055: Advanced bioarchaeological techniques in the Pyramid of Huallamarca

General Information

The Sanisera Archaeology Institute for International Field Schools offers an annual international archaeology program. Since then it has organized courses for students who come from all over the world to study abroad and who are interested in anthropology, bioarchaeology, osteology or archaeology.

The labwork focuses on the in-depth analysis of human skeletal remains recovered from The Pyramid located in the town of Lima (Peru)  dated between the 11th - 15th centuries AD. The goal is to use advanced osteological techniques to understand the lifestyle of the people who lived on this site.

The Inca building it is a truncated pyramid made up of three overlapping articulated platforms whose access was through a side ramp located on the northeast side of the monument. Regarding its occupational sequence, three discontinuous periods of occupation are observed:

• At the end of the Early Horizon (1000 BC - 100 BC) the pyramid was built as a local temple to carry out ritual work, however, with the continuous formation of new urban settlements of the Lima culture in the Valley, it was progressively displaced until its disused as a religious building
  
  
• The second phase dates from the Late Intermediate (600 AD and 1200 AD) corresponding to Ichma period. They present the cultural material funerary contexts assigned to the "Early Ichma" style, based on burials in the form of funerary bundles.
  
  
• Finally, with the Inca presence, Late Horizon (1476-1532), the northeast platform presents storage spaces for food and textiles, deposited in large ceramic jars.

The 598 skulls were dated based on their morphology and typology once compared with other local cultures. In this way it is estimated that its wide range of antiquity is composed between 1,100 and 1400 AD.

Regarding the skeletal remains in the collection are unbeatable for the student because they are in an excellent state of preservation and also belong to articulated, practically complete individuals, including deformed skulls, individuals partially mummified and individuals from funerary bundles.

Bioanthropology internships will serve to complete the ongoing osteological research study.

Participants will learn the techniques of analyzing and recording information from human skeletal remains in an archaeological context. In this lab-based course, both lecture and experiential learning will be used to enable students to gain confidence in the identification and analysis of various skeletal conditions.

We will cover skills in basic demographics such as the techniques to determine age and sex of a skeleton, but will also progress to more advanced methodologies in osteological analysis. Students will learn skills such as: correctly measuring and recording skeletal elements according to set international standards , distinguishing between pathological and non- pathological bone and assessing patterns in pathological lesions, identifying marks on the skeleton that indicate how muscles were used during the person’s life (including determining left or right handedness), and assessing nutritional status from bones and teeth. Additionally, participants will learn how to bring these different sources of information together to re-create the biological life history of the individuals buried at this site.

The bone collection is deposited in the Museum of the site of Huallamarca, Lima (Peru). In this museum, the students will carry out the practices of this bioarchaeology course.

The archaeological museum of the pyramid of Huallamarca (Lima, Peru) will be the laboratory where the bioarcheology practices will be carried out

The professors specialized in bioarchaeology of the course analyzing the bone remains in the Huallamarca Pyramid Museum.

Mummified bone remains will be studied during the course. This example excellently preserves some of the body tissue and hair.

Using the ideal techniques to carry out an osteological study.

The human bones of Peru present an optimal state of conservation to carry out bioarcheology practices.

A dental study of the collection will be carried out.