Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T20:50:25.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bioarchaeology of human sacrifice: violence, identity and the evolution of ritual killing at Cerro Cerrillos, Peru

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2010

Haagen D. Klaus ,
Jorge Centurión  and
Manuel Curo
Haagen D. Klaus
Affiliation:
Behavioral Science Department, Utah Valley University, 800 West University Parkway, Orem, UT 84058, USA ([email protected]) Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnografía Hans Henrich Brüning de Lambayeque, Avenida Huamachuco s/n, Lambayeque, Peru
Jorge Centurión
Affiliation:
Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán, Juan Pablo Vizcardo y Guzman s/n, Lambayeque, Peru
Manuel Curo
Affiliation:
Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnografía Hans Henrich Brüning de Lambayeque, Avenida Huamachuco s/n, Lambayeque, Peru
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The excavation of 81 skeletons at Cerro Cerrillos provided the occasion for a rigorously scientific deconstruction of human sacrifice, its changing methods and its social meaning among the Muchik peoples of ancient Peru. This paper shows how bioarchaeology and field investigation together can rediscover the root and purpose of this disturbingly prevalent prehistoric practice. Be warned: the authors' clinical and unexpurgated accounts of Andean responses to the spirit world are not for the fainthearted.

Keywords

PeruLambayequeMuchiktenth–eleventh century ADskeletal analysispalaeopathologytraumahuman sacrifice
Type
Research articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 326 , December 2010 , pp. 1102 - 1122
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alva, W. & Donnan, C.. 1993. Royal tombs of Sipán. Los Angeles (CA): Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California.Google Scholar
Arnold, D.Y. & Hastorf, C.A.. 2008. Heads of state: icons, power and politics on the ancient and modern Andes. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Bawden, G. 2001. The symbols of late Moche social transformation, in Pillsbury, J. (ed.) Moche art and archaeology in ancient Peru: 285–305. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Bawden, G. 2005. Ethnogenesis at Galindo, Peru, in Reycraft, R.N. (ed.) Us and them: archaeology and ethnicity in the Andes: 12–33. Los Angeles (CA): Costen Institute of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Betanzos, J. 1557 (trans. 1996). Narrative of the Incas. Translated by Hamilton, R. & Buchanan, D.. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bogin, B. 1999. Patterns of human growth (Cambridge Studies in Biological Anthropology 23). Second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bourget, S. 1994. El mar y la muerte en la iconografía Moche, in Uceda, S. & Mujica, E. (ed.) Moche: propuestas y perspectivas: 445–7. Lima: Travaux de l'Institut Français d' Etudes Andines.Google Scholar
Bourget, S. 2001a. Rituals of sacrifice: its practice at Huaca de la Luna and its representation in Moche iconography, in Pillsbury, J. (ed.) Moche art and archaeology in ancient Peru: 89–109. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Bourget, S. 2001b. Children and ancestors: ritual practices at the Moche site ofHuaca de la Luna, north coast of Peru, in Benson, E.P. & Cook, A.G. (ed.) Ritual sacrifice in ancient Peru: 93–118. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bourget, S. & Newmann, M.. 1998. A toast to the ancestors: ritual warfare and blood in Moche culture. Baessler-Archiv. Neue Folge 46: 85–106.Google Scholar
Buikstra, J.E. & Ubelaker, D.H.. 1994. Standards for data collection from human skeletal remains (Arkansas Archaeological Survey Research Series 44). Fayetteville (AR): Arkansas Archaeological Survey.Google Scholar
Calancha, A. 1792 [1638]. Crónica moralizada del orden de San Augustin en el Peru, con sucesos exemplares de esta monarquia. Barcelona: Pedro Lacavalleria.Google Scholar
Cieza De Leon, P. 1538/53 (trans. 1964). The second part of the chronicle of Peru. Translated by Markham, C.R.. New York: Franklin.Google Scholar
