homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Shocking picture of incredibly well-preserved 15 year old girl from the Inca empire

She was a sacrifice, so you can look at it this way: the Inca chose her to go and live with the gods. But you can look at it this way too: the Inca brutally killed a 15 year old girl, for no other reason than religion. Furthermore, grim evidence showed that the Inca fattened […]

Mihai Andrei
April 9, 2012 @ 3:52 am

share Share

She was a sacrifice, so you can look at it this way: the Inca chose her to go and live with the gods. But you can look at it this way too: the Inca brutally killed a 15 year old girl, for no other reason than religion.

Furthermore, grim evidence showed that the Inca fattened their children before killing them, changing their diets about a year before the sacrifice, probably when they were chosen. After being given a ceremonial meal, she was walked to a shrine 82ft (25 metres) from the top of the 22,110ft (6,739 metres) volcano Llullaillaco, where they were suffocated or left to die from exposure.

“By examining hair samples from these unfortunate children, a chilling story has started to emerge of how the children were ‘fattened up’ for sacrifice,” Dr Andrew Wilson said.

The girl is incredibly well preserved, although she has been dead for 500 years. After taking samples from numerous Peruvians, scientists found a DNA match between the 15-year-old girl and a man from the small village at the foot of Mount Ampato some 1,000 miles away from the burial site, making him a “living Inca” with a direct blood line to a young girl who 500 years ago was chosen to live with the gods.

Edit: Read more about this study here or access the full study here.

 

share Share

Archaeologists Find Neanderthal Stone Tool Technology in China

A surprising cache of stone tools unearthed in China closely resembles Neanderthal tech from Ice Age Europe.

Scientists Created a Chymeric Mouse Using Billion-Year-Old Genes That Predate Animals

A mouse was born using prehistoric genes and the results could transform regenerative medicine.

Scientists Found a 380-Million-Year-Old Trick in Velvet Worm Slime That Could Lead To Recyclable Bioplastic

Velvet worm slime could offer a solution to our plastic waste problem.

Researchers Wake Up Algae That Went Dormant Before the First Pyramids

Scientists have revived 7,000-year-old algae from Baltic Sea sediments, pushing the limits of resurrection ecology.

A Fossil So Strange Scientists Think It’s From a Completely New Form of Life

This towering mystery fossil baffled scientists for 180 Years and it just got weirder.

This Is Why Human Faces Look So Different From Neanderthals

Your face stops growing in a way that neanderthals' never did.

These 2,200-Year-Old Shackles Reveal The Dark Side of Egypt’s Ancient Gold Mines

Shackles from ancient Egyptian gold mines reveal the harsh reality behind Ptolemy’s glittering wealth.

Your Gum Is Shedding Microplastics into Your Saliva

One gram of chewing gum can release up to 600 microplastic particles into your body.

Metal detectorist finds 800 ancient artifacts buried in northern England that could rewrite Iron Age Britain

Hundreds of ancient chariot pieces and ceremonial weapons were found buried in Yorkshire it's challenging everything we know about Iron Age Britain.

Octopus rides the world's fastest shark and nobody knows what's going on

A giant octopus rode a mako shark. No one knows why.