Bodies of children wrapped in funerary bundles found in Cajamarquilla, Peru. (Image Credit: Carlos Garcia Granthon/Fotoholica Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)Evidences of child sacrifices founds near 1000-year-old mummy in Peru. The mummy which was found in 2021 in ancient city of Cajamarquilla, Lima is a male mummy buried in underground tomb.
Mummy is characterised excellent preservation. Sacrificed man was lying in fetal position. At the time of ritual, man was between 18 to 22 years old when he died. But there is ambiguity regarding man’s age, some researchers state man was 35 years old at the time of sacrifice. Archaeologists name mummy ‘Chabelo’.
Researchers says, Remains includes 8 children wrapped in funerary bundles and 12 skeletons of adults. Some of the bodies of children have fractures. Possibly some of them must have sacrificed as a ritual. There was a burial chamber located at below part of tomb. The burial chamber had woman with a infant child surrounded by food, ceramics, mates and tools.
Pieter Van Dalen Luna, an archaeology professor at the National University of San Marcos said,” We know that Andean societies had a series of funerary practices, rituals, and from their worldview, they had a way of seeing the world that was completely different from ours. The conception of death was very important to them; it was a parallel world, the abode of the dead.”
Team is planning to further study remains in detail by performing DNA analysis and carbon dating. DNA analysis can state whether bodies share any family relations or were servants of mummy. Carbon dating will successfully extract ages of remains and mummy too.
Artifacts of wrapped bodies in funerary bundles recovered from Cajamarquilla. Peru. (Image Credit: Carlos Garcia Granthon/Fotoholica Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)In Cajamarquilla, numerous rituals are found like mummification, placing ropes around a body and in some cases children are placed near main body. Researchers claim the sacrifices were of children, wives or servants.
While excavating the sites in Peru, Archaeologists found no evidences of writing system. As no written evidences, researchers have to rely on only archaeological remains.
Also read: Digital Unwrapping of Mummy Amenhotep I
While excavating the sites in Peru, Archaeologists found no evidences of writing system. As no written evidences, researchers have to rely on only archaeological remains.
