Peru is one small country located in Western South America. The country has always been famous for its rich culture and geography until just last year when it made to headlines worldwide, garnering attention owing to what archaeologists had found at one of the excavation sites. To everyone’s surprise and dismay a team of archaeologists had found 140 child skeletons buried along with 200 llamas deep down at the 15th-century site called Huanchaquito-Las Llamas.
Digging into the science of it, it was found that this was not a burial site of the dead, but a dump yard for a planned child massacre. And if anything, this was the largest known case of child sacrifice ever in history. Both boys and girls — who were only between the ages of 5 and 14 were found buried. Study of the skeletons tell that their chest was cut down using a dagger, heart cut out and head painted in red.
Now one year past the site is again in the news, for scientists believe that the reason behind these brutal mass killings could have been El-Nino.
As surprising as it sounds, experts have a reason for what they have to say.
A major clue comes in the form of a thick mud layer preserved on top of the sand where the victims were buried. Because the area is a desert, the mud layer indicated there was once a period of heavy rain, like that seen during an El Niño, or a natural warming of the Pacific Ocean’s water that has cascading effects on the weather. Such incidents would have catastrophic effects on the state, causing floods, damaging crops, killing fish and sweeping people away.
One way to stop this would have been a sacrifice offered to the Gods of something dear and near such as children and llamas. And thus, the killings. A brutal history and its association to weather just shows how weather has been playing such a huge role since times forever.
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