Tulane University physical anthropologist John Verano has spent summers in Peru for the last 30 years, digging for ancient bones and solving their secrets. But his most recent work focuses on a unique archeological discovery: a ritual sacrifice of children and young llamas dating back 600 years. 
 
 
 
 “This is unusual, and not what we’ve seen before,” Verano said, “especially on the coast of Peru.” 
 
 
 
 In June he traveled to the Peruvian coastal village of Huanchaquito to assist with new excavations at the site where Gabriel Prieto, a Peruvian archeologist, in 2011 found the remains of 42 children who were sacrificed in a religious ceremony along with 76 llamas. The area was once part of the Chimú state, which dominated most of coastal Peru from about 1100 until 1470 A.D., when it was conquered by the Inca empire. 
 
 This year, Prieto and Verano expanded the dig and completed the study of children’s remains excavated in 2011 with support from the National Geographic Society and the Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane. 
 
 
 
 Their latest excavation uncovered numerous additional sacrificial victims, which will allow for a more detailed reconstruction of this unusual event, Verano said. The researchers think that the sacrifice may have been an offering to the sea, or a response to severe flooding brought on by an El Niño event, and that the llamas may have been intended to transport the victims to the afterlife. 
 
 
 
 “It’s not a place where you’d think to look,” Verano said of the site, located on a sandy ridge 100 yards from the beach. With erosion and construction disturbing the site, the villagers in Huanchaquito “noticed these bones coming out of the sand.” 
 
 
 
 Some of Verano’s previous discoveries in Peru have revealed adults who were held captive and killed, “but usually not children,” he said. 
 
 
 
 Multiple laboratories are analyzing bones and teeth discovered at the site. More details on the find and related studies will come later, Verano said. “What it means exactly, I’m not sure. But it is an exciting discovery.” ||||| At an excavation site on the Peruvian coast, Tulane anthropology professor John Verano, right, and PhD student Brittany Dement examine the remains of a child who was sacrificed and buried 600 years ago. Credit: John Verano Tulane University physical anthropologist John Verano has spent summers in Peru for the last 30 years, digging for ancient bones and solving their secrets. But his most recent work focuses on a unique archeological discovery: a ritual sacrifice of children and young llamas dating back 600 years. 
 
 "This is unusual, and not what we've seen before," Verano said, "especially on the coast of Peru." 
 
 In June he traveled to the Peruvian coastal village of Huanchaquito to assist with new excavations at the site where Gabriel Prieto, a Peruvian archeologist, in 2011 found the remains of 42 children who were sacrificed in a religious ceremony along with 76 llamas. The area was once part of the Chimú state, which dominated most of coastal Peru from about 1100 until 1470 A.D., when it was conquered by the Inca empire. 
 
 This year, Prieto and Verano expanded the dig and completed the study of children's remains excavated in 2011 with support from the National Geographic Society and the Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane. 
 
 Their latest excavation uncovered numerous additional sacrificial victims, which will allow for a more detailed reconstruction of this unusual event, Verano said. The researchers think that the sacrifice may have been an offering to the sea, or a response to severe flooding brought on by an El Niño event, and that the llamas may have been intended to transport the victims to the afterlife. 
 
 "It's not a place where you'd think to look," Verano said of the site, located on a sandy ridge 100 yards from the beach. With erosion and construction disturbing the site, the villagers in Huanchaquito "noticed these bones coming out of the sand." 
 
 Some of Verano's previous discoveries in Peru have revealed adults who were held captive and killed, "but usually not children," he said. 
 
 Multiple laboratories are analyzing bones and teeth discovered at the site. More details on the find and related studies will come later, Verano said. "What it means exactly, I'm not sure. But it is an exciting discovery." 
 
 Explore further: Egyptologist sheds light on Tulane mummies ||||| Over the course of three years, archaeologists in Peru uncovered the graves of 140 children, all killed by a swift cut to their chest, presumably to rip out their hearts. The massive gravesite is shedding light on the mysterious ancient Chimú Empire, and raises question on what could have driven these people to do such a heinous act. 
 
