Archaeologists thought they had uncovered the grave of an unknown victim of a heinous crime, but they were wrong. What surprised them is that they dug the remains of a child and then found two hundred twenty-six more. The children were slain hundreds of years ago and buried in a massive graveyard. Whether it is a ritual sacrifice for country or religion, the burial site is one of the biggest in the world.
Researchers have been trying to excavate the area for more than a year already and they consider it the single and largest burial site of children on Earth. The bodies they have discovered so far may yet be the tip of what could be a proverbial blade.
"Wherever we dig, it always seems like another one," said Ferren Castillo, the chief archaeologist onsight, during an interview with the AFP.
Archaeologists are particularly interested in what they found considering its impact not only on the past of human life, but also of the historical implications of the burial site. Archaeology is the scientific study of the material remains left behind by humans activities. Archaeologists look into human artifacts from the earliest tools humans used for survival to everything that will allow them to better understand what life was like during the prehistoric, ancient, and what is left of the now extinct culture.
The children's bodies buried some 800 years ago, were positioned to be facing the sea in the small town of Huanchaco in Peru. this modern-day town was once the favorite port of the Pre-Colombian culture of Chimu, the community that once lived along the coast of Peru before the Inca Empire conquered them in the beginning of 1475.
Scientists are interested in how these burial grounds help a large group of children altogether. "We suspect that the children were directed to march towards the water where each one was stabbed to death on the chest and buried in the mass grave. The remains of the children found at Huanchaco were between 4 to 14 years old when they died. Archaeologists have uncovered that some of the bodies have traces their hair and skin.
Based on the location as well as the fact that the children may have been buried during wet weather, Castillo believes that it is likely that the children served as an offering to a God who controlled the El Nino Phenomenon. This semi-annual weather condition can bring about cataclysmic hurricanes and storms in the coast of South America. Even back then, this weather condition has caused massive devastation in the livelihood of people affected by it.
Desperation or mere survival may have pushed the ancient people to make such sacrifices. Maybe they just wanted to save themselves from the worst that could happen. And although modern times don't make people kill their young and bury them in a mass grave, they still do many things to hopefully thrive when El Nino comes.
