Recently Excavated Headless Skeleton Expands Understanding Of Ancient Andean Rituals

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The head jar dates to Nasca 5 and contains the image of a head with a tree growing out of the top and branches extending around the vessel. The tree has eyes, and tassels hang from its branches. The nose is placed high on the forehead, and when the vessel is turned upside down a different face is represented with the nose in the correct anatomical position. The jar has repair holes along a crack in the back and small chips indicating that it was used before being placed in the tomb. It also has holes that are not along a crack or area of stress, suggesting that they were not used for keeping the vessel together with cord. (Credit: Christina A. Conlee)

Images of disembodied heads are widespread in the art of Nasca, a culture based on the southern coast of Peru from AD 1 to AD 750. But despite this evidence and large numbers of trophy heads in the region's archaeological record, only eight headless bodies have been recovered with evidence of decapitation, explains Christina A. Conlee (Texas State University). Conlee's analysis of a newly excavated headless body from the site of La Tiza provides important new data on decapitation and its relationship to ancient ideas of death and regeneration.

As Conlee outlines in the June issue of Current Anthropology, the third vertebrae of the La Tiza skeleton has dark cut marks, rounded edges, and no evidence of flaking or breakage, indicating decapitation occurred at or very soon after the time of death. A ceramic jar decorated with an image of a head was placed next to the body. The head has a tree with eyes growing out of it, the branches encircling the vessel.

"Ritual battles often take place just before plowing for potato planting, and trees and unripened fruit figure in these rituals, in which the shedding of blood is necessary to nourish the earth to produce a good harvest," Conlee writes. "The presence of scalp cuts on Nasca trophy heads suggests the letting of blood was an important part of the ritual that resulted in decapitation."

Read the full story here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070529101025.htm