The retrieval of some strange buried gem in Lake Titicaca uncovered two small offering in a carve stone corner in the shape of a atomic number 79 foil object and a llama made of racing shell . publish in the journalAntiquity , the discovery reveals that the valuable materials contained within the box were most likely an offering leave as part of an Inca ritual , similar to those found at the site ofhuman sacrifice .
The llama is carved from a spondylus shell , a group of thorny oysters with spiky shell , which had long been an object of long - distance trade even before the Inca period . As Christophe Delaere , a next-to-last enquiry fellow from the Université libre de Bruxelles , Belgium , explain in an electronic mail to IFLScience , spondylus was a rare material that was reckon all the more valuable if it was transformed into an object , such as the llama , as this was strictly controlled by the Inca elite making it a worthy offer for ritual and ceremony .
The llama was go back by divers who retrieved the seal stone box from the lake ’s bottom and was largely still entire although electric current had eat at one side . Inside , beneath a layer of silt that had filtered in the ancient container , was the llama and a rolling of gold hydrofoil . Similar Oliver Stone boxes have been found before but most had n’t stay sealed and were found empty , score this treasure chest a particularly exciting discovery . So why did this one remain shut ? " There are two ground for this , " Delaere differentiate IFLScience . " The K’akaya site has never been looted , and the K’akaya site suffer much less from the lake ’s weather . All the conditions were present at K’akaya to bump the offering entire . "
" The cap was tightly seal but it was not body of water - tight so when we discovered the box , Christophe and I had to actually micro - excavate it until we find the two miniature offerings , " said José M. Capriles , supporter professor of anthropology at Penn State , US , in an email to IFLScience . " Within the accumulated sediment there were even bantam fish bones suggesting small organism did get inside . The preservation of both material however is striking because both Au and shell ( calcium carbonate ) do not corrode or moulder under water . "
The llama , found on Lake Titicaca ’s K’akaya reef , joins a mounting body of grounds that South America’slargest lake was a focus of ceremonyfor the Inca . In 1977 , some broken object believe to be part of bid package were dredged up near the Island of the Sun by amateur loon . Then in 1988 and 1992 , professional divers excavated the Khoa reef and incur like Inca stone boxes containing small figures . Further object have been discovered both on demesne and in water in other parts of what used to be the Inca Empire , but the researchers trust Lake Titicaca was of peculiar meaning to the conglomerate .
" One of the goal of our subaquatic archaeological survey was to identify the being of standardized sites and to our surprisal we found at least one,“saidDelaere . " It presents not only one of the uncommon entire uncovering of an Inca subaqueous offering , but also that it was found at another spot in the lake , which has an authoritative implication for understanding the human relationship between the expanding Inca empire , the local community who lived in the lake , and Lake Titicaca itself prior to European contact .
" The inland submerged world remains largely undiscovered and offers prominent opportunity to sympathize prehistorical fellowship . The submerged inheritance of Lake Titicaca still has many surprisal to reveal . "
