The victim had his neck literally "wrapped" and his spinal cord ripped off

In the course of the colonialism debate, people have lost sight of the fact that the indigenous civilizations of Central and South America were also characterized by a fair amount of violence. This is not only proven by the news about numerous wars and the finds of human sacrifices that archaeologists have been able to prove in the meantime. Even in everyday life, people were apparently not squeamish with each other, as an international research team has now discovered.

The scientists examined three mummies from pre-Columbian America, around a thousand years old, that are kept in European museums. Using a special X-ray procedure, it was possible to prove in the 3D computer tomograph that two of the three individuals were victims of brutal violence. The team has now presented the results of the analyzes in the specialist publication "Frontiers in Medicine".

One of the mummies examined comes from the "Museum Anatomicum" of the Philipps University of Marburg. It is a young man of about 20 to 25 years. The scientists were able to reconstruct how he died: an attacker hit the victim in the head with full force, the same or a second attacker stabbed the man, who was still standing or kneeling, in the back with a kind of stone or obsidian dagger. The blow hit the abdominal artery accurately and caused the victim to bleed dry.

"The sting, the way it was performed, shows that the perpetrator must have had a high level of knowledge of the anatomy and the effect," says Andreas Nerlich, co-author and head of pathology at Munich's Bogenhausen Clinic. It is a procedure "as known from ritual slaughtering of animals". This is the first time a South American mummy has been killed in this way.

In the case of the second man too – the mummy, like that of a woman, came from the Delémont History Museum in Switzerland – the perpetrator had good anatomical knowledge: the victim’s neck was literally “wrapped” and the spinal cord was torn off by massive displacement of the cervical vertebrae.

The female mummy from Delémont also had significant injuries. However, based on the forensic investigations, the scientists conclude that the woman probably died of natural causes.

"The types of injuries we found would not have been detectable if these human remains were mere skeletons," says Nerlich. The CT scans with the possibility of 3D reconstruction offer unique insights into the body. Previously, for such a study, the mummy would have had to be destroyed; With conventional X-rays or older CT scans, such a detailed diagnosis is not possible.

Nerlich does not want to rule out that the two men fell victim to ritual murders. Because both were buried with grave goods. This would point to human sacrifice, which was found to be excessive not only among the Aztecs but also among other pre-Columbian cultures. However, the perpetrators and motives in the case of the two mummies investigated remain in the dark. The question after that could possibly be clarified by further finds, it is said.

Numerous new studies also show that violence was apparently the order of the day in South America a good thousand years ago. For example, 194 bodies recovered from a burial ground in northern Chile were recently examined. Twenty-one percent of the adults, mostly males, had typical evidence of serious injuries apparently resulting from intergroup fighting. Half of the wounds may have been fatal.

You can also find "World History" on Facebook. We are happy about a like.