Large-Scale Human Sacrifice and Feasting at Sicán, Peru during the 11th-Century Mega-El Niño: A Multidisciplinary Vision

Summary

We present a multidisciplinary summary vision of the natural and cultural contexts and impacts of an 11th century mega-El Niño event and the extraordinary social responses to and consequences of it. Evidence and impacts of torrential rains and associated severe flooding dated ca. 1050 CE have been documented at multiple sites along the Peruvian coast, particularly in the Lambayeque region. The flood buried the Middle Sicán capital of Sicán with fluvial deposits 1.0 to 1.5 m thick. During this calamitous process that may have lasted many months, three episodes of large-scale human sacrifice of well over 200 individuals who were overwhelmingly healthy young to adult males took place near the center of the Gran Plaza of Sicán. There are suggestions of possible live burials. Efforts aimed at the clarification of victim identities and life histories are ongoing, however, the abundance of serving vessels and food remains indicate correspondingly large-scale feasting events that were closely associated in time and space. Resultantly, we posit that these events may have been pleas for the return of normalcy. Within a span of one or two generations, the Middle Sicán polity underwent transformations, likely triggered by adverse effects of this mega-El Niño.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20038