Radiocarbon dating of the Peruvian Chachapoya/Inca site at the Laguna de los Condores

Autor(en)

Eva Maria Wild, Sonia Guillen, Walter Kutschera, Horst Seidler, Peter Steier

Abstrakt

In 1997 a new archaeological site was discovered in the Peruvian tropical rain forest. The site is located in an area which has been occupied by the Chachapoya, a pre-Incan people, from about 800AD on. The site comprises a large funerary place with several mausoleums built in the cliffs next to the Laguna de los Condores. More than 200 human mummies and funerary bone-bundles together with numerous grave artefacts have been found there. Although the site has been ascribed to the Chachapoya, the mummification method used is very similar to the one applied by the Inca. As part of an ongoing multidisciplinary project to explore the history of this site and of the Chachapoya people, twenty-seven (27) 14C-AMS age determinations were performed. Samples, bones and textile wrappings as well as samples from a funerary bone bundle plus associated grave artefacts were dated. The 14C data show that the site originates from the Chachapoya pre-Inca period and that in addition, it was used as a funerary place during the subsequent Inca occupation era. The radiocarbon results indicate that the Chachapoya may have changed their burial tradition due to the colonization by the Inca. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Organisation(en)

Isotopenphysik, Department für Evolutionäre Anthropologie

Externe Organisation(en)

Centro Mallqui -The Bioanthropology Foundation Peru

Journal

Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research. Section B. Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms

Band

259

Seiten

378-383

Anzahl der Seiten

6

ISSN

0168-583X

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2007.01.245

Publikationsdatum

2007

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

1030 Physik, Astronomie

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/radiocarbon-dating-of-the-peruvian-chachapoyainca-site-at-the-laguna-de-los-condores(3eeae50b-f6b3-42eb-a320-c7ca712f1c25).html