"Unexpected" Man Found Amid Ancient Priestesses' Tombs

[Judi Lynn]

"Unexpected" Man Found Amid Ancient Priestesses' Tombs
John Roach
for National Geographic News

September 18, 2009

In an "unexpected" discovery, a rattle-wielding elite male has been found buried among powerful priestesses of the pre-Inca Moche society in Peru, archaeologists announced Monday. (See pictures of Moche treasures from the tomb.)

Surrounded by early "smoke machines" as well as human and llama bones, the body was among several buried inside a unique double-chambered tomb that dates back to A.D. 850, said archaeologist Luis Jaime Castillo Butters, of the Catholic University of Peru in Lima.

The tomb contained a wooden coffin decorated with a copper lattice and a gilded mask, sitting on a raised platform. Inside the coffin "is where we find the main object of the burial, and that fellow is a male," Castillo said.

"After 18 years of excavation in San José de Moro, we were expecting another female," he added. "But this tends to happen —expect the unexpected."

More:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/090918-peru-tomb-moche-male-priestesses.html

[LiberalEsto]

1. Maybe he was a sacrificial king

along the lines of what Sir James Frazier wrote about in The Golden Bough.