Animal offerings at Quebrada de Humahuaca, Jujuy, Argentina.

MERCOLLI P., SELDES V. Y FERNÁNDEZ DO RIO SOLANGE

Paris

Conferencia; 11th ICAZ International Conference of ICAZ; 2010

International Council for Archaeozoology

The aim of this paper is to analyze several samples from different social and chronological contexts to evaluate the temporal modifications in the funerary rituals related to the major socio-political changes. In South-Central Andes the presence of faunal remains in funerary contexts is a recurrent tendency, although it has been poorly investigated. This paper studies different contexts at Quebrada de Humahuaca, Jujuy, Argentina, which include Formative (AD 700-900), Late (AD 900-1430) Inka (AD 1430-1536) and Hispano Indígena (AD 1536-1600) Periods. In most cases, human remains are associated with domesticated bones, although there is supplementary evidence of wild species related to funerary practices. The analyses involves the study of the formal characteristics of the different funerary contexts, the human remains and the diversity of the faunal evidence; in order to investigate the nature of these offerings in the Andean cosmovision. The archaeological sites considered are: Los Amarillos, La Huerta, Campo Morado, Inti Huayna and Hornillos, all of which are located in Quebrada de Humahuaca.