Two Inca Toddlers Were Found To Be Infected With Smallpox, As Well As A Rare Bone Infection Caused By The Virus
In 2016, archaeologists were conducting excavations at a 16th-century cemetery in the small fishing town of Huanchaco, which is located on the northwest coast of Peru, when they stumbled across the skeleton of an Inca toddler who seemed to have died from smallpox. Three years later, in 2019, they unearthed another Inca toddler afflicted with smallpox.
The Spanish built the cemetery between 1535 and 1540. It features 120 burials from the early days of their arrival.
Of the 120 burials, 90 were children, and 60 were under the age of five. Researchers think that the high number of child burials indicates that the disease was especially devastating for the most vulnerable members of the population.
When the researchers analyzed the children’s bones, they found evidence of osteomyelitis variolosa, a rare bone infection caused by the smallpox virus. They are the first cases of osteomyelitis variolosa to be identified in South America.
“We can guess that it is possible after the symptoms started, that they lived with smallpox for a few weeks…because there was enough time for the bones to become severely infected,” said Khrystyne Tschinkel, the lead author of the study and a bioarchaeologist at Hamline University in Minnesota.
The remains of the two toddlers showed signs of destructive lesions triggered by osteomyelitis variolosa.
Additionally, the researchers discovered reed crosses buried with the kids, suggesting that the deceased had converted to Christianity with the arrival of the Spanish. Whether their change in religion was forced or voluntary is unclear.
The smallpox virus has been around for at least 3,000 years. Even ancient Egyptian mummies have shown signs of the disease.
Throughout history, the illness has killed millions of people, but experts still don’t know much about how it spread. The new discoveries can help them learn more about the history of smallpox in the New World.
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“Currently, there is a lack of reliable data on disease origins, spread, and their impact on specific Indigenous populations in North and South America. Additionally, we have a limited understanding of early colonialism and the period before the time of reducciónes,” Tschinkel stated.
Smallpox was brought to the region by Spanish colonizers when they arrived in the New World in 1492.
The disease quickly spread to the Indigenous populations and wiped out their communities. In Peru, the Indigenous groups there experienced similar fates.
The Spanish arrived in Peru in 1526. By 1620, about 70 percent of the Inca population died from smallpox.
Most of the victims did not suffer from bone degradation due to the virus, which has made it difficult for researchers to determine which bodies had succumbed to smallpox.
This makes the recent discoveries of the Inca toddlers extremely significant in terms of understanding the spread of smallpox throughout early colonial Peru.
“What we can say is that there was likely a smallpox outbreak in Huanchaco around 1540, and if it was happening there, it was likely it was also happening nearby. It is a small piece to the puzzle, and I hope to continue to add more pieces,” Tschinkel said.
The study was published in the International Journal of Paleopathology.
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