Analysis of child sacrifice victims found on an Andean volcano has shed new light on the selection and grooming of those chosen as offerings. Hairs from sacrifices found on the Llullaillaco volcano show marked changes in diet, suggesting victims were being prepared for their fate for at least a year before they were killed in an Inca ritual (Times, Daily Telegraph, AP, Reuters). Analysis of isotopes in hair from one victim – called the Llullaillaco Maiden – shows standard peasant vegetables of her diet being enriched with the ‘elite food’ maize and animal protein. These changes, states the research paper, “can be taken to indicate that the Maiden had been raised in status, presumably for the express purpose of making her an appropriate sacrifice” (abstract).

Study author Andrew Wilson, of the University of Bradford, said: “By examining hair samples from these unfortunate children, a chilling story has started to emerge of how the children were ‘fattened up’ for sacrifice. Given the surprising change in their diets and the symbolic cutting of their hair, it appears that various events were staged in which the status of the children was raised. In effect, their countdown to sacrifice had begun some considerable time prior to death.” (Press release.)

Taking each 10mm of hair as being one month and working backward from the point of death Wilson and colleagues analysed changes in the chemical isotopes present. Different types of plants use different types of photosynthesis and therefore end up with different ratios of the carbon 12 and carbon 13 isotopes – the latter being heavier as it has an extra neutron. This allowed the team to distinguish between plants such as roots and tubers and other plants such as maize. Other isotope variations can track changes in temperature and altitude and whether diets are marine or terrestrial in origin.

Image: Earth observation of Andes Mountains / NASA