Ancient Sacrificer Found With Blades in Peru Tomb?
Pre-Inca burial found near temple of human sacrifice.
The tomb was found at Chotuna-Chornancap, a coastal site near the Peruvian city of Chiclayo (map). The site was once an important ceremonial center of the Lambayeque culture, also known as the Sicán.
The culture lived along the northern coasts of Peru from around A.D. 800 until around 1375, when the neighboring Chimú civilization conquered the Sicán.
(Related: "Tombs of Pre-Inca Elite Discovered Under Peru Pyramid.")
Previous excavations at Chotuna-Chornancap by Peruvian archaeologist Carlos Wester La Torre, who led the team that found the purported sacrificer, revealed a temple containing the remains of several women who were mutilated as part of human-sacrifice rituals.
Wester and other Peruvian archaeologists have suggested that the rulers of Chotuna-Chornancap may have claimed to be the
