Archaeological, radiological, and biological evidence offer insight into Inca child sacrifice
Publication date
2013Author
Wilson, Andrew S.Brown, Emma
Villa, C.
Lynnerup, N.
Healey, Andrew R.
Ceruti, M.C.
Reinhard, J.
Previgliano, C.H.
Araoz, F.A.
Diez, J.G.
Taylor, Timothy F.
Keyword
AdolescentAge factors
Archaeology
Argentina
Burial
Ceremonial behaviour
Child
Chromatography
Coca
Ethanol
Female
Hair
History
Humans
Indians
South America
Male
Mummies
Radiography
Tandem Mass Spectrometry
Tomography
X-Ray
REF 2014
Peer-Reviewed
YesOpen Access status
closedAccess
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Examination of three frozen bodies, a 13-y-old girl and a girl and boy aged 4 to 5 y, separately entombed near the Andean summit of Volcan Llullaillaco, Argentina, sheds new light on human sacrifice as a central part of the Imperial Inca capacocha rite, described by chroniclers writing after the Spanish conquest. The high-resolution diachronic data presented here, obtained directly from scalp hair, implies escalating coca and alcohol ingestion in the lead-up to death. These data, combined with archaeological and radiological evidence, deepen our understanding of the circumstances and context of final placement on the mountain top. We argue that the individuals were treated differently according to their age, status, and ritual role. Finally, we relate our findings to questions of consent, coercion, and/or compliance, and the controversial issues of ideological justification and strategies of social control and political legitimation pursued by the expansionist Inca state before European contact.Version
No full-text in the repositoryCitation
Wilson AS, Brown EL, Villa C et al (2013) Archaeological, radiological, and biological evidence offer insight into Inca child sacrifice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 110(33): 13322-13327.Link to Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1305117110Type
Articleae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1305117110