Ñawpa Pacha

Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ynaw20

Pampa La Cruz: a New Mass Sacrificial Burial

Ground during the Chimú Occupation in
Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru

Gabriel Prieto, John Verano, Ann Pollard Rowe, Feren Castillo, Luis Flores,
Julio Asencio, Alan Chachapoyas, Victor Campaña, Richard Sutter, Aleksalia
Isla, Khrystyne Tschinkel, Rachel Witt, Andres Shiguekawa, Jordi A. Rivera
Prince, Celeste Marie Gagnon, Carlos Avila-Mata, Fuyuki Tokanai, Claver W.
Aldama-Reyna & José M. Capriles

To cite this article: Gabriel Prieto, John Verano, Ann Pollard Rowe, Feren Castillo, Luis Flores,
Julio Asencio, Alan Chachapoyas, Victor Campaña, Richard Sutter, Aleksalia Isla, Khrystyne
Tschinkel, Rachel Witt, Andres Shiguekawa, Jordi A. Rivera Prince, Celeste Marie Gagnon, Carlos
Avila-Mata, Fuyuki Tokanai, Claver W. Aldama-Reyna & José M. Capriles (16 Jul 2023): Pampa La
Cruz: a New Mass Sacrificial Burial Ground during the Chimú Occupation in Huanchaco, North
Coast of Peru, Ñawpa Pacha, DOI: 10.1080/00776297.2023.2221481

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00776297.2023.2221481

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PAMPA LA CRUZ: A NEW MASS SACRIFICIAL BURIAL GROUND DURING
THE CHIMÚ OCCUPATION IN HUANCHACO, NORTH COAST OF PERU

Gabriel Prieto , John Verano , Ann Pollard Rowe, Feren Castillo , Luis Flores, Julio Asencio,
Alan Chachapoyas, Victor Campaña, Richard Sutter, Aleksalia Isla, Khrystyne Tschinkel ,
Rachel Witt, Andres Shiguekawa, Jordi A. Rivera Prince , Celeste Marie Gagnon ,
Carlos Avila-Mata, Fuyuki Tokanai , Claver W. Aldama-Reyna and José M. Capriles

Gabriel Prieto, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA (ogabriel.prietob@ufl.edu)
John Verano, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA (verano@tulane.edu)
Ann Pollard Rowe, The Textile Museum, The George Washington University Museum, Washington, DC, USA (aprowe@
gwu.edu)
Feren Castillo, Escuela de Arqueologia, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Trujillo, Peru
(fcastillol@unitru.edu.pe)
Luis Flores, Programa Arqueologico Huanchaco, Trujillo, Peru (lfdelaoliva@gmail.com)
Julio Asencio, Programa Arqueologico Huanchaco, Trujillo, Peru (alasencio23@gmail.com)
Alan Chachapoyas Programa Arqueologico Huanchaco, Trujillo, Peru (alanchflores93@gmail.com)
Victor Campaña, Proyecto de Rescate Arqueologico Las Lomas de Huanchaco, Huanchaco, Peru (vitu.cale@gmail.com)
Richard Sutter, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University – Purdue University at Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, IN,
USA (sutterr@pfw.edu)
Aleksalia Isla, Programa Arqueologico Huanchaco, Trujillo, Peru (aleksaalayo21@gmail.com)
Khrystyne Tschinkel, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA (ktschink@tulane.edu)
Rachel Witt, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA (rwitt@tulane.edu)
Andres Shiguekawa, Programa Arqueologico Huanchaco, Trujillo, Peru (shigue2@gmail.com)
Jordi A. Rivera Prince, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA ( jriveraprince@ufl.edu)
Celeste Marie Gagnon, Department of Anthropology, Wagner College, Staten Island, NY, USA (celeste.gagnon@wagner.edu)
Carlos Avila-Mata, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA (cavilamata@ufl.edu)
Fuyuki Tokanai, Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, University of Yamagata, Yamagata-shi, Japan (tokanai@sci.
kj.yamagata-u.ac.jp)
Claver W. Aldama-Reyna, Laboratorio de Óptica y Láseres, Departamento Académico de Física, Universidad Nacional de
Trujillo, Trujillo, Peru (caldama@unitru.edu.pe)
José M. Capriles, Department of Anthropology, Penn State University, State College, PA, USA ( juc555@psu.edu)
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies, pp. 1–86. # 2023 Institute of Andean Studies. All rights reserved.

1
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

This article describes six sacrificial events carried out during the Late Intermediate Period and the beginning of the
Late Horizon at Pampa La Cruz (PLC), located in the Moche Valley, North Coast of Peru. The archaeological
context and circumstances in which the children and camelids were sacrificed at PLC are different from the previously
investigated site of Huanchaquito – Las Llamas. PLC raises the question of whether the nature and the purpose of
human sacrifice among the Chimú was more diverse and complex than previously thought. We discuss possible scen-
arios for the various sacrificial events identified at this site. Eighty AMS dates published here for the first time con-
stitute the largest and most precise series of absolute dates for Chimú society obtained from one site, and by extension for
the Late Intermediate Period in the entire coast of Peru.

En este artículo describimos seis eventos sacrificiales llevados a cabo durante el Periodo Intermedio Tardío y el inicio
del Horizonte Tardío en Pampa La Cruz (PLC), ubicado en el valle de Moche, costa norte del Perú. El contexto
arqueológico y las circunstancias en que los niños y los camélidos fueron sacrificados en PLC son diferentes al sitio
previamente investigado de Huanchaquito Las Llamas. PLC plantea la pregunta de si la naturaleza y el propósito
del sacrificio humano entre los Chimú fue más diverso y complejo de lo que se pensaba en un principio. Aquí, dis-
cutimos posibles escenarios o causas para los diversos eventos de sacrificio identificados en este sitio, intentando
amarrar estos eventos a la secuencia cronológica Chimú en general. Ochenta fechas AMS publicadas aquí por
primera vez, constituyen la serie más grande y precisa de fechas absolutas para la sociedad Chimú obtenidas de un
solo sitio en toda la costa del Perú y por lo tanto se vuelve en una herramienta útil para estudiar esta sociedad
prehispánica.

Keywords: Ritual Violence, Sanctified Violence, Chimu Society, North Coast of Peru, Pampa la Cruz

include, but is not limited to, warfare, animal sacri-

I n the nineteenth century, Henry Hubert and
Marcel Mauss postulated that sacrifice is a religious
act that through the consecration of the victim mod-
ifies the condition of the person who accomplished
it. They also argued that sacrifice could be seen as a
symbolic procedure in establishing means of com-
munication between the monde sacré and the
profane world through the victim, creating direct
benefits to all the participants (Hubert and Mauss
1964). More recently, Glenn Schwartz examined
sacrifice in the archaeological record from a “func-
tional perspective” in which this act is seen (and
must be explained) not only from the religious but
also the political, economic and circumstantial con-
ditions in which it happened (Schwartz 2017:
224). For the ancient Andes, human sacrifice
deserves its own chapter due to the abundant empiri-
cal data available through archaeological, historical
and art-historical studies (Benson and Cook 2001;
Bourget 2016; Klaus and Toyne 2016). For pre-his-
panic societies, human sacrifice is included under a
wider umbrella of ritualized violence which may
fice, ritual torture, and auto-sacrifice, among others
(Klaus and Toyne 2016, following Schwartz 2017).
It is interesting that despite careful field documen-
tation and bioarchaeological analysis, interpretations
tend to emphasize on the one hand, a mixture of
ritualized violence as the result of warfare, or on
the other, the necessity to consolidate power to
strengthen the prestige and privilege of a ruling
elite. Ritualized violence and specifically human
sacrifice are seen as religious/political acts and as
tools of statecraft employed to terrorize a population
into submission (Schwartz 2017). In a similar way,
human sacrifice has been interpreted as a response
to climate calamities and political disasters and the
establishment of political/social alliances or sociopo-
litical integration (Arnold and Hastorf 2008; Besom
2009; Bourget 2016; Klaus and Toyne 2016; Prieto
et al. 2019; Reinhard and Ceruti 2005; Sutter and
Verano 2007; Tung 2012; Verano 2008).
The neo-evolutionist approach that claimed that
the “uncivilized” New World demonstrated more

