Mortuary Sites Research Articles

The Tripod Relationship Between Local Embalmment, Environment and Human Health Implications in Cross River State, Nigeria

The purpose of this paper is to assess the environmental and health implications of local embalmment in Cross River State, Nigeria. The Ex-post-facto research design was adopted for this study. Six embalmment sites from six Local Government Areas were randomly selected across the state from where water and soil samples were taken for laboratory analysis and testing. The environmental impacts, as well as the health implications of local embalmment, were investigated. Multivariate statistical analysis was applied for the physicochemical parameters using a correlation matrix to evaluate factors influencing the groundwater chemistry and sources of pollution in the aquifer of the areas. Some laboratory procedures were also adopted to test the chemistry of the adjoining soils for the impacts of these embalmment chemicals as used by these morticians. A comparative analysis was further done on the different soil samples, the ones directly affected by the immediate mortuary facilities and those away from the facilities. A structured questionnaire made up of twenty items was also administered to the mortuary attendants and residents of the communities and adjoining communities where these embalmment homes are located. Simple percentage and correlation analysis was done to examine the perceived effect of embalmment chemicals on the environment and the health of residents. The results obtained from the laboratory analyses of selected groundwater and soil samples around the mortuary sites studied indicated that formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, humectants, metals, coli forms, microorganisms, and other contaminants from the mortuary sites have impaired the soil and water quality. It was recommended among others that green embalmment procedures should be encouraged, embalmment services should be located far away from residential areas and water bodies; wastes from embalmment/mortuary services should be sustainably disposed of to avoid these chemicals from contaminating the environment.

Placing the dead on the Green River: a consideration of Archaic burial on the Middle Green River of Kentucky

ABSTRACT I suggest that all or most of the tightly flexed human burials in Middle Green River Archaic sites represent secondary interments which had been exposed for variable periods of time, a modification of general opinion. Because of this, their delayed burial in the large, impressive mortuary sites of the Middle Green River like Chiggerville, Indian Knoll, and Carlston Annis reflect potentially variable, contingent, historical acts of placement of the dead which are not transparent. These acts concern how Archaic societies symbolically constructed and maintained themselves through the actions of individuals and burial parties by preparing, transporting, and placing the remains of their dead. How we approach them reflects as well on how we reconstruct Archaic “histories” and the overall “History” of the Green River Archaic.

Spirit Eye Cave: Reestablishing provenience of trafficked prehistoric human remains using a composite collection-based ancient DNA approach

Spirit Eye Cave, located on private land in west Texas near the US/Mexico border, contains as many as four human interments removed by pay-to-dig collectors in the 1950–60 s. The relocated remains provide initial DNA results from a region peripheral to both the Southwest and Plains, and the bone collagen 14C dates are coeval with a period of presumed multiethnic migration. The mitochondrial DNA results from two individuals indicate a maternal relationship between each interment. Considered together, these data indicate both a familiarity with the region and a stability of land use by foraging groups during a period of reputed instability. The identification of the B2a4a1 haplogroup in both individuals ties the region to indigenous groups in present-day Mexico, Texas, and the prehistoric site of Paquimé, in Chihuahua, Mexico. These results demonstrate the utility of a collaborative collection based aDNA approach for looted and heavily collected sheltered sites. Significance statementTwo rediscovered human remains from at Spirit Eye cave in west Texas situated on the US/Mexico border were radiocarbon dated and sampled for mitochondrial DNA. Both burials belong to the same B2a4a1 mitochondrial haplogroup and were dated to a period of dramatic cultural change in the region. Our results indicate a group of related foraging groups repeatedly used the cave as a mortuary site over several generations. This study also illustrates the utility of pursuing collection-based research from heavily impacted archaeological sites.

