Tests on 8 frozen Inca mummies sacrificed show they had chewed coca leaves and had drunk alcohol

High in the Andes, where the air is thin and the mountains seem closer to the sky than to the earth, archaeologists have uncovered a haunting glimpse into one of the Inca Empire’s most sacred ceremonies. Eight frozen mummies of children and young people who were sacrificed more than 500 years ago have now told researchers what they consumed in the days and months before their deaths.

Their hair and nails preserved the evidence: coca leaves in every case, alcohol in four, and, in one famous girl known as Juanita, a compound linked to ayahuasca.The findings do not simply confirm that the Inca used psychoactive plant; but also reveal how priests prepared each child for a ritual that was meant to connect the living world with the gods.What was the Capacocha?The ritual was called the capacocha, one of the most important religious ceremonies in the Inca Empire. Children and young women were selected and taken to high mountain shrines, where they were sacrificed as offerings to powerful deities.