2
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
evidence of human sacrifice than the “civilized” Old
World, is an idea that has been eradicated from
scholarly circles, but is one that continues to be a
popular belief among the general public (Yoffee
2005, criticizing the neo-evolutionary model).
Glenn Schwartz has correctly pointed out that one
of the sources of possible biases is the abundance
of archaeological evidence in the Americas, in con-
trast with primarily textual evidence written thou-
sands of years ago in the Near East (for example
the biblical narrations) and even in Greek and
Roman societies, although there is an increasing
corpus of archaeological evidence across Europe
and the Middle East (Meyer et al. 2018; Porter
et al. 2021). Colorful interpretations, moral justifica-
tions, and even the neglect of data have been empha-
sized in both academic and non-academic circles, in
lieu of detailed investigations of human sacrificial
practices. The best approach to learn about human
sacrifice in the past should include all possible
direct and indirect sources, emphasizing the archae-
ological evidence collected during fieldwork and
later in the analysis of human skeletal remains
(Klaus and Toyne 2016; Meller et al. 2020;
Verano 2001).
Fortunately, the Chimú case does not require the
need to convince the audience that children were
actually sacrificed, because the skeletal evidence is
unambiguous at the site of Huanchaquito Las
Llamas, making it one of the best documented
cases reported from the ancient Andes (Cagnato
et al. 2021; Dufour et al. 2020; Goepfert et al.
2020; Goepfert and Prieto 2016; Le Bailly et al.
2020; Prieto et al. 2015, 2017, 2019; Prieto and
Verano in press; Verano and Prieto 2020).
As will be shown here, the sacrificial victims
found at Pampa La Cruz, also show unequivocal
evidence of perimortem injuries (51%), although
nearly 20% do not show evidence of cause of
death based on osteological evidence. However, con-
textual evidence such as individuals buried in the
same fashion and next to those showing clear evi-
dence of a violent death, can be used to argue for
sacrifice rather than normative mortuary practice.
The absence of cutmarks and other trauma on
3
some of these subadults and adults deserve more
discussion, which is offered at the end of this
paper. Nonetheless, Pampa La Cruz (hereafter
PLC) is similar in this respect to what was observed
at Huanchaquito Las Llamas where up to 19% of
the victims did not show perimortem injuries that
may have caused death (Prieto et al. 2019). When
the PLC data is tabulated by events, an interesting
pattern seems to emerge. There is a systematic
increase in the cases with evidence on transverse
cuts across the sterna from Events 1 and 2 at
ratios of 32% and 25% respectively, to 68%
(Event 5) and 82% during Event 6 (Appendix 1).
These numbers suggest that killing victims by a
clean cut across the sternum is a practice that
increased over time. However, it should be noted
that well-preserved sternal elements were not
always recovered in the field, making the number
of unobservable cases high, reaching in some cases
up to 49% (Appendix 1). Individuals scored as
“n/a” indicate that either the sternum was not
found during the excavation, or that it was so
heavily damaged, that a diagnosis was not possible
(Appendices 1 and 2).
The purpose of this article is to report the results
of multiple seasons of excavations at PLC, a Chimú
site located north of Chan Chan, on the Huanchaco
coast, where hundreds of children, adults, and came-
lids were ritually killed between 1050/1100 and
1450/1500 cal. A.D. To date, PLC is the site that
has yielded the largest number of sacrifice victims
associated with the Chimú occupation (humans =
2471; camelids = 211). The archaeological context
and circumstances in which the children and came-
lids were sacrificed at PLC are different from the pre-
viously investigated site of Huanchaquito – Las
Llamas (Prieto et al. 2019). Indeed, PLC raises the
question of whether the nature and the purpose of
human sacrifice among the Chimú was more
diverse and complex than previously thought. At
the end of this article, we discuss possible scenarios
for the various sacrificial events identified at Pampa
La Cruz. Eighty AMS dates published here for the
first time, constitute the largest and most precise
series of absolute dates for Chimú society obtained
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
from one site, and by extension for the Late
Intermediate Period and Late Horizon in the
entire coast of Peru. Based on these results, we
propose the existence of at least six sacrificial
events that occurred in sequence over almost 500
years at PLC.
In this paper we contextualize the case of the mass
sacrifice at PLC with an interdisciplinary approach
to the study of violence in the past (Martin and
Harrod 2015; Tung 2021; Vega Dulanto 2016).
We recognize that the creation of a single definition
of violence is impractical, given that its function and
meaning is specific to the society or culture being
studied. Indeed, it has been suggested that our
understanding of violence varies according to our
own sociopolitical climate (Vandkilde 2013). In
broader terms, violence can include any action that
intends to hurt, damage, or kill someone or some-
thing (Ralph 2013: 2). We suggest that the Chimú
society had multiple concepts of violence, and there-
fore, even within this society, the function and
meaning of the taking of human lives should be
explored on a case-to-case basis. Under this
premise, Chimú violence as documented by the
killing of captives at Pacatnamú (Verano 1986)
and Punta Lobos (Verano and Toyne 2011)
should be distinguished from a definition of ritual
killing that applies to the mass sacrifice of young
women buried in the royal burial platforms of
Chan Chan (Pozorski 1980). As it has been
suggested for the analysis of violence in ancient
European societies, an interdisciplinary approach is
needed, one that should include the study of skeletal
remains, iconography, literature, landscapes and
ritual behavior. Certainly, for the Andean case, not
all these approaches are available (Benson and
Cook 2001; Klaus and Toyne 2016). It has been
argued that violence played an important role in
the development of past sociopolitical systems, so
its identification is an essential part for a better
understanding of social change both on micro –
and macro-scales (Ralph 2013: 3). Unfortunately,
for the Chimú case we are just beginning to
explore this interdisciplinary approach, and at this
point, can only offer a perspective from the study
4
of skeletal remains and their contextual location.
Studying the materiality of violence through the
temporality, location, and associated objects buried
with the victims, we can begin to explore the multi-
plicity of meanings of ritual violence, understanding
its causes, consequences and impacts upon society
(Ralph 2013: 3).
A theme that is tacitly embedded in the Chimú
case of the mass sacrifice of children and young came-
lids is the role played by violence as a political tool.
Ralph (2013) has called attention to what Weber
(1991 [1921]) called “sanctioned violence” as an
accepted way of inflicting harm in a given society,
where the state or political organization is considered
the sole arbiter of the “right” to use violence (Weber
1991[1921]: 78). At its core is the concept of dom-
ination: the control or power over others either
directly through the use of sanctioned violence, or
through the construction and reproduction of ideol-
ogies that may mask the real nature of social relations
(Orser 2002: 179; in Ralph 2013: 5). Did the Chimú
use sanctioned violence (child sacrifice) as a mechan-
ism of social control and domination, and to what
degree did the concept of violence change through
time in Chimú society? We argue that not only is
there the issue of evaluating the concept of violence
on a case-by-case basis, but also a need to consider
the temporal dimension in a complex society like
the Chimú, which was in constant change due to
its imperial nature. We suggest that sanctioned vio-
lence was a mechanism of social control by the
Chimú, but we are still far from understanding it.
The data provided in this article should serve as the
foundation for more elaborate theoretical models in
the future.
In this context, and for the late Prehispanic and
early Colonial Andean case, Klaus has proposed
the concept of structural violence as an approach
to exploring the biological effects of inequality
resulting from hierarchical social relationships. In
his definition, Klaus states that “structural violence
describes social structures that suppress agency and
prevent individuals, groups, and societies from
reaching their social, economic, and biological
potential, promoting the avoidable impairment of
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
fundamental human needs or human life, which
lowers the actual degree to which someone is able
to meet their needs below that which would other-
wise be possible” (Klaus 2012: 31). Structural vio-
lence is considered a subtle form of violence
because it is embedded in long-standing and multi-
generational social structures. As a theoretical model,
Klaus sees structural violence as a link between
anthropology and bioarchaeology, because it may
produce disparities in individual and community
health that may be detectible in skeletal and dental
remains. In the case of early Colonial Period
societies in Northern Peru, Klaus has demonstrated
clear evidence of structural violence in the frequency
of skeletal and dental stress indicators.
VanValkenburgh has noted that the societies of the
Lambayeque region experienced the impact of politi-
cal, economic, and ideological change imposed by
three sequential empires (Chimú, Inca, and
Iberian) in the span of less than two hundred
years (VanValkenburgh 2021).
Finally, we would like to approach the idea of mas-
sacres, since the number of sacrificial victims at
Huanchaquito Las Llamas and PLC seems to fit
the classic description of this concept. From an
anthropological perspective, massacres can be seen
as a process, as a chain of events that precede the mas-
sacre itself and continue longer after. It is defined on
large numbers of victims killed at one time or by
many events over a short period of time. Recently,
it has been argued that the issue of how many
victims are necessary to be considered a massacre
should take into consideration the cultural context
and population size of a given case (De Vore et al.
2018). Massacres can have varying aims, including
subjugation or total eradication of a group based
on status, ethnicity, or religion. Massacres can also
be powerful messages to witnesses or survivors
about power dynamics and can be used as a tool
for social control (Anderson and Martin 2018: 1).
However, in the classic literature massacres are com-
monly carried out by males and are intimately related
with warfare, such as a surprise attack initiated to
annihilate an enemy social unit, including non-com-
batants (entire families or communities, including
5
women and children). Massacres are also preceded
by other acts of destruction, which serve to provide
emotional momentum for the perpetrators and to
frighten the victims. These may include, but are
not limited to capture, torture, and theatric perform-
ances. It has been suggested that the death of every-
one in the social unit is not the intent of all
massacres; instead, a massacre of some individuals
can occur in order to force the submission of those
that remain (Anderson and Martin 2018: 6).
In this article, we hypothesize that neither struc-
tural violence, nor the concept of massacre fits the
mass sacrifice at PLC. Instead, we suggest that sanc-
tioned violence was at the core of Chimú as a mech-
anism of social control. We also propose that unlike
previous assumptions (for example Prieto et al. 2015,
2017, 2019), ritualized violence in Chimú society
and specifically the mass sacrifice of children and
young camelids, was not only performed as a despe-
rate response to mitigate extreme weather patterns
(such as ENSO events), but instead was a regular
practice deeply embedded in Chimú political ideol-
ogy as part of a program of sanctioned violence.
The main evidence to support this idea are the six
sequential sacrificial events found at PLC, which
occurred over a period of five hundred years. This
timeframe, identified by the aid of 80 AMS dates
(Appendices 1 and 2), covers the entire history of
Chimú society from its origins until its consolidation
as an empire and its final conquest by the Inca. We
argue that the mass sacrifice of children and camelids
was a mechanism by which the Chimú established
and maintained political and ideological dominion
over their subjects, imposing social control and max-
imizing the power of the empire.
Chimú, Chan Chan, and Human
Sacrifice
Chimú is the name given to the society and archaeo-
logical culture of the so-called Kingdom of Chimor,
which emerged around A.D. 900 in the north coast
of Peru (Campana 2006; Moore and Mackey 2008;
Moseley and Cordy-Collins 1990; Moseley and Day
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
1982; J. H. Rowe 1948). The Chimú conquered other
well-established contemporary polities like the Casma
in the south and the Late Lambayeque polity in the
north around A.D. 1250–1350 in a sequence of
expansionist events (Moore and Mackey 2008: 789–
793; J. H. Rowe 1948; Vogel 2012: 166–174).
Despite different opinions about the Chimú expan-
sion, they incorporated a vast dominion of the
North Coast of Peru by A.D. 1400–1450, becoming
the most important political force on the Andean
coast. Although the nature of the expansion of the
Chimú territory is now under discussion, (see
Moore et al. 1997), it appears that its level of political
as well as economic control surpassed the modern
boundary of the southern area of the present-day
Lima province, while in the north, the Chimú
reached as far as the Tumbes region (Figure 1). The
issue of Chimú territoriality needs to be further dis-
cussed, considering indigenous perspectives
(Netherly 1984; Ramirez 2004; Rostworowski
2004). Recent investigations by Peter Eeckhout at
Figure 1. Map of the Chimú kingdom.
6
Pachacamac in the southern Lurín valley have discov-
ered Chimú style high status objects made of wood,
carved Spondylus shells, feathered objects, ceramic
vessels and textiles within a structure that also
resembles North Coast architecture, although most
of these artifacts were found in association with a
Late Horizon occupation (Eeckhout 2017). Indeed,
Eeckhout believes that North Coast ritual practices
and socio-political organization patterns were deeply
rooted in the Central Coast for a very long time,
well before the Chimú began their expansion. He
thinks that the elites of both regions were in contact
through long distance maritime trade, although
armed conflicts could have occurred between the
Chimú and the Ychma prior to the Inca presence on
the Central Coast of Peru (Eeckhout 2005: 123).
Also, the presence of Chimú imports of textiles,
silver, and beadwork (but not ceramics) in Chancay
indicates some level of Chimú presence in that valley
(A. P. Rowe 1984).
Recent DNA analysis suggests that people from the
Chimú kingdom could have been in contact and even
living in the Chincha valley area before the Inca con-
quest of the central and north coasts (Bongers et al.
2020). To the east of the Pacific coast, Chimú influ-
ence reached the upper highlands. Chimú pottery
was common in the highlands of the Moche and
neighboring valleys, in sites near Otuzco, Salpo,
Carabamba, and Agallpampa. It has been found at
sites in San Jose Porcon, including the Sanctuary of
Catequil itself. Topic also reported a few Chimú
ceramic fragments in the Huamachuco area (John
Topic, personal communication to Prieto, March
2022). Recently, Yamamoto has reported Chimú cer-
amics at the Ingatambo region, in the Jaen mountain
forest (Yamamoto 2007: 5). This evidence by no
means suggests territorial control by the Chimú, but
it marks a vast area of influence in which Chimú arti-
sans were in constant interaction with contempora-
neous peer polities beyond the coastal region.
Chan Chan, an urban settlement of more than 20
square kilometers in area located in the northern
sector of the Moche valley, is considered the capital
of the Chimú polity (Campana 2012; Gayoso
Rullier and Gamarra Carranza 2023; Moseley 1975;
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
Moseley and Day 1982; Pillsbury 1993; Rengifo
2021). The city was built in an artificial valley
created by a system of irrigation canals and the
massive collection of earth for the construction of
walls, roads, agricultural fields and leveled terrain
(Moseley and Deeds 1982; Nials et al. 1979; Ortloff
1981). It would be beyond the scope of this article
to provide an accurate summary of the state-of-the-
art investigations of this site, since recently two
major projects have been working there, the Chan
Chan-Moche Valley Project during the late 1960s
and early 1970s and the Proyecto Especial Chan
Chan (2006 to present), formerly the Unidad
Ejecutora Chan Chan 005 (Campana 2012;
Moseley and Day 1982; Rengifo 2021), in addition
to work done before and in between. Accurate maps
were drafted by the bishop Baltazar Jaime Martinez
Compañon in the eighteenth century, as well as few
sections by Squier (1877) and Bandelier during nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries (Pillsbury and
Trever 2008; Squier 1877; Trever 2012). Similarly,
the excavations during the 1980s at the Tschudi
palace by Alfredo Narvaez and colleagues and work
by the mural friezes project of Joanne Pillsbury in
the 1990s, are good research that has improved our
knowledge of Chan Chan and Chimú society in
general (Narvaez 1989; Pillsbury 1993). Joanne
Pillsbury analyzed the mural friezes of the Chan
Chan palaces, one of the major features of this
ancient city. She re-opened some of those known
since the Colonial and Republican periods, and also
discovered new ones (Pillsbury 1996). She pointed
out that the presence of friezes was restricted to big
plazas, U-shaped structures, and more conspicuously,
decorating the burial platforms of Chimú elites.
Pillsbury has also suggested that the friezes could
have embodied large textiles “wrapping” the burial
platforms as a symbol of shrouds covering the body
of the ruler deposited within the platform. Another
important contribution of hers was to define two man-
ufacturing techniques for the friezes: additive and sub-
tractive. She suggested some possible chronological
connotations, with the additive earlier and the subtrac-
tive later, but in fact they were used indiscriminately
during both periods (Pillsbury 1993: 107; 2009).
7
However, it is without a doubt that the research led
by Michael E. Moseley and Carol J. Mackey during
the “Chan Chan, Moche Valley Project” and the sub-
sequent “Proyecto Riego Antiguo” that have contribu-
ted the most significant and influential models and
ideas about the when, what, how, and why Chan
Chan was a major settlement for the Chimú
(Keatinge 1975; Moseley and Cordy-Collins 1990;
Moseley and Day 1982; Moseley and Mackey 1974;
Ortloff 1981; Topic 1990). One of the major accom-
plishments of the Chimú empire was their magnificent
hydraulic infrastructure (Kus 1972; Ortloff et al.
1982), inherited from their Moche predecessors and
possibly improved by their contact with the
Lambayeque polity, who also built significant canals
such as the Taymi (Tschauner 2001). The same is
true for metallurgy, which could have been signifi-
cantly improved at Chan Chan by Lambayeque’s
gold and silver smiths. This does not mean the
Chimú inherited or adopted all their technological
progress from the Lambayeque polity. We believe
this subject deserves further investigations using
materials with secure provenience and well-dated
context from the site of Chan Chan itself and its
immediate surroundings. Former Lambayeque small-
scale residential settlements located in the
Jequetepeque valley, were reoccupied by the Chimú,
changing slightly their food habits and relationship
with state-like tasks (Cutright 2010). In any case,
there is no doubt that the Chimú were also influenced
by Lambayeque mass sacrifice of subadults. The dis-
covery of the Cerro Cerrillos mass sacrifice of around
A.D. 900/950–1100 (although not conclusive, since
the dates rely on ceramic fragments rather than on
absolute measurements), seems to be the earliest evi-
dence of a mass sacrifice including children in the
north coast of Peru (Klaus et al. 2010). However,
the new dates obtained at Pampa La Cruz seem to
challenge this notion (see below).
When Prieto discovered the mass sacrifice of HLL
in 2011, one of the first indicators that distinguished
this site from a regular Chimú cemetery was the body
position in which the children and adolescents were
buried: extended or resting on their backs with the
lower limbs slightly flexed (Prieto et al. 2015: 265;
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
Prieto et al. 2019). The body positions observed in
HLL were different from “standard” Chimú burial
positions for adolescents and adults. It should be
noted, however, that our knowledge of Chimú
burial practices is very limited, despite the hundreds
of tombs that have been excavated in the last 50 years.
Very little has been done in systematizing body pos-
ition and orientation based on age, sex or social
status. Other important variables like chronological
differences and valley and intra-valley variances
seem to exist, but they need to be synthesized in
light of new research (Mackey and Nelson 2020).
In very general terms, the seated and flexed position
seems to be the standard for Lambayeque and Chimú
during the Late Intermediate Period on the North
Coast of Peru, although more regional-based
studies have attempted to distinguish burial patterns
by ethnic affiliation (see for example Shimada et al.
2004). The same can be said for the Lambayeque
burial patterns in the Jequetepeque valley, where at
the site of San José de Moro, the dominant body pos-
ition was seated (middle Lambayeque), while during
the late Lambayeque occupation burial position
shifted to bodies resting on their backs (Prieto
2014: 117–122). The scarce evidence available for
the Moche valley during the Late Intermediate
Period suggests that during the early Chimú period,
the burial position was exclusively flexed, although
there was considerable variation in the exact posture
of the body: seated upright, seated but bending
forward, while a few were lying on their side, back
or front. Middle and Late Chimú burial position is
exclusively flexed and seated, but not with a standard
orientation relative to the cardinal points or direction
in which the skull is facing (Castillo 2019: 242;
Donnan and Mackey 1978: 288, 340, 356).
During the Late Horizon or Chimú Inca period,
the burial practices are more complex and diverse.
Although Donnan and Mackey have suggested a con-
tinuation from Late Chimú of the flexed and seated
burial position (Donnan and Mackey 1978: 376),
recent research by Katya Valladares has challenged
this observation. Her analysis of 30 burials belonging
to low status individuals associated to the Late
Horizon found in the Chayhuac Palace in Chan
8
Chan, indicate that the burial pattern during this
period is more diverse and complex than previously
assumed (Donnan and Mackey 1978: 376;
Valladares 2018: 31, 115, 121). This is also sup-
ported by recent findings in the Late Horizon ceme-
tery at Iglesia Colonial de Huanchaco (Moche
Valley), where the majority of the burials are in
seated and flexed positions, but others show different
patterns such as resting on their knees or flexed on
their sides (Chimoven et al. 2016). Similar diversity
is observed in the many Late Horizon burials
(both of low and high status) at Farfán in the
Jequetepeque valley (Mackey and Nelson 2020: 94,
figure 3.11 and page 112, figure 3.43).
Although a more detailed analysis on Chimú
burial practices is needed, it seems clear that the sacri-
ficed children, adolescents, and adults buried in mass
at Huanchaquito Las Llamas and at Pampa La Cruz
do not share the typical seated and flexed position of
standard Chimú burial practices. The great majority
of sacrificed victims at HLL and PLC were buried in
an extended position resting on their back or side
with the lower limbs slightly flexed. At PLC,
around 11% (26 out of 247, see Appendix 1) were
buried in a seated or flexed position. Most of them
were placed facing north. Almost all of these burials
are associated with Event 3, which included 12
burials of adults (Appendix 1). As it will be shown
later in this paper, we found that seated burials at
PLC are more elaborately dressed, and apparently
reflect a desire to have them facing a particular direc-
tion in a standardized pose.
Around 1450/1470, some sixteenth-century
Spanish chroniclers have suggested that Inca troops
had their first unexpected encounters with the
Cajamarca and Chimú forces (J. H. Rowe 1948:
42–43). Apparently, these encounters continued
into a long-lasting war, perhaps the longest ever
fought by the Incas (Covey 2020). This war ended
when the city of Chan Chan was captured and occu-
pied by Inca officials, who sent the former Chimú
king Michanzaman to live in Cuzco and to marry
one of the Inca’s daughters. Michanzaman died
soon after, while one of his sons, Chumun-caur,
who was at the time in the Huaura valley with his
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
mother, Chanquir-guanguan, was appointed to rule
in Chan Chan under Inca control (J. H. Rowe
1948: 45). Before the end of the fifteenth century,
the former Chimú domains were brought under
Inca imperial control. In subsequent decades,
Chimú culture gradually vanished from the north
coast of Peru, although the Inca supported the wide-
spread distribution of Chimú-Inca objects. The
gradual vanishing of Chimú culture is particularly
true for Quignam, the language spoken in Chan
Chan and the valleys south of the Jequetepeque
river. It was almost forgotten at the time of the first
journey by the Spanish explorers along the North
Coast of Peru in 1531–1532 (Quilter et al. 2010;
Rabinowitz 1983). Recent excavations carried out
at Chimú sites show that Chimú architecture and
material culture was more resilient than their
language, since most of their architectural techniques
and layout, as well as ceramic objects and textiles
prevail until late in the Colonial period
(Chachapoyas et al. 2020; Mackey and Nelson
2020; Mayer 1984; Moore and Mackey 2008; A.P.
Rowe 1984; Tschinkel 2022). As we will describe
here, human sacrifice especially of children and ado-
lescents became a central element in Chimú religious
performance, and it seems to have continued in the
surroundings of Chan Chan (and perhaps within
the city as well) during the Inca control of this site.
Ritual Violence in Chimú Society
and Mass Sacrifice Sites in the
Vicinity of Chan Chan
The Spanish Friar Antonio de la Calancha claimed
that child sacrifices were made by the Chimú in the
Jequetepeque river valley during lunar eclipses
(Calancha 1977[1638]). There is documentary evi-
dence that late sixteenth-century descendants of the
Chimú elites knew about child and camelid sacrifices.
During the excavation of the Yomayoguan treasure in
Chan Chan, the Spaniards involved in the looting
described that on the surface of the area excavated
there were “many children and camelid bones, along
with other signs of sacrifice,” something that was
9
refused by the local curaca Don Antonio Chayhuac
and his lords who claimed that “the discovered bones
were the remains of his ancestors and not of sacrificed
boys like the Spanish are arguing” (Ramirez 2004:
261, 274, referring to AGI/ J404). Would it be poss-
ible that Don Antonio was trying to hide the fact that
his ancestors sacrificed numerous children a few
decades before the arrival of the Spanish? This infor-
mation deserves more analysis, which will be the
topic of a future paper. In any case, there is scarce
but compelling evidence about the knowledge of
child sacrifice among the descendants of the former
Chimú empire during the sixteenth century.
Prior to our discoveries in the Huanchaquito and
Huanchaco area, scattered but consistent evidence of
ritualized human sacrifice was known among the
Chimú. The excavations at Las Avispas, a royal
burial platform at Chan Chan yielded hundreds of
human bones, which turned out to be principally
(but not exclusively) of young women (Pozorski
1980; Andrew Nelson, personal communication to
John Verano, 2018). The bioarcheological analysis is
inconclusive regarding how these young women
died, but their massive presence in the royal mauso-
leums at Chan Chan suggest that they were deliber-
ately killed to accompany the high-status individuals
buried in the funerary platforms. The presence of
several women buried around high-status males in
the elite burials of Lambayeque society confirms that
this practice may have represented retainers or second-
ary wives and that it was a common practice during
the Late Intermediate Period on the North Coast of
Peru (Shimada et al. 2004). A different context was
found in the Huarmey valley, well south of Chan
Chan. At the site of Punta Lobos nearly 200 (n =
178) individuals were brutally executed during the
Chimú conquest of this valley. The demographic
profile was composed primarily of adult males
(66%) and subadults younger than 18 years old
(34%) (Verano and Phillips 2016; Verano and
Toyne 2011). All the victims were found face down
with their wrists and ankles bound with rope or
cloth, and cloth blindfolds were found still in place
on many individuals. The throats of all victims had
been slashed repeatedly, which suggests that the great
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
majority of the victims were forced face down and
then killed by someone straddling the victim from
behind (Verano and Phillips 2016: 259). The isolated
location of Punta Lobos on a hillside facing the sea
and distant from any urban center or temple suggests
a mass execution, possibly a reprisal killing done by
the Chimú (a typical massacre), responding to local
resistance perpetrated by the Casma society (Verano
and Toyne 2011). Two AMS radiocarbon dates
place the event at around A.D. 1250–1300, coinciding
with the estimated date of conquest of the Huarmey
valley by the Chimú (Mackey and Klymyshyn
1990). At the northern site of Pacatnamú in the
Jequetepeque valley, a different form of ritual killing
was found. Fourteen males (adolescents and young
adults) were killed and thrown into a defensive
trench at the entrance of the major architectural com-
pound of the site. Surface weathering on some bones
and the remains of insects indicate the bodies were
left to decompose on the surface. The victims suffered
multiple injuries, including stab wounds, cut marks,
skull and long bone fractures, opening of the chest
and dismemberment. The victims are believed to
have been captive local and non-local warriors killed
around A.D. 1100–1200, contemporaneous with the
suggested expansion of the Chimú into the
Jequetepeque valley (Verano 1986; Verano and
deNiro 1993; Verano and Phillips 2016). Although
there is scattered evidence of ritualized executions
during the Chimú hegemony, no other mass sacrifices
are known. Indeed, ritualized violence is very restricted
in Chimú art, in sharp contrast with the multiple
manifestations of ritual violence depicted by their pre-
decessor the Moche. Santiago Uceda found within a
Chimú burial at Huaca de la Luna a wooden architec-
tural model with a number of human figurines, repre-
senting some form of ritual activity likely related to
ancestor worship. Two of the “scenes” (Scene 1 and 5)
depicted a male holding a tumi-like knife, while
the other portrayed a naked male captive with his
hands tied on his back and nearby two officials
holding trophy heads (Uceda 1999: 279, 293
figures 17 and 31). Wooden sculptures found at
Huaca El Dragón and Huaca Tacaynamo depicting
naked male prisoners with their hands and
10
sometimes feet tied suggest that they could have
been sacrificial victims (Jackson 2004; Prieto and
Verano in press; Verano and Prieto 2020). A very
large Chimú textile known as the "Prisoner Textile"
(apparently found in the Virú Valley), depicts
bound and mutilated captives, possibly camelids,
and carrion birds (Hamilton 2016; Lapiner 1976).
The presence of Lambayeque artistic elements on
the Prisoner Textile was perhaps attempting to
appropriate the graphic styles of the conquered
peoples to make their identities apparent to viewers
in the absence of text (Bergh 2022). Hamilton
believes that Chimú painters were perhaps decipher-
ing the sequence of conquest of the kingdom of
Chimor (Hamilton 2016: 87). More recently, 20
wooden sculptures depicting warriors holding
trophy heads have been found at the entrance of
one of the palaces in Chan Chan (Gayoso Rullier
and Gamarra Carranza 2023). It should be stressed
that Chimú art is largely non-representational, and
therefore topics such as ritualized violence could
have been intentionally avoided. Elsewhere, one of
us has suggested that the Chimú city of Chan
Chan was surrounded by a sacred landscape where
sanctuaries and shrines were deliberately and strategi-
cally located, similar to those described for the ceque
system identified for Inca Cuzco (Prieto and
Burmester 2015). One of the reasons for the exist-
ence of sacred landmarks and sanctuaries around
Cuzco was the necessity of making offerings framed
in a ceremonial calendar to their gods, goddesses,
powerful spirits and ancestors (J. H. Rowe 1979).
The description of the offerings made by the Incas
to these shrines and sanctuaries includes mainly
human and camelid sacrifices, noted in sixteenth-
century sources but not yet confirmed by archaeolo-
gical excavations (Besom 2009). In contrast, for the
Chimú case there is abundant archaeological infor-
mation on human and camelid sacrifices in sacred
shrines and landmarks around Chan Chan, but no
ethnohistoric data. It seems as if the sixteenth-
century descriptions by the Spanish conquistadors,
which emphasize “biblical” numbers of children
and camelids sacrificed by the Inca around Cuzco,
have their archaeological (rather than historical)
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
evidence in the vicinity of Chan Chan, in the littoral
of Huanchaco.
The sacred organization of the Chimú landscape
around Chan Chan is unknown, due to the lack of
written records and oral testimonies from early in
the Colonial period. However, the presence of cere-
monial platforms outside of Chan Chan, ritual
roads connecting the sea and mountains, as well as
irrigation canals, and now the presence of mass
human and camelid sacrifice burial grounds around
Chan Chan, indicate frequent ceremonial activity
around this coastal city (Prieto et al. 2019; Prieto
and Burmester 2015; Sakai 1998; Valle 2004;
Zuidema 1964). Some of the burial platforms of
the Chan Chan palaces seem to have been aligned
with the surrounding mountains, while some artifi-
cial platforms profusely decorated with polychrome
mud friezes surrounding Chan Chan could have
been used as temples, mausoleums, and sanctuaries
for ritual activities, including human and camelid
sacrifices (Brooks et al. 2008; Jackson 2004; Prieto
and Burmester 2015; Sakai 1998; Schaedel 1966).
Integrating the landscape and its natural resources
in the surroundings of Chan Chan along with the
construction of artificial irrigation canals, gardens,
and irrigated lands suggest a special treatment of
the surrounding territory and the necessity of trans-
forming it into an anthropogenic landscape
(Cornejo 2005). All this evidence points to an
active commitment by Chan Chan planners to inte-
grate the city into a sacred landscape and to ritualize
the daily activities of its citizens into a seasonal calen-
dar that supported, among other things, the Chimú
elite and its political structure. Part of Chan Chan’s
sacred landscape were areas for mass child and
camelid sacrifice along the seaside, on the north
margin of the city. Today, this area is the
Huanchaco coast. Previous investigations and our
ongoing research project have identified four mass
sacrifice sites north of Chan Chan along the
present day Huanchaco beach (Figure 2).
The Huanchaquito Las Llamas (HLL) mass sacri-
fice site is arguably the largest child and animal sacri-
fice known in the ancient world (Prieto et al. 2019;
Romey 2019). At this site, 137 subadults, three
11
adults, and 206 young camelids were uncovered in
direct association with a thick layer of mud formed
by a flood as the result of torrential rains associated
with a strong El Niño Southern Oscillation event.
Twenty-one calibrated AMS dates indicate that this
event occurred around A.D. 1400–1450 (Prieto
et al. 2017, 2019). One of the most significant dis-
coveries at HLL is that the subadults and camelid
victims, escorted by adults and dogs, came alive to
the sacrifice ground, leaving their bare foot, hoof
and paw prints in the wet mud. This evidence con-
firms that the event occurred during a heavy rainfall,
which is unusual in the Moche valley, and suggests a
strong ENSO event around that time.
As shown in Figure 2, the Pampa La Cruz site
(PLC), is north of HLL, which will be described in
detail later. Just north of the PLC site is the Jose
Olaya Sector, Iglesia Colonial de Huanchaco or
JO-IG (Donnan and Foote 1978). This was the
first mass sacrifice discovered on the Huanchaco
coast. It was reported by Christopher Donnan and
Leonard Foote in 1968 at the site then known as
“Zone C,” next to a public elementary school on
the east side of Huanchaco and south of the
Colonial Church (Donnan and Foote 1978).
Today, this site is known by the Huanchaco
Archaeological Program (PAHUAN) as the “Jose
Olaya Sector, Iglesia Colonial de Huanchaco” site
(JO-IG), after the name of the public school that
today lies on top of the former archaeological site.
Donnan and Foote reported a total of 17 children
and 20 young camelids spread over a relatively large
area (Donnan and Foote 1978). Although the exca-
vators did not report evidence of perimortem
trauma on the bones, such as cut marks on the
sterna or ribs, they were convinced by contextual evi-
dence of the sacrificial nature of this context
(Donnan and Foote 1978: 407). A single date
placed this event around A.D. 1400–1450, although
a more accurate measurement is not possible due to
the lack of specific information on the radiometric
determination. In 2019, the PAHUAN project con-
ducted new excavations at JO-IG to test an area of the
site that was not excavated by Donnan and Foote
(Flores 2020). The excavations uncovered seven
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

Figure 2. Map of the Moche Valley, indicating the location of Chimú sites. Note the mass sacrifice grounds located north of the city of
Chan Chan.

children and one adult, including a few camelids as
well as Spondylus sp. shells that seem to have been
aligned on a SW-NE axis across this section of the
site. Laboratory analysis by Verano showed that the
children were sacrificed using the well-known tech-
nique of cutting across the chest cavity marked by a
transverse cut on the lower part of the sternum.
A more recently discovered sacrificial site is 7.85
km north of JO-IG. It was given the name “El
Pollo” (EP) due to its proximity to a large chicken
farm (Chachapoyas and Witt 2020). EP may be
either the Late Intermediate Period site of
Caracoles identified in the 1970s by the Chan
Chan-Moche Valley Project (Beck 1979; Pozorski
1976) or another nearby site. It is located in an
isolated area, although 1.5 km to the northwest lies
the Late Horizon and Early Colonial residential site
of La Joyada (Dominguez 2019; Domínguez and
Prieto 2019; Kautz and Keatinge 1977; Prieto and
Domínguez 2018). At present, EP is the northern-
most location of a mass sacrifice site in the
Huanchaco area, 13 km north of Chan Chan
(Figure 2). EP is an unusual site marked by a large
rectangular enclosure surrounded by sacrificed
victims (subadults, adults and young camelids)
(Prieto and Verano in press; Witt 2023; Witt et al.
2022). It is possible that other mass sacrificial sites
in the Huanchaco area remain to be discovered and
excavated, while many others are now destroyed
due to urban expansion and other modern activities.

