User:Mmcandrew/sandbox

Ok, here some further drafting for the capacocha article.

= Capacocha Ceremony =

Selection of children for sacrifice
[The victims of child sacrifice were children of both genders, chosen for looks, and no region was exempt from the recruitment of these child sacrifices; they could come from any region of the empire. The male victims were no older than ten and girls could be up to age sixteen but must be a virgin when chosen; they had to be perfect, unblemished by even a freckle or scar.]

[While the boys were immediately brought to Cuzco, the young girls, called aclla, taken for sacrifice were often entrusted to the mama-kuna, in the "House of Chosen Women" (aqlla wasi). Chosen for their looks, the girls were taught to weave and sew here for an extended time. The mama-kuna women were compared to nuns by many Spanish men, as they lived celibate lives, serving the Gods. There were three groups the girls were divided into. Some girls never left and went on to raise the girls brought after them, and the prettiest were sent as tribute. The rest from the girls brought to become Chosen Women became slaves and concubines in Cuzco, for the noblemen.]

Ceremonies at Cuzco
The capacocha sacrifice started at the capital city of Cuzco, on the order of the Sapa Inca. The first Sapa Inca to do this sacrifice was Pacha Kuti.

Until the time of the sacrifice, the tributes were fed well, and those too young to eat would have their mothers with them to breastfeed.This was to ensure that they would be well fed and happy when they prepared to reach the gods. The children were paired off, girl and boy, and dressed finely like little royals.They were paraded around four large statues, of the Creator, the Sun God, the Moon God, and the Thunder God. The Sapa Inca would say to the priests then to divide the children, along with the other sacrifices, in four, for each of the four suyu regions.

Sacrifice
After the ceremonies at Cusco, the children, the priests and their entourage of companions undertook the trip back to their communities. When they returned, they did not follow the royal road, or the Inca road, as they had gone, but they had to follow a path in a straight line, possibly following the ceque lines that left Cusco and went to the wakas. This was a long and tedious journey, crossing valleys, rivers and mountains, which could take months.

Forensic evidence suggests that many children (as well as the priests) received coca leaves to chew on in order to give them energy and help them breathe more easily in the high mountains while climbing upward. Once at the summit the young victims would then be administered an intoxicating drink or other substance to either induce sleep or a stupor, ostensibly to let the final ritual go on smoothly.

In most cases, the children were drugged and unconsciously deposited at the place of the ceremony, if the ceremony was carried out in a particularly cold place, they could die from hypothermia, in other cases death was provoked in a more violent manner, such is the case of the Aconcagua child, with a strong blow to the head, as well as that of the girl at Sara Sara and the young woman from the snowy Ampato, while the cause of death of the "Queen of the Hill" was a puncture wound in the right hemithorax, which entered through her back. While in some cases, as in Llullaillaco, the bodies were deposited in a burial chamber and covered with gravel, or, in the case of Cerro El Plomo, the sacrificial victim was wrapped in a complex funerary bundle of several pieces with a specific function and message, as in the case of Aconcagua.

When the sacrifices of children and material offerings were buried, the holes couldn't be made using any metal, but in the ceremony dug out using sharpened sticks. Once dead, the victims would then be buried in a fetal position, wrapped up in a bundle with various artifacts within the bundle or next to it in the same grave.

Non-human sacrifice and offerings
[Most wak'a offerings ranged from dirt to small stones to food and animals among other objects, and on special occasions humans in particularly powerful wakas. All objects, animals, and people sacrificed to a wak'a, not only represented Inca symbols but were also previously legitimized in ceremonies conducted by the emperor himself.]

[A number of offerings were often left with the sacrificed individuals at the sites of capacocha ceremonies. The human body itself was often finely dressed and clothed in a feathered headdress and other ornamentation such as a necklace or bracelet. The most elaborate artifacts were typically paired human statuettes and llama figurines that have been crafted with gold, silver, and spondylus. The combination of both male and female figurines alongside the use of both gold and silver was likely meant to pay tribute to the male Sun and the female Moon. Several sets of ceramics as well as gold, silver, and bronze pins were relatively commonplace too. A large amount of cloth was a typical find at capacocha sites too. Some objects that often appear such as plates and bowls have often been found in pairs. Alongside these objects are sometimes found food items.]

[Some of the children were sacrificed at very important mountain-top shrines, alongside gold, silver and spondylus, as archaeological findings show. Waves of offerings would be distributed throughout the empire from this sacrificial offering, so that every region had a piece of it; if a huaca was missed, it would be an insult and could jeopardize the Sapa Inca's rule.]