Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant: Cut Marks as Evidence of Precolumbian Human Sacrifice and Postmortem Bone Modification on the North Coast of Peru

Tulane University, New Orleans LA

Investigators

Abstract

This project seeks funding for the analysis of osteological remains with cut marks associated with the Moche (A.D. 100-800) culture of ancient Peru. The principal goal of this study is to investigate Moche human sacrificial practices as represented by physical evidence, and compare them to idealized behavior depicted in Moche iconography. Recent archaeological discoveries have lent support to the argument that scenes of prisoner torture, sacrifice, mutilation, and dismemberment present in Moche iconography may depict actual events. Studying the relationship between actual and idealized ritual behavior will result in a more complete understanding of the interrelationships between Moche technology, iconography, and ideology in particular, and of Moche culture in general. This project will provide the baseline data necessary to address larger issues such as Moche socio-political relationships and religious cosmology. In this proposed study, macroscopic and microscopic techniques will be used to analyze cut mark morphology and patterning from human skeletal remains excavated from Moche sacrificial contexts. The human remains included in the primary data sample are from the Huaca de la Luna in the Moche Valley, El Brujo in the Chicama Valley, and Dos Cabezas in the Jequetepeque Valley. For comparative purposes, human bones from a Lambayeque (A.D. 800-1375) mass burial and butchered faunal remains from Moche and Lambayque sites are included in this study. Cut marks will be recorded in terms of frequency, location, morphology, length, orientation relative to one another and to the long axis of the bone, anatomical association, and inferred activity. Casts of selected cut marks will be examined under a light microscope and a scanning electron microscope to record more detailed information on cut mark morphology and tool type (i.e., metal vs. stone). This dissertation research project will address questions of cut mark frequencies, patterning, differential treatment of sacrificial victims, and tool type. It will also compare the patterns of cut mark location and frequency on human remains with those on butchered camelid remains and look for changes in the treatment of sacrificial victims cross-culturally through time. In addition, this project will include an examination of cut mark patterns to see if they can be used to identify different types of ritual activities, and how the physical evidence compares with iconographic representations of ritual behavior.