Is it a Priestess? Preliminary analysis of the excavations of a Late Moche Chamber Tomb from San Jose de Moro, North Coast of Peru

Summary

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 uncovered a Late Moche Chamber Tomb in which we found the main individual within a coffin covered by copper plaques with maritime designs. This individual was surrounded by 7 other individuals as well as an astonishing quantity of funerary offerings like raw architectural models, beads from semiprecious rocks, spondylus and over 102 ceramic vessels.

The aim is not only to show the excavation process and its findings, but also to try to figure out through osteological and material analysis, whether this main individual was buried as an actual priestess, as the tradition at the site indicates, or whether we can identify a new type of high ranking individual from Moche society.

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)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage