A mass sacrifice of children and camelids at the Huanchaquito-Las Llamas site, Moche Valley, Peru

Prieto, Gabriel; Verano, John W.; Goepfert, Nicolás; Kennett, Douglas J.; Quilter, Jeffrey; LeBlanc, Steven A.; Fehren‐Schmitz, Lars; Forst, Jannine; Lund, Mellisa; Dement, Brittany; Dufour, Élise; Tombret, Olivier; Calmon, Melina; Gadison, Davette; Tschinkel, Khrystyne E

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0211691

Cited by 47 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Most of human remains from the Akapana investigated here, and earlier (Llamas et al, 2016), date to the middle of the 10th century CE (Table 1; SI Text). There are other documented cases where such an intensification of human sacrifice indicates a society in crisis, grasping for a solution to an environmental catastrophe (Prieto 2019).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient genomes reveal long range influence of the site and culture of Tiwanaku

Popović

Molak

Ziółkowski

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Tiwanaku was a civilization that flourished in the Lake Titicaca Basin (present-day Bolivia) between 500 and 1000 CE. At its apogee, Tiwanaku controlled the lake’s southern shores and influenced certain areas of the Southern Andes. There is a considerable amount of archaeological and anthropological data concerning the Tiwanaku culture; however, our understanding of the population of the site of Tiwanaku is limited. To understand the population dynamics at different stages of the Tiwanaku cultural development, we analyzed 17 low-coverage genomes from individuals dated between 300 and 1500 CE. We found that the population from the Lake Titicaca Basin remained genetically unchanged throughout more than 1200 years, indicating that significant cultural and political changes were not associated with large scale population movements. In contrast, individuals excavated from Tiwanaku’s ritual core were highly heterogeneous, some with genetic ancestry from as far away as the Amazon, supporting the proposition of foreign presence at the site. However, mixed-ancestry individuals’ presence suggests they were local descendants of incomers from afar rather than captives or visiting pilgrims. A number of human offerings from the Akapana Platform dating to ca. 950 CE mark the end of active construction and maintenance of the monumental core and the wane of Tiwanaku culture.Significance StatementTiwanaku was an important pre-Inca polity in South America and an example of primary social complexity on par with civilizations in the Indus and Nile river valley. Flourishing between 500 and 1000 CE, Tiwanaku exercised control in the south Titicaca basin and influenced a vast area in southern Peru, Bolivia, and northern Chile. Comprehensive archeological studies provided information about the rise, expansion, and fall of the Tiwanaku culture, but little is known about the monumental site’s population. To address this lacuna, we generated low coverage genomes for 17 individuals, revealing that while the Titicaca basin’s residential population was homogenous, the individuals excavated from the ritual core of Tiwanaku drew their ancestry from distant regions.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient genomes reveal long range influence of the site and culture of Tiwanaku

Popović

Molak

Ziółkowski

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…An exception to this pattern is ritualized conflict aimed at capturing enemy combatants for sacrifice (e.g., Prieto et al, 2019; Verano, 2008). This type of ritual conflict results in mass graves consisting of demographic subgroups (e.g., adult males) all of whom exhibit lethal trauma.…”

Section: Evaluating Hypotheses On the Character Of Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

The character of conflict: A bioarchaeological study of violence in the Nasca highlands of Peru during the Late Intermediate Period (950–1450 C.E.)

McCool

Tung

Coltrain

et al. 2020

American J Phys Anthropol

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Objectives: This study uses osteological and radiocarbon datasets combined with formal quantitative analyses to test hypotheses concerning the character of conflict in the Nasca highlands during the Late Intermediate Period (LIP, 950-1450 C.E.). We develop and test osteological expectations regarding what patterns should be observed if violence was characterized by intragroup violence, ritual conflict, intermittent raiding, or internecine warfare. Materials and methods: Crania (n = 267) were examined for antemortem and perimortem, overkill, and critical trauma. All age groups and both sexes are represented in the sample. One hundred twenty-four crania were AMS dated, allowing a detailed analysis of diachronic patterns in violence among various demographic groups. Results: Thirty-eight percent (102/267) of crania exhibit some form of cranial trauma, a significant increase from the preceding Middle Horizon era. There are distinct trauma frequencies within the three subphases of the LIP, but Phase III (1300-1450 C.E.) exhibits the highest frequencies of all trauma types. Males exhibit significantly more antemortem trauma than females, but both exhibit similar perimortem trauma rates. Discussion: There was chronic, internecine warfare throughout the Late Intermediate Period with important variations in violence throughout the three temporal phases. Evidence for heterogeneity in violent mortality shows a pattern consistent with social substitutability, whereby any and all members of the Nasca highland population were appropriate targets for lethal and sublethal violence. We argue that by testing hypotheses regarding the targets and types of conflict we are better able to explain the causes and consequences of human conflict.

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“…In Europe, beside the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) massacre sites of Talheim [ 7 ] and Asparn/Schletz [ 8 ], several similar examples dated to prehistoric periods have been recorded [ 9 – 13 ]. Paleogenomic and bioanthropological studies of ancient massacres have highlighted sites where the victims were male and plausibly died all in battle [ 14 ], or were executed members of the same family as might be expected from a killing intentionally directed at subsets of a community [ 13 ], or where the massacred individuals were plausibly members of a migrant community in conflict with previously established groups [ 9 ], or where there was evidence that the killing was part of a religious ritual [ 15 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genome-wide analysis of nearly all the victims of a 6200 year old massacre

et al. 2021

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Paleogenomic and bioanthropological studies of ancient massacres have highlighted sites where the victims were male and plausibly died all in battle, or were executed members of the same family as might be expected from a killing intentionally directed at subsets of a community, or where the massacred individuals were plausibly members of a migrant community in conflict with previously established groups, or where there was evidence that the killing was part of a religious ritual. Here we provide evidence of killing on a massive scale in prehistory that was not directed to a specific family, based on genome-wide ancient DNA for 38 of the 41 documented victims of a 6,200 year old massacre in Potočani, Croatia and combining our results with bioanthropological data. We highlight three results: (i) the majority of individuals were unrelated and instead were a sample of what was clearly a large farming population, (ii) the ancestry of the individuals was homogenous which makes it unlikely that the massacre was linked to the arrival of new genetic ancestry, and (iii) there were approximately equal numbers of males and females. Combined with the bioanthropological evidence that the victims were of a wide range of ages, these results show that large-scale indiscriminate killing is a horror that is not just a feature of the modern and historic periods, but was also a significant process in pre-state societies.

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A mass sacrifice of children and camelids at the Huanchaquito-Las Llamas site, Moche Valley, Peru

Cited by 47 publications

References 53 publications

Ancient genomes reveal long range influence of the site and culture of Tiwanaku

Ancient genomes reveal long range influence of the site and culture of Tiwanaku

The character of conflict: A bioarchaeological study of violence in the Nasca highlands of Peru during the Late Intermediate Period (950–1450 C.E.)

Genome-wide analysis of nearly all the victims of a 6200 year old massacre

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