‘An offering to energize the fields’: 76 child sacrifice victims, all with their chests cut open, unearthed at burial site in Peru
A 700-year-old burial mound containing the remains of 76 sacrificed children and two adults — all of whom had their chests cut open — has been found in Peru.
The burial mound is the latest of multiple sacrificial sites found at Pampa La Cruz, near the coastal city of Trujillo in northwestern Peru. All of the sites are connected to the Chimú, a large civilization that thrived in the region from the 12th to 15th centuries. The Chimú predated the Inca and are known for their artwork and textiles.
The children were buried naked, with their clothes near them. Their chests had been cut open from the collarbone down to the sternum, and their ribs had been forced open, potentially to gain access to their heart, previous research on other burial mounds at Pampa la Cruz suggested; these included a discovery in 2022 of 76 child sacrifice victims.
Within the mound, which measures 197 by 66 feet (60 by 20 meters), researchers also found silver and copper squares that may have been sewn to the children’s clothing, as well as ear ornaments and Spondylus shells.
The Spondylus shells were “more valuable than gold for these people,” said Gabriel Prieto, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Florida who directs the excavations at Pampa La Cruz. They could only be found farther north — at that time, in the territory of the Lambayeque, a civilization of skilled metalworkers.
The presence of the shells was only the first hint of this burial mound’s connection to the Lambayeque. Based on further analysis of the other 76 victims found in 2022 at the same site, the researchers determined that all of the victims had cranial modifications, in which the malleable skull of an infant was elongated using boards or head wraps. This practice was done by the Chimú, but to a less-extreme degree of modification, Prieto told Live Science. The higher intensity of cranial modifications suggests the victims may have been Lambayeque in origin.
Source: live science
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‘An offering to energize the fields’: 76 child sacrifice victims, all with their chests cut open, unearthed at burial site in Peru