Inca llama sacrifices

[Duncan Head]

Llamas were the preferred sacrificial animals of the Inka Empire, their ritual value second only to that of human beings. Recent archaeological excavations at the Inka settlement of Tambo Viejo in the Acari Valley on the Peruvian south coast have revealed a number of ritually sacrificed llamas in a unique context. This new evidence demonstrates that the establishment of Tambo Viejo as a provincial Inka centre involved the performance of ritual practices that included the dedicatory sacrifice of domesticated animals. These rituals materialised Inka imperial ideology and ultimately enabled the legitimisation of Inka presence in a conquered location.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/oct/22/sacrificial-llamas-found-buried-in-peru-shed-light-on-incan-rituals

Original article at https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/inka-llama-offerings-from-tambo-viejo-acari-valley-peru/877DCB73D4D804EFA2574443188A79C1 - whence the quote above, and it has another picture of a cute decorated llama skull, but not free access to the full text.

[Nick Harbud]

Was that because guinea pigs were judged to be too cute for sacrifice?   

[Duncan Head]

No - guinea pigs are too well armed to mess with.

[Erpingham]

No - guinea pigs are too well armed to mess with.

They got fed up with how they were treated by the courts

"Here one of the guinea-pigs cheered, and was immediately suppressed by the officers of the court. (As that is rather a hard word, I will just explain to you how it was done. They had a large canvas bag, which tied up at the mouth with strings: into this they slipped the guinea-pig, head first, and then sat upon it.) "

[Imperial Dave]