Marco contextual

Up until the 1980s, iconographic evidence, as well as ethnohistoric accounts of Inca sacrifice, were the only evidence of the practice of human sacrifice in the Andes (Hamilton 2005). The following overview includes iconographic, as well as the more recent archaeological evidence available for different types of ritual violence in the Andean region, up to and including the Late Intermediate Period.

A typology for ritual violence in the Andean region has been established by Verano (1995, 2001) in his review of ethnohistoric, iconographic and archaeological evidence, and it will be employed in the following discussion. It includes: 1) retainer burial (individual(s) such as family members and/or servants who would be buried with a principal, prominent individual); 2) dedicatory (or foundation) burials (human remains placed within architectural features for the dedication of certain buildings); 3) trophy taking (body parts, often heads taken as trophies); 4) prisoner sacrifice; and, 5) mass burials.

Decapitation and Trophy Taking 3.2.2.1.1.1

The earliest evidence of ritual violence in the Andes comes from art from the Cupisnique culture (1,500 – 1 B.C.) on the north coast of Peru. This art depicts a

“Decapitator” figure performing decapitation rituals. Interestingly, this same iconography was used in later Moche religious art (ca. A.D. 300 – 800), indicating a continuity in ritual violence (at least, iconographically) in the region (Cordy-Collins 2001). In her review of iconographic evidence of ritual violence in the Andean region, Hamilton (2005), describes further evidence of decapitation from the Initial Period (ca. 1,500 B.C.) in the Casma Valley, Callejón de Huaylas and in the eastern highlands of Peru.

Decapitation iconography continues from the Early Horizon into the Middle Horizon with the Chavín culture in the Peruvian highlands (900 – 200 B.C.), with the Paracas (700 – 1

B.C.) and the Nasca (100 B.C. – A.D. 700) cultures on the south coast of Peru, with the Moche culture on the north coast of Peru, and with the Tiwanaku (A.D. 1 – 1,000) and Huari (A.D. 600 – 1,000) cultures in Peru’s southern highlands (Hamilton 2005).

The existence of the practice of decapitation in the Andean region was further demonstrated by archaeological evidence from the Moche site of Dos Cabezas consisting of 18 severed heads in a narrow chamber, consistent with the decapitation process seen in iconography. A burial of an elderly man thought to be a “Moche Decapitator” (based on

the presence of a tumi knife, used in decapitation scenes, in his hand and a severed

ceramic head next to it) was also found (Cordy-Collins 2001). Further evidence comes from the Lambayeque (Sicán) site of Cerro Cerrillos, in the Reque river drainage, where 81 burials, mostly subadults, were found in the floor of a platform and plaza with

evidence of decapitation, throat cutting and chest opening (Klaus et al. 2010). Finally, at Túcume during the Chimú period, 110 individuals were recovered in the plaza in front of a temple with perimortem trauma indicating throat cutting and decapitation (Toyne 2008, 2011).

Paracas, Nasca, Moche, Tiwanaku and Huari iconography additionally contains images of trophy heads (disembodied heads). These trophy heads were sometimes depicted being eaten by mythical beings and sometimes they were shown as decoration on the garments of mythical beings, or were shown in the hands of mythical beings who were holding a knife, presumably used to sever the head. The presence of Moche

ceramics modeled after human skulls with large holes at the top, presumably indicate that trophy heads were used as some sort of vessel in Moche culture (Verano et al. 1999). In Huari iconography, there are also images of severed arms and legs, along with trophy heads (Hamilton 2005).

Archaeological evidence of trophy taking has been found among the Nasca, Moche and Huari based on the presence of articulated human remains missing body parts, headless interments and separate burial caches of disembodied heads showing perimortem trauma indicative of intentional decapitation (Cook 2001; DeLeonardis 2000; Proulx 2001; Tung and Knudson 2010; Verano et al. 1999). Among the Huari, there is also

evidence of trophy heads being made from sacrificed local and nonlocal12 children’s skulls. While some trophy heads among the Nasca were made from children’s skulls, the difference between the percentages are statistically significant with Huari trophy heads having more children represented (Tung and Knudson 2010). The identification of sacrifice was based, in this case, on the presence of perimortem fractures (with one case being a strangulation) and cutmarks, as well as the age range of the children (3 – 11 years) which is not a period of time when children are particularly susceptible to disease or stress, representing a small percentage of natural deaths in skeletal populations (Tung and Knudson 2010).

