Inca children drugged with cocaine to keep them calm before being sacrificed, hair and nail study confirms

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Inca children who were chosen to be ritually sacrificed were drugged so that they remained calm before their death, a new study of ancient hair and fingernail samples has confirmed. In the new study, published recently in the Journal of Archaeological Science, researchers conducted toxicological analysis of two individuals – aged six or seven – who were immolated over 500 years ago during a capacocha ritual on the mountain of Ampato in southern Peru. Researchers suspect the Incas may have consciously used the antidepressant properties of Banisteriopsis caapi “to reduce the anxiety and depressive states of the victims”. In another study, published in 2013 in the journal PNAS, scientists analysed the diet of a 13-year-old Incan girl, who was also ritually sacrificed over five centuries ago in a mountainous area of modern-day Argentina.