Women and children may have been plied with cocaine, alcohol and psychoactive drugs before they were brutally sacrificed by the Incas.
Analysis of 500-year-old mummies found in the mountains of South America has revealed new evidence about the gruesome ceremonies.
Researchers carried out toxicological tests on the mummified remains of eight people discovered at mountain shrines in Peru and Argentina, identifying traces of substances that may have played a role in ancient religious rituals.
The study, published in the journal Antiquity, provides new insights into the capacocha, one of the most sacred ceremonies in the Inca Empire.
The ritual involved the sacrifice of children and young women as offerings to important deities. They were believed to act as intermediaries between the living and the divine.
Historical accounts suggest those selected for sacrifice were sometimes given psychoactive substances, possibly to enhance their perceived prophetic abilities or alter their state of consciousness before death.
Although the use of psychoactive plants by the Incas is documented in historical records, relatively little is known about the substances consumed during capacocha ceremonies.
‘Earlier analyses either produced negative results or focused primarily on coca leaves,’ explains lead author Dr Dagmara Socha, from the University of Warsaw.
The preserved remains offer a rare opportunity to investigate the practice. Chemicals consumed during life can become embedded in the keratin structures of hair and nails, allowing researchers to identify them through toxicological analysis.
‘Our aim was to identify a broader range of psychoactive substances administered to the children and to determine whether patterns in their use could provide new insights into how capacocha ceremonies were conducted at different locations’, says Dr Socha. ‘Recent advances in toxicology now allow for the identification of low concentrations of such substances.’
The research team analysed hair and nail samples from eight mummies recovered from several mountains in Peru and Argentina, representing different sacrificial practices across the Inca Empire.
Cocaine was detected in all eight individuals, confirming that they had consumed coca leaves.
Coca played an important role in Inca religious beliefs and was used as an offering to the gods. It may also have helped the children cope with altitude sickness and exhaustion during the long and difficult journeys to high-altitude mountain shrines.
Four of the mummies also showed evidence of alcohol consumption.
Researchers believe this may have come from chicha, a traditional fermented maize drink.
Historical accounts describe the beverage being given to children during the final stages of the ritual, possibly to dull their senses and calm them before their deaths.
One of the most striking discoveries came from the remains of the famous Lady of Ampato, also known as Juanita, whose body was found on a mountain in southern Peru.
Researchers detected traces of harmine, an alkaloid associated with plants of the Banisteriopsis genus. These include species traditionally used in the preparation of ayahuasca, a psychoactive ceremonial drink.
‘One of the most intriguing findings concerns the famous Lady of Ampato, also known as Juanita, in whom we detected traces of harmine’, Dr Socha adds.
‘Harmine is an alkaloid associated with Banisteriopsis species, one of the principal plants traditionally used in the ayahuasca beverage. It may indicate that a harmine-containing beverage had a specific role in ceremonies connected with this particular sacred mountain.’
The discovery suggests that different substances may have been selected for ceremonies at particular sacred sites.
The findings indicate that the substances given to sacrificed individuals varied considerably, suggesting the capacocha was not conducted according to one standardised procedure throughout the empire.
Instead, the ceremonies appear to have been adapted to local religious traditions and the particular deities or sacred mountains involved.
The researchers say the results provide a rare insight into the religious practices of the Incas and the experiences of children who took part in the ceremonies.
‘Five hundred years after these children were sacrificed during one of the most important Inca rituals, new technologies are allowing us to uncover details of their lives and Inca religious practices’, Dr Socha concludes.
‘What we are seeing is that the capacocha was not a single standardized ritual, but rather, the Incas appear to have adapted it to different cults and local religious traditions.’
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