Child Sacrifice in the Ancient Americas
At various sites throughout Peru and Argentina, archaeologists have found remains of child sacrifices, but researchers can’t always figure out why these children were sacrificed.
James MacDonald
May 20, 2018
At a site near Trujillo, in Northwest Peru, archaeologists recently made a grisly find: the remains of 140 human children and 200 baby llamas. The site was part of the Chimu empire, a culture that dominated northwestern Peru until their conquest by the Inca in the late fifteenth century C.E. Sometime in the mid-fifteenth century, these children were all killed at the same time, suggesting a deliberate sacrifice. It may be the largest child sacrifice ever discovered, anywhere.
Who were these children? What kind of lives did they lead? Evidence from other sacrifices provides some insight into the lives of those sacrificed and the circumstances of their deaths. Science writer Ann Gibbons describes how sacrificial mythology and iconography was common throughout many ancient cultures. In some cases, children were sacrificed in order to match the mythology. In Guatemala, several children’s remains were found buried with a Mayan King. They lived far from any war, so the children were probably not captives or war trophies, but instead were likely associated with the king during life and may have been intended to benefit his afterlife. It seems they were sacrificed in a manner parallel to mythological sacrifices to the Corn God.
https://daily.jstor.org/child-sacrifice-in-the-ancient-americas/
