Inca Burial Practices - Part 2 Sacrifice, Slaughter and Ritual

In my previous blog post I mentioned the sacrifices at Llullaillaco. In this 'part 2' I would like to give a bigger background on sacrifices of Incas. Sacrifices of both animals and humans played a huge role in Inca society. Human and animal sacrifices were performed to honor and appease the gods, commemorate the building of temples to them, and appease the forces of nature. Common forms of sacrifice are decapitation, strangulation and  bludgeoning. The Moche culture, which is closely tied to the Incas, practiced ritual combat, a special form of sacrificial death. The Inca practice of sacrifice and burial on remote high mountaintops was also a special form of sacrifice. An Inca practice was deliberate exposure to lightning, which can be seen on one of the mummies from the previous blog post, and if the victim was killed they buried the qhaqha, lightning victim, at the place of death. The mummy child who was struck by lightning was buried at the top of the summit where she died. Very interesting that they combined the natural phenomenon of lightning with their religious sacrifice and probably saw it as a sign from the gods that they were appeased with their offering.

Mummy at Llullaillaco that was struck by lightning.

 The sacrificial rituals were a part of religious worship and were often an aftermath of warfare. One of the earliest examples of human sacrifice is from late Preceramic Period Aspero. An infant child and an adult were both found at the summit of the Huaca de los Sacrificios platform, located by Supe Port, Barranca, Lima. The child was adorned with a cap made of 500 shell, plant and clay beads, and was also accompanied by a gourd vessel, wrapped in layers of cotton and a cane mat. The child was also placed in a basket and then covered by a sculptured four-legged stone basin. The second body, the adult, was so tightly flexed that the limbs were cut so that the body was able to fit into the small pit. More on the Preceramic Period can be found at http://archeoperu.wordpress.com/

There is a wall in Cerro Sechin, Peru that is entirely carved stone slabs dictating war related sacrifice. The pictures shown below are pieces of the wall. The wall depicts triumphant warriors, alongside mutilated, contorted victims. The sort of looks like a war memorial. The victims are shown nude, torsos sliced and their eyes bulging with what appears to be pain. There are some headless bodies, limbless and some upside down. There are slabs with legs, arms and rows of eyes, stacked vertebrae and heads with closed eyes. There is even on warrior who carries a severed head dangling from his waistband. The wall is sort of a symbol, saying "Hey, we are victorious in war."  

The wall at Cerro Sechin. The row of eyes can be seen here. 

A piece of the wall at Cerro Sechin. 

Similar themes appear on the north coastal Cupisnique stone vessels and pottery. Carved soapstone bowls depict spiders with exaggerated pincers that are surrounded by severed heads. Other ceramic effigy vessels show captives with bound hands, and stirrup-spout bottles are decorated with severed heads, linked by cords or in net bags. The Incas approached sacrifice in a very interesting way linked with their religion. They had examples of sacrifice in almost everything it seemed. It's just fascinating to see another culture's beliefs and religion and how they went about pleasing their gods. Today we pray, go to church, do good deeds and try to live by the bible to appease God. (Some religions and people, not all) However, then they made sacrifices because they thought that it was want their gods wanted. Its amazing to trace how far human religion has come and changed since the beginning of human religion.

An example of a stirrup-spouted bottle.

Also present in the topic of sacrifice is decapitator deities. The Moche culture had a decapitator deity. The Moche culture lived in northern Peru close to the Inca culture so they are often used to show similarities and common themes together. On the walls of Platform 1 of the Great Plaza of the Huaca de la Luna, one of these deities resides. Huaca de la Luna is the Temple of the Moon and it is near Trujillo, Peru.

The Decapitator God and a worker. It shows the scale of the image.

The Decapitator God Aia-Paec.