TERMINAL PLEISTOCENE THROUGH MIDDLE HOLOCENE OCCUPATIONS IN SOUTHEASTERN MESOAMERICA: LINKING ECOLOGY AND CULTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF NEOTROPICAL FORAGERS AND EARLY FARMERS

AbstractData from rock shelters in southern Belize show evidence of tool making, hunting, and aquatic resource exploitation by 10,500 cal b.c.; the shelters functioned as mortuary sites between 7600 and 2000 cal b.c. Early Holocene contexts contain stemmed and barbed bifaces as part of a tradition found broadly throughout the neotropics. After around 6000 cal b.c., bifacial tools largely disappear from the record, likely reflecting a shift to increasing reliance on plant foods, around the same time that the earliest domesticates appear in the archaeological record in the neotropics. We suggest that people living in southern Belize maintained close ties with neighbors to the south during the Early Holocene, but lagged behind in innovating new crops and farming technologies during the Middle Holocene. Maize farming in Belize intensified between 2750–2050 cal b.c. as maize became a dietary staple, 1000–1300 years later than in South America. Overall, we argue from multiple lines of data that the Neotropics of Central and South America were an area of shared information and technologies that heavily influenced cultural developments in southeastern Mesoamerica during the Early and Middle Holocene.

Late Prehistory of the Lower Galilee: Multi-Faceted Investigations of Wadi el-Ashert

In the southern Levant, fundamental changes in economic organization, mortuary practices, and settlement patterns took place during the 5th to early 4th millennium b.c.e., or the Chalcolithic period (ca. 4500–3700/3600 b.c.e.). Our best evidence derives from sites in the Negev, and to a lesser degree, the Jordan Valley and Golan Heights, and the mortuary sites along the coast. The goal of the Galilee Prehistory Project is to examine this period based on information from a different environmental region, by undertaking survey and excavation in the Galilee, a region with virtually no radiocarbon dates or plans derived from Chalcolithic sites. The multi-faceted investigation of the Wadi el-Ashert included unpiloted aerial vehicle fly-overs during different seasons, geophysical and pedestrian survey, and methodical sub-surface test sampling. The comprehensive approach to this prehistoric landscape resulted in a more nuanced understanding of the site.

The politics of placing the dead in Bronze Age Transylvania

Where people bury their dead is a critical part of mortuary rituals. This paper examines the relationship between the placement of the dead within a landscape and the social roles of the dead in the lives of the living. We examine the distribution of mortuary sites in southwest Transylvania during the Early and Middle Bronze Age (2700–1500 BCE), a period of significant socioeconomic transformation. We document a shift in the locations of cemeteries that is linked to the changing roles of the dead within society. During the Early Bronze Age, people placed their dead in highly visible tomb cemeteries in upland landscapes with access to metal and highland pasture. We argue that the living used mortuary practices to contest access to resources. During the Middle Bronze Age, however, people were primarily cremated and buried in flat urn cemeteries in similar contexts as settlements. We argue that this transition signifies changing institutions of metal procurement as well as a shift in the roles of the dead in the lives of the living. The analysis of cemetery placement has significant potential for revealing the organization and evolution of how bodies are used for political purposes in a broad range of geographic and chronological contexts.

ARTEFACTOS MALACOLÓGICOS. DIFERENTES CONTEXTOS DE USO EN SITIOS ARQUEOLÓGICOS DE LA PROVINCIA DE LA PAMPA (ARGENTINA).

El empleo de malacofauna en sitios arqueológicos de la Pampa Occidental presenta una amplia distribución espacial y cronológica. Las especies identificadas corresponden a gasterópodos y bivalvos, tanto de origen marino como dulceacuícola. La distancia de los depósitos de malacofauna marina a los sitios de la región señala la importancia económica, social y simbólica de estos materiales, para diversos usos. Se presenta una descripción de los conjuntos analizados tanto en sitios residenciales como mortuorios. Se evalúa su significación según los contextos de hallazgo, la cronología y las diferentes escalas espaciales de análisis, en relación con las redes de movilidad e interacción de los cazadores –recolectores pampeanos

