Dust to Dust Photograph courtesy Université libre de Bruxelles Arranged in the fetal position, this skeleton is among some 80 bodies discovered this spring in a vast Peruvian tomb the largest yet found at the ancient site of Pachacamac. Buried a thousand years ago with wooden "false heads," the now decayed mummies were unearthed within a perimeter of infant human remains. Once covered by a thatch roof, the tomb may have been a final resting place for diseased pilgrims drawn by promises of miracle cures, reports a team led by archaeologist Peter Eeckhout of Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. As for the babies, Eeckhout doesn't rule out that they may have been sacrificed. It's just one more riddle of the Ychsma (pronounced EESH-MA) the little-understood pre-inca people who built their largest known city at Pachacamac, he said.
Big Dig Photograph courtesy Université libre de Bruxelles Skeletons and ceramic grave goods emerge from the newfound burial site at Pachacamac, not far from Lima. The oblong chamber was dug into the ground and covered with a roof of reeds, which was supported by tree trunks, according to the study team. Apparently overlooked by 16th-century Spanish conquistadors and subsequent grave looters, the tomb contains fabric traces that suggest the dead had been traditionally mummified. "Some, if not all, of the bodies we found were originally wrapped in textiles," said Eeckhout, whose past work at Pachacamac was funded in part by the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration. (National Geographic News is a division of the Society.)
False Head Photograph courtesy Université libre de Bruxelles Wooden "false heads" including this one found in the new tomb are trademarks of the Ychsma. The five false heads in the newfound tomb didn't cover the faces of the deceased but were placed on or wedged into their curled-up mummies. The artifacts "likely served to bestow an identity or persona to the [mummy] bundle and to aid in that individual's passage to the afterlife," University of Illinois anthropologist Matthew Piscitelli said via email.
Grave Expression Photograph courtesy Université libre de Bruxelles Another face, this one in clay, stares out from a broken ceramic head excavated from the newfound Pachacamac tomb. Before the Inca took over Pachacamac in the 15th century, the Ychsma had ruled the city for more then 500 years. The culture left their conquerors a vast complex of monumental buildings, including 18 mud-brick, stepped pyramids. An important religious and pilgrimage center for nearly two millennia, Pachacamac "housed a powerful oracle, and several ancient groups constructed sacred structures and buried their dead among its many temples and cemeteries," said the University of Illinois's Piscitelli, who wasn't involved in the recent excavation and is also a National Geographic grantee.
Bundled Bodies Photograph courtesy Université libre de Bruxelles The adult dead in the newfound tomb were found in the fetal position, which may have represented "some kind of rebirth" to the Ychsma, excavation leader Eeckhout said. About half the bodies in the tomb belonged to babies signaling either ritual sacrifice or that they'd "died from natural causes and then were deposited in some place until the moment of the foundation of that tomb," Eeckhout said. Physical evidence of sacrifice, he added, may be hard to spot on the tiny corpses, particularly in cases of suffocation. Signs of sacrifice have been found in the past on very well preserved Pachacamac infant remains, he added. "But in this case it is absolutely not sure." There's no doubt, though, that animals were sacrificed, Eeckhout said. Guinea pigs appear to have been the favored offerings, but dogs and parts of llamas or alpacas have also been recovered from the tomb.
Stairway to Heaven? Illustration by H.M. Herget, National Geographic An artist's conception shows Inca worshippers ascending the Temple of Pachacamac. In its Inca period, the Pacific-coast city remained a spiritual center and even expanded. Whereas the Ychsma domain likely included only local river valleys, pilgrims of the much more vast Inca Empire came to Pachacamac from as far away as 930 miles (1,500 kilometers), according to contemporary Spanish reports. "Huge facilities were built by the Incas for this big-scale pilgrimage," Eeckhout said. The University of Illinois's Piscitelli added, "What's amazing about the site is that... the [Ychsma] Pachacamac priests were still allowed to function independently of the Inca religious specialists and were even consulted by the Inca for advice." Previously unearthed Ychsma skeletons suggest a high proportion of those buried at Pachacamac suffered from cancer, syphilis, and other serious conditions backing up Inca-era testimony that the city was a "pre-hispanic Lourdes," a font of supposed "miracle" cures, Eeckhout's team says. Bones from the latest dig have yet to be analyzed for disease, but the simple grave trappings, which include copper and metal alloy items such bracelets, indicate that the dead were neither rich nor royal. "We consider it a cemetery of the common people," Eeckhout said.
