Example of "human intelligence" which "can't be matched by robots".
Children were fattened for Incan sacrifice
Their diet became protein-rich a year before they died on Andean peaks, a study of four frozen
mummies reveals.
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 6, 2007
Like cattle being prepared for slaughter, some peasant children taken by the Inca were fattened up for
months before being ritually sacrificed to the gods, a sequence of events calculated both to elevate the
victims' value to the gods and to strike fear into subjugated peoples, British researchers reported this
week.
Beginning about a year before the sacrifice, the children's diets were switched from their normal fare of
potatoes and similar vegetables to one rich in corn and meat, a change typically associated with
elevation of status from peasant to elite, according to archeologist Andrew S. Wilson of the University of
Bradford in England.