The Chimú Empire site of Las Llamas, a windswept bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, witnessed a horrific mass sacrifice 550 years ago. The skeletons found there of 140 children between the ages of 5 and 14 have been found there. They were perhaps the world’s largest single episode of child sacrifice. Footprints reveal how the children were dragged to the site before being ritually slaughtered with knife blows to the sternum. They likely had their hearts cut out. About 200 young llamas were also sacrificed at the site.
Las Llamas is the only known example of mass child sacrifice in the Americas – and perhaps in the entire world. Archaeological evidence of severe weather patterns, and flooding, suggest the Chimú were driven to such a drastic sacrifice by the threat of natural disaster and its natural result, starvation.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário