This burial place was unearthed in the 20th century. In the late 1950s and 1960s, during the archaeological research in Pakimes (Paquime) in an archaeological site located in the state of Chihuahua in northwestern Mexico. But the latest research is the first genetic testing of this child, who radiocarbon dating suggests was between 2 and 5 years old at the time of his death and lived between 1301 and 1397.
Recent researchpublished in the journal Antiquity, the authors suggest that this child may have been sacrificed as part of an elite family ritual to consecrate a special building and increase their social and political power.
“This is an important discovery because archaeologists are still trying to understand the social structure of Pakime and what role (if any) ritual and religious leaders played here,” said lead author Jakob Sedig of Harvard University (USA).
Pakime is one of the largest and most important archaeological sites in the combined region of northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States.
20th century the first excavations were carried out in the middle of the 1st century AD, which yielded most of what is now known about the area.
“The site consisted of huge mud brick structures, monumental architecture, including cruciform and serpentine ramparts, an underground well, an aqueduct, plazas and millions of artifacts, including shells and other exotic goods, brought from hundreds of kilometers away,” Mr. Sedig said.
During its heyday, from about 1200 to 1450, Pakime was the sociopolitical center of the Northwest and Southwest region and the center of pre-Columbian Mogolion culture.
Although archaeologists have studied the area extensively, little is known about the social structure and genetics of the local population. Questions remained unanswered, how the inhabitants of Pakime were biologically related to each other and to the neighboring areas.
“The ancient DNA data from Pakima will be very important to our understanding of how people living in the ancient northwest and southwest interacted with each other,” said Mr. Sedig.
The researchers already knew that the context of the burial of the child buried in Pakime, who seemed to have been sacrificed, was unique – under a roof support beam in a building called Shulini’s house. This building is thought to have been a ritual center due to the valuable ritual objects found in it and its connections to a sacred underground well. The fact that the child was buried here suggests that he came from an elite family.
To find out more, Mr. Sedig and his colleagues analyzed the child’s DNA, which revealed that his parents were closely related.
“The data show that his parents were not as closely related as siblings, but were closer than first cousins. They shared about 25-50 percent. genetic material. We could not determine the exact relationship of the child’s parents, but they could have been half-siblings, aunts/uncles, nieces/nephews, grandparents and grandchildren, or other similarly closely related couples,” said Mr. Sedig.
In most societies, relationships between close relatives are considered taboo. However, in some ancient cultures the elite were not subject to the same taboos as everyone else and could engage in such practices.
The authors of the study believe that the sacrifices were made to consecrate a ritually important building. The fact that the child was the fruit of a close relationship in a particular family may have been symbolically significant.
„[Autoriai] suggest that the close genetic relationship between the child’s parents revealed by this analysis and the particular context of the burial reflect the family’s efforts to establish and legitimize its social position in this ancient community,” the study abstract reads.
The exact role that child sacrifice played in Pakime or the wider region is somewhat unclear. However, previous studies have shown that sacrifice played an important role and was part of everyday life in Mesoamerican societies in general.
“In other societies, such as the Maya and the Aztecs, elite sacrifice was particularly significant,” said Mr. Sedig. “We do not believe that the unique burial of this child – the only such burial we know of at this site – in a ritually important building and with special grave goods was accidental.”
The data obtained from the child’s remains will also help researchers learn more about the genetics of the people who lived in Paquime and northern Mexico.
“Our investigation revealed that the child belonged to the local population that lived in the area,” said Mr. Sedigas. “Until now, studying the ancient DNA of Pakima (and northern Mexico in general) has been very difficult due to the hot environment, which causes the ancient DNA to degrade quickly.”
Parengta pagal „Newsweek“.
2024-08-19 00:16:32