12
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
The four sites described here indicate that the arid lit-
toral north of Chan Chan was used intensively for
human and animal sacrifice by the Chimú between
A.D. 1050–1450/1500 (see below). Why did the
Chimú choose this area of their sacred landscape
and why did they conduct mass child and camelid
sacrifices? We believe that there was a systematic
program of ritualized violence sponsored by the
Chimú Empire, in which the killing of children
and young camelids played a central role.
Pampa La Cruz and the Sacrifice
Ceremonies During the Chimú
Occupation
PLC was recorded and officially inscribed in the
inventory of archaeological sites of the Moche
valley by Genaro Barr in 1986 (Barr 1991; Barr
et al. 1986). However, the site was first visited and
reported by E.G. Squier (1877) and briefly examined
by Ales Hdrlička in 1911, who called it a “children’s
cemetery” (Hrdlicka 1911: 7; 1914: 46). In 1965, it
was excavated by Francisco Iriarte Brenner who
named it “Rio Seco” or “Sitio Rentsch.” A few
years later, the site was called “Zone B – La Poza”
by the Chan Chan – Moche Valley Project
(Donnan and Mackey 1978; Iriarte 1965).
PLC is located on the southern end of the modern
town of Huanchaco, on the left side (south) of the
Quebrada de Rio Seco. The main sector of the site
lies on top of a bluff overlooking the sea. There is
also an archaeological occupation on the west slope of
the bluff, extending westward down to the beach.
This lower sector was known as “La Poza” in previous
publications (Donnan and Mackey 1978; Escobedo
and Rubio 1982; Millaire 2002) (Figure 3(a)).
Therefore, PLC today has two sectors: the upper one
(where we carried out excavations) and the lower
sector. Unfortunately, the latter is now private property
and previous requests by Programa Arqueológico
Huanchaco (PAHUAN) to excavate there have been
denied by the owners (Figure 3(a and b)).
PLC is 5.6 km north of Chan Chan and 2.6 km
from the Huanchaquito Las Llamas mass sacrifice
13
site (Figure 2). Today it is surrounded by modern
residential construction, including the Hotel
Bracamonte on its northwest edge. In the past, the
upper sector of PLC was a flat area on top of the
marine terrace where numerous architectural struc-
tures (domestic and ceremonial) were erected at
various times beginning with the late Early
Horizon Salinar occupation around 400 cal. B.C.
until the late Moche Period A.D. 800/850 when
the Moche ceremonial and residential settlement
was abandoned (Barr 1991; Barr et al. 1986;
Campaña and Prieto 2022; Centurion 1989;
Fernandez et al. 2022; Parker et al. 2018; Prieto
and Chavarria 2017). There is slight evidence of a
post-Moche or Transitional Period occupation
(Castillo et al. 2020). Near Montículo 1, an artificial
structure built on the NW corner of the site, we
recorded isolated materials possibly from looted
burials, including textiles and ceramic vessels similar
in style those found at Huaca del Sol (Moche
valley), El Brujo (Chicama valley) and at San José de
Moro in the Jequetepeque valley (Cruz et al. 2019;
Franco and Galvez 2005; Pariona and Prieto 2022;
Rucabado and Castillo 2003) (Figure 4).
Due to urban expansion, PLC is now almost com-
pletely destroyed, with only 1.5 ha of its total surface
(originally 11.83 ha) still intact and suitable for
archaeological research (Campaña and Prieto
2022). This area is subdivided into two sectors:
Montículo 1 (around 6,500 sq meters) and
Montículos 2 and 3 (around 5,500 sq meters). The
first sector is located on the NW side, while the
second is on the NE side of the site (Figure 3(a
and b)). The remaining area has been severely
affected by modern construction (Figure 3(a)).
Excavations conducted by PAHUAN between 2016
and 2019 focused in the Montículo 1 sector.
Between 2017 and 2018, the City Hall of
Huanchaco sponsored a salvage excavation project
on all the streets and public spaces of the modern
village known as Las Lomas de Huanchaco that
today lies on top of the former surface of the upper
part of the PLC site. Thanks to these excavations,
many occupational surfaces were recovered, including
domestic and non-domestic spaces, and more than
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

Figure 3. (a) Aerial view of the Pampa La Cruz site (hereafter PLC). Photo taken with a drone. (b) Aerial view of the site in 1942.
Photo taken by Servicio Aerofotográfico Nacional, SAN 104-4, March, 1942.

150 burials (of which 25 are Chimú sacrificial project confirms the main sequence (late Early
victims) (Campaña and Prieto 2022). A preliminary Horizon through Late Intermediate Period) observed
analysis of the materials recovered in the salvage in the Montículo 1 sector by PAHUAN and

14
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
previously by Barr (1991). Some of the Chimú skel-
etons recovered by the salvage project were analyzed
by John Verano and some data are included here
(Appendix 1; see also Verano 2018).
The focus of this article is on the Chimú, and poss-
ibly Chimú-Inca ritual activity found in and around
Montículo 1, including the sacrificial victims discov-
ered on top of this platform. In addition, we are
including Chimú burials found on different areas
of PLC (outside of the Montículo 1 sector) excavated
by the rescue project between 2017 and 2018. As can
be seen in Appendix 1, most of the Chimú burials
found during the salvage project had transverse cuts
across the body of the sternum and were children
consistent with the age profile of sacrificial victims
found clustered in and around Montículo 1. Based
on the burial distribution, we suggest that the total
extent of the area at PLC with evidence of Chimú
sacrificial victims could be larger than previously
thought, covering at least 5,200 m2, not including
Montículo 1. Of this total area, we have only exca-
vated 750 m2 or about 14.4%, which means that
the expected number of sacrificial victims (children,
adults, and camelids) and offerings such as
Spondylus shells, metal miniatures and wooden sculp-
tures may be significantly larger than the current
counts and the materials described in this paper.
As was observed in the child sacrifices at
Huanchaquito-Las Llamas (Prieto et al. 2019), variabil-
ity in forms of cranial modification in the children at
PLC suggests that individuals selected for sacrifice
were a heterogeneous sample, perhaps drawn from dis-
tinct ethnic groups and geographic regions of the
Chimú Empire. The great majority of the PLC children
have unmodified skulls, while only a small number
(eleven individuals) show mild occipital flattening
characteristic of prehistoric populations of the north
coast of Peru and known as tabular erect or fronto-occi-
pital modification (Appendix 1). This form of cranial
modification is generally considered to be an uninten-
tional result of cradle boarding of infants, and at PLC
it is relatively mild in its expression. Although some
authors have suggested that certain variants of fronto-
occipital flattening may represent intentional shaping
of the head by specific deforming devices (Mackey
15
and Nelson 2020), to our knowledge no remains of
deforming devices are known from northern Peru,
with the exception of a cradleboard reportedly found
in the Virú valley (Verano 1997: 250, figure 8) and a
cotton T-shaped band and a woven fiber ring (presum-
ably used to fix an infant’s head to a cradleboard) that
were found associated with a Late Intermediate
Period infant burial at Pacatnamú in the
Jequetepeque valley (Verano and Cordy-Collins 1986).
In distinct contrast to what we interpret as unin-
tentional occipital flattening in some children,
eleven individuals at PLC show a distinct form of
intentional cranial modification known as annular
or circumferential. This form of cranial modification
has only been seen in a few isolated individuals from
northern coastal Peruvian sites (Mackey and Nelson
2020; Prieto et al. 2019) but is common in various
highland Peruvian populations (MacCurdy 1923;
Verano et al. 2016). This suggests to us that the
PLC children with annular modification may have
been of highland rather than coastal origin. As was
also observed at HLL, the adolescent and adult
burials found at PLC all show occipital flattening
consistent with a coastal origin.
The upper sector of PLC is not the only area with
evidence of Chimú ritual activity. In previous exca-
vations carried out in the lower sector of the site
(earlier known as La Poza, see Figure 3(a)), Francisco
Iriarte reported many subadult Chimú burials (Iriarte
1965). Such burials were also mentioned (but unfortu-
nately not described in the field report) by Manuel
Escobedo and Emilio Rubio in 1982, who wrote only
of a “Chimú occupation” in this lower sector
(Escobedo and Rubio 1982: 1). Therefore, it is
suggested that the sacrificial area may have extended
along the lower sector of the site, which may have
doubled the area of the upper sector. In addition to
the lower sector, the salvage project found a few
Chimú subadult burials along with young camelids
on the NE side of the upper sector at PLC2
(Montículos 2 and 3) in an area that was originally
covered with Chimú agricultural fields, canals, and a
rectangular building (Campaña and Prieto 2022: 23–
25, figure 13, see also pp. 115–117; Castillo Soto
1986; Jauregui 2001; Varas 1989).
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

Figure 4. Ceramic vessel typical of the Transitional Period (Middle Horizon 2) found on the SW sector of Montículo 1, PLC as well as
fragments of Middle Horizon textiles found at Pampa La Cruz.

The presence of superimposed burials suggests that
the PLC Chimú sacrificial victims were interred as
the result of many successive events and not just
one, as has been suggested for the nearby site of
Huanchaquito Las Llamas (Prieto et al. 2015,
2017, 2019). The idea of many successive events is
also supported by burials at different depths. In
addition, we noticed at least two distinct body pos-
itions and orientations at the time of burial at
PLC. The earliest pattern observed at PLC was
bodies being placed in an extended position on a
W-E orientation, with the skull towards the west
and the feet towards the east. Later, burials were
placed in an extended position with an E-W

16
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
orientation (skull to the east). The latest burial
pattern was marked by bodies in an extended pos-
ition but with the legs slightly flexed, and in most
of the cases in a different orientation than E-W,
mainly on a S-N axis. The average age of the suba-
dults at PLC is 9–13 years old, while the average
age of the adults is between 18 and 25 years old.
Confirmation of multiple sacrificial events is also
suggested by a consistent set of 80 AMS measure-
ments published here for the first time. The
samples for AMS dating were carefully chosen,
using in most cases cotton yarns taken from the
shrouds or other textiles found in direct association
with the bodies, following best practices on AMS
dating (Contreras 2022). For the camelids, the
samples were taken from sedge ropes binding the
limbs or snout. In a few instances, samples were
taken from cotton strings wrapping Spondylus
shells or from textile offerings as well as seeds of
Nectandra sp. found as votive offerings with the
burials or as caches around Montículo 1. We tried
to date burials placed in different locations in and
around Montículo 1, and achieved very consistent
results (Appendix 2). As shown in Appendix 2, the
burials and caches with AMS dates are listed indivi-
dually, so it will be easier for the reader to compare
the absolute dating obtained from each burial with
the suggested event that we believe the burial or
caches were part of. Based on the recurrence and
associative principles in archaeology and applying
additional criteria such as burial proximity, burial
alignments or clustering, body position, body orien-
tation, and clothing, human and camelid remains
lacking AMS dates were assigned to their most prob-
able chronological placement. As shown in Appendix
2, there are a total of six suggested sacrifice events,
with “Event 1” being the earliest and “Event 6” the
latest so far identified at PLC. One of the most
notable results of the analysis of the 80 AMS
measurements is that there is a clear continuity in
the Chimú occupation at PLC from A.D. 1050/
1100 to 1450/1500, suggesting that if these sacrifice
events were directed from Chan Chan (only 5.6 km
to the south), then the city must have been
founded slightly earlier than A.D. 1050/1100 and
17
probably abandoned after 1500 and not before.
Some of the events are better represented than
others, and at this point it is difficult to say
whether this is the result of less intense ritual activity
at PLC or simply a problem of sampling.
Montículo 1
Until the excavations carried out by PAHUAN,
Montículo 1 was identified as an amorphous artificial
platform first built during the Moche occupation
A.D. 500–850 and measuring approximately 1500
m2 with an estimated height of 2.5 meters
(Fernandez et al. 2022) (Figure 5). Previous exca-
vators described it as a rectangular structure with
stone wall alignments found on the top of the plat-
form (Barr et al. 1986). It is located on the NW
corner of PLC and was built on the edge of the
bluff, overlooking the dry riverbed of the Quebrada
de Rio Seco and the Huanchaco cove. During the
Chimú occupation it is estimated that it was a rec-
tangular platform of approximately 820 m2, with a
minimum of 66 sacrificed humans and six camelids
buried in the platform. It is likely that more
victims were buried during the Chimú occupation,
but intensive Colonial looting disturbed the central
sector of the platform during the sixteenth century.
Early Chimú Occupation at Montículo 1, Events 1
and 2. After a period of abandonment ( possibly
between A.D. 800/850 to 1050/1100 although we
cannot rule out a late Middle Horizon occupation
at PLC), the late Moche platform was backfilled
and leveled during the earliest Chimú occupation.
Based on recent AMS dates, it appears that the
construction of the first Chimú platform on top of
the previous Moche building occurred around A.D.
1050/1100 cal. There is evidence of the
construction of a large rectangular extension of the
south sector of the Moche platform, measuring
approximately 24 meters (E-W) by 7 meters (S-N),
with a total surface area of 168 m2 (Figure 6). The
Chimú built the outer wall separated by seven
meters from the southern end of the Moche
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
platform. Inside, the empty space was filled with an
intricate system of retaining walls built with small
cobbles, creating a pattern of rectangular cells filled
with clean river pebbles and gravel alternating with
earth fills (Figure 6). This first Chimú platform
had a straight wall on three sides (south, west and
east), although on the west side, it appears that the
Chimú continued using the surface of the latest
Moche platform, with no major effort to modify
this sector during the early Chimú occupation. The
northern end of the platform, which is on the edge
of the bluff, has not been excavated, and the layout
of the central part of the Chimú platform is
unknown due to the major destruction by looting
during the Colonial period.
Middle Chimú Occupations at Montículo 1,
Events 3 and 4. At some time around A.D. 1300/
1350, the Chimú conducted another construction
project at Montículo 1. This date is derived from an
AMS date (YU-13283; A.D. 1223–1299 cal. 2
sigmas), obtained from a buried ritual cache of
Figure 5. (a) General view of Montículo 1 prior to the
excavations carried out by the PAHUAN team. (b) Aerial view of
the ongoing excavations in 2019 at Montículo 1, PLC.
18
Nectandra sp. that was found on the floor,
immediately next to the southern wall of the early
Chimú platform, which was later covered by the new
construction event. If this date is considered as the
terminus ante quem, it seems plausible that the
renovation occurred around the late A.D. 1200s or
before 1350. The renovation project involved
slightly enlarging the area of the previous platform
by adding inclined walls on three sides of the
platform (south, west and east). This new
modification gave Montículo 1 the form of a low
truncated pyramid (Figure 7). The most distinctive
feature is that somewhere on top of the platform
( possibly the now destroyed central sector), there
were walls decorated with polychrome mud friezes
made in the additive style identified by Pillsbury
(1993). The friezes were placed on a thick white
painted background, and the high reliefs appear to
have depicted seabirds, fish and even the moon
animal. Unfortunately, we were unable find a
complete design in the dozens of fragments found in
the backdirt left by sixteenth-century looters on the
south and west sides of the mound. The most
Figure 6. General view (S-N) of Montículo 1 during the early
Chimú occupation. Note the straight walls of the platform.
Details of the filling system used by the Chimú to build the
extension on the southern end of the former Moche platform.
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
Figure 7. General view (S-N) of Montículo 1 during the
middle Chimú occupation at PLC. Note the inclined walls of the
platform during this time.
complete fragments were painted with a vivid red
color, a few were yellow or white, and a few designs
with a green pigment (Figure 8). XRF analysis
carried out at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de
San Marcos, laser induced analysis done at the
University of Trujillo and scanning electron
microscope analysis at Universidad Privada Antenor
Orrego confirmed that the red pigment is cinnabar,
while the green is a pigment based on copper ore.
The white pigment has a high calcium content and
was possibly lime from marine shells (Aldama 2020;
Angelats 2021; Zeballos 2020). The polychrome
mud friezes of PLC appear to be similar to
Figure 8. Fragments of polychrome mud friezes in Chimú style
found on Montículo 1, PLC.
19
polychrome mud friezes found at Huaca Taycanamo
a few miles to the southeast (Brooks et al. 2008;
Navarro 1990). If this is a valid correspondence, we
can establish a relative contemporaneity between the
construction stage at PLC and Huaca Taycanamo
around A.D. 1250–1350 cal. During this time,
many subadults and adults were buried on top of
this platform at PLC with elaborate textiles and
other grave goods (see “Event 3” below), making a
clear distinction with other contemporary child
burials found outside of Montículo 1.
Late Chimú Occupations at Montículo 1, Events 5
and 6. By the late Chimú occupation at PLC, the
platform reached an approximate maximum of 884
square meters and an average height of 2.5 meters.
It appears that around A.D. 1400 cal., Montículo 1
was again remodeled. At this time, several L-shaped
walls were built on the NW corner of the platform
that sealed several tombs from the previous events
dated between A.D. 1220–1300 cal., and A.D.
1300–1400 cal. Inside the L shaped walls, the
Chimú left on the floor two wooden scepters in the
form of a seabird and an inverted tumi knife along
with a few fragments and valves of Spondylus shells
(Figure 9). It is difficult to say with confidence if
this was a final renovation project on Montículo 1
due to subsequent looting of the site and natural
erosion of the mound. However, we are confident
that no major architectural projects were initiated
after this one.
The Areas Around Montículo 1
Although the artificial platform just described seems
to have been the center of the ceremonial activities at
PLC, most of the sacrificial victims (human and
animal) were buried surrounding the mound,
especially on the west and southwest side of the plat-
form (Figure 10). During certain events, or during
certain periods of time, in addition to human and
camelid sacrifices, it appears that Spondylus shells
and other valuable offerings like metal miniatures,
macaw and parrot feathers, painted textiles,
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

Figure 9. General view of the L shaped walls built during the latest Chimú occupation at PLC and the wooden scepters found during
the excavation of the floor inside the L shaped walls built on the NW corner of the Chimú platform at PLC.

miniature textiles, and wooden idols were buried as
well. The number of sacrifice victims associated
with the proposed six sacrificial events around
Montículo 1 is very large. In the following section
we will describe each of the six events identified
based on the AMS results and the spatial distribution
and burial patterns of the victims. In some instances,
finer distinctions, or subevents are suggested within
the larger events, based on burial superimposition
and available AMS dates.

20
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
21

Figure 10. Map of all the sacrificed children, adults, camelids, and other offerings made on top of Montículo 1 and around it.
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

Event 1 (A.D. 1050–1180 cal.). Five dates were
obtained from what seems to be the earliest
sacrificial event so far excavated at PLC during the
Chimú occupation (Figure 11, Appendix 2).
Twenty-one burials (total 22 bodies) were
identified for this sacrifice event (Appendix 1). The
dates were obtained from two child burials, two
camelids and a metal knife. The latter was a
foundational offering placed on the NW corner of
Montículo 1. The human victims were located on
the east side of the platform, while the camelids
were on the west side. Burial PLC-369 was
immediately east and outside of the platform. It has
two individuals with no offerings, both placed on
their knees facing down. PLC-369-E1 was an
individual approximately 12–13 years of age with a
skull that shows pronounced symmetrical occipital
flattening. The sternum was complete with no cuts,
and there is no indication of cause of death. PLC-
369-E2 was a young adult female, around 18–20
years, that showed no trauma or skeletal pathology.
On the east side, but this time on the platform,
PLC-301 was a subadult of approximately seven
years of age. This child was placed in an extended
position with the head towards the east and the feet
to the west, with the right arm lifted toward the
right side of the skull (Figure 12). Two camelids
were buried on the NW corner of the platform in
clear opposition to the location of the human
burials. Both camelids were subadults placed resting
on their backs with their necks twisted towards the
north and west, while the limbs are flexed toward

Figure 11. Multiple plot showing the ranges of the AMS results associated with Event 1 and Event 2.

