Epidemiological Crisis with Imperial Collapse? Investigating the Osteological Evidence for Bacterial Infections among post-Wari Communities in the Peruvian Andes

Summary

The socio-political decline of the Wari Empire and a severe drought ca. AD 1000/1100 led to significant changes in health among those who lived in the former imperial core. The political turmoil, social upheaval, and prolonged drought coalesced to create poor community health. Infectious disease appears to have been an aspect of morbidity that dramatically changed relative to the preceding era of Wari rule. Here we examine the skeletal evidence for bacterial infections among post-Wari populations from the former capital city (Huari). Because human remains were commingled, we observed each category of skeletal elements for lesions, documenting that, among all ages combined, 11/2532 ribs (.4%) and 82/1777 thoracic vertebrae (5%) exhibit lesions suggestive of brucellosis and/or tuberculosis. Juvenile remains present a higher prevalence: 79/342 thoracic vertebrae (23%) exhibit those lesions. Consistent with expectations of how socio-political decline and ecological stress can contribute to negative health outcomes, these lesions appear only in the post-Wari samples; they are absent in the approximately 300 individuals from the preceding Wari era (Tung 2012). This suggests the development and/or increased transfer of these infectious diseases in response to changes in political and environmental conditions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage