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1. Holey Skulls
When archaeologists find human remains the amount they can learn from them can be spectacular. Everything from their age, sex, social class, down to their diet can be revealed from their bones. Often the context that they are discovered in is just as important. Were they buried with great pomp and loaded with grave goods? In the case of four skulls found in an Incan village in the Andes they were excavated from a pit full of food scraps and other domestic detritus. Just what was going on?Found without their bodies and in the middle of garbage it is unlikely that these skulls belonged to the honoured dead. When the fragments of the skulls were pieced together it was revealed that holes had been cut into the tops of them. These holes and other marks left on the bones suggest the skulls were strung up on rope – likely as a warning to others.The skulls date from a period when the Inca were expanding. Those that resisted their take over would face death or enslavement. That the four skulls came from three women and one child probably reflects the fact that men were too valued as hard-working slaves to be wasted on terror tactics.
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