Peru ? Peruvian archeologists have identified the earliest documented gunshot victim in the Americas, an Inca warrior who was shot by Spanish conquistadores in 1563 in the aftermath of a battle now known as the siege of Lima.

The body was one of 72 apparent victims of the uprising found in a cemetery in the Lima suburb of Puruchuco during excavations for a new road, researchers reported Tuesday.

Many of the victims, including women and children, showed signs of terrible violence, having been hacked, torn or impaled, said archeologist Guillermo Cock of Peru’s National Institute of Culture.

Spanish records indicate the battle, which occurred near the Lati Canal, took place on Wednesday, Aug. 14, as a small group of conquistadores attempted to track down a group of Inca who had fought them the day before.

The records maintain that a few hundred conquistadores, led by Francisco Pizarro, used their superior weaponry and their horses to repel an attack by tens of thousands of Inca led by Manco Yupanqui. After breaking the siege, the Spaniards tracked down and killed many of the Inca who had attacked, including the group at Puruchuco.

But the evidence casts the conquistadores in a less heroic light, Cock found. The archeological evidence makes it clear that the Spaniards were accompanied by a large group of Indians who were fighting the Inca to escape subjugation.