The Decapitator God, also know as Aia-Paec, looks slightly intimidating to me. It had both human teeth and feline fangs. It is found on Moche artifacts such as ceramics, metalwork and textiles, as well as architectural decoration. It was put on buildings to remind citizens daily of his presence. When depicted full figured, the God is holding a crescent-shaped tumi, a ceremonial knife, and a severed human head. Metalwork around him also shows spiders brandishing tumi knives and severed heads. It seems like one, spiders and a big part of Inca culture along with sacrifice. And for two, was the pictures of the Decapitator God meant to scare the people or simply remind them of their God and what he needs to appease him? Oh the questions one wishes they had answers too and answers they could only get if time-travel was possible. Perhaps one day we will hold the key to Ancient Cultures, but maybe its best we don't. Maybe that's the allure of them, the mystery and the thrill of solving it from what they leave behind. According to What We Know of the Living, We Learned from the Dead: A Study of Correlations between Moche Mortuary Practices and Social Continuity and Change at San Jose de Moro paper I found online, excavations at Huaca de la Luna revealed multiple layers of the Decapitator God. The writer then goes on to say, "Each successive generation
of elites may have used this repeated representation to connect themselves to those who held
power before." That reminds me of the Egyptian Kings who would make their images look like great Kings of the past so that they could connect themselves and their reign with those great Kings. They did it so that their citizens would find the similarities between them and be like "Hey, he really is a great King like Good King Khufu! What a great guy!" Or something along those lines. The Egyptian Kings also did this with Gods that were popular in religion at the time. It was so that they would be viewed as a god. "Our King is a God. He is great." The rulers then might have been trying to portray themselves alongside the Decapitator God to say that they are mighty like him and possibly godlike as well. It would make sense because we have examples of it in Ancient Egypt as well. Maybe that's a good ruling technique! We do that today, associate ourselves with people we want to be like or have people see similar qualities in us. 

El Brujo, The Witch

Decapitator God at El Brujo

At Cao Viejo-El Brujo, El Brujo is Spanish for 'The Witch', which is just north of Trujillo, Peru. At the topmost terrace mound of a platform one can see the segmented legs of a spider, or crab, Decapitator God brandishing a tumi sacrificial knife. It was destroyed by looters at one point and now its fanged mouth isn't fully visible.

So basically what I have discovered so far is that sacrifice, slaughter, and both being connected to warfare and religious beliefs, is a huge topic in ancient civilizations. There's so much information and I'm trying to decide what is best for readers to get the most out of it. 

Now to Capacochas, which is child sacrifices. This is what the mummies at Llullaillaco were, Capacochas. Almost all of Inca rituals included sacrifice of some kind, mostly of llamas or guinea pigs. Interesting fact, brown llamas were sacrificed to Viracocha, the Creator, white to Inti, the Sun God, and dappled to Illapa, the Thunder. All animal sacrifices were conducted by slitting the animals throat. Fascinating that they actually separated the colors of llama coats and made each color specific to certain gods. 

Natural catastrophes, warfare, and crowning new rulers all involved human sacrifices because the Incas wanted to make sure that everything would go great. They wanted to make sure the Gods were happy and wouldn't strike at them in anger. The victims were generally non-Inca children around 10-15 years old. All sacrifice victims needed to be physically perfect. The victim would feast because in order to offer them to Viracocha they needed to be well satisfied. They were then clubbed or strangled, the throat was slit or the heart was cut out and offered to Viracocha still beating. Reminds me of Indiana Jones. 

Now the Capacocha was preceded by a ritual procession along a straight sacred ceque line in Cuzco, similar to the Nazca lines that make those giant pictures in the sand of animals. The parents of the child participated and thought their child being chosen to be sacrificed to be an honor. Which now we look back as savage but back then it was a huge honor to be able to appease the gods for the good of the rest of the citizens. The Capacocha victims were sanctified in the Coricancha temple in Cuzco and they then headed back to be sacrificed in their own province afterwards. 

Ancient Andean cultures all worshiped mountain gods. The Incas were the only ones who actually ventured to the peaks of mountains to kill and bury their sacrifices. Children seemed to be special sacrifices no matter what their 'heritage', whether or not they were Incas, because children were marched barefoot to the top of the mountain and then clubbed, strangled or even buried alive. They were left with mini dressed human figures, pouches with their baby teeth, and even nail parings. I would not want to be a child in the time of the Incas. It does not sound like fun to be clubbed to death to appease the gods, they can find some other way to appease them darn it! Sacrifices like this have been found in many places such as Cerro el Pomo and Mount Acongagua in northern Chile. Also on Ampato in Peru and Llullaillaco in norther Argentina. Llullaillaco seems to be the one that is well heard of because of the three children found there. 

Well, so now we understand why the children at Llullaillaco were at the mountaintop, left to the elements. Now, what I find interesting is that I didn't read anywhere that said those children were clubbed to death. However, the boy was strangled to death so hard it cracked ribs and dislocated his pelvis. The other two bodies actually died from exposure at the mountain top. Maybe the Incas decided to try a new way to appease the gods, by leaving children to suffer in the cold? Or perhaps it was so that there was a chance that lightning would strike them and they would have a better chance of seeing a sign from the gods? Either way I am greatly intrigued by the sacrifices at Llullaillaco and by Inca sacrifices in general. I hope that I find a class that teaches about these in greater detail. It's a lot easier to learn from a person who knows this than the internet or a book. I hope this helps with the background of Inca sacrifice. Sorry about the length but there is so much interesting information out there!