Benin, a small West African country along the Gulf of Guinea, is the historical birthplace of one of the world’s oldest religions: voodoo. This animistic religion has roots that trace back thousands of years, but it’s closely associated with the Kingdom of Dahomey, a West African state that existed from 1600 CE until 1904. The kingdom’s twelve kings ruled from Abomey—a city northeast of the present-day capital of Porto-Novo—and while Dahomey was known for its militaristic culture, the kingdom’s ninth ruler, Ghezo (sometimes spelled Gezo), developed a particularly bloodthirsty reputation.
Dahomey’s leader from 1818to 1852, Ghezo’s decor matched his militaristic ambitions. The alley leading to his hut was supposedly paved with skulls and his throne rested on the bones of his enemies. Legend says that even funerary huts inside Ghezo’s palace (part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site) were constructed using mortar derived from the blood of 41 sacrificial victims (41 is an important number in voodoo). Now, French archeologists have put the myth to the scientific test, and it turns out the legends are true. The results of the study were published last week in the journal Proteomics.
We conceived an original strategy to analyze the proteins present on minute amounts of the cladding sampled from the inner facade of the cenotaph wall and establish their origin,” the authors wrote in the study. “Several indicators attested to the presence of traces of human and poultry blood in the material taken.”
These two funerary structures were originally erected to remember Ghezo’s father and previous king, Adandozan. The researchers note that the building was strange for its choice of materials—instead of the usual mortar found in similar buildings, these structures used red oil and lustral water mixed with human blood that was likely obtained from enslaved peoples or captives of enemy populations. The researchers used a method known as metaproteomics, which studies protein samples recovered from specific environments, and reached their grisly conclusion using nucleic acid sequencing. This uncovered that both human and chicken hemoglobin and immunoglobulin could be found in the building’s binding materials.
This insightful metaproteomics analysis of a wall sample from a royal tomb made it possible to confirm not only the presence of human blood, but also to reconstruct entire sections of the ritual of consecration and/or maintenance of vitality corresponding to voodoo beliefs,” the paper states. “The detection of specific proteins such as those indicating the presence of blood is a strength of the approach, a result that cannot be obtained by metagenomics.”
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Dahomey’s leader from 1818to 1852, Ghezo’s decor matched his militaristic ambitions. The alley leading to his hut was supposedly paved with skulls and his throne rested on the bones of his enemies. Legend says that even funerary huts inside Ghezo’s palace (part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site) were constructed using mortar derived from the blood of 41 sacrificial victims (41 is an important number in voodoo). Now, French archeologists have put the myth to the scientific test, and it turns out the legends are true. The results of the study were published last week in the journal Proteomics.
We conceived an original strategy to analyze the proteins present on minute amounts of the cladding sampled from the inner facade of the cenotaph wall and establish their origin,” the authors wrote in the study. “Several indicators attested to the presence of traces of human and poultry blood in the material taken.”
These two funerary structures were originally erected to remember Ghezo’s father and previous king, Adandozan. The researchers note that the building was strange for its choice of materials—instead of the usual mortar found in similar buildings, these structures used red oil and lustral water mixed with human blood that was likely obtained from enslaved peoples or captives of enemy populations. The researchers used a method known as metaproteomics, which studies protein samples recovered from specific environments, and reached their grisly conclusion using nucleic acid sequencing. This uncovered that both human and chicken hemoglobin and immunoglobulin could be found in the building’s binding materials.
This insightful metaproteomics analysis of a wall sample from a royal tomb made it possible to confirm not only the presence of human blood, but also to reconstruct entire sections of the ritual of consecration and/or maintenance of vitality corresponding to voodoo beliefs,” the paper states. “The detection of specific proteins such as those indicating the presence of blood is a strength of the approach, a result that cannot be obtained by metagenomics.”
A Chilling Discovery Suggests This King Built Funerary Huts With Blood From 41 Sacrifice Victims
One of history’s most ruthless leaders wasn’t messing around.
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