the first victim

Archaeologists have uncovered the human skeleton of what appears to be the earliest known gunshot victim in the New World. The skeleton was found in an Inca cemetery outside Lima, Peru.

Digging in an Inca cemetery in the suburbs of Lima, they came on well-preserved remains of an individual with holes less than an inch in diameter in the back and front of the skull. Forensic scientists in Connecticut said the position of the round holes and some minuscule iron particles showed that the person most likely was shot and killed by a Spanish musket ball.

Ceramics and other artifacts in the 72 examined graves established the approximate time of the burials, archaeologists said, and this indicated that these were casualties of combat between Inca warriors and Spanish invaders, who seized the Andean empire in 1532. Spanish chronicles describe a pitched battle, a last stand of the Incas that was fought in the vicinity in 1536.

Conquistadors were equipped with some of the first effective firearms, which had been developed recently in Europe, military historians say.

The National Geographic Society announced yesterday the discovery of the gunshot victim by the independent Peruvian archaeologists Guillermo Cock and Elena Goycochea, who have conducted research at the Puruchuco cemetery for years. A Nova-National Geographic television program on the research is scheduled for next Tuesday.

The fact that Incan remains were found in a European-style cemetery is in itself evidence of subjugation. The Incas left their dead in a crouching position, facing northeast, in a rock niche or similar opening, so the soul could be carried to the next life by a condor-shaped god. Catholic missionaries ordered those types of burial sites destroyed, and forced the Incas to bury their dead underground, in prone position. In the Incan belief system, this destroyed a person's chance for passage into the next life. Nothing spells subjugation like an eternity without peace.

More from the New York Times story:

Dr. Cock said that at least 35 of the excavated skeletons bore evidence of violent injuries: cheekbones crushed by heavy blows, broken hands and limbs, a smashed chest. Some had presumably fallen in hand-to-hand combat or been trampled by Spanish horses, another instrument of warfare new to the Americas.

No similar evidence of a death by gunshot this early has been found elsewhere in the Americas, Dr. Cock said. The musket shot appeared to have entered the back of the man's skull, punching a piece of bone from outside to inside, and emerged through the face.

"The individual may have been escaping from the Europeans," the archaeologist said.

These particular graves attracted the attention of the excavators because they were shallow and the bodies appeared to have been interred hastily. They were not ritually wrapped in shrouds and placed in a crouched position facing northeast, as was customary in Inca burials.

Forensic experts at the University of New Haven, in Connecticut, confirmed the violent nature of the deaths. Albert B. Harper, executive director of the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science at the university, said, "We tried to rule out all kinds of causes of the hole — a rock from a slingshot, spear, sledgehammer."

An examination of the skull with a scanning electron microscope detected the otherwise invisible iron traces, Dr. Harper said, sealing the verdict of death by a musket ball fired from a range of perhaps 100 feet.

I think forensic archaeology is fascinating. The same experts have been called upon to determine cause of death in modern exterminations on the same continent.

The remains of this earliest gunshot victim was found outside Lima, the capital of modern Peru. The Incan capital was Cuzco. In Cuzco, you can see the original Inca stone foundations of the city, which have survived in near-perfect condition through centuries of earthquakes and attempted human destruction. You may recall how these stones blew me away last spring. They were among the most astounding human creations I have ever seen.

Slightly over 100 kilometres away in Machu Picchu, you can see the remains of a glorious Incan city that the Spanish never found, an absolute wonder of human ingenuity, engineering, industry, heartbreak and loss.