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.”
– 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.)