Zoonotic parasites in feline coprolites from a holocenic mortuary context from eastern Patagonia (Argentina)

AbstractNowadays, wildlife is one of the most important sources of zoonoses, and it is a major concern for public health. Nevertheless, little is known about the role of wildlife as a reservoir and source of infectious diseases in the past. South America presents a wide diversity of wildlife. In the south of the continent, Argentina shelters a large diversity of neotropical carnivores. Although the paleoparasitological studies on carnivores have been increasing in southern Argentina, most of the efforts have been focused in a handful of sites located in western Patagonia. In this paper, two coprolites of felid found in Cueva Galpón, an initial late Holocene mortuary site from northeast Patagonia (Argentina), were studied for paleoparasitological purposes. Samples were processed by rehydration and homogenization, filtered and processed by spontaneous sedimentation. The samples were assigned to Puma concolor (puma) or Panthera onca (jaguar). Microscopic observations revealed that both coprolites were positive for parasite remains. High parasite richness was observed. Six nematodes, one cestode, and one coccidian morphotypes were reported. This is the first time that Gnathostoma sp. and Spirocerca sp. were recovered from holocenic times from Patagonia. This finding implies that some diseases such as taeniasis, spirocercosis, gnathostomosis, ascariasis, and coccidiosis could be present in holocenic wildlife from Patagonia prior to the Spanish colonization and domestic animal introduction. The overall results suggest that felids could have played a role as reservoirs and source of some parasitic species, some of which are zoonotic. Therefore, this animal could have entailed a risk agent for human health in the site.

Wearing Divine Words: In Life and Death

The present paper writes a biography of the silver amulets discovered at the mortuary site of Ketef Hinnom in Jerusalem. While past studies have focused upon the content of the inscriptions on the amulets, the present essay focuses on their materiality as silver, their design as miniature scrolls, and their relationship to somatic action. I emphasize the ways that the body’s interaction with the objects presenced the divine for their wearers. By writing a biography of the amulets I also highlight their agency as objects that found their enduring meaning as part of a collection of jewelry in the tomb.

The persistence of place: Hunter-gatherer mortuary practices and land-use in the Trent Valley, Ontario

Hunter-gatherer mortuary practices identified in the Trent Valley region, ON are highly patterned for the Middle Woodland period (400 BCE-700 CE), but the importance of many of these mortuary sites can be recognized as far back as the Late Archaic period (2500–1000 BCE). A geospatial modelling approach is used to predict the distribution of mortuary sites based on ecological factors that may have influenced land use strategies. The assessment reveals that Late Archaic and Middle Woodland mortuary sites were primarily located near aerobic wetlands that were likely rich in emergent plant life. The predicted suitably of mineral soil horizons, when compared with Trent Valley floodplain behaviour, suggests that wild rice may have been a particularly abundant resource near mortuary sites. The position of wild rice in Anishinaabe traditional stories is discussed to contextualize its potential early food value to Indigenous occupants of the Trent Valley, prior to the resource’s documented historic importance. The highly selective positioning of mortuary sites and their continuity within the Trent Valley region shed light on how ancestral ties to key places were established and maintained in precolonial hunter-gatherer societies.