Centurión, J. & Curo, M.. 2003. Proyecto evaluacion arqueológico de Cerro Cerrillos. Lambayeque: Museo Arqueológico Nacional Brüning de Lambayeque.Google Scholar
Cleland, K.M. & Shimada, I.. 1998. Paleteada potters: technology, production sphere and sub-culture in ancient Peru, in Shimada, I. (ed.) Andean ceramics: technology, organization, and approaches: 111–50. Philadelphia (PA): MASCA (Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology) and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.Google Scholar
Cobo, B. 1653 (trans. 1990). Inca religion and customs. Translated by Hamilton, R.. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Cordy-Collins, A. 2001a. Decapitation in Cupisnique and early Moche societies, in Benson, E.P. & Cook, A.G. (ed.) Ritual sacrifice in ancient Peru: 21–33. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Cordy-Collins, A. 2001b. Blood and the moon priestess: spondylus shells in Moche ceremony, in Benson, E.P. & Cook, A.G. (ed.) Ritual sacrifice in ancient Peru: 35–54. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Dillehay, T.D. 2001. Town and country in the late Moche times: a view from two northern valleys, in Pillsbury, J. (ed.) Moche art and archaeology in ancient Peru: 259–83. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Donnan, C.B. & Foote, L.J.. 1978. Child and llama burials from Huanchaco, in Donnan, C.B. & Mackey, C.J. (ed.) Ancient burial patterns of the Moche Valley: 399–408. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Duncan, W.N. 2005. Understanding veneration and violation in the archaeological record, in Rakita, G.R.M, Buikstra, J.E., Beck, L.A. & Williams, S.R. (ed.) Interacting with the dead: perspectives on mortuary archaeology for the new millennium: 207–227. Gainesville (FL): University Press of Florida.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, L. & Hutchinson, D. (ed.). 1996. Special issue on violence. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 6: 1–118.Google Scholar
Farnum, J.F. 2002. Biological consequences of social inequalities in prehistoric Peru. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Missouri.Google Scholar
Genovés, S. 1967. Proportionality of the long bones and their relation to stature among Mesoamericans. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 26: 67–77.Google Scholar
Goodman, A.H. & Rose, J.C.. 1991. Dental enamel hypoplasias as indicators of nutritional status, in Kelley, M. & Larsen, C.S. (ed.) Advances in dental anthropology: 279–93. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Gowland, R. & Knüsel, C.. 2006. Introduction, in Gowland, R. & Knüsel, C. (ed.) Social archaeology of funerary remains: ix–xiv. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Hamilton, L.A. 2005. Cutmarks as evidence of precolumbian human sacrifice and postmortem bone manipulation on the north coast of Peru. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Tulane University.Google Scholar
Hillson, S. 2008. The current state of dental decay, in Irish, J.D. & Nelson, C.G. (ed.) Technique and application in dental anthropology: 111–35. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hecker, G. & Hecker, W.. 1992. Oferendas de huesos humanos y uso repetido de vasijas en el culto funerario de la costa Norperuana. Gaceta Arqueológico Andina 21: 33–53.Google Scholar
Kimmerle, E.H. & Baraybar, J.P (ed.). 2008. Skeletal trauma: identification of injuries resulting from human rights abuse armed conflict. Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press.Google Scholar
Klaus, H.D. 2008. Out of light came darkness: bioarchaeology of mortuary ritual, biological stress and ethnogenesis in the Lambayeque Valley Complex, Peru, AD 900–1750. Unpublished PhD dissertation, The Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Klaus, H.D. 2009. Sicán human sacrifices: forms, methods, contexts and significance, in Shimada, I. & Ono, M. (ed.) Precursor of the Inka Empire: the Golden Capital of Sicán: 311–19. Tokyo: Tokyo Broadcasting System.Google Scholar
