It’s a chilling ritual: a child is decapitated – its skull transformed into a horrific trophy head. What was considered honor and holy sacrifice in the Nazca culture, which existed in Peru from 100 BC to 450 AD, makes our blood run cold today.
Now researchers have examined the child’s skull more closely and found that it ingested a hallucinogenic substance before the sacrifice. The PhD student’s study appears in the December issue of the Journal of Archeological Science. In a hair of the mummified skull, the researchers found traces of a mescaline-containing cactus that grows in South America.
When examining 21 other trophy heads, the archaeologists also found evidence that women and children used drugs before they died. These finds are the earliest documented cases of the administration of such substances.
Researchers suspect that the famous Nazca Lines also go back to the now extinct South American civilization. These are huge furrows and scratches in the Peruvian desert that can only be seen from the air. The Nazca are not only known for the many mummies that have survived. Ceramic and textile finds show that people at that time knew how to weave and make pottery.
The people also considered an elongated skull shape as an ideal of beauty. Boards were already tied around the skull of infants in order to change the growth of the head.