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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 (haagen.klaus@uvu.edu) 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
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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

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