"A small pouch, made from three fox snouts neatly sewn together, may contain the world’s earliest archaeological evidence for the consumption of ayahuasca, a psychoactive plant preparation indigenous to peoples of the Amazon basin that produces potent hallucinations." Source: National Geographic.
"The pouch likely belonged to a shaman in what is now southwestern Bolivia around a thousand years ago, according to José Capriles, an anthropologist at Penn State University and an author of a paper published on the discovery today in the journal PNAS."
Note: An analysis of the pouch's contents "revealed traces of bufotenine [found in toad skins and mushrooms, among other things], benzoylecgonine [a cocaine metabolite] and cocaine (likely from coca leaf), dimethyltryptamine (DMT), harmine [an alkaloid found in ayahuasca], and possibly psilocin, a chemical component of psychedelic mushrooms."
"One hundred ritually sacrificed guinea pigs dressed up in jewellery have been discovered at an Inca archaeological site in Peru. The rodents were found to have been adorned with earrings and necklaces, and some of them wrapped up in tiny rugs—the first time such a find has been made." Source: Archaeology News Network.
"An ancient group of people made ritual offerings to supernatural deities near the Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, about 500 years earlier than the Incas, according to an international team of researchers. The team's findings suggest that organized religion emerged much earlier in the region than previously thought." Source: Phys.org.
Note: "The island was continually occupied from at least 2200 BC up to the present day," according to Wikipedia. "There is a significant Early Formative occupation (1800-1100 BC), Middle Formative (1100-500 BC) and Upper Formative (500 BC - AD 500) ... The earliest recorded pottery on the island dates to between 1426 and 1316 B.C."
"Part of the ancient archaeological site of Tiwanaku, Bolivia, believed by Incans to be where the world was created has been reconstructed using 3D printed models of fragments of an ancient building." Source: Science Daily (2018).
"Norway has agreed to hand back thousands of artefacts removed from Easter Island by famed explorer Thor Heyerdahl during his trans-Pacific raft expeditions in the 1950s. An agreement was signed by representatives of Oslo's Kon-Tiki Museum and officials of Chile's culture ministry at a ceremony in Santiago as part of a state visit by Norway's King Harald V and Queen Sonja. The museum pieces include carved artifacts and human bones from the Rapa-Nui, the first inhabitants of the remote Chilean island in the Pacific." Source: Daily Mail.
Comment: Heyerdahl didn't loot these artifacts and human remains:
"In an understanding with the Chilean authorities, Thor Heyerdahl brought many objects and remains back to Norway and the Kon-Tiki Museum for further examination. The agreement was to return the material when the studies were complete, and the museum has now taken the initiative to return the items to Chile." Source: The Royal House of Norway.
Check out the Royal Court picture of the King and Queen visiting Easter Island in 2014. They look like a couple of Disney World tourists and even though I don't know anything about them I suspect they're typical progressives. The official notice describing the transfer even manages to slip in some open-borders propaganda:
"The King met Thor Heyerdahl on several occasions, and has described him as a wonderful storyteller. 'Sitting at a table with Mr Heyerdahl was like setting out on an adventure,' King Harald said in an interview after visiting Easter Island with the Queen in the spring of 2014. 'He may not always have been right, but he made people think. He approached problems from a completely different angle from everyone else.'
"A quote from Thor Heyerdahl himself illustrates this point: 'Borders? I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people.'"
I admire Heyderdahl. He was one of the last great explorer/adventurers, but if he really believed that borders are just a mental construct he was a damn idiot. The history of Easter Island itself is a classic example of what happens to a nation or people when they don't have secure borders.
"A mass sacrifice at a 15th century archaeological site in Peru saw the ritual killing of over 140 children and over 200 llamas, according to a new study. This is the largest known mass sacrifice of children -- and of llamas -- in the New World." Source: Science Daily.
"...This study reports the findings of excavations between 2011 and 2016 that revealed hundreds of bodies buried in an area of approximately 700 square meters. The human remains were almost entirely children, and the animal remains, all juvenile, were identified as most likely llamas, but possibly alpacas. Anatomical and genetic evidence indicates the children included boys and girls between 5 and 14 years old. Cut marks transecting the sternums and displaced ribs suggest both the children and llamas may have had their chests cut open, possibly during ritual removal of the heart."
According to National Geographic, "[t]he investigators believe all of the human and animal victims were ritually killed in a single event, based on evidence from a dried mud layer found in the eastern, least disturbed part of the 7,500-square-foot site. They believe the mud layer once covered the entire sandy dune where the ritual took place, and it was disturbed during the preparation of the burial pits and the subsequent sacrifice event."
Researchers believe that this sacrifice, conducted by the pre-Inca Chimu people, may have been conducted in a response to an "El Nino event." (New York Times)
According to Live Science, "... heavy rainfall and flooding from that year's El Niño weather pattern may have prompted Chimú leaders to order the sacrifice, but without more evidence, we'll likely never know the real reason, said study co-researcher John Verano, a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Tulane University in New Orleans."
Video from 2018. As for the music, there's nothing like soft jazz to accompany photos of ancient skeletons.
"Dozens of 'very unique' ancient burials have been discovered on the northern Peruvian coast, many of which appear to contain valuable metal objects, whimsical ceramic pots, and—in some cases—additional human limbs." Source: National Geographic (2018).
"According to Victor Campaña, current director of the Las Lomas Rescue Project, more than 50 burials belonging to the [pre-Inca] Virú culture have been discovered in the town of Huanchaco, seven miles north of the regional capital of Trujillo."
Note: These people were probably sacrificial victims. "...a preliminary study indicates that many sets of remains show evidence of trauma, including cut marks and blunt-force injury ... At this time, the archaeologists can only speculate about the motivation behind the unusual Virú burials."
Note: "The oldest civilization present on the north coast of Peru is the Moche or Mochica civilization, which is identified as Early Chimú. The start of this period is not known for certain, but it ended around 700 AD. It was centered in the Chicama, Moche, and Viru Valleys. 'Many large pyramids are attributed to the Early Chimú period.' These pyramids are built of adobe in rectangular shapes made from molds. 'Early Chimú cemeteries are also found without pyramid associations. Burials are usually in extended positions, in prepared tombs. The rectangular, adobe-lined and covered tombs have niches in their walls in which bowls were placed.'" (Wikipedia)
"The capital city of the Chimú [~900 - 1470 AD] was Chan Chan (known as Chimor to its original inhabitants) which, built at the mouth of the Rió Moche, covered some 20 square kilometres and had a population of up to 40,000 at its peak. The city became the hub of a vast trade and tribute network, and no fewer than 26,000 craftsmen and women resided there, often forcibly removed from conquered cities to mass produce high quality goods in a wide range of precious materials." Source: Ancient History Encyclopedia.
"Peruvian archaeologists discovered an Incan tomb in the north of the country where an elite member of the pre-Columbian empire was buried, one of the investigators announced Friday." Source: Phys.org.
"...Archaeologists believe the tomb belonged to a noble Inca based on the presence of 'spondylus,' a type of sea shell always present in the graves of important figures from the Incan period, which lasted from the 12th to the 16th centuries."
Archaeologists believe the tomb belonged to a noble Inca based on the presence of "spondylus," a type of sea shell always present in the graves of important figures from the Incan period, which lasted from the 12th to the 16th centuries.
Peruvian archaeologists discovered an Incan tomb in the north of the country where an elite member of the pre-Columbian empire was buried, one of the investigators announced Friday.