The bodies of sacrificed children have been found across the Incan Empire – and now a chilling detail about their final moments has been revealed.
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detail → sacrifice → moments
A toxicological analysis of the mummified remains showed that they had been fed cocaine, alcohol, and ayahuasca before being killed.
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they → mummify → cocaine
Strikingly, all eight of the mummies tested were found to contain the chemical traces of cocaine.
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eight → test → cocaine
This strongly suggests that chewing coca leaves in the months leading up to their death was a key part of the ritual.
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chewing → suggest → ritual
Although coca leaves played an important role in Incan religious beliefs as offerings to the gods, they may have also had a more practical role.
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they → play → role
With some of the sacrifices taking place on desolate mountaintops over 19,685ft (6,000m) high, the coca leaves could have helped reduce altitude sickness and fatigue during the gruelling final journey.
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leaves → take → journey
Meanwhile, four of the eight mummies were found to have been plied with alcohol in the form of a maize beer called Chicha.
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four → find → beer
According to the researchers, this would have been used to dull the children's senses and keep them calm during the ritual's deadly conclusion.
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this → accord → conclusion
Scientists have uncovered evidence that the Incan victims of child sacrifice (pictured) were given alcohol, cocaine, and even ayahuasca before being killed on remote mountaintops
In a ritual known as capacocha, children from across the Incan Empire were killed and turned into mummies (picture) to act as intermediaries between the living world and the gods
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children → uncover → world
In the early 15th century, during the height of the Incan Empire's power, a ritual practice of child sacrifice known as 'capacocha' started to emerge.
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practice → know → capacocha
Children from around the empire were chosen for their perceived purity and exceptional beauty and taken to Cuzco, the political and religious heart of the empire.
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Children → choose → empire
From there, they would be taken out on long, elaborate pilgrimages that eventually led to remote mountaintop shrines.
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that → take → shrines
After being bludgeoned to death with a club, the child would be mummified and entombed in the shrine, serving as a conduit between the living world and the gods.
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child → bludgeon → world
Their shrine would typically become the centre of religious cults, often led by their own family members, who treated the mummified bodies as oracles.
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who → become → oracles
Previous studies and historical records suggest the Incans used psychoactive plants; little is known about how these were used during the capacocha ritual.
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these → suggest → ritual
Luckily, the incredibly dry and cold mountain air means that these mummies are in exceptionally good states of preservation.
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mummies → mean → preservation
In this new study, published in the journal Antiquity, the researchers took samples of hair and fingernail material from eight mountaintop mummies.
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researchers → publish → mummies
Scientists tested the hair and fingernails from eight child mummies, eight of which showed signs of eating coca leaves before death
Scientists think that the children may have been given coca leaves to help with altitude sickness and fatigue during the long pilgrimage to their mountain resting places
The keratin in these materials can trap the traces of psychoactive chemicals, making a detailed record of drug use.
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keratin → test → use
Lead author Dr Dagmara Socha, from the University of Warsaw, says: 'Earlier analyses either produced negative results or focused primarily on coca leaves.
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analyses → say → leaves
'Our aim was to identify a broader range of psychoactive substances administered to the children and to determine whether patterns in their use could provide new insights into how capacocha ceremonies were conducted at different locations.
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ceremonies → identify → locations
While all eight appeared to have been chewing on coca leaves, the amount and timing of these drug doses seemed to vary.
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amount → appear → doses
One of the mummies showed a rapid change in coca use in the final month before their death with extremely high levels of consumption, likely linked to the final stages of the ritual preparation.
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One → show → preparation
Meanwhile, other mummies showed more prolonged drug consumption over an extended period of preparation.
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mummies → show → preparation
However, cocaine wasn't the only psychoactive drug that might have played a role in the capacocha ritual.
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that → play → ritual
Dr Socha says: 'One of the most intriguing findings concerns the famous Lady of Ampato, also known as Juanita, in whom we detected traces of harmine.
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we → say → harmine
The practice of child sacrifice was widespread throughout the Incan Empire (dark area), but each ritual site seemed to use a different pattern of drugs
By looking at the different sections of preserved hair (x–axis), the researchers can see how their cocaine consumption changed in the months leading up to their sacrifice.
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consumption → seem → sacrifice
Each section represents a roughly one–month period of the child's last six months of life
'
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section → represent → life
Harmine is an alkaloid associated with Banisteriopsis species, one of the principal plants traditionally used in the ayahuasca beverage.
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Harmine → associate → beverage
'It may indicate that a harmine–containing beverage had a specific role in ceremonies connected with this particular sacred mountain.
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beverage → indicate → mountain
The researchers aren't entirely sure what role this ayahuasca drink would have played in the ritual, but it might have been intended to enhance the child's prophetic powers.
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it → play → powers
Likewise, while the reason for the drug taking is unclear, the researchers say that it shows just how much the ritual varied depending on the mountain, local cult, and potentially even the deity involved.
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ritual → say → mountain
Dr Socha says: 'Five hundred years after these children were sacrificed during one of the most important Inca rituals, new technologies are allowing us to uncover details of their lives and Inca religious practices.
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us → say → lives
'What we are seeing is that the capacocha was not a single standardised ritual, but rather, the Incas appear to have adapted it to different cults and local religious traditions.'
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Incas → see → cults
The Aporia
