Archaeologists in Peru have discovered an exceptionally rich 1,400-year-old tomb belonging to a child who died before reaching the age of two.
Filled with dozens of ceramic offerings, including representations of prisoners of war and a mysterious winged deity, the burial is unlike any other child’s grave previously found at the site.
The tomb was uncovered at Huaca de la Luna, or the Temple of the Moon, part of the monumental capital of the pre-Inca Moche culture near the modern city of Trujillo on Peru’s northern coast.
Dating to around the sixth or seventh century AD, the grave contained the skeletal remains of a very young child, estimated to have been no more than two years old at the time of death.
An initial osteological examination could not determine the child’s sex.
However, the dimensions of the tomb and the extraordinary quantity and character of the objects buried alongside the body indicate that the child held unusually high status within Moche society.
The discovery is particularly remarkable because more than 80 burials have previously been excavated in this part of the archaeological complex, yet none involved a child receiving such elaborate funerary treatment.
32 ceramic offerings buried with toddler
Archaeologists discovered the grave within the Uhle Platform, a mausoleum attached to the Huaca de la Luna temple and associated with an area known as the Patio of the Serpents.
The burial chamber itself was large enough to accommodate an adult, even with the numerous offerings placed inside.
A total of 32 ceramic objects were recovered, most of them vessels.
Among the most unusual is a ceramic sculpture depicting a supernatural figure with a human-like body combined with the wings and tail of a bird.
The figure holds a shield in one hand and a goblet in the other, while two birds dressed in ceremonial clothing appear on either side.
Researchers believe the object could depict a deity undergoing a transformation rather than simply a hybrid human-bird creature.
Interpreting such imagery is difficult because the Moche did not leave behind a known written language.
Scholars consequently continue to debate the nature of Moche religion, including whether its elaborate imagery represented numerous separate gods or a smaller number of supernatural beings capable of assuming different forms.
Prisoners of war found in child’s grave
Even more puzzling are two ceramic representations of defeated warriors.
The figures are connected with a recurring theme in Moche art sometimes described as the “ritual of combat”.
Such scenes depict warriors fighting one another before the defeated individual is stripped of clothing and weapons, bound by the neck and ultimately presented for ritual sacrifice.
The two ceramic figures from the newly discovered tomb appear to represent these defeated prisoners.
Their presence in the grave of a toddler is highly unusual.
Objects included in Moche burials can sometimes reflect aspects of the deceased person’s identity or activities during life. Imagery associated with ritual combat, for example, might ordinarily be interpreted as having some connection with an adult who participated in warfare or ceremonial activities.
That explanation clearly cannot apply to a child who died before the age of two.
Archaeologist Jeffrey Rengifo-Chunga said researchers would not normally expect objects representing an adult ritual to occur in the burial of such a young child.
“This expands our knowledge on Moche funerary practices,” he said.
The discovery raises the possibility that the grave goods instead reflected the status, lineage or ritual identity of the child’s family — or beliefs concerning the child’s position within Moche society.
A child of exceptional status
The unusually large tomb provides further evidence that the child was not given an ordinary burial.
Its size, prominent location and rich assemblage of ceramics all suggest the deceased belonged to an important social group.
Exactly why such a young child received treatment normally associated with elite adults remains unclear.
Because the child had lived for such a short time, the elaborate burial may indicate that social status within Moche society could be inherited rather than acquired solely through achievements during an individual’s lifetime.
Further analysis of the skeleton and grave goods may help researchers investigate the child’s origins and the circumstances surrounding the burial.
Monumental capital of the Moche
Huaca de la Luna formed one of the two principal religious complexes of the ancient Moche capital, today known as Cerro Blanco.
Located less than five kilometres from modern Trujillo and close to Peru’s Pacific coast, the settlement flourished for centuries before the rise of the Inca Empire.
Between approximately the third and ninth centuries AD, Moche builders constructed enormous monumental platforms known as huacas using millions of adobe bricks.
Rather than remaining static, the monuments were repeatedly transformed.
Platforms were ceremonially filled in, covered with additional adobe construction and replaced by new structures built above them. Archaeologists have identified at least six major construction phases at the ancient capital.
Over time, the site developed into a monumental complex of increasingly massive platforms linked by ramps and plazas, with smaller structures surrounding the principal huacas.
The Uhle Platform where the child’s grave was discovered served as a mausoleum associated with the Temple of the Moon.
Its numerous burials have provided archaeologists with valuable evidence about Moche funerary customs and social organisation.
The newly discovered toddler, however, appears to represent something previously unseen there.
Grave goods to undergo scientific analysis
The objects recovered from the tomb have now been transferred to laboratories at the Santiago Uceda Castillo Museum in Peru.
There, specialists will conduct scientific examinations and conservation work on the ceramics and other archaeological material.
Researchers hope detailed analysis will help explain why a child who died at such a young age was buried with objects carrying powerful imagery associated with religion, warfare, captivity and sacrifice.
The artefacts are eventually expected to go on public display.
For now, the identity of the toddler remains unknown. But the elaborate grave suggests that around 1,400 years ago, the death of this very young individual carried sufficient importance for the Moche to create one of the most exceptional child burials yet discovered at Huaca de la Luna.
Sources : Huacas de Moche Archaeological Project – UNT
