Andean Archaeology (Other Keyword)
1-24 (24 Records)
In the Early Intermediate Period (AD 1-700) there was a notable development of belief systems or "ideologies of power." These systems reinforced and naturalized the relations of the dominant classes over the less important social groups. The use of ideology to exert control is an efficient tool, especially when applied to concepts of life and death. Funerary practices effectively serve to promote social cohesion, whether related to kinship ties or political and economic means. The intent of...
Andean Ontologies: An Introduction to the Substance (2016)
In the last decade a number of studies have been published focusing on the way Andean peoples both in the past and present, describe and define their world and its relational elements. These ontologies are derived from anthropology, ethnohistory and ethnography. Most of them intend to reconstruct the worldview of these social groups with different results. In this paper I summarize the main trends related to ontologies developed for Andean societies, especially those used to explain pre-Hispanic...
An approach to the tombs and rituals in Area 49 in San José de Moro. (2015)
San José de Moro (SJM) is one of the most important Moche cemeteries studied in the North Coast of Peru. It is recognized by the presence of several elite tombs and strong evidence of rituals that took place along these burials. SJM also has a proper style of potter manufacture which is easily differentiated from southern styles. It is important to mention that the Moche society was divided in those who inhabited the north and south areas of their territory. In this context, during the last...
A Bayesian Approach to the Interpretation of Andean Faunal Assemblages (2017)
Zooarchaeology offers a rich source of data for exploring a number of important questions, from domestication and subsistence to ritual practices and political economy. However, issues of equifinality frequently arise, making it difficult to interpret faunal assemblages as different agents and processes may create similar archaeological signatures. Researchers are often forced to make subjective choices when suggesting preferred explanations for their data. Such approaches are subject to human...
THE BODY AND THE ANCESTOR: COMPARING EVIDENCE OF INDIVIDUAL BIOGRAPHY AND SOCIAL REPRESENTATION AT PARACAS NECROPOLIS (2015)
Until recently, our understanding of Paracas Necropolis was based on objects divorced form their contextual data. Research in archives and museum collections has allowed us to re-link object with context, and a complete restudy has been carried out for some gravelots. In these cases, systematic bioanthropological observations have provided more reliable and more detailed information on the persons at the center of the mortuary bundle. Age and biological sex have been re-evaluated based on...
Breaking Down the East-West Dichotomy: Toward an Understanding of Intercultural Interactions in the Saipurú Region under the Inkas (2015)
In the last decades prior to the Spanish conquest, the Inka Empire expanded its frontiers into the ethnically and culturally diverse region of the Bolivian Chaco, ushering in a brief period of limited colonial control over its indigenous inhabitants. In a geographically isolated area far from the imperial heartland, the Inkas and their imperial allies established settlements in the vicinity of Saipurú; in this context, several disparate highland and lowland cultures met, interacted, and created...
The Development of Andean Textile Dying Technology (2016)
Textiles have always had great social significance in the Andes. They were used to expressed identity and power as well as position and function within society. Intensive investment in textile technologies yielded some of the best such artifacts of the ancient world. While spinning and weaving produced fine garments, it was colors—achieved primarily through the use of brilliant organic dyes—that constituted the major visual qualities of Andean textiles. A limited number of studies exist that...
Discerning Site Distribution and Settlement Patterns in Andahuaylas (Apurimac), Peru (2016)
Archaeological scholarship in the Andahuaylas region of south-central highland Peru has documented the presence of three critical cultural occupations: Wari, Chanka, and Inka (ca. AD 700-1400). Previous investigations claim that environmental change may have influenced collapse and played a decisive role in resettlement patterns. Using spatial data from 86 surveyed sites, this study investigates how state collapse, reorganization, and environmental transformations influenced settlement patterns...