A Review on the archaeology of Hoseo region, focused on Historical Archaeology

호서고고학회 창립 20년의 역사는 한국고고학의 양적 성장시기와 정확히 겹친다. 고고학조사가 토지개발 과정의 법적 절차에 포함되면서 고고학은 이제 인문학의 한 분야가 아니라 사회경제적 파급 영향이 막대한 문화재조사로 인식되었다. 고고학조사 수요와 공급의 불균형은 조사 및 보고서의 부실로 이어졌고, 그에 따라 고고학의 학 문적 수준 제고는 정체되는 결과를 초래하였다. 고고학자료 과잉이라는 미증유의 시기가 바로 지난 20년간이라 하여도 좋다. 그러나 새로운 자료의 증가를 통해 성과도 없지 않았다. 세종시와 같은 대규모 도시개발에 따른 전면적 발굴을 통해 특히 취락고고학의 성과가 많았다. 분묘·생산·방어시설 등을 구비한 도시적 취락의 전모가 드러난 점은 매우 중요한 성과이다. 그리고 각지 의 분묘군의 변천을 통해 정치사회적 관점의 지역사 이해가 가능하게 된 것도 중요하다. 공주·부여 등 백제의 고도를 중심으로 한 도 성고고학의 진전도 적지 않았다. 외곽성을 구비한 사비도성의 도시 공간 구조에 대한 이해가 가능하게 되었고, 도성 내외의 불사 조사를 통해 백제의 불교문화가 가지는 고대 동아시적 가치를 확인할 수 있었다. 풍부한 고고학자료를 생산적으로 활용하는 것이 고고학발전의 관건이다. 그를 위해 고고학의 학문적 목표를 다시 생각할 필요가 있다. 문화복원, 문화사, 인간과 역사 지향, 그리고 물질자료와 문화 사이의 관계에서 관찰되는 보편성 추구 등을 제안하는 바이다.The Hoseo Archaeological Society s(HAS) past 20years was just overlapped with the rapid growth phase of archaeology of Korea. A lot of salvage archaeological excavation had been occurred by legal proceeding against land development, therefore archaeology becomes accepted not as a brach of humanities but as a cultural resource management(CRM). Consequently the quality of excavation and its report had been worse. The period of unprecedented over-supply of CRM just has closed with 20th anniversary of HAS. Of course during past 20years we have achieved not a few, especially in the settlement archaeology part resulting from large extent stripping of land. In the real sense, has been possible some settlement archaeological research, which is comprised mortuary site, industrial site and fortification, in the other word a ‘city of underground’. In addition to that the finding of ancient Backje(百濟) capital city archaeology also is remarkable, clarifying of city wall plan and space layout ete. Buddhist temples is characteristic of ancient east asian capital s religious facility, of which overall plan and its change has shed light on that part. Though the key of archaeology s growth is often assumed to the use of affluent mateials, but also requires correct establishment of its pursuit. Hereby suppose the pursue of archaeology as this ; the reconstruction of culture, the history of culture, the human and history orientation and the theory orientation.

Reconstructing the origins of the Perrins Ledge cremains using strontium isotope analysis

Strontium isotope (87Sr/86Sr) analyses have been used effectively to reconstruct the origin of osteological remains that have not been exposed to increasing temperatures. However, previous research has shown that no thermally induced changes occur to original strontium isotope values (87Sr/86Sr) of bone and tooth specimens that have been subjected to temperatures between 100 and 1000 degrees Celsius, though the published literature regarding strontium isotope ratio stability and survivorship in thermally altered bone and teeth is limited. This is surprising given the potential implications for geolocation inquiries of cremains. This research demonstrates the utility and potential of strontium isotope analysis (87Sr/86Sr) in the contexts of thermally altered osteoarchaeological materials with the focus to reconstruct the geographic origins of the prehistoric cremated human remains from the Late Woodland period (600–850 CE) Perrins Ledge crematory, located in the Lower Illinois River Valley of the American Midwest. This mortuary site is unique in both regional and temporal contexts as an isolated crematorium structure containing at least 13 individuals (ten adults and three non-adults) represented by burned human skeletal remains of unknown origins. Strontium isotope signatures derived from bone and enamel samples of the cremains are compared with values obtained from osteoarchaeological faunal remains from three contemporary neighboring sites (Carlin, Apple Creek, and Newbridge) using thermal ionization mass spectrometry. Results indicate that the majority of the Perrins Ledge individuals reflect signatures beyond the standard (two-sigma) range considered local, with one adult bone and enamel sample and two of the three non-adult enamel samples that mirror local signatures.

