Late Intermediate Period (A.D. 1250-1470) Mortuary Practices at Tumilaca La Chimba: spatial and temporal mortuary variation in the Moquegua Valley, Peru

Summary

In this paper we present recent fieldwork focused on Estuquiña mortuary contexts at the site of Tumilaca La Chimba in the Moquegua Valley of Peru). Estuquiña is the local expression of the Late Intermediate Period, and conventionally dated to approximately AD 1250-1470. In summer 2015, a total of eight intact circular below ground tombs were excavated at the site. This represents the largest sample of intact Estuquiña burials excavated since fieldwork was conducted by Programa Contisuyo members at the type site of Estuquiña in the 1980s. We discuss tomb construction, as well as the deposition and special distribution of cultural materials and human skeletal remains within the burials, and examine the considerable variation between the excavated tombs, particularly in terms of the treatment of human remains before and during burial. We also compare these new data with pre-existing data on mortuary practices in an earlier occupation at Tumilaca la Chimba, as well as with the literature on funerary contexts at the site of Estuquiña, to examine local variations in funerary patterns across space and time during the Late Intermediate Period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Colonial Encounters in the Prehispanic Andes

Keywords

Spatial Coverage