Wari funerary contexts: An elite funerary chamber in Cerro de Oro, Cañete Valley

Summary

Evidence of looted tombs from Conchopata and Huari -the capital of Wari- have allowed archaeologists to identify up to three formal types of funerary structures. Researchers also point out that variants of these types of funerary enclosures identified at both sites might have held local chiefs and provincial governors. Evidence of such elite Wari funerary contexts has also been found in Espítiru Pampa, in the high jungle of Vilcabamba, and Batan Urqo, in Cusco, among others. Although the information from looted funerary contexts is incomplete, there are grounds to believe that these structures served as graves for local elites buried with luxury objects understood as symbols of Wari authority. However, the Wari mortuary ritual is diverse in different regions and presents temporal variations.

A funerary enclosure was excavated at Cerro de Oro in the Cañete Valley containing a funerary bundle associated with over a hundred luxury objects, primarily textiles. Based on comparisons we can propose that this funerary context is analogous to the intrusive funerary contexts recorded at different archaeological sites belonging to the Middle Horizon along the southern and central coast.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Archaeological Research in the Cañete Valley, Peru

Keywords

Spatial Coverage