Analysis of the hair and fingernails of eight mummified Inca children reveals that they were given cocaine and alcohol prior to being sacrificed high on Andean mountain peaks Figurines found alongside child mummies at Llullaillaco, on the Argentina-Chile border, and Ampato, Peru Young children selected to be sacrificed as part of elaborate Inca rituals were given psychedelic and intoxicating substances, possibly to relieve the terror of their imminent death or in the belief that the drugs would help them communicate with the gods. In a ritual known as capacocha, children and young women were sacrificed to the mountain gods. According to an account by Spanish friar Martín de Murúa, written in 1590, the capacocha ceremony was conducted to ensure there would be “no famine nor lack of fruits of the earth, nor would there be drought, nor pestilence, nor rebellion”.
Socha and her colleagues studied eight frozen, mummified children, seven of whom were girls, discovered between the 1920s and 90s at sites in Peru, Argentina and Chile. They are thought to have been aged between 6 and 14 when they died. It is thought some were killed with sharp weapons, while others were buried alive, says Socha.
Archaeologists beginning to excavate one of the mummies on the summit of Llullaillaco mountain The researchers analysed the mummies’ hair and nail samples to determine which psychoactive plants were given to children during the capacocha ritual. Toxicological screening detected cocaine in all the hair samples, along with markers of alcohol and coca leaf chewing in half of the individuals. The team also identified harmine, a hallucinogenic compound found in the ceremonial drink ayahuasca, in one of the nail samples.
Socha and her colleagues suggest that the antidepressant properties of harmine could have been used to calm the children and maintain a positive mood. Each sacrifice seemed to be associated with a unique chemical signature preserved in the child’s hair and nails. This may indicate that each child was “prepared” in a different way, perhaps to direct their sacrifice towards a specific deity.
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