Scientists have uncovered the mass murder of children in northern Peru, which occurred in the XV century

During the archaeological excavations conducted from 2011 to 2016 in the north of Peru near the city of Trujillo, scientists discovered the burial of the remains of many children and animals, which occupied about 700 square meters. Almost three years after the terrible discovery, researchers at the National University of Trujillo published a report revealing the circumstances of the mass death of young Indians.

As expected, the burial of 140 children and about 200 lamas was connected with the sacrifice. However, before that, science did not know of ritual murders of this scale, so this case was particularly interested in the pundits. Previously, the absolute record for the number of children killed belonged to the city-state of Tenochtitlan in Mexico, where 42 children's corpses were found.

The mass sacrifice of children and lamas took place in the XV century, or rather around 1450. At that time, the so-called Chimu culture flourished in the north of Peru, which originated in the area of the modern city of Trujillo in the XIII century and sank into oblivion 50 years before the Spanish conquistadors came to this area of South America. The state of the Indians, called Chimor, was captured by the Incas, and its capital, the city of Chan-Chan, fell into decay and was completely destroyed by the Spaniards.

All human remains found during excavations belong to boys and girls aged 5 to 14 years. It was not possible to find out how the victims were killed, but judging by the injuries on the skeletons, hearts were extracted during the sacrifice.It was also important for archaeologists to determine the reason that prompted the priests of Chimu to kill so many children. The priority is the version according to which the ritual was held to appease the gods and stop a natural disaster. Judging by the layer of mud at the burial site of the victims, these were prolonged downpours that destroyed crops and caused serious flooding.

The case can be called unique for the well-studied Chimu culture - previously, archaeologists had not encountered mass sacrifices in the cities of these Indians, much less found the remains of children.