Inca bureaucrats recorded all the goings-on in their bustling empire using knotted cords called khipu, where the position and ...

Analysis of the hair used in a knotted device reveals the owner’s simple diet. That suggests commoners, not just the elite, kept records in Inca society.

Object Details Author Besom, Thomas 1960- Contents Symbols, ideology, ritual, and power -- Ethnohistoric data on human sacrifice and mountain worship -- The archaeological materials from Cerro ...

How did the Maya choose sacrifice victims? DNA yields new clues. How did the Maya choose sacrifice victims? DNA yields new clues. This ancient society tried to stop El Niño—with child sacrifice ...

Historians believe the group may have participated in child sacrifices as an attempt to appease their gods after heavy rains and flooding. They were conquered by the Inca just decades later.