Chincha | Strange find: They discover almost 200 vertebral columns embedded in poles

Surprised, shocked and confused. This is how a group of researchers felt when in 2012, in the valley of Chincha, made a strange archaeological discovery: about five reconstructed vertebral columns embedded in reed poles. To date, specialists have unearthed 192 posts with stranded vertebrae, which would be on average about 500 years old.

turbulent period

This investigation, which officially began in 2013, is part of the Chincha Archaeological Programled by Henry Tantaleán, from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, and Charles Stanish, from the University of South Florida.

which included the chullpas, funerary towers where multiple bodies were placed. Posts with embedded vertebrae were found inside and outside the chullpas.

According to radiocarbon tests, the vertebrae date from the periods late horizon (1400-1532 AD) and Colonial (1532-1825 AD); that is to say, .

It was also determined that they correspond to bodies of Adults and of kids. Likewise, specialists estimate that approximately 40 years or less had passed between the death of these individuals and the reconstruction of their remains.

“What’s very fascinating, and key, is that,” he told Trade Jacob Bongers, an archaeologist at the University of East Anglia (England) and lead author of the study.

“We also know that the Spanish burned mummies and looted tombs. The chronicler Pedro Cieza de León writes that in the middle part of the Chincha Valley several tombs were looted by the Spanish to take the gold and the silver”, he adds.

tribute to the dead

The investigation indicates that it would have been the Chincha society –which dominated the area during the Late Intermediate Period (1000-1400 AD), until it was conquered by the Incas– which reconstructed the vertebral columns using cane poles. However, it would not have been any kind of punishment or savage behavior, but to honor them.

“People can look at this and say it’s kind of scary and weird. However, our theory is that when the Spanish arrived and looted the tombs, they practically destroyed them, scattering the remains of the deceased all over the place. People from the area, from Chincha, were still there and still cared about their dead. Therefore, it was important for them to keep the remains complete and intact”, details Bongers.

“It is possible that . In other words, these poles with vertebrae could have been a response, a reaction to the looting by the Spanish”, says the specialist.

For him, this finding would show how important their dead were for the ancient inhabitants of the Chincha Valley.

“In my opinion, this would confirm,” he says.