Living Conditions and Death of Pre-Columbian Central Andean Women: Evidence from CT-based 3d Reconstructions of Chancay Funerary Bundles

Watson L.; Sutherland L.; Frohlich B.; Lombardi G.; Vreeland J.; Nystrom K.; Soliman M.A.-T. · Estudios Latinoamericanos (2023) · DOI: 10.36447/estudios2023.v43.art6

Resumen

This work focuses on the role of women in ancient Peru during its Late Period (AD 1100–1532). It studies 101 funerary bundles from the Chancay Necropolis of Miramar in Ancon in order to reconstruct the life conditions, activities, and social organization of the local population. It integrates three previously unpublished sources: notes from the opening of the bundles from the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Peru (MNAAHP) in the 1950s; the direct observation of bundles at the Site Museum of Ancon; and the bundles’ CT-based 3D reconstructions. The contribution of this research is twofold: it is not only methodological, since it integrates different sources, rescuing museum collections usually left aside due to their lack of contextual information; it is also one of the first gender-focused bioarchaeological studies in the Andes, a chance to rethink the position that women played in political and economic tiers of the past.

Instituciones: Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia