Archaeologists uncover 500-year-old Inca children's skeletons showing evidence of smallpox

by Dario Radley June 15, 2024

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of smallpox in the remains of two toddlers buried in a 16th-century cemetery in Huanchaco, a small fishing town on the northwest coast of Peru.

The cemetery, associated with one of the earliest colonial churches built by the Spanish between 1535 and 1540, revealed 120 burials representing the early-colonial population. Among these, a significant 75% were children, with 67% of them being 5 years old or younger. This high number of child burials is strongly suggestive of a novel disease affecting a particularly vulnerable segment of the population with developing immune systems, the researchers noted in their study.
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The study, published in the June issue of the International Journal of Paleopathology, highlights the remains of two children, approximately 18 months old at the time of their deaths. Their skeletons exhibited numerous destructive lesions in joints such as the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. These lesions, resembling moth-eaten holes, are consistent with osteomyelitis variolosa, a bone infection triggered by the smallpox virus.

These cases represent the earliest known instances of osteomyelitis variolosa in South America, a notable discovery given the numerous smallpox outbreaks that occurred after European contact. According to the study, the rate of skeletal changes in children younger than 5 who contract smallpox ranges from 5% to 20%. This suggests that many archaeological cases of smallpox remain unidentified.

More:
https://archaeologymag.com/2024/06/inca-childrens-skeletons-with-evidence-of-smallpox/

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The Spanish invaders saved the more spectacular forms of killing for the leaders, as in burning them at the stake, or torturing them, cutting out their tongues, removing their heads, or drawing and quartering, as in having them pulled apart in the city square by soldiers on horses tying their arms and legs and ripping them apart among them, as they did with Tupac Amaru. After mutilating them, they threw their body parts throughout the city, and repeated the monstrous crime with their families.

The common people were used as slaves for the benefit Spanish invaders.

The hatred toward the indigenous by the ruling class has remained in place throughout the Americas.

I would suspect the hatred is inherited guilt.