The capacocha ceremony was an important part of the Inca civilization. The ceremony celebrated key events such as the death of an emperor, the birth of a royal son, a great victory in battle or an annual or biennial event in the Incan calendar. It also was conducted to stop droughts, earthquakes and epidemics.
When a capacocha ceremony was to be held, the Inca sent out to the provinces a demand for tribute payment of gold, silver, shell, cloth, feathers, and llamas and alpacas. They also demanded tribute payment of boys and girls between the ages of 4 and 10, selected for physical perfection.
Capacocha Ceremony Rituals
Capacocha ceremonies lasted several days, including feasting and ritual events. Offerings would be made at many appropriate huacas (shrines), and at the major shrine, a boy and girl were sacrificed and interred together as a couple. The children were reportedly suffocated, killed with a blow to the head or buried alive after ritual inebriation. One capacocha ceremony known from the historic period is Tanta Carhua, a 10 year old girl who was sacrificed to obtain the capac's support for a canal project.
Archaeological evidence for the capacocha ceremony has been identified at about 20 sites in the Andean mountains, and include Cerro El Plomo and Cerro Esmeralda in Chile, Mt. Lullaillaco in Argentina, and Mt. Chachani in Peru.
Sources
NOVA has a discussion of the historically documented Tanta Carhua capacocha sacrifice in its feature Ice Mummies of the Incas.
Bray, Tamara L., et al. 2005 A compositional analysis of pottery vessels associated with the Inca ritual of capacocha. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 24(1):82-100.
Wilson, Andrew S., et al. 2007 Stable isotope and DNA evidence for ritual sequences in Inca child sacrifice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (42 ):16456-16461.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
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