Slain Humans Buried with Strangled Dogs Found at Prehistoric Site in Peru

Slain Humans Buried with Strangled Dogs Found at Prehistoric Site in Peru

Archaeologists are busy removing sacrificial animals from the ground beneath them, As tigers and bears around Peru’s largest zoo. The zoo, the Parque de las Leyendas (Legends Park) in the capital, Lima, is also the burial site of dozens of ancient dogs apparently slaughtered 1,000 years ago at the funeral of fallen warriors, whose bones lie beside them.

The park was the sacred site for at least 3 ancient civilizations until it became a zoo in 1964: the Lima culture (100-650 AD) and the Ichma culture (900-1470) and the Incas culture (1200-1500 AD).

The dogs are often found with ropes still wrapped around their necks, sacrificed by Ichma, bear the telltale signs of animal sacrifice: slit throats or strangulation wounds. Surprisingly, their fur is still intact. The remains of their human companions also display signs of serious injuries to the skull and ribs, which is how researchers deduced that they were warriors.

‘All indications are that they were killed in clashes with other social groups,’ said Lucenida Carrion Sotelo, head of archaeology at the park. The dogs’ bodies are always arranged ‘as if they were sleeping,’ she added.

‘For the Ichma, sacrificing a dog was probably part of a warrior’s funeral rites.’ The remains of 138 dogs and 134 humans have been found between 2012 and 2013 inside wak’a, or sacred sites, located inside the Park of Legends.

These adobe monuments were used for religious rites and funerals. Carrion said archaeologists have only just begun uncovering the secrets inside the park’s 54 wak’a.

‘There is so much for researchers to discover in every one,’ she told AFP. The last find was in September, when her team uncovered a tomb with the remains of 10 dogs, two cuys – a South American guinea pig – and one human.

The remains were found laid in two small trenches in the Huaca El Rosal temple in the zoo. The dogs found so far are all members of the same species, a short-haired variety with a black spot on its back, that would have weighed about seven to 20 kilos (15 to 45 pounds), said Carrion. 

Initial research indicates they were killed around 1,000 years ago, but further testing is being done to fine-tune that estimate, she said.

The dogs are thought to have been sacrificed by the pre-Incan culture of Ichma, which dates back to between 900 and 1470AD.

The remains are valuable for scientists researching the origins of South America’s domesticated dogs, because they can potentially shed light on where pre-Incan dogs came from and why humans raised them.

The researchers believe that the dogs may have been sacrificed in the belief that they would act as guides for their human companions in the afterlife. By the time of the Incas, dogs were deeply ingrained in the region’s cultures.

The Peruvian Hairless Dog, the best-known species, appears in Incan ceramics. The black, bare-skinned dogs, which still exist today, emerged around the year 300. 

They were declared part of Peru’s national heritage in 2001. And in 1993, researchers found 100 mummified ancient dogs buried alongside human remains in the southern region of Moquegua. 

They resembled modern-day Golden Retrievers, but with short legs and a bristly tail. 

Today, visitors to the Park of Legends can stroll among the ruins of wak’a, palaces and canals.

It took researchers 15 years just to uncover the first eight wak’a and begin exploring them.

The 46 others remain entangled in thick vegetation. Many of them have been looted and vandalised.

One wak’a, called San Miguel – believed to be the site’s administrative and ceremonial centre – held the remains of a man and a woman who had 17 fish tattoos on her arm.

‘It appears these people were an offering made when construction began,’ said Carrion.

But archaeologists need more funds to continue their research, she said, appealing to foreign universities and foundations for help unravelling the many mysteries of the wak’a.