Trophy heads reveal Inca Empire’s reign of terror

The decapitated heads of young women from a prehistoric Andean village were put on display before they were discarded in a rubbish dump — possibly in an effort to terrorize people living under Incan rule.

The skulls, which were first excavated in 2003, displayed marks that suggest flesh was removed
in order to mount them [Credit: F. Garrido & C. Morales 2019]

Francisco Garrido and Catalina Morales at the National Museum of Natural History in Santiago examined four skulls found at the ancient settlement of Iglesia Colorada, located in modern northern Chile.

Images of one skull show where holes were drilled, possibly to allow the skulls to be
strung up in a display of violence. [Credit: F. Garrido & C. Morales 2019]

The researchers determined that three of the skulls belonged to girls or young women; the fourth skull belonged to a child of undetermined sex.

The skulls, which were first excavated in 2003, displayed marks that suggest flesh was
removed in order to mount them [Credit: F. Garrido & C. Morales 2019]

Holes were punched into the skulls, probably so they could be strung on ropes. The skulls were eventually consigned to a rubbish pile amid food scraps and other debris.

The prehispanic village was the largest settlement in a region rich with copper
that the Incans mined [Credit: F. Garrido & C. Morales 2019]

This treatment was carried out at roughly the same time that the Inca conquered Iglesia Colorada in the fifteenth or sixteenth century AD. The trophy heads might have been an imperial tactic for repressing local discontent, the authors say.

The study is published in the journal Latin American Antiquity.

Author: Diane Galistan | Source: Nature Research Journal [August 31, 2019]