22
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru

Figure 12. PLC 369, found outside of the platform, along its east side, PLC 301, a subadult found on the NE corner of the platform,
Event 1. Camelid 104 and 107. Note their snouts tightly wrapped with a sedge rope.

the center of their bodies. One camelid was of beige
color and the other was brown. The snouts of the
camelids were tightly wrapped with sedge ropes, a
practice that has not been observed in later events
(Figure 12). Another offering associated with the
first event is a metal knife that was placed in a hole
with its blade pointing toward the south and
wrapped in a white cotton fabric. Some traces of
red paint were apparent on parts of the textile
(Figure 13(a)). The form of this knife is most
unusual; we are not aware of any other examples
that have been found archaeologically. The metal
blade is not the typical semi-crescent tumi-shaped
object, but instead looks more like a flat chisel
attached to a kind of mushroom-end sphere that
also served as a rattle (Figure 13(b)). The metal
handle of the knife was wrapped with a cotton pad
and unspun cotton strings, while the top of the
mushroom-end head had four lumps of mud
placed in a cross-shaped pattern (Figure 13(c)). At
least two double cords crossed the top of the rattle
in a cross and then in a diagonal pattern, which
seems to have been done to keep the rattle attached
to the handle and the metal blade (Figure 13(c)). It
is not possible to demonstrate that this knife was
used for child and camelid sacrifice at PLC, but the
location of its discovery suggests it may have played
some role, but was perhaps more symbolic rather
than practical.
Event 1 is the least known of all the sacrificial
events at PLC. Evidence of perimortem trauma or
cause of death was not observed, but this does not
rule out the possibility that they were intentionally
killed in some manner as not to have left osteological
evidence, such as strangulation, given their context
and burial positions. The two individuals buried

23
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
Figure 13. (a) Detail of how the metal knife was found,
wrapped in a cotton fabric. (b) Complete view of the metal knife,
where its chisel shape blade and the mushroom-like rattle are
observed. (c) Close-up of the mud lumps placed on top of the
knife’s rattle, possibly before its ritual burial.
outside of the platform (PLC 369) were kneeling and
facing down and had no grave offerings, which is an
unusual burial pattern for the Chimú. Their body
position and the fact that they were adolescent and
young adult women is similar to that of two
women that were buried with the sacrificed children
at Huanchaquito Las Llamas (Prieto et al. 2019). If it
is assumed that the other bodies found around PLC
301 on the NE corner of the platform are contem-
poraneous with this burial, at least 22 individuals
were sacrificed during Event 1. Most of them were
children five to eight years old, although one was esti-
mated to be only three to four years old (PLC-319);
perhaps the youngest child found at Pampa La Cruz.
Although many of these burials were partially dis-
turbed given their proximity to the surface (many
skeletons were missing several bones), at least seven
of them showed clear evidence of transverse cuts of
the sterna (Figure 10, Appendix 1). Many of these
children were oriented with the head toward the
west and feet toward the east, which is the opposite
24
of what was observed for later events at PLC.
Regarding the camelids, there was a row of pits
with sacrificed camelids placed from east to west,
with CA 104 being the most eastward, followed by
CA 105, CA 108, CA 107 and CA 95, all of which
share the same body position and when preserved,
a sedge rope wrapping the snout (Figure 10).
Event 2 (cal. A.D. 1180–1220). Twenty burials
were identified for this event (total of 20 bodies)
(Appendix 1). Six dates are available for this event
(Figure 11 and Appendix 2): five were taken from
human burials and one from a camelid. The
camelid was found on the NW corner of
Montículo 1. There were two camelids in this
burial pit. Their bodies were placed in different
positions: one was resting on its right side, while
the other was resting on its back, in an upside-
down position. Their necks were twisted and their
heads oriented facing the east. It has been noted
CA 103 was very close to the camelids identified
for Event 1, but CA 98A was found on top of CA
98B, which seems to belong to Event 1, while CA
98A may be affiliated with Event 2. If this is the
case, it appears that CA 106 was also buried during
Event 2 (Figure 14). Regarding the human burials,
PLC 324, 343, 361, 385 and 392 yielded dates
corresponding to Event 2 (see age of children in
Appendix 1). All but PLC-343 were placed in an
extended position with the head towards the east
and the feet to the west. These burials were located
along the edge of the west side of Montículo 1,
while PLC-343 was found in the NE side of the
platform on a seated flexed position, facing north
and completely covered by a cotton shroud. This
possible female of 14–15 years of age was buried
with two valves of Spondylus shells (one in each
hand) and a metal needle. The burials found on
the west side were all children between seven and
twelve years of age. Of these burials, only PLC-324
and PLC-361 had cuts on the sternum. The sternal
elements of PLC-385 were not recovered, so it was
not possible to examine them for cut marks. PLC-
361 was placed on a wet surface at the time of
burial, judging from the body imprints left behind,
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
Figure 14. Burials (humans and camelids) associated with
Event 2 and from which absolute AMS dates were obtained.
Detail of the device that was part of the loincloth found in burial
PLC-385.
and the left arm was resting on a chunk of dried mud
(Figure 14). PLC-324 had a healed fracture of the
right femur. PLC-392 did not show any evidence
of perimortem injuries, although the body was
buried in the same position and fashion as the
other children. PLC-385 had occipital flattening, a
common observation in Chimú burials but not
observed on the other children sacrificed during
this event, and it was rare at both HLL and PLC.
This same individual was buried with an unusual
loincloth, which included a kind of knotted cotton
ball found where the genitals would have been. Its
function and meaning is unknown, and no other
cases were observed in the PLC sacrificed children
(Figure 14). A shared feature between PLC-361
and PLC-385 is that the heads of the victims were
wrapped in cotton fabrics. It is difficult to assert
whether these cloths were part of headdresses worn
in life or intentionally wrappings put on when the
children were buried. The same was observed in
other burials and it may serve to distinguishing
sacrifices associated with Event 2. Based on their
proximity and similarities, it is possible that burials
25
PLC 304 and 254, as well as PLC 258, 257, 256,
255 and 263 (all aligned E-W on the SW side of
Montículo 1), were associated with Event 2 (Figure
10). In the same way, another alignment of burials
from E-W immediately north of the previous one
could have been part of Event 2 (PLCs 260, 259,
344, 362, 303, 324) (Figure 10). PLC 259 and
260 showed occipital and annular cranial
modification, respectively. Another alignment of
PLC 258, 257, 256, 255 and 253 were subadults
11 to 13 years old, but only one (PLC 253) had a
clear cut on the sternum. The next alignment (only
of PLC 304 and 254) was of a child five years old
and one nine years old; with no cut marks
observed. The next alignment consisting of PLC
259, 344, 362, 303 and 324 were of children 8 to
10 years old. Only PLC 344 and 303 had cuts on
their sterna.
Event 3 (cal. A.D. 1220–1300). A dramatic increase
in sacrificial victims occurred during this event.
Eighty-six burial contexts were identified for this
event (90 bodies total) (Appendix 1). A total of 27
AMS dates were obtained from human burials,
camelids, textiles, and ishpingo (Nectandra sp.) seeds
(Figure 15, Appendix 2). Although this could be a
mere result of sampling, the broad distribution of
the dates across the excavated area suggests that
during this time there was a significant
intensification of child sacrifice at PLC. During this
event, many camelids were also sacrificed, as well as
numerous offerings of complete Spondylus shells,
metal objects, seeds of ishpingo (Nectandra sp.) and
a painted textile (Figures 16–18). The shells were
buried in an aligned manner on an E-W axis of
>20 meters long, separated by intervals of one to
two meters. Another distinctive feature of Event 3
is the presence of subadults and adults ( presumably
from the elite) buried dressed in spectacular
feathered headdresses, painted textiles, personal
adornments such as bracelets, collars and earspools
and with bundles of many Spondylus shells and
strings of ishpingo seeds. Four sectors of the site
were used during Event 3 at PLC: (a) the south
sector, (b) south and west sides immediately next to
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

Figure 15. Multiple plot showing the ranges of the AMS results associated with Event 3.

26
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
Figure 16. Partial view of the shell alignment found departing
from Montículo 1 towards the west. The stone walls belong to
the previous Moche occupation. Note details on the shells like
their different colors (red and orange) and types of tightening.
Montículo 1, (c) west side, far from Montículo 1
and, (d) NW corner of Montículo 1. Although the
date ranges are not statistically different, Event 3
can be subdivided into two subevents: 3A, from
cal. A.D. 1220 to 1260 and 3B from cal. A.D.
1260 to 1300 (Figure 15 and Appendix 2). If this
is the case, most of the elite burials (PLC 271, 274,
275, 277 and 278) described below belonged to
Figure 17. Cotton fabric of 166 x 160 cm. with designs
painted using red pigment. An AMS date obtained from one of
the cotton strings placed this textile in Event 3.
27
Figure 18. Cache of metal artifacts found inside a bundle: a
pair of silver earspools, silver plumes, shawl pins and a
zoomorphic silver sheet that was possibly attached to other
textiles. Note the miniature tabard made of cotton fabric and
small feathers.
subevent 3B (1260–1300 cal. A.D.). As in previous
events, the dominant form of sacrificing was by a
transverse cut across the sternum. As it can be seen
in Figure 15 and Appendix 2, the absolute dates
associated with burials PLC 235, 3101, 397, 236,
243 and Tx-205-1 (YU-13245, YU-13276, YU-
13165, YU-13251, YU-13241 and MF-2021-PSU-
5) are later than 1300 A.D. We believe that these
dates could be indicating the termination of Event
3, around 1280–1300 cal. A.D. Interestingly, Event
3 yielded the largest (8 out of 10) concentration of
hesitation marks (also known as “false starts”) on
the sternum, suggesting that the individual making
the cuts had to make several attempts before
successfully cutting through the sternum. These
hesitation marks were only rarely seen at
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
Huanchaquito Las Llamas or in previous or later
events at PLC (Figure 19). Due to the number of
sacrificial victims (both human and camelid) as well
as other types of offerings associated with Event 3,
we will describe them by sectors as follows.
South Sector
This area corresponds to the southernmost edge of
the archaeological area that is still available for
research and that modern houses have not destroyed
near Montículo 1 (Figure 10). We obtained five
AMS dates associated with Event 3 for this sector
(CA 72, CA 82, PLC 235, 236 and 243). All the sub-
adults buried here were placed (E-W) in an extended
position with the head toward the east and the feet to
the west. A distinguishing feature of the cotton
shrouds used to cover the bodies of the victims was
a simple cotton fabric usually tied around the feet
of the victims with a simple knot. An overlap of
PLC 236 on top of PLC 234 and 235, suggest
PLC 236 was later than the others. AMS samples
were taken from PLC 235 and 236 to evaluate
their contemporaneity or difference in time. The
results show that PLC 235 (YU-13245) is slightly
earlier than PLC 236 (YU-13251) but still within
the range of the same event (subevent 3B). It is poss-
ible to argue that even subevent 3B could have
Figure 19. Hesitation marks observed on the sternums of
victims from Event 3.
28
included multiple events performed at different
times. This is because PLC 234 was disturbed
(cranium and mandible) by the time PLC 236 was
deposited, suggesting that some time must have
passed between the burial of the two bodies to
allow for the decomposition of soft tissue of PLC
234 (Figure 20(a and b)). Another interesting
aspect of PLC 234 and 235 is that sharp stones
were found inserted in their chest cavities, with pos-
itions that suggested they may have caused serious
bleeding or even death. PLC 234 did not show cut
marks on the sternum, but PLC 235 did and also
had stones in the thoracic cavity (Figure 20(c)).
Due to their proximity and similarities (mainly the
presence of the 1x1 cotton shroud and the knotted
feature close to the feet), burials PLC 219, 239,
242, 262, 227, 230, 231, 232, 247, 248, 249, 250
and 241 may be victims sacrificed during Event 3
(Figure 21). This can be confirmed by the fact that
PLC 240 was buried on top of PLC 241 and
yielded a date associated with Event 4 (see below).
In this sector, many camelids were also recovered.
They were located mainly on the east side of the
south sector, which appears to have been an exclusive
area for camelid interment. We obtained AMS dates
from two of them (CA 72 and CA 82). They were
buried resting on their backs, but their skull orien-
tation was not consistent, which indicated that
their long necks were twisted into different positions.
Due to their proximity and similarities in the way
they were buried, 18 contexts of buried camelids
were identified for this event in the south sector
(CA 94, 90, 89, 76, 75, 88, 58, 87, 91, 92, 68, 67,
73, 74, 71 and 93) (Figure 21). Some of these
burials had up to four individuals, comprising a
total of 33 camelids in this sector (Figure 10).
Southwest Corner Outside of Montículo 1
For this area, eight AMS dates were obtained from
burials (PLC 3102, 397, 3101, 391, 310 and 309),
from a cache of ishpingo seeds (PLC-A21-RC1-
R114-OT 1273) and from a cotton yarn wrapped
around a Spondylus shell, found west of Montículo
1 (Figures 15 and 22). All sacrificial victims in
front of the south wall of Montículo 1 (Middle
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru

Figure 20. (a) General view from north to south of PLC 236, 234 and 235. (b) PLC 234 (south) missing skull by later intrusion of
PLC 236. (c) Close-ups of sharp stones placed in the chest of PLC 234 and PLC 235.

Chimú occupation at Montículo 1), excluding the
burials placed in an extended position facing down,
were buried during subevent 3A and were all
women between 16–17 and 40–50 years old, with
most of them in their 20s at the time of death.
None showed evidence of fatal perimortem injuries,
and the typical position of their bodies was flexed
in a seated position facing north. Another interesting
characteristic is that all show occipital flattening,
unlike the majority of PLC children who show no
flattening, suggesting that they could have been
from north of the Moche valley. PLC 3100, 3102
and 3103 were buried with painted textiles and
tabards decorated with feathers, but unfortunately,
they were not well preserved. PLC 3102 wore an
elaborate headdress decorated with blue, red and
white feathers, and like PLC 3103, held valves of
Spondylus shells in each hand (Figure 22).
Although the absence of the typical cut marks on
the sternum or any other perimortem injury may
suggest that these are not victims of human sacrifice,
their similarity with those found on top of the
mound in the same event (Event 3) suggest the oppo-
site. Two adult males (PLC 397 and PLC 3101),
each wearing a loincloth and one of them a simple
headdress (PLC-397), were buried in an extended
position but facing down and with evidence that
their lower and upper limbs were tied. Both males
also have occipital flattening, and no signs of injuries
were observed. Along with the adult women, this
sector yielded the largest concentration of adult indi-
viduals at PLC as well as the highest frequency of
occipital flattening (Figure 22).
Apparently, by the beginning of subevent 3B,
some offerings were made before the architectural
renovation project that changed the straight walls of

29
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

Figure 21. Selected photos of sacrificial victims found in the south sector of PLC and associated with Event 3. Selected burials of
camelids associated with Event 3, south sector at Pampa La Cruz.

the platform into inclined walls (Figure 7). During
this subevent, and close to the SW corner of
Montículo 1, a total of 40 complete Spondylus
shells were carefully aligned over an imaginary line
over 20 meters in length (Figure 10). One AMS
measurement comes from a string attached to one
of these shells (PSUAMS-4528, see Appendix 2).
Almost all were tied with cotton string or sedge
ropes, suggesting that the shells were still fresh at
the time of burial. The latter is suggested because
bivalve mollusks tend to open once out of their
aquatic environment. They were placed in groups
of three, four and five shells. This alignment may
have been longer, but due to intense looting activity
on the west side of the site, many shells were lost,
although a few were found still in place in this
sector. Close to the SW corner of the straight
façade of Montículo 1, the Chimú deposited a
cache of ishpingo seeds (Nectandra sp.) from which
an AMS measurement was taken (YU-13283). This
ritual cache was found on the floor between the
straight façade and the new inclined façade of

30
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru

Figure 22. Details of the burials found in the southwest sector of Montículo 1. Burial event 3B. Details of PLC 3102 and 3103. Note
the feathered headdress, painted textile and Spondylus shells on each hand.

31
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

Montículo 1 that was covered by the architectural

renovation. Since the date obtained from this cache
is in subevent 3B, it provides a terminus ante quem
for the construction of the inclined façade which
must have been built after or around cal. A.D.
1260–1300. Apparently, both the Spondylus shells
and the ishpingos were deposited at the same time.
South of the Spondylus shell alignment was a straight
line of burials, following the same orientation (PLC
312, 311, 310, 302, 309, 308 and 350). The fact
that two burials, PLC 309 and PLC 310, had
similar AMS dates, suggest that the whole row of
burials belonged to the same event. All were children
who ranged between 9 to 13 years, and all had clean
cuts on the sternum, with the exception of PLC 350.
PLC 309 stands out as unusual for its annular cranial
modification, normally found in highland popu-
lations (Figure 22). As in the burials in the southern
end of PLC, these individuals were in an extended
position, with the head towards the east and the
feet to the west. They were usually buried wearing
a loincloth and their heads were wrapped with
cotton fabrics, as in burials of Event 2. The proximity
and similarities of the burial pattern and ways in
which other nearby burials were interred, especially
the fact that at least two more parallel rows of
burials can be defined: (a) PLC 3106, 377, 370
and (b) PLC 3104, 3105, 386, 389, 374, suggest
that these burials were also contemporaneous. A
few burials were found apart from these rows (PLC
396, 381, and 399), but their stratigraphic position
and interment patterns suggest that they are associ-
ated with the same event (Figure 10). PLC-399 is
an adult female of 27–30 years old at the time of
death who was buried in a seated position facing
south. All the other burials listed here were in an
extended position with the head towards the east
and the feet west. The average age was between 9
and 13 years old and all but PLC 389 and 399 had
clean transverse cuts on their sterna. PLC 377, a
child of approximately 12 years of age at the time
of death is unique at PLC for having a well-healed
trepanation on the right side of skull (Figure 23).
Circular trepanations are known from highland
Peruvian sites from Chachapoyas in the north to
Figure 23. Trepanation on the right side of skull, PLC-377.
the Cuzco region to the south, but there was no tra-
dition of trepanation on the north coast of Peru,
suggesting that PLC 377 is a child of highland
origin (Verano 2016:166, figure 6.29).
West of Montículo 1
This area is located approximately 20 meters from the
western limit of Montículo 1. Eight AMS dates were
obtained from this sector. Six were taken from burials
(PLC 326, 208, 147, 136, 129 and 123), while the
remaining two were taken from a ritual cache of a
large painted cotton fabric and a textile wrapping a
bundle containing several metal objects and two
tabard miniatures (Figures 18 and 24). This area
was heavily looted during the ninteenth and twenti-
eth centuries, leaving hundreds of camelids and
human bones scattered in the first 10 cm. of the exca-
vated areas. The abundance of burials and artifacts
found in this sector indicates that rich deposits
were buried by the Chimú as part of their sacrificial
ceremonies.
Like the burials observed near Montículo 1, those
in this sector were found deeper than those from later
events (Events 4, 5, and 6) and always placed in an
extended position with the head towards the east
and the feet to the west. They were buried dressed
in a simple loincloth and the heads were usually
covered with a cotton fabric. PLC 326, 208, 136

32
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru

Figure 24. Burials of subevent 3B.

