LIGHTNING AS DIVINE JUDGMENT: Incas Sacrificed Children Atop Volcanoes, Using Lightning?
New research reveals that Inca priests deliberately positioned child sacrifice victims on volcanic peaks to be struck by lightning, believing the electrical strikes were messages from the gods confirming whether their offerings had been accepted.
High atop the volcanic peaks of Peru, where thin air meets perpetual snow, archaeologists have uncovered evidence of a practice that transforms our understanding of Inca religious ritual. Recent research on the remains of child sacrifice victims reveals that these ancient people deliberately positioned bodies to attract lightning strikes, viewing the electrical discharge as divine confirmation of their offerings.
The discovery centers on six children found on the Ampato and Pichu Pichu volcanoes, their remains preserved for five centuries in the frigid mountain air. Dr. Dagmara Socha from the University of Warsaw and her research partner Rudi Chavez Perea have employed advanced X-ray imaging and 3D modeling to examine these delicate specimens without causing further deterioration.
Their findings paint a picture of calculated placement and patient waiting. The children’s bodies, positioned on stone platforms at extreme altitude, bear unmistakable evidence of lightning strikes. Burn marks scar both flesh and fabric, while the surrounding soil shows crystallization patterns consistent with electrical impact. The stone platforms themselves reveal repeated strike damage, suggesting the Incas returned to these sites multiple times over the years.
According to Socha, lightning held profound significance in Inca cosmology. “A person struck by lightning received great honor — a god expressed interest in that person,” she explained to PAP, the Polish government’s science news outlet. This belief system transformed what modern minds might consider random natural phenomena into deliberate divine communication.
One victim, designated “Lightning Girl” by researchers (photo below), provides particularly revealing evidence about the selection and preparation process. Her skull displays the deliberately elongated shape practiced by coastal Inca populations, indicating she traveled significant distances before reaching her final destination. Analysis of her tooth enamel reveals nutritional stress occurring around age three, which Socha believes marked her removal from family life.
“I suppose it was then that the girl was taken away from her parents and brought to Cuzco, the capital of the Inca empire, where the girl was being prepared for three years to be sacrificed at the top of the volcano,” Socha theorized. This preparation period aligns with previous research suggesting victims underwent years of special treatment before their deaths.
Hair sample analysis from earlier studies indicates these children received enhanced nutrition in their final months, contradicting any notion of neglect or cruelty. Instead, the evidence suggests careful cultivation, with isotope analysis revealing exposure to alcohol and coca leaves before death. Researchers believe these substances served to sedate the victims, with one mummified child found with chewed coca still in her mouth.
The selection criteria for these children remains partially mysterious, though Socha notes they “certainly had to have some exceptional traits, such as beauty or ancestry.” Families considered it an honor to contribute a child to this practice, viewing the selection as recognition of their bloodline’s worth.
The research team’s use of non-invasive imaging technology has preserved these remains for future study while extracting maximum information from each specimen. Their next phase involves analyzing tooth samples to determine dietary patterns and geographic origins, potentially mapping the extensive network that brought children from across the empire to these remote volcanic peaks.
These findings challenge simplistic interpretations of ancient sacrifice as mere brutality. Instead, they reveal a sophisticated belief system that integrated natural phenomena into religious practice, using the unpredictable nature of lightning strikes as a form of divine feedback. The Incas created a system where atmospheric electricity became the voice of their gods, speaking through the bodies of chosen children positioned precisely where earth meets sky.
The preservation of these remains in museum cold storage ensures that future technological advances may reveal additional secrets about these lost lives. Each analysis adds another piece to our understanding of how the Inca empire maintained spiritual cohesion across vast geographic distances, using ritual practices that connected human sacrifice to the raw forces of nature itself.
As researchers continue their work, these volcanic peaks stand as monuments to a worldview that saw divine purpose in lightning’s seemingly random strikes, transforming natural phenomena into sacred communication between mortals and gods.
(SOURCE)
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