Hair gives up secrets of an Inca maiden’s sacrifice

By analysing the braided hair of the girl, known as the “Llullaillaco Maiden”, a team of experts from a Yorkshire university have been able to determine what she was eating and drinking in the months before she died.

Sharp increases in the amount of coca and alcohol she consumed in the final year of her life have led academics from Bradford University to conclude her diet changed after she was selected for sacrifice.

The Llullaillaco Maiden, named after the mountain on the border of Argentina and Chile where she was found in 1999, was buried 500 years ago just below the 6,700m summit.

Two other younger children, a six-year-old girl and seven-year-old boy, were found in separate graves nearby. The children had enough hair to enable the scientists to investigate their final months.

Lead researcher Dr Andrew Wilson said: “Hair grows around 1cm a month and, once formed, doesn’t undergo any further alterations.

“Substances such as cocaine and alcohol leave markers which can tell us how much the person was consuming when that section of hair was growing. From the Maiden’s hair, we have a two-year timeline running up to her death, showing us some of what she ate and drank.”

The scientists looked for three markers in the hair which show alcohol and coca consumption.

The analyses showed that all three children had ingested both coca and alcohol, with the Maiden – who was found with chewed coca leaves in her mouth – ingesting consistently higher levels than the two younger children.

The Maiden’s consumption of coca went up sharply twelve months before her death, and then peaked again six months before she died, where her consumption was almost three times higher than earlier levels. The analysis also showed that her alcohol consumption peaked in her final weeks, while consumption for the other two children remained stable throughout.

Dr Wilson compared the team’s findings with historical accounts produced by the Spanish, dating from the Colonial period.

He said: “We think it’s likely the Maiden was selected for sacrifice 12 months before her death, after which her treatment changed, corresponding to the sharp increase in coca consumption.

“She was then probably involved in a series of rituals, involving consumption of coca and alcohol, in the build up to her sacrifice, which kept consumption at a steady level. Both substances were controlled, were considered elite products and held ritual significance for the Inca.

“At the altitude the children were found, death by exposure is inevitable.

“There was no evidence of physical violence to the children, but the coca and alcohol are likely to have hastened their deaths.

“The fact that in her final weeks the Maiden shows consistently higher levels of coca and alcohol use compared to the younger children, suggests there was a greater need to sedate her in the final weeks of life.”

The team’s conclusions are supported by the position in which the Maiden was found, seated cross-legged, with her head slumped forward and her arms resting loosely on her lap. Her headdress was intact and the artefacts around her undisturbed. The researchers believe she was placed in the burial chamber while heavily sedated.

Dr Wilson added: “From later Colonial period accounts we have indications that children, often as young as four, and “acllas”, or chosen women selected around puberty, were donated for sacrifice by their parents and from communities which were under control of the Inca 
empire.

“One account suggests this was an honour and that no sadness could be shown when the children were gifted, but the significance of these transactions as a mechanism of social control must have created a climate of fear amongst such communities.”