A Bioarchaeological Analysis of Developmental Growth among the Chimúes of the North Coastal Peru (AD 900–1470)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Chimú (AD 900-1470) at Huacas de Moche (HDM) on the northern coast of Peru offer a unique opportunity to study growth patterns due to the presence of individuals who lived long enough for stress indicators to become apparent in their bones. This is crucial for examining the long-term impacts of environmental and social stressors on skeletal development. The osteological paradox, which underscores the gap between skeletal evidence of stress and actual lived experience, is central to this analysis. This research involves the examination of approximately 150 Chimú individuals from HDM, focusing on fusion patterns, dental eruption, long bone measurements, cribra orbitalia, and porotic hyperostosis to understand their growth patterns. These findings are compared with skeletal remains from other northern coastal Peruvian sites of the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000-1470) to gain insights into developmental growth variations over time and space. This comparative approach provides a nuanced understanding of how environmental, economic, and social factors influenced Chimú health and development, shedding light on the adaptive strategies of the Chimú across different periods and locations. ***This presentation will include images of human remains.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53879