Evaluation of an HIV-Related Mortuary Surveillance System - Nairobi, Kenya, Two Sites, 2015.

Use of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-mortality surveillance data can help public health officials monitor, evaluate, and improve HIV treatment programs. Many high-income countries have high-coverage civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems linked to case-based HIV surveillance on which to base HIV mortality estimates. However, in the absence of comprehensive CRVS systems in low- and medium-income countries, such as Kenya, mortuary surveillance can be used to understand the occurrence of HIV infection among cadavers. In 2015, a pilot HIV-related mortuary surveillance system was implemented in the two largest mortuaries in Nairobi, Kenya. CDC conducted an evaluation to assess performance attributes and identify strengths and weaknesses of the surveillance system pilot.Data collection: January 29-March 3, 2015; evaluation: November 2015.The surveillance system objectives were to determine HIV positivity among cadavers at two mortuary sites in Nairobi, Kenya, and to determine annual cause-specific and HIV-specific mortality rates among the cadavers. Cadavers of persons aged ≥15 years at death admitted to either mortuary during a 33-day period were included. Demographic information and place and time of death were entered into a surveillance register. Cardiac blood was collected using transthoracic aspiration, and blood specimens were tested for HIV in a central laboratory. Causes of death were abstracted from mortuary and hospital records. Of the 807 cadavers brought to the mortuaries, 610 (75.6%) had an HIV test result available. The overall unadjusted HIV-positivity rate was 19.5% (119/610), which differed significantly by sex (14.6% among men versus 29.5% among women).The evaluation was conducted using CDC guidelines for evaluating public health surveillance systems. The attributes of simplicity, flexibility, data quality (completeness and validity), acceptability, sensitivity, predictive value positive, representativeness, timeliness, and stability were examined. The evaluation steps included review of the surveillance system documents, in-depth interviews with 20 key informants (surveillance system staff, including mortuary and laboratory staff, and stakeholders involved in funding or implementation), and review of the surveillance database.Implementation of the pilot mortuary surveillance system was complex because of extensive paperwork and the need to collect and process specimens outside of business hours. However, the flexibility of the system accommodated multiple changes during implementation, including changes in specimen collection techniques and data collection tools. Acceptability was initially low among the mortuary staff but increased after concerns regarding workload were resolved. Timeliness of specimen collection could not be measured because time of death was rarely documented. Completeness of data available from the system was generally high except for cause of death (46.5%). Although the two largest mortuaries in Nairobi were included, the surveillance system might not be representative of the Nairobi population. One of the mortuaries was affiliated with the national referral hospital and included cadavers of admitted patients, some deaths might have occurred outside Nairobi, and data were collected for only 1 month.Mortuary surveillance can provide data on HIV positivity among cadavers and HIV-related mortality, which are not available from other sources in most sub-Saharan African countries. Availability of these mortality data will help describe a country's progress toward achieving epidemic control and achieving Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS 95-95-95 targets. To understand HIV mortality in high-prevalence regions, the mortuary surveillance system is being replicated in Western Kenya. Although a low-cost system, its sustainability depends on external funding because mortuary surveillance is not yet incorporated into the national AIDS strategic framework in Kenya.

Exploring your Inner Hades: DNA as Mortuary Archaeology

Two revolutions in using human genetics to investigate the past are beginning to have a profound effect on how the public regard heritage and their connection to it. Direct-to-consumer genetic ancestry tests (GATs) are becoming a popular way for the public to explore their familial history and ancestry. Major advances in ancient DNA methods mean that the field is beginning to live up to its early promise. Both of these analyses can be considered forms of public mortuary archaeology in how they are perceived to provide an individual an interface with their recent and more ancient ancestors, their own personal Hades, referring to the Ancient Greek home of the dead. GATs are useful for resolving genealogy and determining the origins of an individual’s recent ancestors, but have been criticized for reifying differences between populations, failing to give clear guidance on how they should be interpreted and making exaggerated links to historic groups of people that are at the heart of genetically determinist nationalistic origin myths. Recent palaeogenomic studies of prehistoric Europeans have found evidence for population discontinuity that will have repercussions for the public’s perception of archaeological mortuary sites and the communities who built them. Public archaeologists are going to have to engage increasingly with these types of data to combat the misappropriation of genetic results in defining rights and affinities to archaeological heritage.

