It’s a regrettable reality that there is never enough time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across. So every month, we highlight a handful of the best stories that nearly slipped through the cracks. July’s list includes outfitting cyborg cockroaches with a tiny diving suit for navigating flooded terrain; confirmation that a Medici duke died of malaria, not poisoning; the best evidence to date that Betelgeuse is orbited by a companion star; and evidence that some ancient Egyptian princesses were skilled archers.

Sacrificial Incan boy died of blunt force trauma

It’s known that the Incas practiced a human sacrifice ritual known as Capachoca, in which children were offered to the mountains and believed to become divine themselves, serving as intermediaries with the gods. This often involved pilgrimages to the remote sacrificial sites, with colonial accounts describing strangulation, asphyxiation, and blunt force trauma as the most common methods of sacrifice. Archaeologists have reanalyzed the remains of one such victim and concluded the boy died from blunt force trauma, rather than freezing to death as previously believed. They described their findings in a paper published in the journal Science Advances.

The Boy of Cerro El Plomo, as he is known, showed no evidence of freezing prior to death, or any cold-related injuries to his extremities. But there was a left frontal skin lesion and associated fracture likely suffered just before death, since there was no evidence of healing. The injury is consistent with blunt force trauma rather than an accidental fall, with a star-shaped mace being the most likely weapon. The plantar surfaces of the boy’s feet showed evidence of prolonged walking over a long distance, consistent with making a pilgrimage to a sacrificial site. CT scans showed a full stomach, suggesting the boy had feasted before the sacrificial ceremony, as well as a dilated esophagus consistent with vomiting. The latter could have been triggered by the head injury.