May 19, 2015

Ancient Bolivian Gruesome Skull Finds

Researchers at the 200-800 CE site of Wata Wata in Bolivia have found three skulls of people who had been beaten, beheaded and deflated. One was male and two females. They all had cranial deformation and all the skulls showed chops, cuts, scrapes and fractures on their skulls at time of death. The female was scalped and had her eyes gouged out. The male was bludgeoned and eyes gouged out. The 2nd female also suffered a similar fate. Eye removal was a common form of torture in the Ancient Andes. The deaths may have symbolized a new regime had taken power.
(my note; cranial deformation was usually reserved for higher born individuals).
The research was published in Latin American Antiquity.
(This research by Becker and Alconini, “Head extraction, interregional exchange, and political strategies of control at the site of Wata Wata, Kallawaya Territory, Bolivia, during the transition between the Late Formative and Tiwanaku Periods (A.D. 200-800),” published in the journal Latin American Antiquity, was funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.)

Forbes has the report here;
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2015/05/17/gruesome-evidence-of-political-torture-found-on-precolumbian-skulls/

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