Up until a thousand years ago, the Chincha people of what is now Peru decorated their ancestral remains with red pigment, sometimes finger-painting their skulls as part of a ritual aimed at giving the dead a new kind of social life.
In a new study, researchers analyzed hundreds of human remains found in southern Peru’s Chincha Valley. The skeletal remains they studied, dated between AD 1000 and 1825, have been found in large mortuary structures of more than 100 “chullpas”, where multiple people were buried together. The team’s goal is detailed in the March 2023 issue. Journal of Anthropological Archeology (opens in new tab)was to investigate how and why red dye was applied to many bones.
But what they discovered was that different types of red paint were used and only certain people were painted after death.
The use of red pigment in funeral rites dates back thousands of years in Peru and is related to the process of forming a long-term relationship with deceased members of society. “Death was not the end,” the researchers wrote in the study. “It was a pivotal moment for the transition to another kind of existence, and a critical transition from one state to another provided the foundation for further life.”
The researchers took red dye samples from 38 different artifacts and bones, 25 of which were human skulls. They determined the composition of red pigments using three scientific techniques—X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, and laser ablation ICP-MS—which are basically techniques for analyzing elements in a substance. In 24 of the samples, the red dye was iron-based. ocher like hematite, 13 were from mercury-based cinnabar, and one was a combination of the two. Further chemical analysis showed that the cinnabar was imported hundreds of miles away, while the hematite likely came from local sources. These differences may reflect elite and non-elite uses of different types of paint, the study authors said.
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It was determined that most of the individuals whose bones were stained were adult males. However, the bones of women and children, as well as several people with healed traumatic wounds, and people whose skulls were replaced as infants were also painted.
By examining the skulls, the researchers figured out how the red paint was applied. “We know that Chincha peoples used fabrics, leaves and their own hands to apply red pigment to human remains,” the study’s first author said. Jacob Bongers (opens in new tab)An anthropological archaeologist at Boston University told Live Science in an email. Thick vertical or horizontal lines of paint on the skulls are consistent with someone using their fingers for application.
“Finger painting would have been critical for forging close relationships between the living and the dead,” Bongers said. Said. “The red pigment itself brings to light this living-dead relationship and social differences for others to see.”
Benjamin Schaefer (opens in new tab)A bioarchaeologist at the University of Illinois Chicago, who was not involved in the study, Dr. death after death offers an intimate and dynamic look at social identities in the Chincha Valley.”
One aspect of the process that Bongers and his colleagues have yet to figure out is when the red dye is applied. While it was clear to them that bones were painted after individuals were skeletonized, the actual act of painting could have been a response to colonization.
“Some painted bones, especially the skull [skulls]It was removed and placed on top of other graves, possibly to ‘protect’ the dead,” the researchers wrote. chullpas To paint human remains that became desecrated after the European invasion,” the researchers wrote.
“His research provides a roadmap for others to follow” Celeste Gagnon (opens in new tab)“To create a study that fulfills a unique promise of anthropology: bringing together humanistic and scientific insights from the past,” a bioarchaeologist at Wagner College in New York who was not involved in the study told Live Science in an email.