33
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
and 129 all were subadults between 8 and 10 years
old at the time of death and all had a transverse
cut on the sternum. Due to the spatial proximity
and the similarities in form of interment, other
burials forming rows aligned from E-W can also be
considered to belong to this event: PLC 135, 134
and 141. Another row aligned in the same direction
contained PLC 122 and PLC 129. All individuals
except PLC 122 had cut sterna and were between
9 and 12 years old and all were wearing loincloths.
Other burials were not aligned in rows, but were
oriented similarly in an E-W direction (PLC 136,
208 and 123) (Figures 10 and 24). Immediately
north of the row defined by PLC 122 and 129,
two complete Spondylus shells were found
wrapped in a string with ishpingo seeds. Nearby
was another Spondylus valve and very close, a
partial skull of a monkey. To the west of these arti-
facts, a hole dug on the floor contained a cotton
fabric of 160 x 166 cm painted with red pigment,
depicting anthropomorphic and anthropo-zoo-
morphic characters, surrounded by rectangular pat-
terns simulating small rooms and open spaces
(Figure 17). The size of the textile and the technique
used to paint the designs suggest that it may have
been used as a banner or a hanging, possibly on
display during the sacrifice ceremony. An AMS
date was obtained from one of the cotton yarns of
the painted textile, placing it in Event 3A (MF-
2021-PSU-8, see Appendix 2 and Figure 15).
Approximately 35 meters towards the NE, another
hole dug in the floor contained a bundle containing
several metal artifacts, including a pair of silver ears-
pools, two silver plumes, a silver sheet shaped as a
moon animal, four shawl pins, a miniature of a
cylindrical copper-alloy crown and various other
metal artifacts that must have been adornments for
textiles. Two miniatures of tabards and many green
mineral beads were also recovered (Figure 18). An
absolute date obtained from a cotton yarn taken
from the textiles that wrapped these artifacts placed
the offering at the beginning of subevent 3B
(PSUAMS-6640 see Appendix 2 and Figure 15).
Apparently, this offering marked the northern
limit of the sacrificial space used during Event 3.
34
Northwest Corner on Montículo 1
The last group of sacrificial burials during Event 3
was placed near the NW corner of Montículo 1. At
least two rows of burials were found as well as a
group of ten individuals (PLC 267, 268, 271, 273,
274, 275-E1, 275-E2, 277, 278 and 279) with
especially rich clothing buried on top of the platform
towards its NW end (Figure 10). Many more such
rich burials were located in the southern and
central sector of the Montículo 1, but were heavily
disturbed during the Colonial period by treasure
hunters. All these individuals were buried with deco-
rated attire, including feathered headdresses and
ornaments that suggest they could have been
members of the Chimú elite. Alternatively, these
individuals may have been chosen and carefully
dressed to represent specific meanings/characters
during the sacrificial event, but were not necessarily
members of the Chimú elite (see discussion below).
All of them except for PLC-279 were buried in a
seated position facing north. Another remarkable
similarity is that all (except PLC-278) had occipital
cranial modification, suggesting that they might be
from north of the Moche valley. Only two individ-
uals show clear evidence of lethal injuries (PLC-
271 and PLC 279). Almost all (except PLC 268
and PLC 273) were buried with painted textiles,
feathered clothing or fancy headdresses. All ten
burials had a valve of a Spondylus shell firmly
bound to each hand (Figure 25). Finally, the
bodies were placed in circular pits and covered with
stones. Five AMS dates are available for this cluster
of burials (Appendix 2). Two dates fall in subevent
3A (PLC 265 and PLC 279), while the dates taken
from PLC 271, 275 and 278 fall within the range
of subevent 3B.
Starting from the east side, three burials were very
close to each other: PLC 271, PLC 267, and PLC
268. PLC-271 is a child of about 12 years with occi-
pital flattening who was struck on the forehead,
resulting in a lethal perimortem fracture of the
skull. This individual had either two impacts or a
single impact from a large oval-shaped weapon.
Radiating fractures extend from the impact area
across the right parietal (Figure 26). Once
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
Figure 25. Special burials: 267, 271, 274, 275a-b, 277, 278
and 279. Note detail of textile found in association with PLC-
279.
dispatched, an elaborately wrapped turban of white
cotton was placed on the child’s head, with a
penache of colored feathers between the folds and a
cotton fabric tabard decorated with blue feathers
Figure 26. Cranial fracture of PLC-271.
35
and on its lower end with alternate red and yellow
feathers forming geometric designs. The tabard was
folded and placed over the child’s back (Figure 27).
Apparently, this individual was not killed wearing
these fancy garments, but they were deliberately
placed on the body facing the opposite direction
they were worn in life. An undecorated loincloth
was, however, found on the body. Chimú loincloths
are large (A. P. Rowe 1984), and until now it has not
been possible to reconstruct how the seemingly excess
size was worn. Typically, they are T-shaped, with two
panels sewn together lengthwise, and a narrower tie
band across the top, in this case sewn to the double
panels along only one edge. Although the loincloth
worn by PLC-271 was degraded, especially in
front, so that some details were unclear, it was poss-
ible to determine that the middle of the tie band was
placed at the back, and the tie ends went around the
body tightly five times and were tied together in back
in a square knot. Two additional knots secure the
turns of the tie together in front but were too
degraded to analyze. The body panel was folded
accordion style up and down several times, forming
Figure 27. Attire of PLC 271. Note the bright color of the blue
feathers due to the excellent state of preservation. However, there
was an unusual concentration of salt on the cotton fabric of the
turban. Due to conservation issues, the headdress had to be
untied, cleaned, and then re-done, but it was impossible to get
the original shape despite our efforts to bring it back to its
original form. Figure 27-A shows the original way in which the
turban and the tabard were found prior to the conservation done
at the laboratory.
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
extra padding at the back. The body panel passed
between the legs and was secured by the tie in
front, with the end hanging down, but in this
instance was broken off. The hands were wrapped
with cotton straps, each holding a valve of
Spondylus shell. The entire body was wrapped in a
delicate cotton cloth.
Toward the NE of PLC-271, another child of
about 11 years with occipital flattening (PLC-267)
was buried, but with no evidence of lethal injuries.
The child was wearing a cylindrical headdress deco-
rated with blue and red feathers. On the front, the
headdress had three penaches made of green, blue,
yellow, and red feathers. The headdress was sup-
ported on the small head of the child by a delicate
textile with a warp-resist dyed (ikat) pattern of
stepped zigzags in brown on the beige ground with
blue overpainted in some areas (Figure 28). Like
PLC-271, the child was holding a valve of
Spondylus shell in each hand, held in place with
cotton straps. PLC-268 was found west of PLC
267 and was a 10–11-year-old child with
Figure 28. Headdress and warp-resist dyed (ikat) cloth used to
secure it, found in association with PLC-267.
36
asymmetrical occipital flattening and no evidence
of perimortem injuries who was wrapped in white
cotton fabrics and dressed in a simple turban and
loincloth. West of these three burials was another
cluster of four tombs carefully arranged. PLC 274
was a young adult woman 19–24 years old with occi-
pital flattening, who was also placed in a flexed pos-
ition facing north. She had hair slightly below
shoulder blade length, worn loose, and was wearing
in a painted dress with rows of a curving motif in
different colors that resembles a wave or the headdress
of Chimú fishermen (Campana 2012: 123, figure
137) (Figure 29(a and c)). Over the dress she wore
a cotton tabard decorated with blue feathers. She
also held in her lap a gourd bowl with two complete
Spondylus shells (Figure 29(a and b)). Like the other
burials, each hand was wrapped with cotton straps
holding a valve of a Spondylus shell. This burial
was facing PLC-275-E1 located immediately north
(Figure 29(a)). PLC-275 contained two individuals.
One was another young adult woman who was 19–
21 years old at the time of death (PLC-275-E2)
showing mild occipital flattening, located north of
PLC 275-E1 but facing south, towards PLC-275-
E1. The latter was a subadult of 14 years old at the
time of death, with occipital flattening, who was
also placed in a flexed position, facing north.
Figure 29. (a) General view of PLC-274 and PLC-275. Note
the blue feathered tabard and the long hair of the deceased; (b)
Detail of painted dress under the blue feathered tabard and the
gourd bowl placed on the lap of PLC-274. (c) General view of
the painted dress worn by PLC-274 at the time of burial.
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru

Neither showed evidence of a violent death, but
PLC-275-E2 had lost her upper front central incisors
before death. Loss of these teeth at such a young age
is unlikely to be due to dental caries or abscesses. It is
possible that she lost the teeth traumatically due to a
blow to the face. Both bundles (PLC-275-E1 and
275-E2) were covered by a simple cotton fabric
which gave the impression of a single bundle, but
when it was removed, two separate bundles were
documented. Each was covered by a large mantle
measuring approximately 225 x 332 cm made with
13 different strips of cotton fabric alternating
brown (or tan in PLC-275-E1), blue, and check-pat-
terned and with the outermost strips contrasting with
those in the center (Figure 30). The checks are made
with brown cotton supplementary weft on a beige
ground.
Each piece had been folded in half crosswise and
draped over the body with the warp vertical.
Beneath this large mantle, each was covered on its
back with another mantle also folded in half cross-
wise, of thinner cotton fabric measuring approxi-
mately 210 cm (before folding) x 140 cm, made of
three loom panels sewn together, mainly tan with
pairs of dark brown warp and weft stripes. The hori-
zontal stripes do not line up across the seams. The
lower corners of the mantles have decoration outlined
with a stepped border, with brocaded (supplemen-
tary-weft) patterning in camelid hair yarns, using a
mix of colors that differs from other known pieces:
dark red, yellow ochre, yellowish brown, a soft
green, dark brown, black, and likely deep purple
without a regular color repeat. The supplementary
weft is laid in between design areas and floats across
the design areas, forming a scrolling design in hori-
zontal bands. On the edges of the steps is a narrow
border with a diamond design (Figure 31). Spots of
cinnabar were also applied to the neck area ( possibly
after face painting observed on the skull). Under this
mantle, each individual wore a cotton tabard deco-
rated with polychrome feathers. The tabard associ-
ated with PLC-275-E2 is decorated with a vertical
stripe pattern of blue, red and yellow feathers. The
tabard associated with PLC-275-E1 has a more
complex design made of a background of blue feath-
ers with a design of red feathers which could not be

Figure 30. Fragmentary large mantle, associated with PLC 275-E2, opened out after conservation. It was originally folded in half
crosswise but covering the entire mummy bundle of PLC-275-E2. A very similar mantle was found in the same position in association
with PLC-275-E1.

37
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

Figure 32. Tabards decorated with polychrome feathers found

dressed by PLC-275-E1 and PLC-275-E2.

Figure 31. (a) Tan mantle shown folded in half along the
upper edge, with a pattern of pairs of dark brown warp and weft
stripes. Brocaded decoration using camelid fiber threads
representing polychrome scrolling motives and diamonds on the
edges. (b) Details of the polychrome scrolling motives and
diamonds (PLC-275-E1).

identified due to poor preservation (Figure 32).

Under the tabards, each wore a cotton fabric dress
with the fabric painted in matching designs. The
background is dark brown with a design in unpainted
areas with details in a lighter brown or blue, similar
to the dress worn by PLC-274. The designs consist
of repetitive squares with scrolling borders and Figure 33. Dress of PLC-275-E2. Notice the repetitive
inside a deity with a Lambayeque-like scarf, a decorative pattern of the frontal anthropomorphic being dressing
a crescent headdress and scarf.
toothed crescent headdress and points on each side
of the head suggesting a female. She seems to hold
an upside-down human figure in each hand. averaging 75 cm wide each, with a warp length of
Between the squares two other figures repeat, one between 5 and 6 meters. With the warp oriented
with a long-spotted tail. Both have crescent head- horizontally, the cloth is folded parallel to the weft
dresses (Figure 33). three times in a spiral, forming nearly four layers of
The three dresses were all constructed in a similar cloth, two on each side of the body, so that the fin-
way. They were composed of two loom panels, ished garment is roughly 1.40 x 1.50 m square.

38
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru

Along the upper edge, all layers are sewn together on

each shoulder, leaving a horizontal neck slit and arm-
holes. The outer end selvedge is unsewn, since the
modesty of the woman is protected by the inner
layer, and the inner end does not need to be sewn
either. The flap was worn on the front of the user.
The location of the inner end selvage is variable
among the three dresses (70, 28, or 9 cm from the
fold). The painting stops not far under the overlap.
PLC-275-E2 was also wearing an undecorated under-
dress, smaller and thicker than the outer one. At 1.50
m, the dresses were clearly longer than the height of
the women to the shoulder. We do have one account
of women’s dress in the Jequetepeque valley at the
time of the Spanish conquest that says that the
women’s long dresses dragged on the ground (Xerez
[1534] 1938: 41). Horizontal warp and painted dec-
oration are typical of women’s dresses from both the
north and central coasts during the Late Intermediate
Period, although the construction details vary. Very
few examples are preserved intact, which makes
these pieces particularly valuable.
Each dress was found wrapped and tied with a belt Figure 34. Bracelets found in association with PLC-275-E1
made of two panels of relatively flimsy fabric, mostly and PLC-275-E2.

tan but with warp stripes alternating darker brown

and blue, sewn to make a square, and rolled up diag-
onally. The flimsy fabric would not have stood up to
much use, and so these belts might have been used
only for burial, which is also suggested by the fact
that PLC-274 did not have such a belt. The young
adult woman (PLC-275-E2) wore a pair of beaded
bracelets on her wrists with a stepped fret motive,
while the child (PLC-275-E1) wore a pair of bracelets
with a check design (Figure 34). The white beads are
shell and the black ones ceramic. The structure of the
beading is similar to that called “bead weaving” in
North American beadwork (e.g., Barth 1993: 123–
145; Orchard 1975: 106–126; ) but these examples
are worked perpendicular to the North American
ones, with the wider edge used as the start and the
“warp” yarns suspended. Each woman also had a
bundle with five complete Spondylus shells mixed
with long strings of ishpingo (Nectandra sp.) and
other seeds. Like the other burials previously
described, PLC 274, 275-E1 and 275-E2 had a
valve of Spondylus shells wrapped onto each hand.
Interestingly, a fourth individual (PLC-269) was
found on top of burial PLC-275. It was an adult
male, 30 years old, with occipital flattening. The
body was placed in an extended position facing
down and with the head toward the south and feet
to the north. This individual was wearing an elabor-
ate loincloth decorated on its lower section with
stepped frets in a black stripe (Figure 35). No evi-
dence of violent death was observed.
South of PLC 274, 275 and 269, was another
group of three burials: PLC 273, 278 and 280.
PLC-273 was a female between 16 and 18 years
with occipital flattening. Her body was placed in a
flexed and seated position facing north. No evidence
of cause of death was observed. A valve of Spondylus
shell was wrapped on each hand like all the other
burials. PLC-280 was located immediately west. It
was a child of 8–10 years, placed in an extended pos-
ition with the head towards the east and the feet to

39
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
Figure 35. General view of PLC-269 and detail of the
decoration of the loincloth worn by PLC-269, found on top of
burial PLC-275.
the west, similarly showing no evidence of cause of
death. Between PLC-273 and PLC-280 was a small
circular pit containing PLC-278, a child of about
eight years, with no evidence of perimortem injuries
on the body. This child was placed in a flexed seated
position facing north. The interesting clothing and
ornaments suggest that the child was probably
male. On his head was a turban that helped to
hold a cylindrical headdress decorated with poly-
chrome feathers and hanging black and white
beads. On top, three wooden heads were decorated
with cotton balls dyed blue and decorated with feath-
ers and beads (Figure 36(a)). The child had a large
collar made of hundreds of beads in the form of
stepped frets, while fish designs occur in a band on
each side. It was made in a similar way to the
women’s bracelets. The boy was also buried with a
pair of wooden earspools inlaid with a mosaic of
mother of pearl and in the center a projecting
40
Figure 36. (a) Reconstruction of how the shirts and ornaments
found with PLC-278 could have been dressed. Note that the
wooden earspools were originally held by cotton straps on each
side of the face.
seabird made of Conus fergusoni shell (Figure 36
(b)). The earspools were too big to be worn by the
child, so they were fixed to the head a by cotton
straps wound tight around the head and the turban
(Figure 36(b)). The child was also buried with two
large sleeved tabards and a large loincloth of cotton
fabric, all carefully folded and placed around the
body (Figure 37), along with a cotton fabric tabard
decorated with decayed blue and red feathers. The
tunics were decorated with bands at the bottom
and under the neck slit with supplementary-weft pat-
terning similar to the woman’s mantles in PLC-275-
E2. The loincloth was undecorated cotton.Three
large undecorated cotton mantles, each made of
three loom panels, were folded in half crosswise
and draped around the body with the warp vertical,
so that parts of the shell collar were adhering to the
uppermost one. These garments and the ear orna-
ments were all adult size, and either were offerings
on their own or else from an adult relative. On the
west side of the body was a bundle containing 10
complete Spondylus shells mixed with strings of
ishpingo seeds and other seeds not yet identified
(Figure 38).
PLC-279 was found west of these burials. This was
an adult female about 20 years old with occipital flat-
tening, placed in a flexed position, resting on her left
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
Figure 37. Set of two large tunics with sleeves and
supplementary weft patterns and the large loincloth found
carefully arranged around the body of PLC-278.
Figure 38. Bundle found in association with PLC-278
containing 10 complete Spondylus shells and seeds of ishpingo
(Nectandra sp.) and other unidentified seeds.
side with the head toward the south and the feet to
the north (Figure 25(g)). Her right hand held a com-
plete Spondylus shell. She has a perimortem fracture
41
on the right first rib at midshaft, which can be inter-
preted as an injury incurred by forcible manipulation
of the head or neck. The body was wrapped with
cotton fabric 350 cm long by 145 cm wide made
with two loom panels and profusely decorated with
complex Chimú iconography painted on a dark
brown background. Lighter brown and the beige
background colors are used to form some designs,
as well as a blue dye. There are three rows of
figures, similar in general but with some differing
details. The main design, repeated seven times in
each row, represents an anthropomorphic frontal
figure standing on a T-shaped pillar surrounded by
a mound of corn cobs forming a pyramid. The
main figure is wearing a crescent headdress and has
round eyes. This character also has a kind of chinstrap
with two projecting dragon-like heads (a
Lambayeque style), suggesting that they are possibly
ear ornaments. The figure holds in each hand an
hourglass shaped object, which could be a hand
fan, a plume or a cup. The T-shaped pillar is
flanked on each side by two anthropomorphic
frontal figures, dressed in similar fashion to the
main character but this time, instead of the chinstrap,
they seem to be wearing a scarf in the Lambayeque
style, and the dragon heads are absent. They are
holding in each hand an elaborate object that
resembles the hourglass-shaped artifact held by the
main character, but with an additional element
ending in a kind of three stick scepter or plume.
On the bottom of the corn cob pyramid there are
pairs of anthropomorphic beings in profile that
seem to be dancing holding a staff. There are scat-
tered disembodied human heads shown in profile
and a few corn cobs (Figure 39). This large textile
may originally have been made as a hanging possibly
used to decorate walls in interior architectural spaces,
like the large painted mantle of the “Chimú
Prisoner” reported by Lapiner (1976) and recently
studied by Hamilton (2016).
Immediately south of these burials, two rows of
burials in the E-W pattern also seem to be part of
Event 3. The first one includes burials PLC-264,
265, 266, 342 and 327 (Figure 10). An AMS date
obtained from PLC-265 suggests that the other
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
Figure 39. Partial view of textile associated with PLC-279 and the graphic reconstruction of the main design on this large hanging.
burials are contemporary (Appendix 2). All these
individuals were placed in an extended position
with the skull toward the east and the feet to the
west. They were children between seven to nine
years old at the time of death and only one, PLC-
264 had evidence of a cut on the sternum. PLC
342 and PLC 327 both have annular cranial modifi-
cation. Associated with PLC-266 was a bundle of cut
canes and a few carved wooden sticks (Figure 40).
South of this row is a second alignment of burials,
Figure 40. Bundle of canes and carved wooden sticks found
along with the body of PLC-266.
42
PLC 260, 363 and 281 (Figure 10), indicates by its
proximity that it also belongs to Event 3. These chil-
dren were between six and eight years old and none
showed evidence of perimortem injuries.
Event 4 (cal. A.D. 1300/1320–1400/1420). Forty-
four burials were associated with this event (46
bodies) (Appendix 1). This event seems to be as
large as the previous one, as indicated by a total of
16 AMS dates obtained from human and camelid
burials and one textile (PLC354, 228, 220, 346,
380, 238, 116, 373, PRALLO3-E2; camelids CA
62B, 81B, 117G, 15, PEALLO-CA 1, PRALLO-
CA 18 and textile PLC-A22-CS-TX 247) (Figures
41 and 42). The size of this event is also inferred
by the wide spatial distribution of victims, which
were placed as far as 80 meters from the SW corner
of Montículo 1. The identification of the
southernmost victims (human and camelid) was
possible thanks to the excavations carried out by
the rescue project directed by Victor Campaña and
sponsored by the City Hall of Huanchaco in 2012,
2017 and 2018 (Campaña and Prieto 2022). In
addition, a cluster of burials excavated by
PAHUAN on the south end of Montículo 1 in
2018, suggests that part of that area, especially the
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru

Figure 41. Multiple plot showing the ranges of the AMS dates associated with Event 4.

west side had many victims sacrificed during Event Montículo 1 and on the NW side of PLC (Figure
4. Apart from the burials on the south sector, AMS 10). The lack of burials of this event in the area in
dates suggest that more interments associated with between is likely the result of the heavy looting
this event were made near the SW corner of observed in this sector of the site. Three

43
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

Figure 42. Group of burials associated with Event 4, note PLC-238 double burial and packs of camelids dated to this event.

characteristics distinguish Event 4. The most
distinctive is that the burials no longer form rows
aligned on an E-W axis. Another significant
difference, although just one case has been detected
by AMS measurements, is that for the first time
two individuals were buried together in an
extended position (PLC-238-E1, 12 years old and
PLC-238-E2, ten years old) (Figure 42), although
the AMS date places this burial late in Event 4, and
it is possible that it dates to the earliest portion of
Event 5. The third characteristic is that the average
age of the victims is slightly older than those in
previous events. During Event 4, taking into
consideration only the burials with AMS dates, the
average age is between 9 and 13 years. Another
notable difference is that the privileged treatment
observed in the special burials of Event 3, such as
decorated textiles and headdresses, was not present
in the burials of Event 4. However, a date obtained
from a fine textile (MF-2021-PSU-14) found in the
looted materials in the central sector of Montículo
1, falls within Event 4, suggesting that elaborate
burials may have been present closer to the center
of Montículo 1, an area that was heavily looted

