1,200-year-old female sacrifice found in Ecuador, made to thwart El Niño
Archaeologists uncover a 1,200-year-old pregnant woman’s sacrificial burial in Ecuador, tied to El Niño fertility rituals and ancient coastal traditions.
[:en]Photo: Live Science[:]
Archaeologists excavating in Ecuador have discovered a lavish burial of a pregnant woman and fetus who died about 1,200 years ago. But the woman’s bones revealed that she had been beaten and dismembered, and another person’s head had been placed in the grave. This led archaeologists to suspect that she had been sacrificed. The fact that it was a woman who was pregnant could indicate that women held important positions of power, said Sarah Jungst, a bioarchaeologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, reported Live Science.
Period in Ecuadorian history
In the study, Jungst and her colleagues detailed this “mysterious” burial, made during the Manteño period (650-1532 AD). This is a period in Ecuadorian history characterized by complex coastal chieftaincies that were both agricultural and seafaring, and were known to the neighboring Incas. Of the six graves that Jungst and her colleagues excavated at the Buen Suceso site, the grave of a pregnant woman stood out.
The young woman, who was about 17 to 20 years old, was seven to nine months pregnant when she died. Radiocarbon dating has placed her death between 771 and 953. Fractures in her skull suggest she may have died from a blow to the head from the front. Around the time of her death, someone forcibly cut off the woman’s arms and left leg. Human sacrifice was rare among coastal Ecuadorian peoples, the researchers noted in their study.
Sacrifice for fertility problems
But the items included in the grave made the burial even more unique. The elaborate set of artifacts buried with the woman included conch shells placed in her eye sockets, crescent-shaped ornaments made from Spondylus shells, and three obsidian blades around her body, as well as a crab claw placed on her abdomen. Several of the artifacts would have been extremely valuable trade items. Given that the woman died during intense El Niño events that could have caused fertility problems, she may have been sacrificed for her literal fertility, in the hopes of ensuring agricultural success, the researchers believe.