Brick by Brick Photography by J. Enrique Molina, Alamy Like most pre-columbian cultures, the Ychsma left behind no written record, leaving archaeologists to puzzle out the culture's story from relics and ruins such as those at Pachacamac, shown above with a backdrop of modern development. Other Ychsma sites recognizable by their distinct architecture and artifacts have been found nearby, Eeckhout said, but Pachacamac so far seems to have been their greatest settlement. Despite his team's already 13-year excavation efforts, the Ychsma are still "one of the ancient cultures of Peru that remains to be explored," Eeckhout said. The latest tomb finds, Piscitelli predicted, "will yield great insights into the religious and ceremonial activities that took place at Pachacamac."
A Site to Die For Found in Peru within a chamber used for an ancient human-sacrifice rite called the presentation, this woman was likely an offering to the site, archaelogists say. Announced last week, the 197-foot-long (60-meter-long) sacrificial chamber or passageway at the Huaca Bandera archaeological site belonged to the Moche culture, a pre-columbian agricultural civilization that flourished on the north coast of Peru from about 100 B.C. to AD 800. The several burials found in the sacrifice chamber "are from a time apparently after the site had been abandoned but nevertheless continued to receive offerings to maintain the status of the elite sanctuary," archaeologist Carlos Wester La Torre, leader of the excavation, said in an email translated from Spanish. This particular skeleton was found adorned with copper ornaments on her head and ceramics and seashells alongside. Inside the vessels are seeds of the Nectandra plant, a psychoactive often used in ritual ceremonies.
Sacrificial Altar Faint remains of a mural linger above the main altar in the newfound chamber, where the sacrificial rite is believed to have been carried out near the present-day town of Illimo, Peru. "The ceremony, known as the presentation, was a ritual where naked and rope-bound prisoners were subjected to a ritual sacrifice," said Wester, who is also director of the Heinrich Brüning National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography in the nearby city of Lambayeque. As the prisoners most likely apprehended during battle were cut, priests and priestesses caught the spilling blood in cups, which were offered to the gods, he said. "The prisoners of war were sacrificed to please the gods as a way to maintain social, political, and economic stability in the village," Wester said.
Sacrificed But Not "Presented" Facing eternity with a ceramic vase and bundled offerings, a woman's remains lie crumpled within the Moche sacrificial chamber revealed last week. The woman was an offering to the site, not part of a "presentation" sacrifice ceremony, Wester said. "We have not yet found any sacrificed individuals, because we have not yet excavated the cemeteries," he said. "Obviously, in due course, we will."
Chamber of Horrors More than a thousand years ago, prisoners of war, naked and bound, were marched down this ceremonial passage to their deaths at the Moche site of Huaca Bandera in Peru, archaeologists announced last week. Lined with altars, the corridor leads to a ramp that accesses a pyramid in the distance.
Blood Priest Fragments from a mural recently found at Huaca Bandera depict el sacerdote the priest from a "presentation" sacrifice ceremony. "The priest officiates the ceremony and sacrifices the prisoners at the side of the priestess and other partners," Wester said, "and then reaches out to the lord with the cup [of blood] to be drunk."
No Place for a Child? Dating to the late Moche period, between the seventh and eighth centuries A.D., a ceramic vase found during the recent Huaca Bandera excavation represents a female with a child in her left arm. Archaeologists who worked at the site are uncertain if the vessel was an offering or was part of the "presentation" human-sacrifice ceremony.
The Healer A character known as the healer, carrying a San Pedro cactus a staple of Andean traditional medicine is depicted on this bottle from the eighth century A.D. found at the Huaca Bandera site. "The healer is very common in the Moche era, where he is frequently depicted assisting sick people or attending the deliveries of babies," Wester said.
Smiling Through This smiling pitcher dates to the late Moche period, when many ceremonies were held at Huaca Bandera, according to Wester. Pitchers with faces on their necks are common among Moche artifacts, he said, and "must have been connected with the preparation of ceremonial drinks."