SOURCE: National Geographic
11-19-13
tags: Peru, South America, Moche
Read entire article at National Geographic
comments powered by Disqus
11-19-13
New clues about human sacrifices at ancient Peruvian temple
Breaking Newstags: Peru, South America, Moche
Human-sacrifice rituals at an ancient Moche temple in Peru likely featured the killing of war captives from distant valleys, according to an analysis of bones and teeth at the site.
The human remains—mutilated, dismembered, and buried in pits—help explain territorial struggles among the Moche, who ruled Peru's arid coast from around 100 A.D. to 850 A.D. (See also "Moche Burials Uncovered.")
Debate among scholars over Moche human sacrifices has centered on the question of whether they were ritual killings of elites or of war prisoners, says archaeologist John Verano of Tulane University in New Orleans, one of the authors of the report, available online and in an upcoming issue of Journal of Archaeological Science....
comments powered by Disqus
News
- "We're Still Here": Past and Present Collide at a Native American Residential School
- Historians on Teaching with Integrity in the Face of "Gag Laws"
- The Complicated History of Abortion and Abortion Law in the United States
- Discovery of Earliest Known Record of Mayan Calendar
- Buffalo Shooting Centuries in Making, Say Historians of Slavery and Reconstruction