Discerning Site Distribution and Settlement Patterns in Andahuaylas (Apurimac), Peru (2015)
In the Andahuaylas region located in the southern central highlands of Peru, archaeologists have documented the presence of three critical cultural occupations: Wari, Chanka, and Inka (ca. AD 700-1400). Previous investigations claim that environmental change may have influenced collapse and played a decisive role in resettlement patterns. Using spatial data from 86 surveyed sites, this study investigates how state collapse, reorganization, and environmental transformations influenced settlement...
Drones, Photogrammetry and 3d Modeling in Peruvian Archaeology (2017)
Air photography, using Drones and 2D/3D Models produced with Photogramettry, is changing the way we do field archaeology. This technology also can be a powerful tool in telling a story about the sites and the work that we, as archaeologists, do there. However, several technological adaptations have to be developed in order to take full advantage of these new technologies. In this paper, we will walk you through the process of combining air and ground based 3D modeling along the North Coast of...
Entangled Encounters in the Wari World: Coast-Highland Interactions during the Middle Horizon as revealed by the archaeological and bioarchaeological investigations in the Castillo de Huarmey, North-Central Coast of Peru (2015)
Wari (600-1050 AD) was the first pre-Hispanic political organization that succeeded in the consolidation of vast lands in the central Andes into one multi-ethnic, cultural, and linguistic realm, creating the conditions of a mini world system. The products and networks of exchange connected heterogeneous populations from distinct parts of the empire, which political complexity was reflected in a variety of styles, due to the co-existence of local traditions, with production that imitated foreign...
Facial Asymmetry: Bio-indicators of stress in post-Wari populations (2015)
The role of climatic conditions on sociopolitical systems has been a highly discussed theme in archaeology. Over the past decade, archaeology has had great advancement in the realms of method and theory which have facilitated interpretations of environmental influences on social development. This paper presents research that investigates the biological responses to either environmental or social stresses to help elucidate how ancient Andean populations coped during periods of climatic...
Identity, Residential Mobility and Anthropogenic Lead in early colonial Huamanga (Ayacucho), Peru (2017)
La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús de Huamanga, the earliest Jesuit church in modern-day Ayacucho, Peru, was built in AD 1605 near the main plaza. Famous for its baroque art, this standing church is in need of extensive renovations. In a partial restoration in 2008, an archaeological excavation uncovered human and faunal remains underneath the church floor proper, and underneath the floors of associated chapels. Upon examination, only indigenous individuals appear to be buried underneath the...
Is it a Priestess? Preliminary analysis of the excavations of a Late Moche Chamber Tomb from San Jose de Moro, North Coast of Peru (2015)
San Jose de Moro, located in the North Coast of Peru, is a well-known ceremonial site where ritual practices were held over a span of 1000 years. This, in relation with the burial of high rank individuals whom are believed to have performed important roles within the Moche society, especially during the Late Moche Period, places this site as one of high importance for the understanding of the Moche society along its region. This paper will present the results of excavations held in 2013, when we...
Lamb of God: Caprine use in a Jesuit Church in Early Colonial Ayacucho, Peru (2016)
Known as La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesus de Huamanga, the earliest Jesuit church in Ayacucho, Peru was built in 1605 directly off the main plaza. While famous for its baroque art, this standing church with a practicing congregation is in need of extensive renovations. As one of the first steps in a planned future restoration project, archaeological salvage was conducted in 2008, and uncovered human and faunal remains underneath the church floor, which were associated with various ceramic,...
Molding in Ceramic Production: Challenging Pervasive Views (2016)
The use of one or more pairs of concave molds has been a major ceramic formation method throughout much of the world. This method has traditionally been seen as a rational solution to efficiently producing a large number of standardized products. This paper questions these views as being overly generalized or untenable in terms of data from excavated ceramic workshops and examination of products pertaining to Mochica and Sicán cultures on Peru's north coast and to the persistent figurine...
