Artisan production and morphological changes in skeletons from San Jose de Moro (North coast of Peru)

Summary

The study of occupational stress markers was an attractive investigation field some years ago, due to the alleged possibility for the identification of ancient activities through skeletal changes. Nevertheless, a critical vision of the issue evidences that this relation is not so easy to establish, because bone biology is complex and also because different activities may produce similar changes. This does not mean that this type of studies should be abandoned. On the contrary, it is a call for more rigorous methodologies and for the building of a corpus of information about changes occurred on skeletons from individuals with known activities in life. In this presentation we show the results of the analysis of four skeletons from different epochs that were excavated in the pre-Hispanic cemetery of San Jose de Moro (North Coast of Peru). These skeletons were associated to elements related to metal and textile production. We searched the processes performed by modern artisans in the region to produce metal and textiles, and we explore if there is a congruency or not between the observed changes in the skeletons and the activities suggested by the funerary goods.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16075