A recent genetic study has uncovered unprecedented human sacrifice rituals in the ancient Moche culture of Peru, revealing that adolescents were sacrificed to their close relatives during funerals of high-status individuals. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), provide the first scientific evidence of familial sacrifice in this culture.
Archaeologists from the University of California, Santa Cruz, discovered traces of this previously unknown burial ritual practiced by the Moche approximately 1,500 years ago.
The tomb, unearthed in 2005 beneath a pyramid-like painted structure called Huaca Cao Viejo, held the remains of six people, including the well-preserved body of a high-status woman known as Señora de Cao. Among the remains were three men and two adolescents who had been strangled with plant fiber ropes.
Genomic analysis conducted by the research team revealed that Señora de Cao was related to the adolescent girl who was sacrificed upon her death; they were likely aunt and niece. Similarly, one of the men in the tomb was found to be the father of the sacrificed adolescent boy. Experts had long assumed that elite Moche burial groups consisted of related family members. While burying related people in a family tomb is not unusual, the practice of sacrificing close relatives during funerals is unprecedented.
The discovery marks the first time that archaeologists have found evidence of close relatives being sacrificed during funerals in the Moche culture. Prior evidence of Moche human sacrifices was dedicated solely to gods and involved very public and gruesome rituals.
"Most of what we know about human sacrifices with the Moche relates to very public and gruesome forms of human sacrifice. No evidence has pointed to the sacrifice of close or adolescent relatives like we observed. There is also no other observation like this reported in the archaeological literature," said Lars Fehren-Schmitz, an archaeogeneticist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, according to Live Science.
The researchers first dated the skeletons using radiocarbon analysis, discovering that five of them were buried around the same time. By sequencing the genomes of everyone in the tomb, the team was able to infer biological relatedness and create a family tree. They found that two of the men were likely brothers of Señora de Cao, and one of them may have been the father of the sacrificed girl.
A third man, who died decades earlier based on radiocarbon analysis of his bones, may have been the siblings' father or grandfather. While burying related people in a family tomb is common, the relationship between one of Señora de Cao's brothers and his sacrificial victim is without precedent.
"There are other high-status burial contexts associated with the Moche where sacrifice by strangulation has been postulated. The idea is that this is a more private and dignified form of ritual killing probably reserved for individuals of higher societal or religious/spiritual status," Fehren-Schmitz said, according to Live Science.
The research team hopes to explore in the future why the Moche sacrificed relatives and whether this practice was common among the Moche elite. They plan to investigate other high-status burials to see if familial sacrifice was a widespread practice.
Jeffrey Quilter, curator of anthropology at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, told Live Science in an email: "Also keep in mind that the people who arranged for the sacrifices and burials were not the same people who were sacrificed and buried. So some kind of court intrigue could have led to the outcomes we found in the burials."
There is abundant evidence from iconography and archaeology that the Moche practiced human sacrifice to honor their gods, but there is less information about potential sacrifices made during the funerals of high-status individuals. This new discovery sheds light on the complex rituals and social structures of the Moche culture, which flourished along the north coast of Peru from CE 300 to 950.
A reconstruction of what Señora de Cao might have looked like is on display at the El Brujo archaeological complex in Peru.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq