Ancient Mass Child Sacrifice May Be World’s Largest

During an emergency dig in Peru, Gabriel Prieto and John Verano, who lead the exploration, found 140 bodies and 200 llamas from a sacrifice 550 years ago.

This event all started when the emergency evacuation in Peru started. This was needed because a 3,500 year old temple was being evacuated when a local resident alerted others about human remains eroding near the sacrifice site. At the end of this exacutation, they had discovered more than 140 children along with 200 juvenile llamas. Along with humans and llamas, rope and fabric were also buried with them, which were found to be radioactive and dated between 1400 and 1450.

Scientist have guessed that the reason the sacrifice was performed was because they wanted to stop the terrible rains of El Nino. They discovered this because all of the children and llamas were buried near a flood zone. The scientist thought that the people from 550 years ago would believe that if they performed the sacrifice of llamas and children then the floods and rains would end leaving them with a fresh layer of ground. Some of their evidence for this claim was that many of the children were facing towards the sea. They also found that the llamas were faced in the direction of the Andes mountains highest peaks.

Based on what archaeologist have found in the bodies, they have concluded that the children ranged between 5 and 14 but the majority was between 8 and 12. These children were mostly facing west. On the other hand, the juvenile llamas were generally less than 18 months old. These llamas were faced towards the east. This placement was not a coincidence.

“I, for one, never expected it,” says Verano, a physical anthropologist who has worked in the region for more than three decades. “And I don’t think anyone else would have, either.” Many people agree with this statement as the breakthrough was definitely unexpected. We are on the edges of our seats waiting for more information.