Research
Did human sacrifice help lower violence? New research in Peru leaves intriguing question
Live Science · By Owen Jarus ·
The Brief
- A new study of human remains from the Lambayeque Valley in northern Peru finds low levels of violence among its people.
- The same people engaged in human sacrifice, and at least some mass sacrifices occurred in the valley over millennia.
- The researchers leave open whether human sacrifice helped lower violence.
Why it matters
It challenges the assumption that ritual violence and social violence go together, which is useful for archaeologists interpreting how ancient societies maintained order.
Who’s affected
- archaeologists and bioarchaeologists
- readers interested in ancient Andean societies
- #archaeology
- #peru
- #human-sacrifice
- #violence
- #ancient-societies
Despite engaging in human sacrifice, the people who lived in the Lambayeque Valley of northern Peru had low levels of violence, a new study of their remains finds. Human sacrifice occurred in the valley over the millennia. It's thought that at least some of these mass sacrifices…