TY - JOUR
T1 - Archaeological, radiological, and biological evidence offer insight into Inca child sacrifice
AU - Wilson, Andrew S.
AU - Brown, Emma L.
AU - Villa, Chiara
AU - Lynnerup, Niels
AU - Healey, Andrew
AU - Ceruti, Maria Constanza
AU - Reinhard, Johan
AU - Previgliano, Carlos H.
AU - Arias Araoz, Facundo
AU - Gonzalez Diez, Josefina
AU - Taylor, Timothy
PY - 2013/8/13
Y1 - 2013/8/13
N2 - 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 Volcán 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.
AB - 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 Volcán 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.
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1305117110
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1305117110
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 110
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America
IS - 33
ER -