Mysterious Mass Sacrifice Found Near Ancient Peru Pyramid

[Judi Lynn]

Mysterious Mass Sacrifice Found Near Ancient Peru Pyramid
Huge pre-Inca burial pit also held ceramic heads, beer jars..
John Roach
for National Geographic News
Published December 28, 2011

An apparent ritual mass sacrifice—including decapitations and a royal beer bash—is coming to light near a pre-Inca pyramid in northern Peru, archaeologists say.

Excavations next to the ancient Huaca Las Ventanas pyramid first uncovered bodies in August, and more have been emerging since then from a 50-by-50-foot (15-by-15-meter) pit.

The pyramid is part of the Sicán site, the capital of the Lambayeque people—also known as the Sicán—who ruled Peru's northern coast from about A.D. 900 to 1100.

Perhaps more than a hundred bodies—buried nude and some of them headless—lie in the newfound pit, according to Haagen Klaus, a bioarchaeologist at Utah Valley University in Orem who is studying the finds.

More:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/12/111228-mass-sacrifice-beer-headless-sican-pyramid-tomb-ancient-science/

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. Abandonment of Sican and Batan Grande culture

Around AD 1020, a major drought lasting 30 years occurred at Sican. At the time of the drought, the Sican Deity, so closely tied to the ocean and water in general, was at the center of Sican religion. The catastrophic changes in weather were thus linked to the Sican Deity, mainly to the failure of the Sican Deity to mediate nature for the Sican people.[15] The Sican ceremonies (and temples/mounds on which they were performed) were supposed to ensure that there was an abundance of nature for the people. The elites were the mediators between the common people and the Sican Deity, as the Sican Deity was the mediator between nature and the Sican people (Jennings 2008).

After 30 years of uncertainty in respect to nature, the temples that were the center of Middle Sican religion and elite power were burned and abandoned between 1050 and 1100. Perhaps the ancestor cult and aggrandizing of the elites caused too much resentment. Coupled with the drought that surely weakened agriculture in the area, the tolerance of the common population plummeted, forcing the removal of the political and religious leadership at Sican to save the people.[2] There was little or no repair of the destruction of Sican, and further damage was inflicted by El Nino floods around 1100.

Sicán iconography is dominated by the Sican Deity[4][5] It decorates all artistic media of the Sicán, including ceramics, metal works, and textiles.[3] The icon is most commonly represented with a mask face and upturned eyes.[2] Sometimes it may be shown with avian features, such as beaks, wings, and talons, which are evident in Early Sicán ceramics.[3] These avian features are related to Naylamp, the key figure in Sicán mythology.

Naylamp was said to be the founder of the first dynasty of prehistoric kings in La Leche and Lambayeque valleys. In The Legend of Naylamp, first recorded in the 16th century by the Spanish chronicler Miguel Cabello de Balboa, Naylamp is said to have traveled on a balsa raft by sea to the Lambayeque shores. He founded a large city, and the 12 sons of his eldest son each founded a new city in the Lambayeque region. When Naylamp died, he sprouted wings and flew off to another world (Nickle Arts Museum 2006, p. 18 and 65).

Middle Sicán art did not change the concept or representation of the icon of the Sicán Deity


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sican_culture

Right now, I'm into pre columbian south american history, thanks for the post.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. they think it's a little earlier than Late Sican

It seems it was originally built about 900AD. The first and second stages were burials, the third stage 1100AD was a disinterment where the bones were reorganized and reburied. It's so very different from the usual burials, which were very organized and ritualistic.. Families buried together, and every level of society was placed in a certain position. (seated for the elite, flexed or extended for others)

I can't wait till they get those bodies moved so we can see what's under that clay layer.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. I didn't see a dating on the NG read

I'll look at it again.

Bizarre rituals with beer struck me
It had to be for some disaster occurring to appease their god .... who remained as a fixture to their culture from the beginning of their culture to the end.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. beer is very important in most of SA funeral rituals

Last edited Thu Dec 29, 2011, 04:54 PM - Edit history (1)

all the way back
It seemed they ritually smashed the vessels and placed just the faces of the gods with the bodies. not just the bird god, but monkeys and others too. no mention of metal artifacts that I saw, also weird because that was one of their key technologies. Yep, definitely some kind of societal freakout. love this stuff

I'm off to search the twitter to see if any of the site members are tweeting updates...

edit to add video link - "Discovering the Sicán: Exploring a Millennium-Old Civilization of Peru Through Archaeology and Science"

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. Thanks for the video

I'll watch it tomorrow and add it to my studies.
Do you know of any Yale, Oxford etc free university
podcasts on South American civilizations ?

Last spring I was into the early Greeks, Black Sea, and early Turk civilizations and found a bunch of great university lectures

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. go here..

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/E335.htm
and
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/ancient-civilizations.htm

each red link takes you to the teaching pics, maps, videos, essays.. You'll be busy for days

[L. Coyote]

7. Speculation at best. We have no written history, just the imaginations of minds today

interpreting the past to fit their own thinking, mostly.

Ethnohistorical sources are very unreliable. Wikipedia is also quite unreliable in these areas of study.

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. Then give a link professor

not everyone knows about these cultures or the background of the area.

I'm just filling in info for other readers so they can get a background.

But go ahead and just complain and not contributing anything except your opinion.