Geochemical sourcing of fiber-tempered pottery and the organization of Late Archaic Stallings communities in the American Southeast

The oldest pottery technology in North America was innovated by hunter-gatherers belonging to the Late Archaic Stallings culture (ca. 5150-3200 cal B.P.) of Georgia and South Carolina. The culture history of Stallings societies is relatively well-known; however, the permanence and scale of Stallings communities, the nature of the connections among them, and the extent to which they changed over time remain poorly understood. In this study, 450 samples Stallings pottery and 24 raw clay resource samples from along the Savannah and Ogeechee Rivers were submitted for neutron activation analysis (NAA). The NAA results show a significant shift in the nature of vessel transport at the outset of the Classic Stallings phase (4100–3800 cal B.P.), an interval marked by the appearance of the region's first formalized circular villages and dedicated cemeteries. This shift involved the funneling of pots with carinated rims into a few major middle Savannah River mortuary sites, providing evidence for a novel Stallings sociality that combined relatively localized village life with periodic large-scale ritual gatherings.

Damaged Burials or Reliquiae Cogotenses? On the Accompanying Human Bones in Burial Pits Belonging to the Iberian Bronze Age

Social Sciences and Humanities are increasingly interested in the relationship between society and material culture, and archaeology can provide, among other contributions, its chronological depth and the variability and certain regularities in mortuary rituals. In this respect, archaeological literature frequently cites cases of a few human bones redeposited at mortuary sites, often burials of adults accompanied by some bones of an infant, but without a clear pattern being discernable. In contrast, research on the Bronze Age Cogotas I archaeological culture in the Iberian Peninsula (MBA and LBA, ca. 1800–1100 cal BC) has identified what seems to be an emerging pattern: primary burials of very young children accompanied by the bone of an adult, possibly female, who had died before, even long before, as the statistical analysis of the radiocarbon dates of the individuals involved appears to corroborate. This may therefore be a ritualised mortuary practice that included bone relics, but its explanation is not simple, due to the polysemic nature of such relics. The creation and maintenance of real or fictitious kinship ties, a special protection for dead infants, possible gender aspects, ideas about fertility and renewal, strengthening interpersonal relationships, legitimisation of emerging inequality, etc., are some of the possible components of this social practice which was until now unknown in the Iberian prehistory, but also little known in other areas in European prehistory.

A unique case of mandibular osteomyelitis arising from tooth germ infection in a 7,000-year-old infant from Siberia

Excavations from a 7,000-year-old mortuary site in the Lake Baikal region of Siberia, Russian Federation, revealed an infant with osteomyelitis of the mandible. The lesion exhibits deformation of the anterior mandibular base, an extra-oral cloaca, and new periosteal bone layers on the corpus. Entry of oral microorganisms was likely via the deciduous left canine, with infection then concentrated around the forming permanent canine tooth germ. This infection route is not widely documented in paleopathology and the pathogenicity of oral microorganisms is discussed. This unique case is one of the oldest examples of infant osteomyelitis of the jaws, adding to our understanding of the antiquity and development of infectious diseases in humankind.