Open Space and Restricted Action: Analysis of Intra-site Networks of Movement at Wimba, in the Northeastern Peruvian Montane Forest (2017)
In an area that has been considered marginal both geographically and in the narrative of South American prehistory, new research shows extensive settlement, landscape modification, and interaction between inhabitants of the eastern slopes of the Andes and their neighbors. The site of Wimba, located in the Amazonas department, in the northeastern Peruvian montaña – the tropical montane forest between the highland Andes and lowland Amazonian rainforest – is one of the best known archaeological...
Research on a Dog Burial from Rio Muerto, Peru (2015)
This poster presentation examines the place of the dog in the ancient Andean society of Tiwanaku. The mummified remains of a small dog were recovered from a domestic context at the Rio Muerto site, located in the Osmore River drainage of far southern Peru. Although dog burials in Peru are not unusual, they appear mostly in high-status contexts in art and in mortuary practice. Offerings of young camelids and dogs have been found buried beneath floors and entryways of houses at Rio Muerto M43 and...
Revealing Pre-Columbian Bundles: Collaborative Student-Faculty Research at the Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit College (2016)
Recent research at the Logan Museum of Anthropology combines student and faculty expertise with archaeometric methods to reveal new information about coastal pre-Columbian Andean collections brought to the museum in the early- to mid-twentieth century. With student collaborators we scanned a possible “bird mummy” with computed tomography to reveal that there was no avian body but rather a complex suite of offerings within its cloth wrapping. They included maize cobs, shell, and other materials....
Ritual violence or simply ritual? Evaluating the evidence for child sacrifice in Late Formative Period Peru (2017)
Highland mortuary practices during the Andean Late Formative Period (900–500 BC) in Ancash, Peru are poorly understood, in part because burials from this period are rarely encountered. Excavations conducted in 2009 at the archaeological site of Hualcayán uncovered a primary interment of a juvenile aged 5-6 years at time of death, dated in the range 806–540 calBC. The individual was buried with a necklace strung with bone and shell beads and bone spoons. Bioarchaeological analyses indicate the...
Ritualistic Nature of Juvenile Interments, Cosma Archaeological Complex, Ancash, Perú (2016)
Research exploring mortuary treatments, morbidity, and trauma among juveniles has largely been left out of bioarchaeological discussions due to the difficulties subadult skeletal remains present to archaeological investigations. Despite these limitations, analysis of juvenile burials and skeletal remains has the potential to improve our understanding of the physical and social lives of children in the past. Excavations conducted by Proyecto Investigación Arqueológico Distrito del Cáceres Ancash...
The standardization of prehistoric cranial vault modification practices in the Andes: a 3D geometric morphometric approach (2016)
Bioarchaeologists have long been interested in documenting the forms and techniques involved in cranial modification and exploring the larger social significance of such practices, particularly in the Andes. While such studies have enriched our understanding of head-shaping practices among pre-Hispanic populations, there has been a dearth of research that investigates the individuals who were responsible for carrying out these corporeal modifications on infants. Was the practice carried out by a...
Stress and daily life in an Andean reducción town: preliminary osteological analyses of juvenile burials in a church sacristy (2017)
Juvenile mortality and morbidity is a sensitive marker of overall group health, as juvenile individuals are more susceptible to circulating endemic diseases and nutritional stress. Thus, reconstructing relative frailty of the juvenile population at Mawchu Llacta provides important data about daily life at this colonial site, in a relatively understudied transitional period of Peruvian history. In this paper, we present the results of preliminary skeletal analyses of burials excavated from the...
To Live and Die in the City: Investigations of Health at the Huacas de Moche (2015)
During the last two decades of work at the Huacas de Moche site a large number of human interments have been excavated. Although the remains of human sacrificial victims have been well studied, those buried as part of the daily course of events at the site have received less attention. Yet, if we are to understand how the Southern Moche Polity developed, thrived, and ultimately declined, then we must investigate the everyday lives of the women, men and children who were the polity. In this paper...