In Peru, archaeologists have found the naturally buried remains of five lalamas offered to the Inca gods about 500 years ago.
The mummified llamas are still adorned with colored wire, red paint and feathers that adorned them before the Inca sent them to their deaths, probably by burying these animals.
This discovery is so rare that even archaeologists have unearthed the remains. Inca Empire Study researcher Lydio Valdez, an assistant professor in the University’s Department of Anthropology and Archeology, “on the Pacific coast of South America for more than a century (also spelled Inca),” Calgary in Canada told LiveScience.
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Valdez and his comrades received mummified lalamas (Lama Glama) In 2018 at Tambo Vizo, an archaeological site on the Pacific coast of Peru. Archaeologists have unearthed red mummies buried under mud structures in two of the many buildings surrounding the two plazas on the site. One brown and three white – four lalamas were buried together in one building, and the same brown lalama was found under the floor in another building, Valdez said.
“In the first case, it looks like there were more llamas, but the robbers disrupted the original context,” Valdez said. “Lalamas were buried to the east,” because the sun, which set in the east, was a major Inca god.
These sacrifices not only honored the gods associated with the Inca successful harvest, healthy cattle, and war victories, but also popularized the Inca Empire in local culture, as the sacrifice came with a huge feast.
Colorful decorations
The young lambs were richly adorned; Long strings of red, yellow, green, and purple were attached to Tasla Lela’s ears. The strings, made of camouflage fiber, “were attached to the ears just for the occasion,” Valdez said. The ls also wear colored wire beads around their necks.
“The decoration suggests that the offerings were very special,” Valdez said. “Indeed, historical records show that brown lalamas were offered to the creator Virakocha, while white lalamas were offered to the sun, the Inca chief god.”
Some lalamas drew faces. The researchers wrote in the study that three white lalamas had red dots on their heads and a red line from each eye to the nose. Moreover, a white lalama was buried with it Guinea pigs (Cavia porcelain), And all three white llamas were attached to tropical bird feathers with 4 inch long (10 cm) sticks. Three white llamas were buried near pits filled with corn chicks, lima beans and guinea pigs, as well as a package of ashes (known as lime) associated with chewing coca, considered sacred by the Inca; It is also the raw material used to make cocaine.
After the lalamas were decorated, their limbs were bent under their bodies and tied with long ropes, which were also made from camouflage fibers. Archaeologists could not find any cut marks on the necks or diaphragms of these lalamas, so it is possible that they were buried alive. “If [this idea is] True, this practice would parallel the evidence for the burial of living human sacrifice, ”the researchers wrote in the study.
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Archaeologists have found other Inca sites containing animals and others Human sacrifice, But the new discovery is one of the best preserved, said Susan Difference, a professor of ethnography at the University of Florida, who was not involved in the new study. Other Sacrifice Findings “Absolutely, not as beautiful as this, where you can tell the color of the coat and all the stuff with it,” she told Live Science. “So, this is quite rare.”
Sacrifice and feast
Archaeologists found a large clay oven in another building near Lalama’s sacrifice. “Its presence suggests that religious celebrations end in the distribution of food in the form of a feast,” the researchers wrote in the study.
Perhaps, this was the greater purpose of animal sacrifice; Valdez said it could help maintain Inca power over his empire. Nine different radiocarbon dates indicate that these lalamas were sacrificed in about 1500, or near the end of the site’s Inca occupation at Tambo Vijo. A few decades ago, the empire peacefully incorporated the southern Peruvian coast into its territory. Then, according to Spanish documents from the time of Columbia, Inca built an administrative center at Tambo Vizo.
“The Inca didn’t just go to Tambo Vijo to offer animal sacrifices; instead, the sacrifice was part of a larger celebration that included state-sponsored food and drink,” Valdez said. Ultimately, food distribution was a good strategy that enabled the Incas to cement lasting political alliances and reciprocity with the winners in the new states, ”Valdez said.
Lalamas are not the only major animal sacrifice in ponds vijo. Previous research by Valdez there has led to the discovery of several dozen sacrificial guinea pigs, which were also equipped with colorful strings and necklaces, according to a 2019 study. International Journal Os Stearcology. Valdez said the early Spaniards of South America noted that the Inca had sacrificed these animals by hundreds of people, but this was the first direct evidence that it actually happened, Valdez said.
The study was published online online on Thursday (Oct. 22) in the journal Antiquity.
Published on Original Living Science.
