The tiny skeletons were wrapped in cloth and found in the grave site of Cajamarquilla, 15 miles east from Lima.
Pieter Van Dalen (archaeologist), who was in charge of the dig told AFP that the children could have been close relatives and were placed… in separate parts of the tomb of (nobleman’s) mummy’s entrance, one on top of another.
Van Dalen says, “The children, according our working hypothesis would have been sacrificed in order to accompany the mummy into the underworld.”
Cajamarquilla, a pre-Inca city, was built from mud around 200 BC. It was occupied until 1500. It could have housed 10,000 to 20,000 people.
Van Dalen stated that the mummies are between 1,000 and 1,200 years old.
The bones of seven adults were also discovered nearby. They also found remains of llama-like animals and earthenware.
The remains of the presumed nobleman were discovered last year in Cajamarquilla’s tomb measuring 3 m in length and 1.4 m deep. This is one of the largest archaeological sites near Lima.
He was only 20 years old when he died. His hands were covered with rope and he was tied to the ground with his hands.
Archaeologists from Peru discovered evidence of the greatest-ever child sacrifice in 2018. They found the remains of more 140 children who were killed alongside 200 llamas in a ritual offering 550 years ago.
Researchers found that the children were aged between five and fourteen years old, but most of them were eight to twelve when they died. Their bodies were buried facing west, National Geographicreported.
John Verano, Tulane University’s physical anthropologist, said, “It is ritual murder, and it is very systematic.”