400-Year-Old Sacrificed Guinea Pigs Wearing Colorful Earrings and Necklaces Discovered in Peru
An intriguing new discovery in Peru shows ritually sacrificed guinea pigs were decorated with colorful earrings and necklaces by 16th-century Incas—a finding that comes as a complete surprise to archaeologists.
New research published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology describes an extraordinary discovery at the Tambo Viejo site in southern Peru. The Incas constructed several administrative centers in the area, Tambo Viejo being one of them. Archaeologist Lidio Valdez from the Institute of Andean Studies, with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, uncovered 100 ritually sacrificed guinea pigs at two different locations at the site.
This is a big deal unto itself, in that it’s the first bona fide archaeological evidence to support observations recorded by early Spanish colonizers of the Americas, namely the mass killing of guinea pigs during rituals. As such, the 100 guinea pigs at Tambo Viejo “represent the single largest find known for the entire former [Inca] territory,” wrote Valdez in the study. The ritual killings happened around 400 years ago, some two centuries after the arrival of Europeans to the New World.
The more remarkable aspect of the discovery, however, has to do with something scholars of Inca history have never seen before. The guinea pigs found at the site were decorated with earrings and necklaces made from colorful string. Some were even wrapped in cotton rugs like a sushi roll.
https://gizmodo.com/400-year-old-sacrificed-guinea-pigs-wearing-colorful-ea-1834006876
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