Facebook with Latestnigeriannews  Twieet with latestnigeriannews  RSS Page Feed
Home  |  All Headlines  |  Punch  |  Thisday  |  Daily Sun  |  Vanguard   |  Guardian  |  The Nation  |  Daily Times  |  Daily Trust  |  Daily Independent
World  |  Sports  |  Technology  |  Entertainment  |  Business  |  Politics  |  Tribune  |  Leadership  |  National Mirror  |  BusinessDay  |  More Channels...

Viewing Mode:

Archive:

  1.     Tool Tips    
  2.    Collapsible   
  3.    Collapsed     
Click to view all Entertainment headlines today

Click to view all Sports headlines today

Ancient graves hid the skeletons of 269 children and 466 llamas who were ritually sacrificed, and archaeologists still don't know why

Published by Business Insider on Wed, 23 Jan 2019


It's arguably thelargest mass sacrifice of children to date. Archaeologists uncovered 269 children, 466 llamas, and 3 adults near the modern-day coastal town of Huanchaco, Peru.Researchers guess that the mass sacrifice took place during the reign of the Chim Empire, a pre-Columbian civilization second only to the Incas.It's not clear why all those children were put to death. But one theory is that sacrificing their young may have been the Chim's way ofplacating the angry weather gods.Take a look at some of the exclusive images from Huanchaco, featured in the February 2019 issue of National Geographic.Human sacrifice has been around for centuriesthe Maya, Aztecs, and ancient Egyptians killed prisoners of war, volunteers, and slaves over the course of their histories. But child sacrifice, especially mass killings, are incredibly rare.Previously, evidence of the largest youth sacrifice ever 42 childrenwas discovered at Templo Mayor in Tenochtitln, the ancient Aztec capital, according to National Geographic.TheChimpeople blew that record out of the water.Ruins of Chan Chan, the capital of the Chimempire, sit nearby the modern-day town of Huanchaco. In 2011, a local pizza shop owner toldGabriel Prieto, a professor of archaeology from the National University of Trujillo,to check out a nearbyvacant lot full of human bones.Kristin Romey, archaeology editor for National Geographic and author of the magazine's exclusive article on the Chim findings, told Business Insider that Prieto assumed the shop owner had found a forgotten cemetery. But once Prieto started digging, he realized the bodies were all children, and all 500 years old. Llamas were unearthed too.Then it came to light that they had all been systematically killed.Since then, Huanchaquito-Las Llamas, or Las Llamas for short, has been a bustle of activity for archaeologists. "As the excavation seasons progressed, the sheer number of victims was just staggeringno one had ever seen anything like it before," Romey said.More burials were uncovered on a nearby site in the summer of 2018. The second site, named Pampa la Cruz, yielded more children and llamas to add to the total. The running tally is 269 children, 466 llamas, and 3 adults. It's the largest mass child sacrifice to date in the archaeological record.In an archaeological saga that began in 2011 and will likely continue in the years to come, experts have tried to understand the what prompted this mass child sacrifice.Take a look at some photos in the February 2019 issue of National Geographic from the excavation sites, which could help archaeologists shed light on what happened that fateful day some 550 years ago.SEE ALSO:Archaeologists found the remains of 140 children in a 550-year-old mass grave in Peru ' perhaps the largest child sacrifice in human historyChildren and baby llamas were sacrificed and buried together.Prieto, along with John Verano of Tulane University led the excavation of both sites. Together, their team confirmed that some 550 years ago, during the twilight of the Chim empire, this ancient people ritually killed their children.Many of the childrenall between ages 5 and 14had faces smeared with a red pigment. Their chests were cut open, ribs dislocated, and their hearts were likely removed. The sacrificial llamas that accompanied them met the same grisly fate.Child sacrifice in the archaeological record is rare because it doesnt make a lot of economic sense, Romey said."For most of human history, making it past the age or five or so was a big thing. It took a lot of effort and luck. So why would a society wipe out a part of their population that they had already spent so many resources on to just to survive past birth, only to get rid of them before they were old enough to work, fight, or reproduce'"Sacrificing young llamas was similarly costly, as the animals provided the Chim with food, transportation, and wool."Why cull a herd so young'" Romey wondered.The llamas were all 18 months old, buried facing the Andes to the east. Only brown or light brown llamas were killed. Black and white llamas were spared, it seems.Killing a future generation of llamas was also a major sacrificethese animals were sources of food, wool, and transportation."In this sense, some think that llamas would have been involved since they were such a critical source of transport, and could aid in movement between our world and the beyond," she said.Arguably, the cost of sacrificing a child is far greater than sacrificing an adult. But there may have been spiritual reasons for the choice."There are arguments that the children were considered liminal they werent full-fledged people yet and as such could communicate better with the spiritual world," Romey said."And of course, theres the emotional argument that it is much more painful and valuable to sacrifice your own flesh and blood rather than an elderly or sick member of the community or a foreign captive."See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Click here to read full news..

All Channels Nigerian Dailies: Punch  |  Vanguard   |  The Nation  |  Thisday  |  Daily Sun  |  Guardian  |  Daily Times  |  Daily Trust  |  Daily Independent  |   The Herald  |  Tribune  |  Leadership  |  National Mirror  |  BusinessDay  |  New Telegraph  |  Peoples Daily  |  Blueprint  |  Nigerian Pilot  |  Sahara Reporters  |  Premium Times  |  The Cable  |  PM News  |  APO Africa Newsroom

Categories Today: World  |  Sports  |  Technology  |  Entertainment  |  Business  |  Politics  |  Columns  |  All Headlines Today

Entertainment (Local): Linda Ikeji  |  Bella Naija  |  Tori  |  Pulse  |  The NET  |  DailyPost  |  Information Nigeria  |  Gistlover  |  Lailas Blog  |  Miss Petite  |  Olufamous  |  Stella Dimoko Korkus Blog  |  Ynaija  |  All Entertainment News Today

Entertainment (World): TMZ  |  Daily Mail  |  Huffington Post

Sports: Goal  |  African Football  |  Bleacher Report  |  FTBpro  |  Kickoff  |  All Sports Headlines Today

Business & Finance: Nairametrics  |  Nigerian Tenders  |  Business Insider  |  Forbes  |  Entrepreneur  |  The Economist  |  BusinessTech  |  Financial Watch  |  BusinessDay  |  All Business News Headlines Today

Technology (Local): Techpoint  |  TechMoran  |  TechCity  |  Innovation Village  |  IT News Africa  |  Technology Times  |  Technext  |  Techcabal  |  All Technology News Headlines Today

Technology (World): Techcrunch  |  Techmeme  |  Slashdot  |  Wired  |  Hackers News  |  Engadget  |  Pocket Lint  |  The Verge

International Networks:   |  CNN  |  BBC  |  Al Jazeera  |  Yahoo

Forum:   |  Nairaland  |  Naij

Other Links: Home   |  Nigerian Jobs