Radiocarbon Dating and Carbon/Nitrogen Stable Isotope Analysis of Human Skeletons from the Lambayeque Valley, North Peru (Formative to Inca)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

We analyzed 73 human bone/tooth samples from the following archaeological sites of the Lambayeque Valley, North Peru: Huaca Rajada, Huaca Zarpán, Huaca Santa Rosa, Huaca El Pueblo, Huaca El Chorro, Huaca El Triunfo, Huaca Saltur and Huaca Ventarrón. The associated material culture indicates that this sample encompasses a deep and continuous time transect going from the Archaic to the Inca period. Collagen was retrieved from 32% of the samples (>30kDa fraction) indicating not ideal conditions of organic preservations in the Huacas of the region. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis was performed with this material. Additionally, we chose five samples of collagen from Huaca Ventarrón for radiocarbon dating – the first direct dates on human bones for this iconic site. The results indicate that the temple was used as an internment ground from at least 3700-3568 cal BP to 664-552 cal BP (95.4% confidence interval and not considering the maritime reservoir effect). An isolated partial femur originally described as belonging to the Archaic was shown to be 594-722 cal BP. Skeletons attributed to the Formative, Lambayeque, Chimu and Inca periods were directly dated to 3700-3568 cal BP, 685-562 cal BP, 664-552 cal BP and 1185-1010 cal BP, respectively.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24541