In 2012, archeologists at the ancient Peruvian site of Pachacamac opened a small, hitherto undiscovered 3,000-year-old burial chamber of the pre-Incan Ychsma people. It was packed with the skeletal remains of no less than 80 mummies. The oval-shaped, 66-foot-long chamber was separated into two nested sections, full of mummies laid out in a fetal position and accompanied with strange, wooden fake heads that researchers assume were death-masks that showed the identity of the deceased.
University Libre de Bruxelles
Or ping-pong was surprisingly popular in the Ychsma afterlife.
All of this was surrounded by the remains of, yes, a dozen babies, arranged in a neat circle around the mummies. The Ychsma are not a well-known folk, so researchers are not certain what the purpose of all this was, beyond the obvious summoning of cacodemons to devour the dreams of whoever opens it.
Their best guess is that the people inside suffered from diseases, and were drawn to the site with promises of a miracle cure. When this didn't work and they passed away, they were laid to rest in this peculiar setup. It is still unclear whether the babies were also victims of the disease, or some sort of a ritual sacrifice that was supposed to ease the mummies' passage to afterlife. And to be honest, if it's the latter, we're pretty cool not knowing.
University Libre de Bruxelles
"You know what? Let's just re-bury this shit."
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