Ritual and Domestic Life at Usacorral: Preliminary Investigations and Community-Based Research at a Long-Occupied Community Site in the Northern Callejón de Huaylas, Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Usacorral is a 10 hectare mixed-use and long-occupied ceremonial, habitation, and agropastoral complex situated at 3,625 masl in the north-central highlands of Ancash, Peru. Preliminary fieldwork at Usacorral employed test excavations, mapping, spatial analysis, and community-based research methods to understand the site’s occupational history and diversity of social practices. The site’s most prominent features include a nucleated domestic cluster with plaza spaces, animal corrals, tomb chambers called chullpa, and a large rectangular platform (35 × 40 m, ~3.5 m high) with a central circular structure surrounded by other walled spaces. Excavations exposed eight square meters of this platform, and the exposed architectural elements, marine resources, precious stones, sculptural fragments, and ceramic materials indicate ritual activities in the form of offering rare and imported goods in and around the platform’s central circular chamber. Survey, surface collection, mapping, and spatial analysis of the architecture beyond this platform reveal a multi-use site where people lived, worshipped, and buried their dead from the Recuay through Akillpo cultural phases (1–1450 CE). This poster presents these data, presents hypotheses for further research, and develops a comprehensive community-based research plan for more extensive investigations at Usacorral.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 40271.0