Mortuary Behaviour Reconstruction throughPalaeoentomology: ACaseStudy fromChachapoya,Peru¤
نویسندگان
چکیده
This paper explores the contribution that applied forensic entomology can make to our understanding of prehistoric mortuary behaviour. Samples of insect remains were recovered from a mummy bundle that has been attributed to the Chachapoya people who occupied the northern highlands of Perú from ca. AD 800 to ca. AD 1532. The insects were identified to the family level and used to create a hypothetical timeline of post-mortem interval before the construction of the mummy bundle. The individual in question suffered from a number of blunt force insults to the head, followed by two and possibly three trepanation events. We speculate the initial insect colonisation to have taken place almost immediately following injury and subsequent surgery, occurring before the individual’s death. Insect succession patterns and timing estimates for the appearance of periosteal reactive bone suggest that the individual was wrapped shortly following death. The application of such modern forensic techniques holds vast promise for addressing issues concerning Chachapoya mortuary behaviour and, further, these results can expand our understanding of mummy studies in general. Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
منابع مشابه
Selective complexity and adaptive mortuary behavior.
T rends in human history are increased cultural complexity and social differentiation and marked beginnings, endings, reversals, and turns and twists at different scales (1). Within these trends, the creation of social groups and communities is an active process that involves cultural pluralism, ideology, negotiated identity, economy, the built environment, and mortuary expression. In most soci...
متن کاملEmergence of social complexity among coastal hunter-gatherers in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.
The emergence of complex cultural practices in simple hunter-gatherer groups poses interesting questions on what drives social complexity and what causes the emergence and disappearance of cultural innovations. Here we analyze the conditions that underlie the emergence of artificial mummification in the Chinchorro culture in the coastal Atacama Desert in northern Chile and southern Peru. We pro...
متن کاملCultural factors that affected the spatial and temporal epidemiology of kuru
Kuru is a prion disease which became epidemic among the Fore and surrounding linguistic groups in Papua New Guinea, peaking in the late 1950s. It was transmitted during the transumption (endocannibalism) of dead family members at mortuary feasts. In this study, we aimed to explain the historical spread and the changing epidemiological patterns of kuru by analysing factors that affected its tran...
متن کاملCorrectnessofCommunicationProtocols JrgenF.Sgaard-Andersen DepartmentofComputerScience TechnicalUniversityofDenmark DK-2800Lyngby,Denmark ACaseStudy
متن کامل
A new star rising: Biology and mortuary behaviour of Homo naledi
HOW TO CITE: Randolph-Quinney PS. A new star rising: Biology and mortuary behaviour of Homo naledi. S Afr J Sci. 2015;111(9/10), Art. #a0122, 4 pages. http://dx.doi. org/10.17159/sajs.2015/a0122 September 2015 saw the release of two papers detailing the taxonomy1, and geological and taphonomic2 context of a newly identified hominin species, Homo naledi – naledi meaning ‘star’ in Sesotho. Whilst...
متن کامل