00:00:02the nearly 500 year old skeleton of a
00:00:05man who died in a surprisingly modern
00:00:07way from a gunshot wound to the head a
00:00:10team of experts believes the man is the
00:00:13first documented victim of a shooting in
00:00:16the New World the skeleton was uncovered
00:00:19by a team of archaeologists headed by
00:00:21Guillermo a National Geographic
00:00:23Society grantee who began excavating
00:00:26this ancient Inca cemetery in 2004 the
00:00:30Inca once ruled the entire Andes region
00:00:32until they were conquered by the Spanish
00:00:34in the 1530s the scientists realized the
00:00:38cemetery was unusual when they found
00:00:40bodies buried in unexpected ways it was
00:00:44evident that they didn’t follow the
00:00:45variant which they were without not the
00:00:50proper offerings now the question is why
00:00:53these individuals have been buried in
00:00:56such an unusual with many of the bones
00:00:59revealed fractures puncture wounds and
00:01:01signs of violent death one skull stood
00:01:06out marked with what appeared to be the
00:01:08entrance wound from a musket ball what’s
00:01:11especially exceptional about this is not
00:01:14only that we have in fact the entrance
00:01:17wound but also that I recovered the plug
00:01:20bone that actually was in this position
00:01:24on the inside of skull to test their
00:01:27theory the team x-ray the skull
00:01:30searching for the metal fragments a
00:01:32musket ball would leave behind when the
00:01:35x-ray came up negative the scientist
00:01:37turned to a more sensitive tool a
00:01:39scanning electron microscope hit pay
00:01:41dirt revealing bits of iron embedded in
00:01:44the bone
00:01:49it appeared that as the musket ball
00:01:52punched into the back of the skull and
00:01:53passed through the head it left iron
00:01:56fragments deep inside the bone which
00:01:59stayed there for some 500 years
00:02:02Guillermo believes the wound and
00:02:05the hastily buried bodies in the
00:02:06cemetery point to one conclusion the
00:02:10victim was killed by a Spanish
00:02:11conquistador wielding a primitive gun
00:02:14called an arquebus the inca battled the
00:02:18spanish outside lima in 1536 near the
00:02:21site of the graveyard believes that
00:02:24the bodies buried there are the first
00:02:26ever forensic remains from the battles
00:02:28of Spanish conquest
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