The remains of a pregnant woman, showing the signs of “ritual victims” discovered in Ecuador, archaeologists say

The pregnant woman believed to have lived more than a thousand years ago in the coastal region of Ecuador may have been part of a ritual victim or punishment, according to archeologists who dug her remains of 2022.

In a study he published last month on behalf of the Cambridge University Press on behalf American Archeology SocietyExperts described their analysis of the remains of a young woman in detail, called burial 10, which dated between 771 and AD 953. She was about 17 to 20 years at the time of her death, and her arms and left leg were removed at or near her death, researchers said.

Archaeologists found that her burial was significant because she was pregnant at the time. The remains of a young woman showed cranial fractures and cutting traces on hand bones, which led them to the assumption that she might have been sacrificed.

“Permurem trauma, including a fracture of cranial and cuttings on the bones of hand bones, removal of the washing machine and left legs, and the other manipulation of the body suggests that it is sacrificed, a rare event for coastal Ecuadoric peoples,” researchers wrote.

Although the human sacrifice in coastal Ecuador is rare, the positioning of the body and missing limbs suggest possible ritual significance, the study states.

Her eyes were covered with two shells shells. Nearby was a large green clay stone and several ceramic fragments at the helm, according to the study. A spondylus mascara in the form of a crescent, or a shell were found around the body.

She is also buried with pendants and beads of Spondylus, known as Chaquira, from various cultural traditions and periods.

It is believed that a woman is part of the manteño people who lived along the Ecuadoric coast and survived with agriculture and sea direction, but the concealers of the eyes were not in line with the typical burials of Manteño, researchers said. Green stone represented the connection between death and fertility for the Valdivian funeral, a different group of coastal people that preceded Manteño for almost 2000 years, experts claim. Mascara was also associated with Valdivian practices.

“To accumulate so much artifacts, it required a purposeful collection and curator before involving this burial,” the study said. “The interpretation of this burial must ultimately consider these repeated accents and relationships with the past to understand the reasons for this mysterious burial.”

The burial also included the burned offering placed in the thoracic cavity, the researchers said. However, it was revealed that such rituals appear later between 991-1025. AD 991-1025, which would indicate that the female grave was revised and possibly used for other rituals.