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Assembling the dead: human vertebrae-on-posts in the Chincha Valley, Peru

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2022

Jacob L. Bongers Open the ORCID record for Jacob L. Bongers [Opens in a new window] ,
Juliana Gómez Mejía Open the ORCID record for Juliana Gómez Mejía [Opens in a new window] ,
Thomas K. Harper Open the ORCID record for Thomas K. Harper [Opens in a new window]  and
Susanna Seidensticker
Jacob L. Bongers*
Affiliation:
Sainsbury Research Unit, University of East Anglia, UK
Juliana Gómez Mejía
Affiliation:
Departamento de Antropología y Sociología, Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia
Thomas K. Harper
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Susanna Seidensticker
Affiliation:
Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, Colorado State University, USA
*
*Author for correspondence ✉ j.bongers@uea.ac.uk
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Abstract

The post-mortem manipulation of human bodies is documented in many regions of the world, including South America. Recent archaeological fieldwork in the Chincha Valley, Peru, adds to this catalogue nearly 200 examples of the threading of human vertebrae onto reed posts. Here, the authors report on the distribution and composition of these ‘vertebrae-on-posts’, which are radiocarbon-dated to the Late Horizon (AD 1400–1532) and Colonial (AD 1532–1825) periods. The authors argue that these modified remains represent a social process that reconstructed the dead in response to Colonial-period looting. This manipulation of human remains reflects protracted relationships between the living and the dead, and the enduring social lives of human remains.

Keywords

PeruColonial periodChinchaIncamortuary practicegrave looting
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 96 , Issue 386 , April 2022 , pp. 387 - 405
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd.

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