 The accidental discovery of child skeletons on a site formerly known as Huanchaquito-Las Llamas was first made in 2011, but it wasn’t until 2014 that archaeologists were able to gain sufficient funding in order to conduct a proper excavation. Now, several years and many hours of manual digging later, the excavation team uncovered the remains of 140 children and 200 young llamas. Although the study on the findings has not yet been published, the researchers involved explained their work in a National Geographic exclusive published on Thursday. 
 
 The children are reported to have all been between five and 14 at the time of death, although the majority of the children were between eight and 12 at the time of their alleged sacrifice. The llamas were all less than 18 months old at their time of death. 
 
 According to National Geographic, the site is evidence of the single largest child sacrifice event in the Americas, and could possibly be the largest event of this kind in world history. 
 
 Carbon-dating of nearby items put the time of death between 1400 and 1450, which would make this a rare glimpse into the customs of pre-Columbian cultures in South America. In addition, both the human and llama remains had evidence of cut marks on their sternum, as well as dislocated ribs. This suggests that the cause of death may have been a swift cut to the chest followed by removal of the heart. 
 
 Gabriel Prieto / National Geographic 
 
 Further analysis revealed the sacrificed children may not have originated from the site of their sacrifice, but were likely brought from the outer regions of the Chimu Empire. Study co-author John Verano, a professor of anthropology at Tulane University told Newsweek that evidence of skull deformation was a major indication of where some of these children may have been born. 
 
 “Their heads were shaped in infancy as cultural identity markers. Also their diet looks quite variable, as determined by stable isotopes of Carbon and Nitrogen,” said Verano, explaining how they determined where there children may have been born. 
 
 As for why the sacrifice took place, that still remains unclear. Evidence in the mud from the site suggest the sacrifices may have occurred during a period of serious flooding. The flooding could have disrupted fishing in the area and brought extreme hardship to the people. 
 
 Haagen Klaus, a professor of anthropology at George Mason University, who was not associated with the research, told National Geographic that the point of sacrifices is to give up something that is of the utmost importance. When adult sacrifices failed to bring a desired outcome, out of desperation the people may have turned to their most precious belongings; their children. As for the llama sacrifices, Verano explained that these are an extremely important animal in both ancient and present cultures in Peru and Bolivia. 
 
 “After humans, llamas were considered to be the most valuable offerings to the gods,” said Verano. 
 
 We may never know for sure what drove these people to brutally kill so many children, but ongoing research such as this helps reveal the culture of the ancient world.
– Physical anthropologist John Verano has seen plenty while working in Peru over the last 30 years. What he came across this summer in the village of Huanchaquito, however, is "not what we've seen before, especially on the coast," he says. Locals noticed bones poking out of a sandy ridge in 2011, and Peruvian archaeologist Gabriel Prieto went to investigate. He was greeted with a shock: the remains of 42 children and 76 llamas sacrificed some 600 years ago in a ritual by the Chimú, who controlled part of coastal Peru from around 1100 until they were overthrown by the Inca in 1470, Phys.org reports. Verano and Prieto's expansion of the dig this summer added to the "exciting discovery" as even more remains were found. "It's not a place where you'd think to look," Tulane University's Verano says of the site, about 100 yards from a beach. He notes erosion and construction nearby helped reveal the forgotten remains. While Verano has come across the bodies of adults captured and killed in Peru, children are a rarity, he says. He explains the children may have been killed as a gift to the sea. (As Prieto explained to National Geographic in 2011, "In the north coast of Peru, the ocean is very closely tied to agriculture because the temperature of the water can determine whether there will be rain or not.") As for the llamas, the Chimú may have believed they would transport the children to the afterlife. The discovered bones and teeth are now being analyzed. (Other recent Peruvian discoveries include the world's highest Ice Age camp and ancient designs in the desert.)