Case file · Sacred site
The child of Cerro El Plomo
In 1954 muleteers found the frozen body of an Inca boy, about eight years old, near the 5,400-metre summit of Cerro El Plomo above Santiago, sacrificed in a capacocha ritual around 1500.
1500 CE · -33.24, -70.21 · status: official
The account
He was buried seated, wearing fine clothes and accompanied by figurines and offerings. He is held by Chile's National Museum of Natural History. The year used is the approximate date of the ritual.
The sceptical view
A documented archaeological find; how the ritual was carried out is reconstructed from Spanish accounts and the burial itself.