New findings reveal chilling new side to Inca sacrifice: 02-10-2007
New findings by British researchers give a chilling new edge to the ancient Incan ritual of sacrificing children - they have discovered that they were fattened up for months before they were killed.
Researchers said chemical analysis of the hair of four mummies found in the Andes mountains revealed early life diets of vegetables typical of a peasant background.
However, changes in isotopes, or chemical signatures, show that in the 12 months prior to sacrifice, the diet suddenly changed to food reserved for the elite such as maize and meat.
"We are looking at a process that began a considerable amount of time before their death," Andrew Wilson, an archaeologist at the University of Bradford, who led the study, told Reuters.
"The maiden was essentially being fattened up or prepared for her final fate at least 12 months before her killing."
It is likely the better diet was given to the children, aged between six and 15, due to their elevated status as offerings to the gods, the researchers said.
"It looks to us as though the children were led up to the summit shrine in the culmination of a year-long rite, drugged and then left to succumb to exposure," added Timothy Taylor, another researcher at the University of Bradford.