Retainer Burials and Dedicatory Offerings 3.2.2.1.1.2

Archaeological evidence of “dedicatory offering” burials have been found at the Moche site of Huaca de la Luna in the Moche Valley, where a burial of three children (two of which were headless) was found in a plaza during a period of construction and in association with a rocky outcrop (Bourget 2001). There is also evidence of dedicatory offerings of young females placed in architectural features (ramps and the floors of plazas) at the Chimú site of Chan Chan (Verano 1995) and at Moche sites (Millaire 2002).

Identifying “retainer” burials is typically done by examining the contextual and spatial evidence and by examining grave goods. The relative absence of grave goods, unusual body position and location relative to a principal individual are all indicators of the presence of a retainer burial. Archaeological evidence of retainer burials comes from a number of Moche and Chimú contexts (Alva and Donnan 1993; Donnan 1995; Donnan 2007; Gaither et al. 2008; Millaire 2002; Millaire 2004; Rowe 1995; Verano 1995).

Prisoner Sacrifice and Mass Burials 3.2.2.1.1.3

The Moche culture (Early Intermediate Period), as previously mentioned, has an extensive iconographic tradition of ritual decapitation, dismemberment, ritual

bloodletting, mutilation, torture, and the making and display of trophy heads (on

12 _{Strontium isotope data suggest that two of the four children came from a}

nonlocal area (outside the Ayacucho Basin, which is the former Huari heartland) (Tung and Knudson 2010).

supernatural beings and the Moche elite). These scenes are usually associated with prisoners (shown naked with ropes around their necks and hands bound behind their backs), who were captured during war for sacrifice. This is called the “Warrior Narrative” (Donnan 1978; Donnan and McClelland 1999), and a good example of this can be seen on a wall relief at Huaca Cao Viejo in the Chicama Valley (Franco et al. 1994). Another scene in Moche sacrifice iconography is the “Mountain Sacrifice” theme where

individuals are sacrificed at the top of a mountain and then flung off of it. Moche trophy head, prisoner sacrifice and mutilation iconography continues beyond the Moche Period into the Late Intermediate Period Lambayeque (Sicán; A.D. 800 – 1,350) and Chimú (A.D. 900 – 1,550) cultures (Hamilton 2005).

Archaeological evidence of prisoner sacrifice and mass burials has been found at Huaca de la Luna where a mass burial of male prisoners was found dating to the end of the Moche Period. These individuals shared a pattern of trauma indicating that they were warriors. They were buried over the course of two rituals between periods of torrential rainfall. This mass prisoner burial was found overtop of the potential dedicatory offering of children found in association with the rocky outcrop in the previous section. The individuals were buried with clay effigies of nude males with ropes around their necks, such as is seen in the iconography of prisoner sacrifice in the “Warrior Narrative” (Bourget 2001; Verano 2001). Another example comes from a mass burial at Pacatnamú in the Jequetepeque Valley, where 14 adolescent and young adult males were interred in superimposed groups representing three separate rituals. Fragments of rope found around ankles and wrists and evidence of trauma and missing body parts indicate trophy taking and decapitation. Isotopic analyses of the individuals from the mass burials at Pacatnamú and Huaca de la Luna furthermore revealed that these individuals were nonlocal (Toyne et al. 2014; Verano 2001).

3.2.3 Stress and Disease

The examination of stress and disease in bioarchaeology is based on the knowledge that various factors impact the skeleton, including environmental, genetic, cultural and social, psychological, political, economic and nutritional, and do so in a number of ways (an osteoblastic response, an osteoclastic response or a combination of the two) (Farnum 2002). For the purpose of this thesis, a paleopathological analysis of

each individual was conducted in order to approximate each individual’s experience of

“health”13_{, which can be an integral part of identity. If any pathological lesions were}

present, a differential diagnosis was attempted. Lesions that are typically indicative of stress, were sought in each individual, and thus require more attention here.

Stress in the body is a physiological disruption as a result of an environmental threat, real or imagined. This disruption can materialize in the form of abnormal tissue growth or loss, and can be studied in the skeleton in a number of ways. Enamel

hypoplasia, cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis, are all ways in examples of these, that can be studied in archaeological samples (Larsen 1997; Webb et al. 2010). While the study of the “health status” of individuals in an archaeological population is problematic for a number of reasons, and is ideally used only for large sample sizes (Larsen 1997; Ribot and Roberts 1996), these methods will be used in the analysis of individuals from Huaca Gallinazo and Huaca Santa Clara, with caution, if only to provide data for future research.