From the Dead to the Living: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Late Period Open Sepulchers, Upper Nepeña Drainage, Ancash, Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Ancestors: New Approaches to Andean "Open Sepulchers"" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The ubiquity of open sepulcher type funerary contexts in the Andean highlands is a salient fact. Previous work and new surveys in the Pamparomás and Chaclancayo valleys of the Upper Nepeña Drainage have identified more than 60 such funerary contexts. Over the past two years, systematic excavations of selected sites coupled with a landscape approach has allowed us to better understand these structures and their significance within late Prehispanic society. Here, the author reviews current knowledge on late period (AD 600–1532) funerary practices in the Peruvian highlands and contrasts this with the recent results from the Upper Nepeña Drainage. Using archaeology, bioarchaeology, and a landscape approach permits us to explore variations in typology, chronology, function, and placement of these monuments. The methodological challenges related to these contexts—including their highly disturbed nature, consequence of several looting episodes during colonial and modern times will also be addressed. This study shows that an interdisciplinary approach provides a holistic understanding of these contexts, the funerary practices associated with them, and the populations living in the region at the time, despite the many looting episodes to which they were subjected to.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Beyond the Ancestors: New Approaches to Andean "Open Sepulchers"   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39307.0