Ancient Lightning Rituals: How Inca Child Sacrifices on Volcanoes Unleashed Mysterious Power, New Study Reveals
Ever wonder what it truly means to be “struck by lightning”? Well, for the Incas, if a child’s body was hit by a bolt atop a volcano, it was the ultimate cosmic thumbs-up — a sign the gods had accepted their sacrifice. Talk about divine validation! These kids weren’t just randomly chosen; they were seen as pure, perfect offerings, sometimes prepped for years before their final, electrifying send-off. And get this — their bodies were left on stone platforms, practically daring Zeus to strike. Lightning Girl, anyone? Ancient rituals aside, it’s wild to think that a zap from the sky was the spiritual seal of approval. If that’s not one heck of an honor, I don’t know what is. Curious to dive deeper into this shocking practice? LEARN MORE
If a child was struck by lightning, that meant the gods accepted the sacrifice.
Dagmara SochaIncas considered children to be pure, thus making them the ideal human sacrifice to offer the gods.
New research on the remains of a handful of Inca child sacrifice victims has given scientists more clues as to how this sacrificial practice was carried out, and even more information about the children themselves.
Newsweek reports that researchers believe the victims’ bodies were purposefully left on stone platforms high at the top of a volcano so that they could be struck by lightning. Whether or not a sacrificed child was hit by lightning would let the Incas know if the sacrifice was accepted by the gods.
“According to the Incas, a person struck by lightning received great honor — a god expressed interest in that person,” said Dagmara Socha, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Warsaw. She spoke with PAP, a science news outlet run by the Polish government.
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