44
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
during the Colonial period (Figure 43). Based on the
bioarcheological analysis, all the burials (except PLC
354 and PLC 346) yielding AMS dates associated
with this event, have cuts on the sternum. As
mentioned before, PLC-373 (YU-13233) was
buried on top of PLC-385 (YU-13236), belonging
to Event 2. Another difference from previous events
is that camelids were buried in greater numbers
during this time, although that tendency was
already observed during Event 3. CA-62, 81, 117,
Figure 43. Fragment of a looted textile found near the central
section of Montículo 1, PLC. Plain-weave cotton with cotton
supplementary-weft patterning.
45
15, PEALLO-CA 1 and PRALLO-CA 18 were all
burials with more than three camelids each (Figure
42). For example, CA117 had a total of seven
camelids. Immediately beneath these camelids
(CA117), 14 ceramic cups fired in a reduced
atmosphere were found. The style and shape of the
cups resembles those of the Transitional period
observed at sites like San José de Moro (Rucabado
and Castillo 2003: 30, figure 1.6b), although these
ceramic vessels were clearly used during Event 4
(Figure 44).
Event 5 (cal. A.D. 1400/1420–1450). Twenty-two
burials were associated with this event (23 bodies)
(Appendix 1). Based on the absolute dates, this event
must have been the last one directed by the Chimú
people as a free state, since it has been suggested that
around 1450/1470 the Incas conquered this coastal
kingdom (Moore and Mackey 2008; J. H. Rowe
1948). Similarly, this event must have been
approximately contemporaneous with the sacrifices at
Huanchaquito Las Llamas (HLL). In other words,
HLL was not an isolated event, and other sacrifices
were performed along the Huanchaco coast,
including Event 5 at PLC and possibly the burials
excavated by Donnan and Foote in the IG-JO site
(Donnan and Foote 1978). Most of the burials
associated with Event 5 were located very near the
present-day surface, and looting makes it impossible
to estimate the original number of burials for this
event. It is possible that Event 5 was as large as HLL.
A total of 18 AMS measurements is available for this
event, taken from child and camelid burials, a hearth
and a rope associated with a wooden idol (PLC139,
101, 209, 240, 214, 203, 201, 375, 114; CA 12, 25,
1, 18, 118, 9, 83, PLC-A3-C1-Rasgo 3, and PLC-
A3-CS-OT127-1) (Figures 45 and 46). Most of the
dates come from burials found on the west side of
Montículo 1, although CA 83 was located on the
southern edge of the excavation, and PLC 375 was
found on top of PLC 380, located on the SW corner
outside of Montículo 1. The location of CA 83 and
PLC 375 suggest that many sacrificial burials were
also placed on the southern side of Montículo 1
(Figure 10). There is no distinctive pattern of
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
Figure 44. Detail of eight of the set of 14 ceramic cups found under CA117, located on the SW corner outside of Montículo 1.
orientation and body position of the burials with AMS
dates for this period, suggesting that the practices
observed in the previous event continued in use. In
terms of the camelids, there seems to be a preference
to bury more than one together, and in most cases
with the neck twisted in such a way that the head was
toward the south or SW (Figure 46). Of all the child
burials with AMS dates, only PLC 240 and 214 did
not show transverse cuts on the sternum.
In addition to the children and camelids, two
wooden sculptures were found on the NW end of
the excavated area (Figure 47). Both were beautifully
carved. The shafts on the lower part of these wooden
sculptures suggest that these were part of an altar or
possibly a now-destroyed entrance, since in Chimú
architecture, wooden sculptures are commonly
placed at the principal access to sacred precincts
(Donnan 2014: 142, figures 35–36; Gayoso Rullier
and Gamarra Carranza 2023). One has a length of
43 cm. and depicts a hunchback anthropomorphic
figure wearing a “V” shaped loincloth and a rectangu-
lar hat standing on a “T” shaped base. His right hand
rests on his abdominal area while the left holds a cup
or a beaker. His face is painted with red pigment, and
he wears a pair of cylindrical earspools. The other
wooden sculpture is 112 cm. in length and the
upper part depicts an anthropomorphic being in a
slightly flexed position, wearing a conical hat and a
46
rectangular loincloth. His face is also painted red,
and his hands appear to have been crossed on his
chest. More details are not visible, since it is a very
schematic depiction compared with the previous
one. An interesting element is the presence of a
sedge rope around his neck, which suggests that he
may represent a captive. One AMS date was obtained
from the sedge rope found around the neck
(PSUAMS-6638, Appendix 2). Another unique
finding was an elongated hearth on the west edge
of the excavation area, possibly associated with the
sacrificial event. Due to their stratigraphic proximity
and similarities in terms of burial patterns and cloth-
ing, it was difficult to distinguish burials of Event 5
and 6 without AMS dates. Therefore, only a few of
them are shown with suggested dates, while many
others are of uncertain date (Appendix 1).
Event 6 (cal. A.D. 1450–1500). Twenty burials were
associated with this event (28 bodies) (Appendix 1).
This is the last event of sacrifices documented at PLC.
The range of absolute dates suggests that it must have
occurred after the Incas had conquered the Chimú
empire. A total of eight AMS measurements are
available, derived from child and camelid burials
(PLC 103, 118, 137, 138, 359 and PRALLO E-11;
CA 4 and 19) (Figures 48 and 49). Most of the dates
come from burials found on the west side of
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru

Figure 45. Multiple plot showing the ranges of AMS dates associated with Event 5.

47
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

Figure 46. Burials and camelid associated with the Event 5 from which AMS dates have been obtained, indicating their absolute
chronological affiliation with Event 5.

Montículo 1, and from the SW corner of Montículo
1. We hypothesize that many burials were disturbed
due to their proximity to the surface. One of the
main differences from the previous event is that the
bodies of the children were placed in diverse
orientations and body positions compared to previous
events, primarily flexed on their side on a S-W axis,
with fewer placed in an E-W extended position.
Another difference is that the sacrificial victims were
often buried in pairs or in a group of three, although
there are also examples of individual burials. PLC 137
was a multiple burial context with children of 8, 9
and 10 years of age, while PLC 359 had children of
between 6.5 and 8.5 years of age. Finally, like the
children from Event 5 they were wrapped in large
mantles and dressed in hats or turbans or both, with
loincloths, and sometimes tunics, usually of
undecorated cotton. In some cases, camelids were
placed on top of the bodies, just as was seen for Event
5 and at HLL (Figure 50).
One burial is different from the others. It was
found by the Salvage Project (PRALLO) in 2017

48
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru

and was a child of nine years who was placed in a

seated position facing north, buried with 49
Spondylus shells and hundreds of beads (Campaña
and Prieto 2022: 101, figure 165; see also page
132, figures 221–223). No cut marks were found
on the sternum or ribs. Although the AMS dates
clearly indicate a chronological affiliation with
Event 6, it differs from the pattern observed for the
other burials. Possibly this individual was a special
offering made by the Inca, or since its location was
far from the concentration of burials during Event
6, it could have been a special offering made by a
Chimú faction under Inca control.

Discussion
At the beginning of this article we proposed that
sanctioned violence was at the core of the Chimu pol-
Figure 47. Wooden idols found in association with Event 5.
itical ideology. Sanctioned violence is envisioned

Figure 48. Multiple plot showing the AMS dates for Event 6.

49
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

Figure 49. Burials and camelids associated with Event 6.

50
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru

Figure 50. Hats, shirts, and loincloths, Event 6. First row: PLC-103-E2, PLC-137-E2 and PLC-137-E1. Second row: PLC-103-E2,
PLC-137-E1, PLC-359-E1. Third row: PLC-210, PLC-211 and PLC-137-E1. Fourth row: PLC-137-E2.

here as a method of social domination and the
execution of power over others. This way of exerting
control over others changed over time in Chimú
society, but it was always materialized through child
and camelid mass sacrifices. Under this model and
for the specific case of PLC, a scenario of structural
violence based on skeletal evidence does not seem
to apply. This of course does not imply that struc-
tural violence was not present in the Chimú
empire, but that in this case, the bioarchaeological

