Researchers found significant traces of drugs and alcohol in frozen bodies of three children which they believed to have been used as ritual sacrifices during the Inca civilization. The bodies were discovered on top of the Llullaillaco volcano in northern Argentina in 1999.
Further analysis of the frozen bodies allowed the researchers to create a two-year timeline to tell the story of the pain the children sacrifices had to endure before their death.
Each body was buried separately facing different directions—north, east, and southwest. Andrew Wilson, lead researcher from the University of Bradford in England, and his colleagues described the bodies as “arguably the best naturally preserved assemblage of mummies found anywhere in the world."
Two of the children were about four to five years old while the other one was a 13-year old girl which they call the ‘Llullaillaco Maiden.’ The maiden was given special treatment than the younger children, one boy and one girl, based on her braids, her feather headdress, and a roll of coca in her teeth.
The researchers took some hair samples from each mummy to create a timeline which could possibly tell what happened to the children before their death. The hair is an effective way to measure the months as one centimeter is equal to a month growth. It can also tell what’s happening to the body during that month. The 13-year old girl’s very long hair allowed the researchers to measure up to two years which letting them draft a story about the last two years of her life. The traces of carbon and nitrogen in the hair tell the story of her food while the sulfur and oxygen holds the journey her body had been through as part of the ritual.
The analysis revealed that the girl’s food had improved for the last two years of her life which means she didn’t starve to death. However, they also saw presence of alcohol and coca which is far higher than the dosage given to the younger children. Six months before she died, the researchers found that the amount of cocaine given to the girl had tripled. She was also asked to drink more alcohol on the last 13 months of her life. The researchers assumed that she was given higher levels of alcohol and cocaine to sedate her.
The researchers were wondering how the children died since they didn’t see any blows in the head. They are now thinking that hypothermia might have killed them.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Children sacrifices are part of the Inca culture wherein children were brought to the top of the Llullaillaco for everyone to see so that they will not revolt against the Inca Empire.
