00:00Archaeologists in Ecuador have unearthed a significant and unusual burial from around
00:041,200 years ago, revealing the remains of a pregnant woman and her fetus.
00:09The discovery has raised questions about the nature of her death, as evidence suggests
00:14she was brutally killed and dismembered.
00:16Furthermore, the grave contained additional offerings, including the skull of another
00:20person and a burnt offering, leading researchers to speculate that the woman may have been
00:26sacrificed to appease an unknown deity.
00:28In an article about their research published in Latin American Antiquity, study lead author
00:34Sarah Youngst, a bioarchaeologist at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte and her colleagues
00:40explored the nature of this mysterious burial, which dates back to the Ecuador's Mantegno
00:45period, 650 to 1532 AD.
00:48The Mantegno people lived in various chiefdoms located along Ecuador's Pacific coast, relying
00:54on agriculture and fishing to survive.
00:56While not a satellite of the Inca Empire, they did have contact with it and were influenced
01:02by Incan practices and beliefs.
01:04At the Buen Suceso site, which lies less than six miles, nine kilometers, inland in the Manglorealto
01:11Valley in the province of Santa Elena, there were six ancient burials found in total.
01:16But the burial of the pregnant woman stood out as particularly unusual.
01:21She was between 17 and 20 years old and was approximately seven to nine months pregnant when
01:26she passed away.
01:28Radiocarbon dating data suggests her death occurred around the year 800, although she could have
01:33met her demise a few decades earlier or later.
01:36Her skull showed signs of blunt force trauma, possibly indicating she died from a blow to the
01:42head, with further violence inflicted on her shortly thereafter.
01:46Through detailed analysis of the skeletal remains, Jungst and her team pieced together a sequence
01:51of events surrounding the woman's tragic death.
01:54In their journal article, they described the sequence as follows.
01:57First, burial 10, the young pregnant woman received a blow to the head, intentional or accidental,
02:05and died.
02:06Before burial, but around the time of death, her hands and left leg were removed.
02:11She was then buried in an earthen pit with a mix of manteno and earlier offerings.
02:17Later, the burial was reopened, whether through accidental discovery or because the spot was
02:22marked, and a burnt offering was placed on her chest.
02:25Although speculative, these activities seem the most parsimonious interpretation of the current
02:31evidence.
02:31Human sacrifice was uncommon among ancient coastal Ecuadorian populations, as the researchers
02:37point out in their study.
02:38However, the unusual artifacts found in the burial added to its distinctiveness and suggest
02:44that this was in fact some type of sacrifice.
02:47The grave contained an assortment of valuable items, a rather odd assortment in fact, including
02:53cockle shells placed over the woman's eye sockets, crescent-shaped ornaments made from spondylus
02:58mollusk shells, three obsidian blades surrounding her body, and a crab claw positioned on her
03:04abdomen.
03:05Some of the mollusk shells were 2,000 years older than the burial itself, making them highly
03:10valuable trade objects, according to Uengst.
03:12Adding another element of mystery to the find, the skull of an individual between 25 and 35
03:18years old was found near the woman's shoulder, accompanied by a burnt offering on her chest.
03:22Radio carbon dating of the burnt material suggests it was placed in the grave between 991 and 1025
03:30AD, meaning it would have been put there one or centuries after the woman's death.
03:36The discovery of this burial is particularly intriguing to Uengst because of the stark contrast
03:41between the brutal nature of the woman's death and the valuable items found in her grave.
03:46The dehumanizing and disempowering way she was killed, Uengst explained in an email interview
03:51with Live Science, contrasts sharply with the fact that her grave was filled with precious
03:56trade goods.
03:57The placement of these items, especially the spondylus shells which were associated with
04:02fertility and water, appears to suggest that the woman and her fetus were given special care
04:07and protection, Uengst noted.
04:09Was it really human sacrifice?
04:11Or was it murder?
04:13The researchers involved in the study of this horrifying burial offered two potential explanations
04:18for the sacrifice of the two victims.
04:21One possibility is that she was sacrificed as a result of the severe El Nino events occurring
04:27at the time, which caused crop failures and hardship over several growing seasons.
04:31Her pregnant status may have made her a symbol of fertility, and offering her to the gods
04:36might have been a way to ensure they would restore the fertility of the land.
04:40Many of the artifacts in the grave, with their connections to water and fertility, seem to
04:46support this idea.
04:47Another possibility, based on burial patterns among the Mantegno people, is that women may
04:53have held significant political power.
04:55If the woman was a political figure, her death and subsequent sacrifice could have been an attempt
05:00to eliminate a rival, but with the burial treatment reflecting her high status.
05:06The fact that it was a woman who was pregnant might indicate that women held important positions
05:11of power, and thus their power needed to be managed.
05:14Uengst speculated, if a rival of this woman wanted to take over, they would need to eliminate
05:20her and her unborn offspring, but also still give her honor based on her status.
05:25While what was discovered was undoubtedly consistent with human sacrifice, Benjamin Schaefer, a bioarchaeologist
05:32at the University of Illinois Chicago, who was not involved in the study, expressed caution
05:37about drawing definitive conclusions.
05:39In an email to Live Science, Schaefer stated,
05:51He suggested that additional data could help clarify the nature of the burial, offering
05:56more insight into potential sacrificial practices of the Mantegno culture.
06:01As of now, it is impossible for the researchers to make any definitive statements about sacrificial
06:06practices among the Mantegno people, given that this is only a single find.
06:11But it absolutely does raise new questions about how these ancient inhabitants of South America
06:16responded to environmental crises, which would have threatened their survival and might have
06:21provoked an extreme response.
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