Klaus, H.D. In press. La persistencia de identidad: una primera aproximación de identidad de Muchik en el valle de Lambayeque prehispanico tardio, in Shimada, I. (ed.) La cultura Sicán: una visión global. Lima: Fondo Editorial del Congreso del Peru.Google Scholar
Klaus, H.D. n.d. Human biological variation in complex societies: theoretical model and case study of health outcomes in the Ancient Andean Middle Sicán society, in Cohen, M. & Crane-Kramer, J. (ed.) Osteology of hierarchy.Google Scholar
Klaus, H.D. & Tam, M.E.. 2009. Contact in the Andes: bioarchaeology of systemic stress in colonial Mórrope, Peru. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 138: 356–68.Google Scholar
Klaus, H.D. & Tam, M.E.. 2010. Oral health and the post-contact adaptive transition: a contextual reconstruction of diet in Mórrope, Peru. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 141: 594–609.Google Scholar
Klaus, H.D., Larsen, C.S. & Tam, M.E.. 2009. Economic intensification and degenerative joint disease: life and labor on the post-contact north coast of Peru. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 139: 204–221.Google Scholar
Klaus, H.D., Perez, J., Luce, J., Demarco, A., Saldaña, F. & Wester, C.. 2010. Death as an act of creation: exploring meaning and symbolism through paleopathology at Huaca Norte, Peru. Poster presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Paleopathology Association, Albuquerque (NM), 13–14 April 2010.Google Scholar
Knudson, K.J. & Stojanowski, C.M.. 2008. New directions in bioarchaeology: recent contributions to the study of human social identities. Journal of Archaeological Research 16: 397–432.Google Scholar
Knudson, K.J. & Stojanowski, C.M.. (ed.) 2009. Bioarchaeology and identity in the Americas. Gainesville (FL): University of Florida Press.Google Scholar
Larsen, C.S. 1997. Bioarchaeology: interpreting behaviour from the human skeleton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lovejoy, C.O., Meindl, R.S., Mensforth, R.P. & Barton, T.J.. 1985. Multifactorial determination of skeletal age at death: a method and blind tests of its accuracy. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 68: 1–14.Google Scholar
Martin, D.L. & Frayer, D.W. (ed.). 1997. Troubled times: violence and warfare in the past. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach.Google Scholar
Mcclelland, D. 2008. Ulluchu: an elusive fruit, in Bourget, S. & Jones, K.L. (ed.) The art and archaeology of the Moche: 43–65. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Molina, C. 1575 (trans. 1963). An account of the fables and rites of the Yncas. Translated by Markham, C.R.. New York: Franklin.Google Scholar
Montoya, M. 2004. Complejo de ofrendas rituales y su asociación a sacrificios humanos de niños en la epoca Chimu en el valle de Moche, in Valle Alvarez, L. (ed.) Desarrollo arqueológico costa norte del Peru: Tomo 2: 27–48. Trujillo: V&D Color.Google Scholar
Muno, S. 2009. Life in the bones: what skeletal remains reveal about Sicán society, in Shimada, I. & Ono, M. (ed.) Precursor of the Inka Empire: the Golden Capital of Sicán: 298–310. Tokyo: Tokyo Broadcasting System.Google Scholar
Murua, M.D. 1987 [1590]). Historia General del Peru (Crónicas de América 35). Madrid: Historia 16.Google Scholar
Nguyen, V-K & Peschard, K.. 2003. Anthropology: inequality and disease: a review. Annual Review of Anthropology 32: 447–74.Google Scholar
Ortner, D.J. 2003. Identification of pathological conditions in human skeletal remains. Second edition. Amsterdam: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Perez, J., Klaus, H.D., Luce, J., Demarco, A., Saldaña, F., & Wester, C.. 2010. Paleopathology of human sacrifice at Huaca Norte: throat-slitting, heart ablation, and late Prehispanic ritual complexity, north coast Peru. Poster presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Paleopathology Association, Albuquerque (NM), 13–14 April 2010.Google Scholar
Salomon, F. 1995. ‘The beautiful grandparents’: Andean ancestor shrines and mortuary ritual as seen through colonial records, in Dillehay, T.D. (ed.) Tombs for the living: Andean mortuary practices: 315–53. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks.Google Scholar
