Vikings, Inca, Chacoans
Documentary
Jell Mound, in Gjellstad Norway is a known Viking burial ground where archaeologists are using ground penetrating radar to unveil new findings every year. Vikings believed the soul needed to be freed from the body after death, but it wasn't just the soul that took flight to Valhalla. For these warring people, what did death promise? Across the great ocean explorers uncover one of the largest Incan burial sites at Ancon on the Peruvian coast where the salt content of the region prevents the decay so prevalent in other cultures. 'Juanita' the mummified teenager was sacrificed to the volcano 500 years ago. Why was she drugged with coca leaves and alcohol? And what do the sacred waters of Lake Titicaca hide and what do they tell us about the Inca? Using DNA from skeletons excavated in New Mexico more than a century ago, researchers have shown that more than a dozen people buried in a small, hidden chamber were likely members of a powerful Native American dynasty related through their mothers. Could this burial site reveal the Chacoans to be a matriarchal society?