Late Horizon Mortuary Traditions at Las Huacas, Chincha: Preliminary Results from a Subterranean Collective Tomb

Summary

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

Archaeological and osteological analyses of burial features allow archaeologists to explore questions related to an individual’s life, activities, social status and potential role in society. This poster presents the analysis of a Late Horizon tomb from the site of Las Huacas in the Chincha Valley of Perú, with an emphasis on human skeletal remains. Las Huacas was a large 105-hectare agricultural centre with a diverse burial tradition: extended inhumations, mummy bundles, secondary burials and subterranean collective tombs. In comparison to three other subterranean tombs found,Tomb 3 presents a different pattern in orientation/position and artifact assemblage. Preliminary analyses of the human bones concluded that Tomb 3 was re-opened multiple times, and used for the burial of 12 individuals of various ages and biological sexes. The analyzed individuals presented evidence of disease, trauma, deformations and possibly activity patterns. The poster proposes questions on the methodology used to connect archaeological and bioarchaeological data for the analysis of mass graves and mortuary treatment and contribute to an understanding of Late Horizon mortuary practices in the Chincha Valley.

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): 24606