Children's remains are placed on top of a volcano to withstand lightning strikes

The Incas once brought the bodies of sacrificed children to the volcano with the idea that being struck by lightning meant that the gods were satisfied.

Archaeological team studying the remains of 500-year-old children sacrificed on the peaks of volcanoes Ampato and Pichu Pichu of the Andes, IFL Science reported on September 24. They found many remains have been hit by lightning.

The remains of children were sacrificed atop a volcano 500 years ago.(Photo: Dagmara Socha).

This is no coincidence. Most likely after the sacrifice, the baby's body is brought to the top of the mountain or volcano, placed on a rock and left to wait for lightning. The Incas placed these special flat slabs at places where lightning was frequently hit. Some stones have traces of lightning struck several times.

Lightning hit means the gods are satisfied with the sacrifices."According to the Inca culture, the person struck by the lightning receives a great honor because the gods show interest in that person," said Dagmara Socha, an archaeologist at the University of Warsaw.

Thunderstorms are not uncommon on the high peaks of the Andes. The Incas consider this place sacred and associated with the gods, such as the weather god Illapa. The sacrifices in this situation showed that they regarded lightning and children as an intermediary between gods and humans."The Incas believe that children are whole and pure, they will help persuade the gods to make concrete decisions , " Socha added.

One of the most famous examples of this sacrificial method is the "clay girl" remains. Experts found this and many other children's remains on the top of Llullaillaco, Argentina, in 1999. It was a 6-year-old girl with a conspicuous wound from lightning on her face and shoulders after her death. The girl's skull was also deliberately extended by the method of bundling head, ancient customs used to show social status, existed in many parts of the world.

The new study also reveals information about the lives of sacrificed children. The changing tooth enamel structure indicates that a girl has been starving for a long time, or undergoing an extremely stressful period at 2-3 years old."I think maybe then the girl was separated from her parents and taken to Cuzco, the capital Inca, began 3 years of preparation to sacrifice at the top of the volcano," Socha said.