Inca children were drugged before being sacrificed — SkimNews
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- University of Warsaw researchers led by Dagmara Socha examined eight frozen, mummified children — seven of them girls — discovered between the 1920s and 1990s at sites in Peru, Argentina and Chile, thought to have been aged between 6 and 14 when they died.
- Martín de Murúa recorded in 1590 that capacocha sacrificed children and young women to mountain gods to ensure there would be "no famine nor lack of fruits of the earth, nor would there be drought, nor pestilence, nor rebellion".
- Cocaine was detected in every hair sample tested, while markers of alcohol and coca leaf chewing appeared in half of the eight individuals.
- Harmine, the hallucinogenic compound found in the ceremonial drink ayahuasca, turned up in one nail sample; Socha and her colleagues suggest its antidepressant properties were used to calm the children and maintain a positive mood.
- Capacocha victims appear to have met different fates: some were killed with sharp weapons, while others were buried alive, Socha said.
- Each child carried a unique chemical signature preserved in hair and nails, which the researchers read as each being "prepared" differently, perhaps to direct their sacrifice towards a specific deity.
- Dagmara Socha said researchers cannot reconstruct the children's emotions and should not assume that being selected for a prestigious religious ceremony meant the experience was not frightening or traumatic.
Why it matters: For eight children aged 6 to 14 — seven of them girls — capacocha was not a single stereotyped event: each had a distinct chemical signature, long journeys and varied preparations, with some killed by sharp weapons and others buried alive. Historians gain a finer-grained map of the ritual; for the children, Socha warns, terror and trauma cannot be assumed away.
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