Two teens were sacrificed 1,500 years ago in Peru. Now, their identities are revealed
About 1,500 years ago, on the coast of Peru, two teenagers were strangled and buried in a temple grave alongside four deceased adults.
Now, an analysis of their remains has concluded that all six individuals were closely related – revealing a previously unknown type of ritual sacrifice based on kinship.
The findings were published by an international team of researchers on Dec. 23 in the journal PNAS.
The gravesite
The graves were previously uncovered in an ornate, pyramid-like temple in Huaca Cao Viejo, located in Peru’s Chicama Valley.
Dating to around 500 A.D., the burials are associated with the Moche culture, which thrived along the northern coast of Peru between 300 and 900 A.D.
The society “was characterized by a complex social hierarchy dominated by political and religious elites,” researchers said. “Previous archaeological evidence suggests kinship was a key factor in maintaining political authority within Moche society.”
Among the buried individuals were three adult males, who belonged to an elite class. Some of the men were wrapped in layers of cloth and reed and placed next to feathers and painted ceramics.
Placed at the feet of one man were the remains of a young teenage boy – estimated to be aged 12 or 13. A plant fiber cord was found wrapped around his neck, suggesting he had been strangled, which is a known method of human sacrifice in the Moche culture.
The remains of a high-status adult female, who is referred to as Señora de Cao, were also found. Her remains were wrapped in numerous layers of textiles and placed alongside a cache of offerings, including clubs, spear-throwers and ornaments.
Her grave, which represents the “best-preserved elite burial found in Peru to date,” indicate she was the highest ranking of the six interred individuals, researchers said.
Next to the Señora de Cao were the remains of a teen girl, aged 12 to 15, who was also found with a rope wrapped around her neck.
New findings
Intent on understanding the relationship between the buried Moche elite, researchers conducted isotopic and genomic analyses on the remains.
The tests revealed that all six people were closely related, bringing researchers’ understanding of Moche sacrifices into uncharted territory.
Specifically, the teenage boy was buried with his father, who was the brother of Señora de Cao. Meanwhile, the teenage girl interred alongside Señora de Cao was likely her niece. The other two buried men were possibly another brother and grandfather of Señora de Cao.
Why exactly the teenagers were sacrificed and buried with their relatives is unclear, researchers said.
“We cannot determine whether the practice of sacrificing juvenile family members or other close relatives was part of the sociocultural norm, or due to the kinds of court intrigues commonly known for many societies through time and space,” researchers said.
The analyses also indicated that most of the buried individuals consumed animal protein and maize and grew up somewhere close to the Chicama Valley.
However, the girl appears to have grown up elsewhere and consumed a different, distinct diet.
“The upbringing of the sacrificed individual, likely in the highlands well beyond the Chicama Valley, underscores the importance of long-distance connections in ancient Peru,” researchers said.
“That a close relative, potentially a niece, was raised afar only to be sacrificed alongside their relative offers many possibilities for consideration and further supports the other evidence that both local and interregional Moche politics had a strong, likely dominant, kinship-based component,” they added.
The study authors were: Jeffrey Quilter, Kelly Harkins, Régulo Fanco Jordan and Lars Fehren-Schmitz.