Inca children were plied with cocaine, maize beer and ayahuasca before being sacrificed on mountaintops, mummies reveal

Research appearing in the journal Antiquity examined hair and nail samples taken from eight mummies retrieved from high-altitude sites in Peru and Argentina, revealing cocaine in every one of the subjects. Four of the eight had also been given Chicha — a maize-based alcohol — to dull their senses in the ritual's closing stages, while some received ayahuasca.

The ritual, known as capacocha, involved children selected for their purity and beauty, who were taken on months-long pilgrimages to remote Andean peaks above 6,000 metres.

Archaeologist Dagmara Socha of the University of Warsaw said the children were treated as 'sacred messengers who would continue to play an important role after death.'

Coca leaves likely served a practical purpose too — helping the children endure altitude sickness and exhaustion during the gruelling final ascent to the sacrifice site.