularly  
high concentrations in the Maiden's.

"It looks to us as though the children were led up to the summit  
shrine in the culmination of a year-long rite, drugged and then left  
to succumb to exposure," says co-author Dr Timothy Taylor, also of  
the University of Bradford. "Although some may wish to view these  
grim deaths within the context of indigenous belief systems, we  
should not forget that the Inca were imperialists too, and the  
treatment of such peasant children may have served to instil fear and  
facilitate social control over remote mountain areas.”

Previous research has shown that Llullaillaco Boy appears to have met  
a particularly horrific end. His clothes were covered in vomit and  
diarrhoea, features indicative of a state of terror. The vomit was  
stained red by the hallucinogenic drug achiote, traces of which were  
also found in his stomach and faeces. However, his death was likely  
caused by suffocation, his body apparently having been crushed by his  
textile wrapping having been drawn so tight that his ribs were  
crushed and his pelvis dislocated.



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