Archaeologists tell of sacrifices to stop El Niño

             By FABIOLA PUERTA
             Agence France-Presse

             LIMA, Peru -- Ancient civilizations that once inhabited what is now Peru made
             human sacrifices to the gods in an attempt to stop the same devastating El
             Niño-related weather patterns that are currently wreaking havoc here, specialists
             say.

             Three times between 400 and 650 the El Niño phenomenon battered northern Peru,
             sweeping away adobe homes, wiping out crops and destroying irrigation systems.

             The most destructive El Niño is believed to have occurred in 1100, eradicating the
             Lambayeque civilization with rainstorms, archaeologist Walter Alva said.

             In its latest manifestation, El Niño has killed dozens of Peruvians and destroyed
             thousands of homes over the last year.

             But in Peru's early civilizations, leaders sought to appease angry gods by sacrificing
             ``the best of the society: males between 14 and 35 years old, able to work the fields
             and fight,'' according to archaeologist Santiago Uceda.

             Unlike rituals to honor the gods of fertility or the earth, El Niño sacrifices were
             extremely cruel, because according to Moche beliefs, the more the victims suffered
             the happier the gods would be.

             Men ``had their throats slit, they were quartered and their bodies were exposed,''
             Uceda told AFP by telephone from the Moche archaeological site 350 miles north of
             Lima.

             The blood, he said, was offered to local deities such as ``the Beheader,'' the sun, and
             the moon ``to restore the altered order.''

             The Beheader, a common figure in Moche iconography, acted as an intermediary
             between human beings and the gods. He was often pictured with a knife in one hand
             and a severed head in the other.

             At the Moche archaeological site, near the city of Trujillo, excavations led by Uceda
             and Canadian Steve Bourget since 1994 uncovered evidence of 94 human sacrifices.