Life before Death: A Bioarchaeological Study of the Biosocial Histories of Human Sacrifices at Pampa la Cruz (Montículo 2), Moche Valley, Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ritual Violence and Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes: New Directions in the Field" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Human sacrifice is a form of ritual theater staged by emerging empires to articulate new power asymmetries and legitimize imperial enterprises. The culmination of the event is the death of the victim because ritual homicide transforms the body into an efficacious offering while generating vivid images of coercion and the immutable authority of the state. Although lethal wounds provide physical evidence of this pivotal moment, a lifetime of biosocial experiences on sacrificed bodies may be examined to infer the experiences of individuals in the context of social change. Over a decade of collaborative research conducted by the Huanchaco Archaeological Program indicates that the Chimú Empire (1000/1100–1450/1470 AD) sanctioned periodic ritual events of human sacrifice at multiple locations near the capital city Chan Chan in the Moche Valley. This research presents the results of a bioarchaeological analysis of human skeletal remains from a newly excavated sector of Pampa la Cruz (Montículo 2). This work supports previous studies suggesting that human sacrifice served the various facets of Chimú statecraft. Using a social bioarchaeological perspective this research also contributes to ongoing efforts to contextualize the biosocial histories of human sacrifices against the mosaic of imperial developments in ancient societies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ritual Violence and Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes: New Directions in the Field   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38391.0