News Archaeology

A special brew may have calmed Inca children headed for sacrifice

Mummified hair and fingernail remains contained traces of a substance that may reduce anxiety

photo of the remains of an Inca child bundled in a textile and wearing a ceremonial headdress

Previously excavated bodies of two ritually sacrificed Inca children, including this girl still wearing a ceremonial headdress, have yielded chemical clues to a beverage that may have been used to calm them in the days or weeks before being killed.

Johan Reinhard

By Bruce Bower

Two Inca children slated for ritual sacrifice more than 500 years ago quaffed a special soothing concoction that has gone undetected until now.