By Bruce Bower
In South America’s ancient Nasca culture, some local folk literally lost their heads so that everyone else might fill their bellies. The Nasca obtained trophy heads, human skulls modified in various ways and intended to spur successful farming, from their own people, not from foreigners slain in battles and raids as was practiced by the Inca and other prehistoric societies of that region, a new study finds.
Earlier analyses of paintings on Nasca pottery had suggested that members of this culture believed that the taking of trophy heads provided supernatural power needed for crop growth. Since the first Nasca trophy heads were discovered nearly 100 years ago, scientists have debated whether these items came from vanquished enemies or from local individuals thought to represent venerated Nasca ancestors.
“Rather than obtaining heads from enemy warriors through geographic expansion or warfare as seen in other parts of the world, we argue that Nasca trophy heads derived from the local Nasca population,” says archaeologist and study director Kelly Knudson of Arizona State University in Tempe.