archaeologists in Peru have discovered
the nearly 500 year old skeleton of a
man who died in a surprisingly modern
way from a gunshot wound to the head a
team of experts believes the man is the
first documented victim of a shooting in
the New World the skeleton was uncovered
by a team of archaeologists headed by
Guillermo a National Geographic
Society grantee who began excavating
this ancient Inca cemetery in 2004 the
Inca once ruled the entire Andes region
until they were conquered by the Spanish
in the 1530s the scientists realized the
cemetery was unusual when they found
bodies buried in unexpected ways it was
evident that they didn’t follow the
variant which they were without not the
proper offerings now the question is why
these individuals have been buried in
such an unusual with many of the bones
revealed fractures puncture wounds and
signs of violent death one skull stood
out marked with what appeared to be the
entrance wound from a musket ball what’s
especially exceptional about this is not
only that we have in fact the entrance
wound but also that I recovered the plug
bone that actually was in this position
on the inside of skull to test their
theory the team x-ray the skull
searching for the metal fragments a
musket ball would leave behind when the
x-ray came up negative the scientist
turned to a more sensitive tool a
scanning electron microscope hit pay
dirt revealing bits of iron embedded in
the bone
it appeared that as the musket ball
punched into the back of the skull and
passed through the head it left iron
fragments deep inside the bone which
stayed there for some 500 years
Guillermo believes the wound and
the hastily buried bodies in the
cemetery point to one conclusion the
victim was killed by a Spanish
conquistador wielding a primitive gun
called an arquebus the inca battled the
spanish outside lima in 1536 near the
site of the graveyard believes that
the bodies buried there are the first
ever forensic remains from the battles
of Spanish conquest
the nearly 500 year old skeleton of a
man who died in a surprisingly modern
way from a gunshot wound to the head a
team of experts believes the man is the
first documented victim of a shooting in
the New World the skeleton was uncovered
by a team of archaeologists headed by
Guillermo a National Geographic
Society grantee who began excavating
this ancient Inca cemetery in 2004 the
Inca once ruled the entire Andes region
until they were conquered by the Spanish
in the 1530s the scientists realized the
cemetery was unusual when they found
bodies buried in unexpected ways it was
evident that they didn’t follow the
variant which they were without not the
proper offerings now the question is why
these individuals have been buried in
such an unusual with many of the bones
revealed fractures puncture wounds and
signs of violent death one skull stood
out marked with what appeared to be the
entrance wound from a musket ball what’s
especially exceptional about this is not
only that we have in fact the entrance
wound but also that I recovered the plug
bone that actually was in this position
on the inside of skull to test their
theory the team x-ray the skull
searching for the metal fragments a
musket ball would leave behind when the
x-ray came up negative the scientist
turned to a more sensitive tool a
scanning electron microscope hit pay
dirt revealing bits of iron embedded in
the bone
it appeared that as the musket ball
punched into the back of the skull and
passed through the head it left iron
fragments deep inside the bone which
stayed there for some 500 years
Guillermo believes the wound and
the hastily buried bodies in the
cemetery point to one conclusion the
victim was killed by a Spanish
conquistador wielding a primitive gun
called an arquebus the inca battled the
spanish outside lima in 1536 near the
site of the graveyard believes that
the bodies buried there are the first
ever forensic remains from the battles
of Spanish conquest
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