Inca Children Were Drugged with Coca and Alcohol before Ritual Sacrifice

About 500 years ago, three Inca children were sacrificed on the top of a mountain on the border between Chile and Argentina. Now, scientists have found a little bit more about this child sacrifice. They've discovered that the children were drugged with coca and alcohol before their demise.

The Inca Empire was the largest empire in South America. In fact, at its peak it was one of the largest societies in the world. Yet there was a dark side to this civilization; the Inca Empire practiced child sacrifice. Now, scientists are unraveling the history of this practice through three mummies which were first discovered in 1999.

The mummies include a 13-year-old girl, dubbed "The Llullaillaco Maiden," along with a boy and a girl around four or five years old. Remarkably well-preserved, the mummies have been frozen for nearly 500 years at the top of a mountain. In order to learn a bit more about the practices associated with child sacrifice, though, the scientists examined the mummies a bit more closely.

"We made CT analyses and have produced three-dimensional visualizations of the mummified girl's organs and the contents of her mouth cavity," said Niels Lynnerup, one of the researchers, in a news release. "From that we could establish her age relatively precisely just as the coca leaf stuck between her teeth and in her cheek also could be identified. Finally, because of the amazing preservation we could also determine the contents of the intestines, and thereby establish a reasonable time of her final meal."

The 13-year-old girl was probably chosen for sacrifice about 12 months before her death. During that time, it's likely she was implicated in a number of rituals involving the use of coca and alcohol. Both drugs were given to her under supervision for some time. While there was no indication of violence against the children, the amount of coca and alcohol they consumed increased before their deaths.

What was more interesting was the fact that the older girl showed increasing and increasing amounts of consumption. More than likely, there was more of a need to sedate her in the last weeks of her life.

"We can see that the ritual sacrifice has been prepared for a long time and that sustained consumption of drugs apparently was a part of the preparations prior to the sacrifice itself," said Lynnerup in a news release.

The findings reveal a little bit more about these ancient rituals in Inca culture. This allows researchers to learn more about the ancient society.

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.