'Perfectly intact' remains of 60 people found

[Still Waters]

A tomb containing the 'perfectly intact' remains of 60 people - who were slaughtered in sacrificial offerings more than 1,100 years ago - has been discovered in Peru.

Archaeologists found the mass grave, in an eight metre deep and 150 metre wide pit, in Lambayeque on the country's northern coast.

They also unearthed the remains of dogs and horses at the site, which is next to a key Sican ceremonial centre, in the historical Pomac Woods, 500 miles north of Lima.

Read more...

[Ealdwita]

Considering all Equidae in the Americas became extinct 12,000 years ago and not reintroduced until 1493, where do these horses come from in a 1,100 yo grave?

[George Ford]

Considering all Equidae in the Americas became extinct 12,000 years ago and not reintroduced until 1493, where do these horses come from in a 1,100 yo grave?

GOOD POINT! And I have no answer!

[lightly]

That is a good question. .. the brief article says ... A tomb containing the 'perfectly intact' remains of 60 people - who were slaughtered in sacrificial offerings more than 1,100 years ago - has been discovered in Peru.

They also unearthed the remains of dogs and horses at the site, which is next to a key Sican ceremonial centre, in the historical Pomac Woods, 500 miles north of Lima.

Maybe the dogs and horses were not buried with the people? , were they all found to be the same age? .. and at the same depth?

Personally , i've long wondered if all the horses did die off 12,000 years ago? It might be possible for mother nature to hide and dispose of the bones of very small... but surviving , populations?

.. or does horse DNA bust that idea?

[Still Waters]

I did a search for this on Google. It's been posted in a few other places but they're all sourced to this one in the dailymail. So nothing new to add I'm afraid.

[lightly]

I did a search for this on Google. It's been posted in a few other places but they're all sourced to this one in the dailymail. So nothing new to add I'm afraid.

Thanks Still Waters, Interesting find. I found this sort of companion piece about the site.

(it's so short .. here it is)

http://orbitingwonder.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/peruvian-mass-grave-dating-1000-years-discovered/

Sixty apparently sacrificed bodies were found in a 1000 year tomb in the Peruvian Lambayeque, reveals a report released today by the Lima newspaper El Comercio.

According to the archaeologists in charge, sacrifices were made presumably to pay homage to the deceased who belonged to the ruling elite of the Sican culture.

◊◊◊◊◊

“We found in the tomb of about 150 square meters and eight meters deep”, according to the report, and is divided into two sets of remains.

In one there are dozens of headless skeletons and in another about 30 human skulls next to the remains of dogs and llamas. For experts, some killed were thrown from the top and others were sacrificed elsewhere.

At the site, located in the historic Pomac forest, rich in archaeological finds, it also had irrigation infrastructure, water wells, furnaces, metallurgy and ceramics workshops and food production areas. ”For the Lambayeque Culture (Sicán) human sacrifices were not acts of savagery, but a custom of ancestor worship,” said museum director in the area, Carlos Elera. ”It is estimated that there were three different times in which the remains were placed en masse,” said the resident archaeologist Jose Pinilla.

Sicán Culture prevailed between approximately 900 and 1100 in what is today is Lambayeque.

According to DNA studies done by Japanese scientists, although the townspeople was from the area, the ruling elite belonged to a line further north, on land now between the cities of Piura, Peru, and Guayaquil, Ecuador.

[Bildr]

some one made a good point in the comments;

How do they know it was a ritualistic sacrifice?? I don't get it. Say 1500 years from now and if this planet still sustains human life, I'm sure some scientist then might stumble on one of our cemetery and then assume it was a sacrifice where humans were locked in a box and buried alive. Why not? Where is the facts here to point it was a sacrifice? Do we really know?

- MB, UK, 18/12/2011 13:37

[lightly]

well, they are finding headless skeletons and , elsewhere, skulls. That could be sacrifice? I tend to agree though, that "sacrifice" is probably a conclusion too often jumped to. How can we tell if it was Sacrifice or Slaughter ? Were offerings buried with the dead? We need to know more! lol

[GlenndL]

if u think about it sacrifice is slaughter, they kill in what they feel as godly places. to show the sacrifice they are making for him. to kill ones own to better yourself is slaughter all in itself. but that could signify to these people as the greatest sacrifice of all. the dead of one of there own. given to there god for all to see. then buried in a tomb so that the spirits can rise out and reach god.

would look about the same on autopsy i think.

[lightly]

if u think about it sacrifice is slaughter, they kill in what they feel as godly places. to show the sacrifice they are making for him. to kill ones own to better yourself is slaughter all in itself. but that could signify to these people as the greatest sacrifice of all. the dead of one of there own. given to there god for all to see. then buried in a tomb so that the spirits can rise out and reach god.

would look about the same on autopsy i think.

I guess that's true. A heart could be cut out, or a head off, for ceremonial reasons.. OR.. other reasons... As a show of total conquest or whatever..

Archeologists working there said that the remains are estimated to have been put there "en masse" at three different times , and that, some of the remains seem to have been carefully put in place , while others seem to have been thrown in.

Not sure what to make of the "thrown in" treatment... i guess that could be perfectly acceptable sacrificial etiquette , to some deities . To each his own.

[rocky_923]

That is a good question. .. the brief article says ... A tomb containing the 'perfectly intact' remains of 60 people - who were slaughtered in sacrificial offerings more than 1,100 years ago - has been discovered in Peru.

They also unearthed the remains of dogs and horses at the site, which is next to a key Sican ceremonial centre, in the historical Pomac Woods, 500 miles north of Lima.

Maybe the dogs and horses were not buried with the people? , were they all found to be the same age? .. and at the same depth?

Personally , i've long wondered if all the horses did die off 12,000 years ago? It might be possible for mother nature to hide and dispose of the bones of very small... but surviving , populations?

.. or does horse DNA bust that idea?

12,000 years is not a correct number. The latest fossil is that old, but a core sample was taken in Alaska that had Mammoth and Horse DNA as early as 8000 years ago. I think it is possible for a population to have existed with out fossil evidence, but no sign of them for 8000 years is a big stretch of time.

[lightly]

12,000 years is not a correct number. The latest fossil is that old, but a core sample was taken in Alaska that had Mammoth and Horse DNA as early as 8000 years ago. I think it is possible for a population to have existed with out fossil evidence, but no sign of them for 8000 years is a big stretch of time.

Thanks rocky.

[encouraged]

Perhaps I am dense, but the article seems to be short on all kinds of information.

Bodies being thrown in implies it is geological feature like a sink hole or has a cliff near by--some kind of topological difference to make throwing something with the weight of a body a vertical distance.

One mention being horses and the other being llamas is yet another shortfall of the article.

I suppose we will have to wait for a more formal write-up to get the information that can answer our questions. Perhaps my being confused for a while is healthy, in my "I want to know right now!" habits.

[Muenzenhamster]

St. Bees Man was found "perfectly intact." How do they describe 60 skeletons, some missing heads, as "perfectly intact?!"

Edited December 22, 2011 by Muenzenhamster