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Abstract
ABSTRACTThe San Pedro de Atacama oases, located in northern Chile’s hyperarid Atacama Desert, have been occupied for at least 3000 years. Here, we examine cemetery use in the oases, with emphasis on the Middle Period (ca. AD 400–1000). By modeling of a large corpus (n=243) of radiocarbon dates, over 90% of which are direct AMS assays of human bone collagen, we attempt to establish a temporal framework by which to explore the establishment of formalized social inequality in this period. Modeling of these dates at three locally defined scales (allayllus, inter-ayllu, and intra-ayllu) permit heretofore unavailable insights into the chronological and spatial dimensions of life and mortuary activity in the oases and allow us to better contextualize patterns of social inequality during the dynamic Middle Period. The results of this modeling indicate two distinct peaks of occupation during the Middle Period in San Pedro and document significant temporal variability in cemetery use patterns on both inter- and intra-aylluscales. These results stress the importance of local social and environmental factors to the occupation of the oases and provide crucial chronological structure for future archaeological and bioarchaeological research in the region.
Highlights
AND BACKGROUNDAt the northern end of the Atacama salt flat, the San Pedro and Vilama Rivers feed a series of small oases in the otherwise hyperarid Atacama Desert of northern Chile (Figure 1)
Not all the individuals from the sites are directly associated with diagnostic objects from this period, and it is possible that, if cemeteries spanned beyond the boundaries of the Middle Period, our study will not be able to accurately detect the length of the period in the Atacama oases. While this can be seen as a potential limitation in our study, we argue that the continuity of use of cemeteries over time is a stronger indicators of local social cohesion than the individual associations with diagnostic artifacts, especially in the context of the recent debates about the nature of the Middle Period in the oases (e.g., Berenguer 1998; Uribe and Agüero 2001, 2004; Agüero 2004; Agüero and Uribe 2014; Salazar et al 2014; Uribe et al 2016)
The three-tiered modeling of these 243 dates from the cemeteries of San Pedro de Atacama has yielded a series of novel insights into the chronological structure of Middle Period life and cemetery use in the oases
Summary
At the northern end of the Atacama salt flat, the San Pedro and Vilama Rivers feed a series of small oases in the otherwise hyperarid Atacama Desert of northern Chile (Figure 1) These oases have been host to some of the longest human occupations in the region, with the earliest evidence of habitation dating to the Formative Period The initial occupation of the oases was associated with the progressive expansion and adoption of horticultural practices by human groups from the nearby puna (Núnez et al 2005), and the adoption of practices of arboriculture and silvopastoralism in the oases (McRostie 2014) This human presence slowly came to occupy most, if not all, of the arable land of the different San Pedro de Atacama oases and, by the beginning of the Spanish colonial period, the pattern of occupation was largely similar to that seen at present (Llagostera and Costa Junqueira 1999; Torres-Rouff and Hubbe 2013). There has long been a strong emphasis on the study of prehistoric Atacameno life through the study of burials and mortuary offerings from the many cemeteries in the region (e.g. Le Paige 1964; Llagostera 2004)
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