Salomon, F. & Urioste, G.. 1991. The Huarochirí manuscript: a testament of ancient and colonial Andean religion. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Shimada, I. 1990. Cultural continuities and discontinuities on the northern north coast of Peru, Middle-Late Horizons, in Moseley, M. & Cordy-Collins, A. (ed.) The northern dynasties: kingship and statecraft in Chimor: 297–392. Washington (DC): Dumbarton Oaks.Google Scholar
Shimada, I. 1994. Pampa Grande and the Mochica culture. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Shimada, I. 2000. The late Prehispanic costal societies, in Laurencich Minelli, L. (ed.) The Inca world: the development of pre-Columbian Peru, AD 1000-1534: 49–110. Norman (OK): University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Shimada, I., Shinoda, K.-I., Farnum, J., Corruccini, R. & Watanabe, H.. 2004. An integrated analysis of Prehispanic mortuary patterns: a Middle Sicán case study. Current Anthropology 45: 369–402.Google Scholar
Shimada, I., Shinoda, K.-I., Bourget, S., Alva, W. & Uceda, S.. 2005. mtDNA analysis of Muchik and Sicán populations of Prehispanic Peru, in Reed, D.M. (ed.) Biomolecular archaeology: genetic approaches to the past (Center for Archaeological Investigations Occasional Paper 32): 61–92. Carbondale (IL): Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Shinoda, K.-I. 2009. Sicán society revealed by DNA analysis, in Shimada, I. & Ono, M. (ed.) Precursor of the Inka Empire: the Golden Capital of Sicán: 290–97. Tokyo: Tokyo Broadcasting System.Google Scholar
Sillar, B. 1992. Playing with God: cultural perceptions of children, play and miniatures in the Andes. Archaeological Review of Cambridge 13: 47–64.Google Scholar
Sokal, R.R. & Rohlf, F.J.. 1995. Biometry: the principles and practices of statistics in biological research. New York: W.H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Sutter, R.C. & Verano, J.W.. 2007. Biodistance analysis of the Moche sacrificial victims from Huaca de la Luna Plaza 3C: matrix method test of their origins. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 132: 193–206.Google Scholar
Toyne, J.M. 2008. Offering the heads and their hearts: a bioarchaeological analysis of ancient human sacrifice on the northern coast of Peru. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Tulane University.Google Scholar
Tung, T.A. 2007. Trauma and violence in the Wari Empire of the Peruvian Andes: warfare, raids and ritual fights. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 133: 941–56.Google Scholar
Verano, J.W. 1986. A mass burial of mutilated individuals at Pacatnamu, in Donnan, C.B. & Cock, G.A. (ed.) The Pacatnamu papers: volume 1: 117–38. Los Angeles (CA): Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California.Google Scholar
Verano, J.W. 2001a. War and death in the Moche world: osteological evidence and visual discourse, in Pillsbury, J. (ed.) Moche art and archaeology in ancient Peru: 111–25. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Verano, J.W. 2001b. The physical evidence of sacrifice in ancient Peru, in Benson, E.P. & Cook, A.G. (ed.) Ritual sacrifice in ancient Peru: 165–84. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Verano, J.W. 2008. Communality and diversity in Moche human sacrifice, in Bourget, S. & Jones, K.L. (ed.) The art and archaeology of the Moche: 195–213. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Verano, J.W. & Walde, H.. 2004. A Chimu-period mass execution in the Huarmey Valley, Peru. Paper presented at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Paleopathology Association, Tampa (FL), 13–14 April 2004.Google Scholar
Waldron, T. 2007. Paleoepidemiology: the measure of disease in the human past. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Walker, P.L., Bathurst, R.R., Richman, R., Gjerdrum, T. & Andrushko, V.A.. 2009. The causes of porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia: a reappraisal of the iron-deficiency-anemia hypothesis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 139: 109–125.Google Scholar
Xérez, F. 1532-3 (trans. 1985). Verdadera relación de la conquista del Peru (Crónicas de America 14). Madrid: Historia.Google Scholar