Ancient burial site in Mexico reveals signs of incest among the elite

Power can make people do strange things. Something similar likely transpired among a pre-contact Mexican community. Paquimé is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Archaeologists dug up the remains of a child ritually sacrificed here. A DNA analysis was conducted which revealed that inbreeding likely prevailed during this time in the community but only among the elite.

The analysis showed that the parents of the boy were related to each other, and were possibly siblings.

Paquimé was inhabited by members of the Mogollon culture for over 700 years. However, it was mysteriously abandoned in the mid-15th century. The area was dug up to learn more about the societal hierarchy that was prevalent at the time.

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Human remains found at burial sites were analysed for this purpose. The dead bodies seemed to be buried according to the class of the person. Some skeletal remains found in lower layers were surrounded by goods such as hand drums and ceramics. In the higher layers, bodies hinted at the person being of ill health. Shockingly, they even possessed signs of being partially cannibalised.

The boy was also found buried at an elite burial site. He was around two to five years old at the time of death. In a 1974 study done on the remains, it was concluded that the boy was possibly sacrificed in a ritual.

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The positioning of the body suggested that he was sacrificed for a ritual to consecrate a new building.

Elite burial site

The boy's DNA was studied to understand the structure of the society. Researchers found several identical genes and alleles, and the results were published in the journal Antiquities. Jakob Sedig, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard who led the study, in a press release, said that the identical genes meant the child had parents “who were more closely related than first cousins".

Experts say that the site where the boy's remains were found, House of the Well, was likely a burial site where only local elites were buried. The scientists further wrote that he was birthed by siblings or other very close relatives belonging to a local elite family. The study further added that being born to two members of a local elite family meant their sacrifice “would have been a powerful way to consecrate the House of the Well and augment social, political, and ritual standing.

He added that they will "continue to analyse the ancient DNA of individuals from Paquimé and northern and western Mexico to help us understand how different groups moved and mixed through time.”