How the Incas sacrificed children - 500 years later, science found the answers. Analysis of the hair and nails of eight mummies (one boy and seven girls aged 6-14 years) from the Llullaillaco volcano showed that they had been kept on mind-altering mixtures for months before the Capacuca ceremony. Coca leaves, chicha corn beer, and decoctions containing alkaloids have been used to suppress the basic survival instinct. When they climbed the holy mountain, the victims no longer resisted. The ritual killing itself was carried out in various ways: strangulation, a blow to the head or a slow death from a cold. Capacuca had great religious and political significance. Such sacrifices were believed to help appease higher forces.

How the Incas sacrificed children - 500 years later, science found the answers. Analysis of the hair and nails of eight mummies (one boy and seven girls aged 6-14 years) from the Llullaillaco volcano showed that they had been kept on mind-altering mixtures for months before the Capacuca ceremony. Coca leaves, chicha corn beer, and decoctions containing alkaloids have been used to suppress the basic survival instinct. When they climbed the holy mountain, the victims no longer resisted. The ritual killing itself was carried out in various ways: strangulation, a blow to the head or a slow death from a cold. Capacuca had great religious and political significance. Such sacrifices were believed to help appease higher forces.