Rescates bioarqueológicos en el valle medio del río Negro (provincia de Río Negro): el potencial informativo del registro altamente perturbado

Este trabajo se centra en el análisis de tres conjuntos bioarqueológicos altamente perturbados por la acción antrópica moderna, rescatados en el valle del río Negro (provincia de Río Negro). Su objetivo es dar a conocer los resultados del análisis cuantitativo, sexo-etario y tafonómico realizado sobre los conjuntos óseos recuperados en los sitios Fábrega, Negro Muerto 3 y Loma de los Muertos y evaluar el impacto de la incorporación de este registro a la discusión a nivel intra-sitio y regional. Los resultados de este trabajo permitieron incorporar un nuevo sitio con evidencias inhumatorias al esquema regional, ampliar y ajustar el número de individuos y espectro etario en otros sitios, además de incorporar información novedosa acerca de prácticas de modificación craneana y procesamiento de cadáveres. Los nuevos datos generados demuestran el potencial informativo, en términos paleodemográficos y culturales, del registro bioarqueológico altamente impactado por la acción antrópica moderna.

The Mesolithic “Asturian” culture (North Iberia), one century on

A century ago, in the excavation of El Penicial Cave in Asturias (North Spain), Count Vega del Sella documented the first materials known to belong to the Asturian culture. That was the name for the new culture proposed by H. Obermaier in his book El Hombre Fósil (1916). Due to this German prehistorian's publications and those of authors like M. C. Burkitt, the Asturian soon became well-known internationally. This situation was especially noticeable after the 1970s, and has continued until the present time. After a hundred years of studies from different theoretical viewpoints and debates in different forums, this paper presents a critical reflection on what is known and not known about this classic European Mesolithic culture, characterised by the massive presence of shell-middens. Cultural-history and processual approaches have guided research on the Asturian. This determines the nature of our knowledge about this culture, localised in the central part of the southern coast of the Bay of Biscay. After a long debate on the Asturian chronology, doubts do not exist now regarding its post-Azilian age. However, the question of the relationship between the Asturian and Neolithic remains unresolved. The hypothesis of the continuity of the Asturian shell-middens after the sixth millennium cal BC is, for the moment, the best way to fill the information gap covering the period of 5000-4300 cal BC. Research in recent years has provided more information about the economy of these hunter-gatherer societies. However, key aspects, such as the use of wild plants are still little understood. The latest finds of lithic hunting weapons and shells used as tools open new perspectives for the study of Asturian technology. The role played by the shell-middens in their cultural context is still one of the key issues in Asturian research. Recent excavations have confirmed that there were occupations inside the middens, which at other times were mere accumulations of waste. Open-air settlements outside the caves also existed. Further research is required to understand how both realities, the middens and the nearby open-air sites, interacted. Although archaeological evidence linked to symbolic behaviour is scarce, the symbolic thought of the Asturian groups is seen in their mortuary sites, whose noticeable increase is probably related to the stable/recurrent use of the sites.

Límites e interfaces de Chachapoyas en la región Rodríguez De Mendoza

Chachapoyas was one of the largest prehispanic cultures located in the eastern montane forest. The location on the interface of Andean and Amazonian environments gave middle-man status in trading important exotic goods withneighbors. The nature of the interface with the Chachapoyanos eastern neighbors speaks to important aspects of Chachapoya identity in the past. If Chachapoyas was an extension of highland cultural hegemony, then the eastern Chachapoyas interface may have been an important location for boundary maintenance between «Andean» and «Amazonian» peoples. Conversely, the Chachapoya may have been a bridge society that facilitated interaction by presenting a mutually intelligible venue for exchange. The LIP sites in the Mendoza region share many characteristics with typical Chachapoya sites: settlement pattern; pottery styles; and mortuary style, but Mendoza sites lack elaboration of household architecture, such as cornices, friezes, tenon heads, or platform bases, and these sites do not have the same density of stone constructions as documented at most “Classic” Chachapoya sites. This article reviews survey of Mendoza area habitation sites, mortuary sites, and pathways of movement as part of a network of local, regional, and interregional connections to consider what Mendoza sites can tell us about the construction of what was «Chachapoyas.»