Analysis of Physical Activity Pattern of Women from the Castillo de Huarmey Mausoleum, Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "A Decade of Multidisciplinary Research at Castillo de Huarmey, Peru" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper seeks to test the hypothesis that the elite individuals from the main chamber in the mausoleum in Castillo de Huarmey, Peru, functioned as specialized weavers. The sources available for the precolumbian Middle-Andes indicate the presence of aqllacuna (chosen women) who dedicated themselves to luxurious textile production. The burial in the main chamber of the mausoleum consisted of numerous grave goods belonging to 58 aristocrats accompanied by six human sacrifices. The grave goods included weaving instruments, such as spindles, spindle whorls, and the remnants of looms, as well textiles in various stages of completion. According to bone functional adaptation, repeatable activities such as weaving and spinning should leave visible traces on the bones. Osteological analyses were performed with a focus on skeletal indicators of physical activity. First, upper limbs entheseal changes were recorded. For the fibrocartilaginous entheses, the methodology developed by Henderson et al. (2016) was used, and for the fibrous entheses, the Hawkey and Merbs (1995) method was used. Following this, the analysis of upper limbs’ cross section geometry properties was conducted. As a result, it is possible to approximate what activities were performed by female aristocrats from Wari culture.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• A Decade of Multidisciplinary Research at Castillo de Huarmey, Peru   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37080.0