51
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
evidence does not support it. Examples of structural
violence have been reported for other regions and
timeframes in the North Coast of Peru. For
example, in the Lambayeque region, the early Late
Intermediate Period case of mass sacrifice at Cerro
Cerrillos and the Late Horizon sacrifices at
Chotuna-Chornancap and at Túcume show elevated
frequencies of skeletal and dental indicators of stress.
This evidence suggests that victims of sacrifice at
these sites were from a lower social class (Klaus
et al. 2010; Toyne 2011; Wester et al. 2010). In con-
trast, the sacrificed children from Huanchaquito-Las
Llamas and PLC appear to have been in good health,
without evidence of nutritional or metabolic indi-
cators in the skeleton or teeth that was noted in the
Lambayeque cases and some other sacrificial
samples in Peru and elsewhere (Verano et al. 2022).
As previously mentioned, the concept of massacre
does not apply to the PLC case, although other cases
have been reported for Chimú and contemporary
societies. This is certainly the case of the massacre
identified by Toyne at the site of Kuélap at
Chachapoyas, where the population targeted by
the perpetrators were men and children, suggesting
that the goal of the massacre was likely the annihil-
ation of the community (Toyne 2018). Under this
perspective, neither the Huanchaquito Las Llamas
nor the PLC case fit in the concept of a massacre.
The only point in common is the large number of
victims. Similarly, based on cranial modification
and stable isotopic evidence from Huanchaquito
Las Llamas, only 20% or less of the victims seem
to have a foreign provenience, assuming that the
remaining 80% were locals or members of Chimú
society living in the Chan Chan area. The systematic
way in which the children were killed, the careful
disposal of the bodies after death, and the fact that
most of them were locals, are all indicators of a cer-
emonial act rather than a frenetic or planned revenge
against an enemy. The victims were brought from
different locations and social backgrounds but may
have been from medium high or high status families
based on their excellent health for the standards of
the Late Intermediate Period on the North Coast
of Peru.
52
Pampa La Cruz records a sequence of at least six
sacrificial events occurring between cal. A.D. 1050/
1100 and cal. A.D. 1450/1500. Five centuries of
continuous human and camelid sacrifices indicate
that sanctioned violence was central in Chimú reli-
gious practice and not just a desperate response to cli-
matic or political crisis, as was previously thought
(Prieto et al. 2017, 2019). We have identified 247
human victims and approximately 211 camelids in
six sequential events (and some possibly divided
into subevents), confirmed by 80 calibrated AMS
dates (Appendix 2). Two hundred twenty-nine
bodies were securely associated with one of the six
events, while 18 bodies were impossible to link with
one of the proposed sacrifice events (Appendix 1).
Future investigations may help to solve this
problem. Although Events 1 and 2 seem to be the
smallest sacrificial events in terms of number of
victims, this could be the result of sampling and
recovery bias, so a note of caution should be con-
sidered when these numbers are evaluated. Event 3
is the largest and most complex event yet reported
at PLC, but again this could be an illusion given
by the location and emphasis of our excavations.
Events 4, 5 and 6 are underrepresented in terms of
the numbers of sacrificial victims since these bodies
are closer to the surface and could have been severely
affected by looting, especially during the Colonial
and early Republican periods (Hrdlicka 1911,
1914). Our excavations revealed later Chimú sacrifice
events only had a minor impact on burials from
earlier ones, which suggests that a master plan for
the distribution and layout of the victims was in
place at the time of each new sacrificial event,
which knew and respected the location and position
of former offerings.
Subevents are clear during Event 3A and 3B, but
others can be suggested if we take into consideration
the variability in radiocarbon years (Appendix 2).
This observation reinforces our main point: human
and camelid sacrifices were more regular among the
Chimú than previously thought. Another general
conclusion of this research is that the way of dispatch-
ing the sacrificial victims was from the beginning a
single clean transverse cut across the sternum,
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
although these cuts were not universally observed in
all the victims. There is also a clear pattern that
this sacrificial method became more systematic
during later events (4, 5 and 6) than during the
earlier ones (1, 2 and 3), suggesting that some
victims were dispatched in other ways ( possibly stran-
gulation with a rope or cloth that left no skeletal evi-
dence), particularly in the case of adult women and
males (Figure 51).
Previous research has identified large ENSO events
occurring in the Moche valley as early as A.D. 1050/
1100 and around A.D. 1250, which caused severe
damage to the irrigation infrastructure built by the
Chimú around the city of Chan Chan (Nials et al.
1979). Evidence indicates that one or more ENSO
events of lesser intensity may have impacted the
Peruvian North Coast between cal. A.D. 1050/
1100–1450/1500 (Billman and Huckleberry 2008;
Wells 1990). We suggest that not all the sacrificial
events identified at PLC can be hypothesized to be
a response to one of these climatic events.
Paleoclimatic records suggest that the emergence,
consolidation and expansion of the Chimú state
Figure 51. Mosaic of cuts on sternums.
53
occurred in a permanent state of climatic instability
(Dillehay et al. 2004; Wells 1990). In the following
paragraphs, we would like to link the six sacrificial
events found at PLC to the larger context of
Chimú society, especially the political, economic
and religious realms, rather than restricting them
solely to ENSO events.
Events 1 and 2 (1050–1220 cal. A.D.) are chrono-
logically related to the first centuries of Chimú political
organization. This is the time when a historical dynasty,
probably ruled by a powerful leader named Taycanamo,
who later became the mythical founder of the Chimú,
came to power in the Moche valley. His successor,
Guacricaur, was possibly the ruler who politically
reclaimed the lands in the Moche and neighboring
valleys (Moore and Mackey 2008; J. H. Rowe 1948).
Therefore, if we can establish a correlation between his-
torical and archaeological data, the first sacrificial events
at PLC may have taken place a few decades after the
founding of Chan Chan and the rise of a powerful
dynasty that ruled the valley and neighboring lands.
According to previous research, this was a time of exten-
sive construction of irrigation canals, especially on the
northern side of the valley surrounding Chan Chan
(Moseley and Deeds 1982; Nials et al. 1979). These
lands included but were not limited to the arid
pampas around Pampa La Cruz, especially the NE
sector of the site (Figure 3(b)). However, current
interpretation suggests that the irrigation canal system
and the agricultural fields were damaged by floods
and then partially abandoned after the Mega ENSO
event reported elsewhere for the Moche valley around
A.D. 1100 (Nials et al. 1979). Refining our chronologi-
cal data, Event 1 must have been before the occurrence
of the Mega ENSO event in the Moche valley, while
Event 2 could have occurred several decades after this
climatic anomaly. If we are correct, then Events 1 and
2 are not linked with the climate phenomenon of
A.D. 1100; rather, they could have been performed to
consecrate the construction of the irrigation system
and to keep it functioning after several challenges,
including the impact of ENSO events. The orientation
of bodies during the earliest event (W-E) could be an
intentional connection with the newly irrigated lands,
since those were located immediately east of
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
Montículo 1 at PLC. The discovery of a ceremonial
knife associated with Event 1, which had on its
surface four lumps of mud intentionally placed on
top, may symbolize a connection between the sacrifice
and the mud which might represent either irrigated
lands or mud from ENSO floods (see Figure 13).
Another indicator of possible connections between
the sacrificial events and ENSO activity is that PLC
361 was placed on a surface of wet mud that left an
imprint of the body during Event 2.
This evidence does not rule out a connection
between ENSO events and the first sacrificial events
at PLC. It also points to the establishment and func-
tioning of the irrigation system built by the Chimú
near PLC. Events 1 and 2 at PLC are chronologically
connected with a similar context reported at the site
of Huaca Santa Clara in the Virú Valley. There, 11
children and 28 camelids were sacrificed in a very
similar way. Indeed, most of the children were
placed on a W-E orientation, similar to the one
observed for Event 1 at PLC, suggesting that the
Chimú performed synchronic child and camelid
sacrifice ceremonies in the Virú valley and in
Huanchaco (Millaire and Surette 2011).
In contrast, Event 3 (cal. A.D. 1220–1300) seems to
correspond to a period of Chimú territorial expansion,
most likely the historical era attributed to
Ñançempinco and his descendants (Moore and
Mackey 2008; J. H. Rowe 1948). This period represents
a time of an active and dynamic Chimú state, possibly
expanding militarily over a vast territory south and
north of the Virú-Moche-Chicama region. We
cannot rule out the possibility of more conciliatory or
diplomatic strategies, which may have involved political
alliances and treaties. The latter strategy (diplomacy and
political alliances) is perhaps where Event 3 at PLC
could be framed. As previously mentioned in this
paper, this is the event with the highest diversity of arti-
ficial cranial modification among children, including
an annular form and occipital flattening, suggesting a
higher diversity in the geographic origin and ethnicity
of the victims in comparison with previous and later
sacrificial events at PLC.4 The same is true for the
adults associated with Event 3. This event also has the
highest frequency of adolescent and adult women,
54
rarely present in previous events (Events 1 and 2) and
clearly absent in later events (Events 4, 5 and 6). A
few adult males, always facing down, are also a charac-
teristic of Event 3 and were not found in other events.
At this time also a large quantity of Spondylus shells
were buried in E-W alignments along with bundles
containing silver and copper-alloy metal miniatures
and scattered feathers of exotic birds on the ceremonial
platform (Figures 16–18).
The high frequency and variability of cranial modifi-
cation, adult victims, and precious artifacts (Spondylus
shells, metal miniatures, and feathers) indicates a more
complex ritual associated with the mass sacrifice of chil-
dren and perhaps the intentional display of a larger
network of connections with greater access to valuable
goods. Therefore, Event 3, which took place around
cal. A.D. 1220–1300 could have been performed
during Chimú military campaigns or territorial/social
expansion resulting from political alliances. To the
high occurrence of cranial modification can be added
the presence of one child (PLC-372) with a successful
trepanation that could suggest that this individual may
have come from the highlands or the northeast
montane forest of the Andes. On the other hand, the
clothing buried with some victims appears consistent
with similar pieces in several burials. Unfortunately,
textile documentation is scarce on the whole north
coast during this period, and it is difficult to compare
the excavated garments with those found elsewhere.
But they all have north coast technical features, which
are found not only in the Chimú heartland but also
extending north, south (exactly how far is unclear),
and into the adjacent highlands. Again, while they are
technically consistent with the clothing described in
Ann Rowe’s Costumes and Featherwork of the Lords of
Chimor (1984), she views the pieces from Event 3 of
PLC as stylistically slightly more conservative (and thus
earlier), or from slightly farther north, if the clothing is
understood to correlate with the cranial modification.
It is tempting to hypothesize that the sacrifice of
non-Chimú victims during Event 3 may have been
part of a Chimú political strategy to establish political
affiliations or to consolidate conquests under their
regime. This is an open question that has been
suggested for the Inca practice of Capa Cocha,
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
where political favors, alliances and ethnic affiliation
were central to child sacrifice events (Besom 2009;
Duviols 1976; Reinhard and Ceruti 2005; Schroedl
2008). Was Event 3 at PLC in Huanchaco a singular
event, or could it be possible that many others were
performed around and in the city of Chan Chan at
about the same time? The existence of two penaches
of feathers with unknown provenience, one stored at
the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)
and the other whose location is currently unknown
(see King 2012: 183, plate 51 for the one at the
AMNH and Reid and de Lavalle 1987: 248 for the
one without a current location) are both identical
to the penache found in association with PLC 271
(Figure 27). Assuming they are not from PLC, they
could represent a sacrificial event from elsewhere
around Chan Chan.
Interestingly, all women buried at PLC during
Event 3 had no sign of a violent death visible on
their skeletons (but see above case of PLC-279).
They could have been dispatched by strangulation,
poisoning, or some other form of suffocation. These
women were all buried in a flexed and seated position
facing north, holding Spondylus shells in each hand
and when the preservation allowed, dressed in beauti-
ful clothing with painted decoration or with poly-
chrome feathers (Fernandez et al. 2020). All the
women also had occipital flattening, suggesting that
they may have come from further north, where this
cranial modification is more common during this
period than in the Moche valley. Izumi Shimada has
noted that young and adult women with similar
cranial modification were buried in elite tombs of
the Lambayeque or Sicán society at Batán Grande
around cal. A.D. 950–1100 (Shimada 1995;
Shimada et al. 2004: 375). An interesting suggestion
made by Shimada and his team is that these women
may have represented different segments of Sicán
nobility and society, recreating a symbolic affiliation
between them and the moieties they represented.
According to Shimada and colleagues, Sicán rulers
had, through ritualized weddings or political alliances
in life, access to these social connections sealed with
wedding arrangements, somewhat similar to strategies
used by the Inca nobility (Hernandez Astete 2005).
55
We would like to suggest that the women buried
along with the sacrificed children during Event 3 at
PLC were either closely related to the children or
were representatives of their local lineages or family
groups. Their sacrifice at PLC may represent alliances
or affiliations between their hypothetized family
groups or home regions and the Chimú state. The
standardized body as well as the decoration of the tex-
tiles, position and orientation, especially facing north,
may intentionally reference their geographic origins in
the neighboring Chicama, Jequetepeque, or
Lambayeque valleys (Fernandez 2019).
Event 3 is also contemporaneous with the massacre
reported by Walde and Verano at Punta Lobos, in the
Huarmey valley (Verano and Toyne 2011). This scen-
ario suggests that Event 3 occurred when the Chimú
were aggressively expanding over a vast territory along
the north coast of Peru between cal. A.D. 1200–
1300. Both scenarios, military conquests or political
negotiations, could have been sealed through the offer-
ing of children and women who were ultimately sacri-
ficed at PLC as part of the interactions with non-
Chimú groups. Preliminary biodistance analysis
suggest genetic variabililty among the sacrificed chil-
dren at PLC (Sutter and Prieto 2023). Further analysis
of stable isotopes (light and heavy), and ancient DNA
variation may help to affirm or question this hypothesis.
Events 4 and 5 (1300–1450 cal. A.D.) are contem-
porary with the moment of Chimú apogee as an
empire or as an expansionist state along the coast of
present-day Peru (Moore and Mackey 2008;
J. H. Rowe 1948). At this time Chan Chan became
the most powerful pre-industrial city in the New
World and an important political, religious, and econ-
omic hub along the Andean coast. This corresponds to
the large number of children buried during these
events, possibly greater in number than Event
3. The location of the victims, based on AMS data,
indicates that the sacrificial area extended as far
south as 100 meters from the Montículo 1 or ceremo-
nial platform, with an average surface of 5500 square
meters on the upper part of PLC alone. We are not
considering the burials present on the west and
lower side of PLC (La Poza) which could add
another two hectares of area with potential sacrificed
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
victims. Given the massive looting and the inability to
excavate the lower sector or La Poza, the total number
of victims for Events 4 and 5 could be substantially
larger than that reported here.
The standardized burial pattern, sacrificial tech-
nique, and similarity of the clothing buried with the
children, as well as the large number of camelids sacri-
ficed during these events, indicate the power of
Chimú during this time. It is interesting to note that
the age of the subadult victims was higher than in pre-
vious events. Our data show that the preferred age
during Events 4 and 5 was between 9 and 13 years
old, in contrast with the 8 to 10 observed in previous
events. The number of children and especially camelids
sacrificed during these events shows a mature state with
the capacity of hosting large sacrificial events. Also clear
is the importance of camelids during Events 4 and 5,
where burial pits contained from two to seven and
sometimes even 10 young camelids. Camelids and
their importance for Chimú religion and daily subsis-
tence have been discussed elsewhere (Goepfert and
Prieto 2016; Pozorski 1976, 1982; Topic 1990).
Hundreds of these precious animals were killed for reli-
gious ceremonies held at PLC and then at JO-IG and
HLL. The high selectivity in age (6–9 months) and
coat color (mostly brown) shows the capacity of the
Chimú state to gather these animals from state herds
but also from non-state sponsored farms (Goepfert
et al. 2020). At PLC, during Events 4 and 5, camelids
were preferentially buried in groups or multiple burials,
sometimes containing ceramic vessels (like the 11 cups
found with CA-117, see Figure 44) or with ceramic
spindle whorls from previous occupations intentionally
added to the camelid burials (Brito et al. 2020). The
discovery of a fragment of fine textile (Figure 43) with
an AMS date within the range of Event 4 in the
looting pit located in the central sector of the ceremo-
nial platform or Montículo 1 at PLC indicates that
either (a) elite burials were placed there during this
event or (b) elaborate textiles were also offered in the
central sector of the ceremonial platform during
Event 4. Both scenarios show the importance of PLC
as a ceremonial site for the mass sacrifice of children,
adults, camelids, and fine textiles.
56
The fact that around 1400–1450 cal. A.D. (Event 5),
four sites were actively participating in camelid and child
sacrifices (HLL, PLC, JO-IG and EP) (Prieto and
Verano in press), suggests a peak in Chimú sanctioned
violence and demonstrates the power and resources avail-
able to the religious and political apparatus of the Chimú
state. Interestingly, during this time of the Chimú apogee
represented by Events 4 and 5, the children were dressed
in a sort of “uniform” which consisted of an undecorated
loincloth with the front panel passed under the tie and
then over it, covering the legs, a short, sleeved tunic,
and a turban. The turbans consisted of at least two
plain fabrics wrapped successively around the head and
secured around the outside with a tightly woven (weft-
faced) narrow band, knotted and with tassels falling
over the left side of the head (Figure 50). Some of
these bands had simple painted designs, but this has
not been observed at PLC. Events 4 and 5 are when
cut marks across the sterna are more frequently observed
in the sample at PLC, and dominant at the site of
Huanchaquito Las Llamas (HLL) (Prieto et al. 2015,
2019). Their frequency indicates a standardized and
more systematic way of dispatching the victims (Figure
51). The presence of wooden sculptures at PLC during
Event 5 suggests the intention of creating spaces like
those at the palaces of Chan Chan and other ceremonial
buildings like Huaca Taycanamo and El Dragon on the
northeast side of Chan Chan (Gayoso Rullier and
Gamarra Carranza 2023; Jackson 2004; Prieto and
Burmester 2015; Schaedel 1966). The wooden sculp-
tures may mark a sort of formalized space around
Montículo 1, which was decorated with similar sculp-
tures. The presence of various double burials during
Event 5 indicate that a new pattern was emerging: boys
and girls sacrificed and buried together, possibly creating
symbolic “weddings” between the parts. This idea has
been proposed for the Inca Capa Cochas, where symbolic
unions served to create social bonds between the groups
giving away their offspring for the sacrificial ceremonies
(Besom 2009; Reinhard and Ceruti 2005). If the oppo-
site sex of the subadults in these dual burials can be
demonstrated, we may be seeing a Chimú version of
the same idea: ritualized unions in the afterlife that
cemented not only the relationship among the relatives
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
of the victims with the Chimú state, but also among
different Chimú families.
Finally, Event 6 (1450–1500 cal. A.D.) fell within
the timeframe when the Incas had conquered the
Chimú. Therefore the mass sacrifice at PLC may
document (a) the very last child sacrifice performed
by the Chimú, or (b) a continuation of this Chimú
practice under Inca domination (as has been docu-
mented at the Temple of the Sacred Stone at
Túcume, in the Lambayeque valley, and at
Chotuna-Chornancap (Toyne 2011; Wester et al.
2010)). We believe that the sacrifice of children
and camelids did continue after the Inca conquest,
since it was an important structural element of
Chimú religion and politics. It seems to have been
so important that the Incas continued its practice,
following previous practices observed during Events
4 and 5. The undyed clothing observed in previous
events, with the loincloth, tunic, and turban
uniform, continued. However, it was noted pre-
viously that individuals of Event 6 were also buried
wrapped in a loosely woven cloth (1 x 1 plain
weave) and then covered with a heavier cotton
shroud (2 x 1 plain weave). This double shrouding
was not observed in previous events.
There also were more children buried in pairs, and
sometimes even three individuals. Camelids were
more commonly buried on top of the children but
outside of the shroud that wrapped the child. Also,
more individuals were buried in an extended but
slightly flexed position on one side, on an S-N axis,
although the E-W was still prevalent for the PLC
site. Most of the victims associated with this event
were located on the west side of Montículo 1, but
this could be simply the result of destruction of
other areas by looting activity. We should not forget
that at the beginning of the twentieth century, Ales
Hdrlička reported hundreds of subadult bones scat-
tered across the surface of this site, which were possibly
the most superficial burials of Event 6, those disturbed
by Colonial and Republican looters.
If we are correct, the Incas found that their Capa
Cocha practice had a similar Chimú version, but
instead of burying a few children in remote places
like ice-capped mountains, the Chimú practiced
57
their own variety in open areas, close to the ocean
and in mass sacrificial grounds, where previous
events had been hosted. Capa Cochas are known to
have been made in close connection with the Inca
emperor’s life, health, and political desire. In contrast,
the Inca found that the Chimú child and camelid
sacrifices were made by the state apparatus, not necess-
arily related to the king. The Chimú motivations
could have been to cement their relationships with
alterations to the natural environment (irrigation pro-
jects on arid lands), as a response to extraordinary
climate or telluric calamities (like ENSO events)
and/or to strengthen social relations among conquered
territories and within Chimú society.
Under the Chimú, human sacrifice acquired a new
dimension on the North Coast of Peru, going beyond
mere situational responses to natural disasters. It
became a dramatic and visual experience that
helped to build their empire, maintain social
control, and cement their social interactions. The
PLC case is a good example of the continuity and
long-lasting tradition of human sacrifices during
more than 500 years in the heart of the Moche
valley during the Late Intermediate Period and the
Late Horizon. It opens a window into a previously
unknown ritual practice and offers new opportunities
to explore social dynamics and to reconstruct the
structural principles that underpinned Chimú social
organization and ideological system(s).
Notes
1 At the time this paper was finalized, during the 2022
field season, a total of 67 new sacrificial victims were
documented, 47 of which were found on top of
Montículo 2, located on the NE end of Pampa La Cruz.
2 During the 2022 field season, the excavations
carried out on top of Montículo 2 have yielded 47
children with cuts on their sterna.
3 PRALLO (Proyecto de Rescate Arqueologico Las
Lomas de Huanchaco) and PEALLO (Proyecto de
Evaluacion Arqueologico Las Lomas de
Huanchaco) refers to the Salvage Projects sponsored
by the City Hall of Huanchaco in 2012 and 2017-
2018.
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
4 Previously, it was noted that during Event 1 and 2, a
few individuals with occipital flattening and annular
modification were reported.
Acknowledgements
The 2016–2019 field seasons were possible thanks to
funding provided to the first author of this manuscript
by the Peruvian government: INNOVATE PERU, con-
trato 354-15; Proyecto Concytec-Banco Mundial
“Mejoramiento y Ampliación de los Servicios del
Sistema Nacional de Ciencia Tecnología e Innovación
Tecnológica” 8682-PE, a través de su unidad ejecutora
ProCiencia [contrato número 07-2018-FONDECYT-
BM-IADT-MU], as well as a grant from the National
Geographic Society, Grant # 305R-18. Special thanks
to Kurt Mutchler, Kristin Romey, Robert Clark,
Mark Thiessen and Rebecca Hale, at National
Geographic Society. The second author of this manu-
script received support for the research at Pampa La
Cruz from the National Geographic Society
Committee for Research and Exploration, Grant
#9830-15 (2018-2019), The Roger Thayer Stone
Center for Latin American Studies Summer Faculty
Research Grants (2018, 2022) and the Tulane School
of Liberal Arts Faculty Research Award (2019). The
excavations at Pampa La Cruz were also supported in
2016 and 2018 by MOCHE INC, Dr. Brian
Billman, and the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill Field School Program. The conservation
and study of the textiles presented in this paper were
possible thanks to the National Geographic Society
(Grant # EC-58047R-19) given to Luis Flores and to
the 2019 Ambassador Funds for the Conservation of
the Huanchaco Cultural Heritage given by The
Embassy of The United States of America in Peru
given to P.I. Prieto. Special thanks to former U.S.
Ambassador in Peru Dr. Krishna Urs, Vanessa
Wagner, Cultural Senior Specialist at the American
Embassy in Lima, Peru as well as to Arabel Fernandez
Lopez, Lisbeth Pariona and all the students from the
Universidad Nacional de Trujillo who participated in
this project. Archaeological excavations in 2021 and
2022 were supported by the University of Florida and
the Study Abroad Program, UF in Peru: Archaeology
58
and Traditional Cultures of Latin America.
Radiocarbon dates were obtained by a multitude of
funding sources especially from Start-Up funding
given to Prieto from the Office of Research and the
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of
Florida, the Humanities Scholarship Enhancement
Fund of the University of Florida and Nilaya
Productions (Especially to Marianne Jestaz and
Jérôme Scemla). Special thanks to Dr. Yuichi
Matsumoto and the team directed by Dr. Fuyuki
Tokanai, Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry,
University of Yamagata. Similarly, special thanks to
Dr. Brendan Culleton, Energy and Environmental
Sustainability Laboratories, Penn State Radiocarbon
Laboratory and Laurie Eccles, Department of
Anthropology, Penn State University. Special thanks
to Manuel Lizarraga and Christian Moncada, supervi-
sors of the Huanchaco Archaeological Program, as
well as to all the staff and students (graduate and under-
graduate) from the University of Florida and the
Universidad Nacional de Trujillo who participate in
the Huanchaco Archaeological Program between 2016
and 2022. We would like to acknowledge Dr. Andrew
Nelson and Dr. Haagen Klaus for their excellent sugges-
tions to improve this manuscript. Finally, special thanks
to Daniel Hernandez who worked on formatting the
extensive bibliography for this manuscript. This
material is based on work supported by the National
Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
program under Award #1842473 (JARP), and the
National Academies of Science, Engineering, and
Medicine Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship
(JARP). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or rec-
ommendations expressed in this material are those of the
authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
National Science Foundation or the Ford Foundation.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the
author(s).
Notes on contributors
Gabriel Prieto is at the Department of
Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville,
 Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
FL, USA (ogabriel.prietob@ufl.edu). Prieto (PhD in
Anthropology, Yale University 2015) is the Director
of the Huanchaco Archaeological Project.
John Verano is at the Department of Anthropology,
Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA (verano@
tulane.edu). He got his Ph.D. in anthropology from
the University of California Los Angeles in 1987. He
is a biological anthropologist who specializes in
human skeletal anatomy, paleopathology, bioarchaeol-
ogy, and forensic anthropology.
Ann Pollard Rowe is at The George Washington
University Museum, The Textile Museum,
Washington, DC, USA (aprowe@gwu.edu). Ann
Pollard Rowe spent most of her career as Curator of
Western Hemisphere Textiles at The Textile Museum
in Washington, DC, and is now Research Associate
there. She has curated many exhibitions and written cat-
alogues for Warp-Patterned Weaves of the Andes, A
Century of Change in Guatemalan Textiles, Costumes
and Featherwork of the Lords of Chimor, and Hidden
Threads of Peru: Q’ero Textiles (with John Cohen).
Feren Castillo, Escuela de Arqueologia, Facultad de
Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo,
Trujillo, Peru (fcastillol@unitru.edu.pe). Castillo is an
archaeologist focused on the social complexity in the
North Coast of Peru and particularly in the Viru Valley.
Luis Flores, Programa Arqueologico Huanchaco,
Trujillo, Peru (lfdelaoliva@gmail.com). Flores is an
Andean archaeologist with experience in the North
Coast of Peru.
Julio Asencio, Programa Arqueologico Huanchaco,
Trujillo, Peru (alasencio23@gmail.com). Asencio is a
Bachelor in Social Sciences with experience in the
archaeology of the North Coast of Peru.
Alan Chachapoyas, Programa Arqueologico
Huanchaco, Trujillo, Peru (alanchflores93@gmail.
com). Chachapoyas is an Andean archaeologist with
experience in the North Coast of Peru.
Victor Campaña, Proyecto de Rescate Arqueologico
Las Lomas de Huanchaco, Huanchaco, Peru. (vitu.
cale@gmail.com). Campaña is an Andean archaeologist
with experience in the North Coast of Peru.
Richard Sutter is at the Department of
Anthropology, Indiana University – Purdue University
at Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, IN, USA (sutterr@pfw.
59
edu). Professor Sutter interests include the Peopling of
the New World, South American Archaeology,
Mortuary Analysis, Prehistoric Ethnicity,
Bioarchaeological Theory and Methods, and Human
Behavioral Ecology. He has ample experience in investi-
gation human remains of the north coast of Peru.
Aleksalia Isla, Programa Arqueologico
Huanchaco, Trujillo, Peru (aleksaalayo21@gmail.
com). Isla is an Andean archaeologist with experience
in the North Coast of Peru.
Khrystyne Tschinkel is at the Department of
Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA,
USA (ktschink@tulane.edu). Tschinkel obtained her
Ph.D. at Tulane University, investigating the health
and social dynamics of Chimu-Inca and Contact
Period populations in the North Coast of Peru.
Rachel Witt is at the Department of
Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans,
LA, USA (rwitt@tulane.edu). Witt has recently
defended her Ph.D. thesis. Her dissertation research
combines bioarchaeology and biogeochemistry to
reconstruct trauma, diet, and migration patterns to
examine how policies and practices of ancient
societies impact the life histories of child sacrifices
in prehistoric Peru.
Andres Shiguekawa, Programa Arqueologico
Huanchaco (shigue2@gmail.com). Shiguekawa is a
conservator with vast experience in Archaeological
artifacts of the Central Andean región.
Jordi A. Rivera-Prince is at the Department of
Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville,
FL, USA ( jriveraprince@ufl.edu). Her research
focuses on the emergence of social inequality in
small-scale ancient maritime communities in the
Moche Valley, North Coast of Peru. Specifically,
her work employs a bioarchaeological and mortuary
archaeology perspective to study the La Iglesia site,
a Salinar cemetery excavated in Huanchaco.
Celeste Marie Gagnon is at the Department of
Anthropology, Wagner College, Staten Island, NY,
USA (celeste.gagnon@wagner.edu). Gagnon is an
anthropologist specializing in examining skeletal
indicators of diet and disease and interpreting these
data within archaeological and biocultural contexts.
She investigates the dietary and health consequences
 Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies
of sociopolitical change and how changes in diet and
health affect economic, social, and political lives. Her
research areas include the Moche Valley of North
Coastal Peru and the Susquehanna Valley of New
York and Pennsylvania.
Carlos Avila-Mata is at the University of Florida,
Gainesville, FL, USA (cavilamata@ufl.edu). Avila-
Mata is a former undergraduate student at the
University of Florida.
Fuyuki Tokanai is at the Center for Accelerator
Mass Spectrometry, University of Yamagata,
Yamagata-shi, Japan (tokanai@sci.kj.yamagata-u.ac.
jp). Tokanai is an expert on processing Mass
Spectrometry at Yamagata University, Japan.
Claver W. Aldama-Reyna is at the Laboratorio de
Óptica y Láseres, Departamento Académico de
Física, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Trujillo,
Peru (caldama@unitru.edu.pe). Claver W. Aldama-
Reyna is a Research Professor and Group Leader of
the Optics and Lasers Laboratory at the National
University of Trujillo. He received his Ph.D. in
Physics from the National University of Trujillo.
José M. Capriles is at the Department of
Anthropology, Penn State University, State College,
PA, USA ( juc555@psu.edu). Dr. Capriles is an
anthropological archaeologist specializing in environ-
mental archaeology, human ecology and zooarch-
aeology. Before joining Penn State University, he
was a Visiting Scholar at the University of
Pittsburgh (2012-2013), a Chilean FONDECYT
Postdoctoral Researcher (2013–2015) and an
Assistant Professor at Universidad de Tarapacá
(2015–2016).
ORCID
Gabriel Prieto http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6229-
986X
John Verano http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0263-
5611
Feren Castillo http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5242-
5885
Khrystyne Tschinkel http://orcid.org/0000-0001-
5199-8550
60
Jordi A. Rivera Prince http://orcid.org/0000-0001-
8865-3011
Celeste Marie Gagnon http://orcid.org/0000-0003-
0112-3240
Fuyuki Tokanai http://orcid.org/0000-0002-
3563-3882
José M. Capriles http://orcid.org/0000-0001-
6046-0939
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 Appendices
Appendix 1
Bioarchaeological profiles of all the sacrificial victims found at PLC during the 2016-2019 PAHUAN excavations. This table includes at the end the
25 Chimú burials excavated by the rescue project between 2017-2018 (Campaña and Prieto 2022). Event numbers in black have secure temporal
association by 14C dates. Event numbers in red mean indirect temporal association with an event, based on similarity or physical proximity to a
nearby dated burial or other archaeological context.

Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

PLC Cut
Sacrificial Cut on marks Body Body
Burial # Site Area Level Event Age Sex Cranial modification Sternum on ribs Fractures orientation position
PLC-101- PLC 3 sup 6 9 n/a yes N-S Lateral
E1 flexed
PLC-101- PLC 3 sup 6 9 n/a yes N-S Resting on
E2 its back and
lower limbs
70

flexed
PLC-101- PLC 3 sup 6 12 n/a yes yes N-S Resting on
E3 its back and
lower limbs
flexed
PLC-102 PLC 3 sup 6 9 n/a yes N-S Lateral
flexed
PLC-103- PLC 3 sup 6 5-6 n/a annular yes E-W Resting on
E1 its back and
lower limbs
flexed
PLC-103- PLC 3 sup 6 12 n/a yes E-W Resting on
E2 its back and
lower limbs
flexed
PLC-104 PLC 3 sup 6 12 n/a yes fractures on two teeth? E-W Resting on
its back and
lower limbs
flexed
Continued
 Continued

PLC Cut

Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
Sacrificial Cut on marks Body Body
Burial # Site Area Level Event Age Sex Cranial modification Sternum on ribs Fractures orientation position
PLC-105 PLC 3 sup 6 13-15 n/a yes W-E Resting on
its back and
lower limbs
flexed
PLC-106 PLC 3 1 6 10 n/a n/a E-W Resting on
its back and
lower limbs
flexed
PLC-107 PLC 3 sup 6 12-13 n/a yes E-W Lateral
flexed?
PLC-108- PLC 3 1 6 15 n/a yes yes E-W Resting on
E1 its back and
lower limbs
flexed
PLC-108- PLC 3 1 6 9 n/a yes E-W Lateral
E2 flexed
PLC-109 PLC 3 sup 6 15 n/a yes N-S Lateral
71

flexed
PLC-110 PLC 3 1 5 12-15 n/a n/a N-S Extended
PLC-111 PLC 3 sup 5 7-8 n/a yes E-W n/a
PLC-112 PLC 3 1 5 8-9 n/a yes n/a n/a
PLC-114- PLC 3 sup 5 9 n/a n/a E-W Resting on
E1 its back and
lower limbs
flexed
PLC-114- PLC 3 sup 5 ? n/a n/a E-W n/a
E2
PLC-116 PLC 3 1 4 12-15 n/a yes W-E Extended
PLC-118 PLC 3 sup 6 10 n/a n/a E-W Lateral
flexed
PLC-122 PLC 3 1 3 9 n/a n/a E-W Extended
PLC-123 PLC 3 RC1 3 6 n/a n/a E-W Extended
PLC-128 PLC 3 RC1 3 n/a n/a n/a E-W Extended
PLC-129 PLC 3 3 3 9 n/a annular yes E-W Extended
PLC-131 PLC 3 sup 6 14-15 n/a yes W-E Lateral
flexed
Continued
 Continued

PLC Cut
Sacrificial Cut on marks Body Body
Burial # Site Area Level Event Age Sex Cranial modification Sternum on ribs Fractures orientation position
PLC-132 PLC 3 sup 5 11 n/a yes yes W-E Lateral
flexed
PLC-134 PLC 3 2 3 11 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-135 PLC 3 2 3 12 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-136 PLC 3 2 3 12 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-137- PLC 3 2 6 9 n/a yes W-E Lateral
E1 flexed

Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

PLC-137- PLC 3 2 6 10 n/a yes W-E Lateral
E2 flexed
PLC-137- PLC 3 2 6 8 n/a yes W-E Resting on
E3 its back and
lower limbs
flexed
PLC-138 PLC 3 3 6 9 n/a n/a E-W Lateral
flexed
PLC-139 PLC 3 3 5 7 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-141 PLC 4 3 3 n/a n/a no E-W Extended
72

PLC-146 PLC 4 2 3 40-50 female occipital flattening n/a W-E Flexed

facing
down
PLC-147 PLC 3 RC1 3 6 n/a no E-W Extended
PLC-201 PLC 18 RC1 5 12 n/a yes E-W Lateral
flexed
PLC-202 PLC 18 RC1 5 12.5 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-203 PLC 18 RC1 5 5-6 n/a yes E-W Lateral
extended
PLC-204 PLC 19 RC1 5 12 n/a yes yes E-W Resting on
its back and
lower limbs
flexed
PLC-205 PLC 17 RC1 5 13.5 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-206 PLC 17 RC1 5 11 n/a yes Possible perimortem E-W Resting on
fractures of several ribs its back and
lower limbs
flexed
Continued
 Continued

PLC Cut

Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
Sacrificial Cut on marks Body Body
Burial # Site Area Level Event Age Sex Cranial modification Sternum on ribs Fractures orientation position
PLC-207 PLC 18 RC1 5 12 n/a yes Healing rib fracture E-W Resting on
its back and
lower limbs
flexed
PLC-208 PLC 18 RC1 3 8 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-209 PLC 18 RC1 5 13.5 n/a annular yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-210- PLC 17 RC1 6 13.5 n/a yes W-E Lateral
E1 flexed
PLC-210- PLC 17 RC1 6 11 n/a yes E-W Lateral
E2 flexed
PLC-211 PLC 17 RC1 6 11.5 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-212 PLC 17 RC1 6 11 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-213 PLC 17 RC1 6 12 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-214 PLC 18 RC1 5 9 n/a no E-W Extended
PLC-215 PLC 16 RC1 4 7.5 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-216 PLC 16 RC1 4 10.5 n/a annular yes E-W Extended
PLC-217 PLC 18 RC1 5 12 n/a n/a E-W Resting on
73

its back and

lower limbs
flexed
PLC-218 PLC 17 RC1 4 10 n/a yes yes W-E Extended
PLC-219 PLC 16 RC1 3 10.5 n/a yes yes Compression fracture E-W Extended
on a thoracic
vertebrae, pitting on
articular facets of C2.
PLC-220 PLC 16 RC1 4 9 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-221 PLC 16 RC1 ? 11 n/a yes E-W Extended,
facing
down
PLC-222 PLC 17 RC1 5 12 n/a yes E-W Resting on
its back and
lower limbs
flexed
PLC-223- PLC 17 RC1 6 10 n/a yes n/a n/a
E1
Continued
 Continued

PLC Cut
Sacrificial Cut on marks Body Body
Burial # Site Area Level Event Age Sex Cranial modification Sternum on ribs Fractures orientation position
PLC-223- PLC 17 RC1 6 12 n/a n/a n/a n/a
E2
PLC-224 PLC 17 RC1 5 12 n/a yes yes E-W Resting on
its back and
lower limbs
flexed
PLC-225 PLC 16 RC1 3 9 n/a yes yes E-W Extended

Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

PLC-226 PLC 16 RC1 3 9.5 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-227 PLC 16 RC1 3 9 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
with lower
limbs
crossed
PLC-228 PLC 16 RC1 4 9 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
with lower
limbs
crossed
PLC-229 PLC 16 RC1 3 8 n/a no possibly E-W Extended
74

with lower
limbs
crossed
PLC-230 PLC 16 RC1 3 13 n/a occipital flattening yes E-W Extended
PLC-231 PLC 16 RC1 3 8 n/a yes E-W Resting on
its back and
lower limbs
flexed
PLC-232 PLC 16 RC1 3 9 n/a yes yes E-W Extended,
facing
down
PLC-233 PLC 16 RC1 2 n/a n/a n/a Healed fracture, third E-W Extended
(R3-10)
PLC-234 PLC 16 RC1 3 8 n/a Tabular erect, no E-W Extended
bilobular cranial
modification.
PLC-235 PLC 16 RC1 3 6 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-236 PLC 16 RC1 3 13 n/a yes E-W Extended
Continued
 Continued

Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
PLC Cut
Sacrificial Cut on marks Body Body
Burial # Site Area Level Event Age Sex Cranial modification Sternum on ribs Fractures orientation position
PLC-237 PLC 16 RC1 4 12 n/a no E-W Lateral
flexed
PLC-238- PLC 16 RC1 4 12 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
E1
PLC-238- PLC 16 RC1 4 10 n/a yes yes E-W Lateral
E2 flexed
PLC-239 PLC 16 RC1 3 11 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-240 PLC 16 RC1 5 12 n/a no E-W Extended
PLC-241 PLC 16 RC1 3 10 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-242 PLC 16 RC1 3 10 n/a yes yes E-W Extended,
missing
lower limbs
PLC-243 PLC 16 RC1 3 9 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-244 PLC 17 RC1 4 12 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-245 PLC 16 RC1 3 11 n/a yes E-W Lateral
flexed
PLC-246 PLC 16 RC1 3 9 n/a annular yes yes E-W Lateral
75

flexed
PLC-247 PLC 16 RC1 3 11 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-248 PLC 16 RC1 3 12 n/a no yes E-W Extended
PLC-249 PLC 16 RC1 3 7 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-250 PLC 16 RC1 3 7 n/a annular yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-251 PLC 16 RC1 3 7 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-252 PLC 19 RC1 4 13 n/a yes E-W Resting on
its back and
lower limbs
flexed
PLC-253 PLC 20 RC1 2 12 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-254 PLC 20 RC1 2 9 n/a Angular(depression) of n/a E-W Extended
frontal bone.
PLC-255 PLC 20 RC1 2 n/a n/a n/a E-W Extended
PLC-256 PLC 20 RC1 2 11 n/a no E-W Extended
PLC-257 PLC 20 RC1 2 11 n/a n/a E-W Extended
PLC-258 PLC 20 RC1 2 13 n/a no E-W Extended
PLC-259 PLC 21 RC1 2 9 n/a annular no E-W Extended
Continued
 Continued

PLC Cut
Sacrificial Cut on marks Body Body
Burial # Site Area Level Event Age Sex Cranial modification Sternum on ribs Fractures orientation position
PLC-260 PLC 21 RC1 2 6-7 n/a Mild occipital n/a E-W Extended
flattening
PLC-261 PLC 16 RC1 4 or 5? 10 n/a Mild occipital no E-W Extended
flattening with lower
limbs flexed
PLC-262 PLC 16 RC1 3 8 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-263 PLC 21 RC1 2 12-13 n/a yes E-W Extended

Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

PLC-264 PLC 21 RC1 3 8 n/a possibly E-W Extended
PLC-265 PLC 21 RC1 3 9-10 n/a no E-W Extended
PLC-266 PLC 21 RC1 3 7 n/a Angular flattening of no E-W Extended
frontal bone
PLC-267 PLC 21 RC1 3 11 n/a Occipital flattening no S-N Seated
PLC-268 PLC 21 RC1 3 10-11 possibly Assymetrical occipital n/a S-N Seated
male flattening
PLC-269 PLC 21 RC1 3 30 male occipital flattening n/a S-N Facing
down
PLC-271 PLC 21 RC1 3 12 n/a Occipital flattening no Perimortem fractures S-N Seated
76

of the skull.
PLC-272 PLC 21 RC1 3 8 n/a no yes E-W Extended
PLC-273 PLC 21 RC1 3 16-18 female Symmetrical occipital n/a S-N Seated
flattening
PLC-274 PLC 21 RC1 3 19-24 female Occipital flattening no S-N Seated
PLC-275- PLC 21 RC1 3 14 n/a Occipital flattening no S/N Seated
E1 with notable bilobular
shape due to expanded
parietals.
PLC-275- PLC 21 RC1 3 19-21 female Mild occipital no Asymmetrically-fused N-S Seated
E2 flattening, slightly coccyx (healed
asymmetrical fracture?). Upper front
central incisors were
lost antemortem. Loss
at such an early age
unlikely due to caries/
abscesses. Perhaps lost
traumatically (blow to
face).
Continued
 Continued

PLC Cut

Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
Sacrificial Cut on marks Body Body
Burial # Site Area Level Event Age Sex Cranial modification Sternum on ribs Fractures orientation position
PLC-276 PLC 21 RC1 3 7 n/a Angular flattening on no E-W Extended
the frontal
PLC-277 PLC 21 RC1 3 16-19 female Occipital flattening no E-W Seated
asymmetrical
PLC-278 PLC 21 RC1 3 8 n/a no S-N Seated
PLC-279- PLC 21 RC1 3 8 n/a no n/a n/a
E1
PLC-279- PLC 21 RC1 3 20 female Occipital flattening no S-N Lateral
E2 flexed
PLC-280 PLC 21 RC1 3 8-10 n/a n/a E-W Extended
PLC-281 PLC 21 RC1 3 6 n/a no E-W Extended
PLC-301 PLC 22 RC1 1 n/a n/a n/a E-W Extended
PLC-302 PLC 20 RC1 3 7 n/a n/a E-W Extended
PLC-303 PLC 20 RC1 2 8 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-304 PLC 20 RC1 2 5 n/a no E-W Extended
PLC-305 PLC 22 RC1 4 13 n/a yes W-E Extended
PLC-306 PLC 22 RC1 4 8 n/a yes E-W Extended
77

PLC-307 PLC 22 RC1 4 5 n/a yes W-E Extended

PLC-308 PLC 20 RC1 3 12 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-309 PLC 20 RC1 3 12-13 n/a annular yes Ante mortem loss of E-W Extended
upper left M1
PLC-310 PLC 20 RC1 3 10 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-311 PLC 21 RC1 3 10 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-312 PLC 21 RC1 3 13 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-313 PLC 22 RC1 1 n/a n/a n/a N-S Lateral
flexed
PLC-314 PLC 22 RC1 4 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
PLC-315 PLC 22 RC1 4 n/a n/a n/a E-W Extended
PLC-316 PLC 22 RC1 4 n/a n/a n/a N-S Extended
PLC-317 PLC 22 RC1 4 disturbed n/a n/a n/a n/a
PLC-318 PLC 22 RC1 1 disturbed n/a n/a n/a n/a
PLC-319 PLC 22 RC1 1 disturbed n/a n/a n/a n/a
PLC-320 PLC 22 RC1 1 8-9 n/a n/a W-E Extended
PLC-321 PLC 22 RC1 1 12 n/a possibly W-E Extended
PLC-322 PLC 22 RC1 1 12-13 n/a mild annular yes W-E Extended
Continued
 Continued

PLC Cut
Sacrificial Cut on marks Body Body
Burial # Site Area Level Event Age Sex Cranial modification Sternum on ribs Fractures orientation position
PLC-323- PLC 22 RC1 4 n/a n/a no N-S Extended
E1
PLC-323- PLC 22 RC1 ? 10 n/a no n/a n/a
E2
PLC-324 PLC 23 RC1 2 10 n/a no Well healed left E-W Extended
proximal femur
fracture

Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

PLC-325 PLC 23 RC1 3 10 n/a n/a E-W Extended,
missing
lower limbs
PLC-326 PLC 20 RC1 3 10 n/a possibly E-W Extended
PLC-327 PLC 23 RC1 3 7 n/a annular n/a E-W Extended
PLC-328- PLC 22 RC1 4 n/a n/a n/a W-E Extended
E1
PLC-328- PLC 22 RC1 4 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
E2
PLC-329 PLC 22 RC1 1 8 n/a n/a W-E Extended
78

PLC-330 PLC 22 RC1 4 9 n/a n/a N-S Extended

PLC-331 PLC 22 RC1 1 n/a n/a n/a W-E Extended
PLC-332 PLC 22 RC1 1 7 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-333 PLC 22 RC1 1 n/a n/a n/a Healed fracture third n/a n/a
R3-10
PLC-334 PLC 22 RC1 1 n/a n/a n/a W-E Extended
PLC-335 PLC 22 RC1 1 4-5 n/a n/a E-W Extended
PLC-336 PLC 22 RC1 1 7 n/a n/a W-E Extended
PLC-337 PLC 22 RC1 1 5 n/a n/a W-E Extended
PLC-338 PLC 22 RC1 1 12-13 n/a yes W-E Extended
PLC-339 PLC 22 RC1 1 7 n/a possibly W-E Extended
PLC-340 PLC 22 RC1 1 7-8 n/a yes S-N Extended
PLC-341 PLC 22 RC1 1 8 n/a yes N-S Extended
PLC-342 PLC 23 RC1 3 8-9 n/a annular n/a E-W Extended
PLC-343 PLC 22 RC1 2 14-15 female? Assymetric occipital no S-N Lateral
flattening flexed
PLC-344 PLC 20 RC1 2 n/a n/a yes n/a n/a
PLC-345 PLC 22 RC1 1 n/a n/a n/a W-E Extended
PLC-346 PLC 21 RC1 4 18-20 male Occipital flattening no N-S Extended
Continued
 Continued

Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
PLC Cut
Sacrificial Cut on marks Body Body
Burial # Site Area Level Event Age Sex Cranial modification Sternum on ribs Fractures orientation position
PLC-348 PLC 21 RC1 ? n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
PLC-349 PLC 21 RC1 3 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
PLC-350 PLC 20 RC1 3 10 n/a no E-W Extended
PLC-351 PLC 20 RC1 ? 15 n/a no n/a n/a
PLC-352 PLC 23 RC1 2 11 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-353 PLC 23 RC1 3 n/a n/a E-W Extended
PLC-354 PLC 23 RC1 4 6 n/a Mild occipital no S-N Seated
flattening
PLC-355 PLC 23 RC1 4 11 possybly n/a W-E Seated
male
PLC-356 PLC 21 RC1 4? late male n/a E-W Extended
adolescent
PLC-359 PLC 21 RC1 6 6.5-8.5 n/a no S-N Lateral
flexed
PLC-361 PLC 20 RC1 2 10 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-362 PLC 20 RC1 2 n/a n/a n/a E-W Extended
PLC-363 PLC 20 RC1 3 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
79

PLC-369- PLC 22 RC1 1 12-13 n/a symmetrical occipital no S-N Seated

E1 flattening
PLC-369- PLC 22 RC1 1 18-20 female no S-N Seated
E2
PLC-370 PLC 20 RC1 3 12-13 n/a frontal depression yes E-W Extended
PLC-371 PLC 20 RC1 4 10 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-372 PLC 20 RC1 4 10 n/a yes yes Upper left first E-W Extended
premolar lost
perimortem
PLC-373 PLC 20 RC1 4 13 n/a possibly yes E-W Extended
PLC-374 PLC 20 RC1 3 9 n/a no E-W Extended
PLC-375 PLC 20 RC1 5 10 n/a some flattening at possibly N-S Resting on
lambda, but doesn’t its back and
seem to be a full lower limbs
occipital flattening flexed
PLC-376 PLC 20 RC1 4 12 n/a no E-W Extended
Continued
 Continued

PLC Cut
Sacrificial Cut on marks Body Body
Burial # Site Area Level Event Age Sex Cranial modification Sternum on ribs Fractures orientation position
PLC-377 PLC 20 RC1 3 12 n/a yes yes Healed trephination at E-W Extended
the back of the head,
right side (right
parietal notch)
PLC-378 PLC 20 RC1 4 12-13 n/a yes yes Lost perimortem - E-W Extended
upper first left and
right first premolars,

Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

upper left central
incisor and lower left
central incisor
PLC-379 PLC 20 RC1 4 9-10 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-380 PLC 20 RC1 4 10 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-381 PLC 20 RC1 3 14-15 possibly yes yes Broken nose E-W Extended
male antemortem
PLC-382 PLC 20 RC1 4 9 n/a no Antemortem trauma E-W Extended
to the right front of
80

head (frontal bone),

well healed.
Antemortem fracture
of the spinous process
of T1. Just beginning
to heal at time of
death, more recent
than head trauma.
PLC-383 PLC 20 RC1 4 11 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-384 PLC 21 RC1 ? 27-35 male n/a n/a n/a
PLC-385 PLC 20 RC1 2 7 n/a occipital flattening n/a E-W Extended
PLC-386 PLC 20 RC1 3 8 n/a yes E-W Extended
PLC-387 PLC 21 RC1 4 14 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-388- PLC 21 RC1 ? 13 n/a n/a n/a n/a
E1
PLC-388- PLC 21 RC1 ? 13-14 n/a n/a n/a n/a
E2
PLC-389 PLC 21 RC1 3 12-13 n/a no E-W Extended
PLC-390 PLC 20 RC1 4 10-11 n/a no yes E-W Extended
PLC-391 PLC 21 RC1 3 9 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
Continued
 Continued

Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
PLC Cut
Sacrificial Cut on marks Body Body
Burial # Site Area Level Event Age Sex Cranial modification Sternum on ribs Fractures orientation position
PLC-392 PLC 21 RC1 2 11-12 n/a no E-W Extended
PLC-393 PLC 20 RC1 3? 7-8 n/a n/a E-W n/a
PLC-395 PLC 20 RC1 3 13-14 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
PLC-396 PLC 20 RC1 3 9 n/a yes yes Antemortem healed E-W Extended
head trauma to the
left front head (left
frontal bone)
PLC-397 PLC 21 RC1 3 15 male Assymetrical occipital n/a E-W Facing
flattening down
PLC-398 PLC 20 RC1 5 12 n/a no yes Healing depression E-W Lateral
left parietal at the flexed
parietal notch
PLC-399 PLC 20 RC1 3 27-30 female n/a N-S Seated,
facing
down
PLC PLC 21 RC1 3 25-35 female Symmetrical occipital no n/a Seated,
3100-E1 flattening facing
81

down
PLC PLC 21 RC1 3 20-23 female Symmetrical occipital no Perimortem upper n/a Seated,
3100-E2 flattening right first incisors, facing
lower right and left down
lateral incisors
PLC 3101 PLC 21 RC1 3 40-49 male Assymetrical occipital no Numerous S-N Facing
flattening antemortem toothloss down
PLC 3102 PLC 21 RC1 3 27-35 female Occipital flattening no Possibly perimortem N-S Seated,
fracture to the anterior facing
body of C5. down
Antemortem parry
fracture to the right
mid ulna. Almost
healed, bony callus
still present
PLC 3103 PLC 21 RC1 3 16-17 female Occipital flattening n/a N-S Seated,
facing
down
Continued
 Continued

PLC Cut
Sacrificial Cut on marks Body Body
Burial # Site Area Level Event Age Sex Cranial modification Sternum on ribs Fractures orientation position
PLC 3104 PLC 20 RC1 3 9 n/a Frontal depression and yes E-W Extended
depression at bregma
PLC 3105 PLC 20 RC1 3 13 n/a yes possibly E-W Extended
PLC 3106 PLC 20 RC1 3 10 n/a yes E-W Extended
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C4 4 12 n/a yes E-W Extended
E-01 1 - Sector
B

Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

PRALLO- PLC Buzón 2 C1 4 9 n/a yes E-W Extended
E-02
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C4 4 7 n/a yes E-W Extended
E-03 1 - Sector
B
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C4 4 6 n/a yes E-W Extended
E-05 1 - Sector
B
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C4 3? 13 n/a yes E-W Seated
82

E-06 1 - Sector
B
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C4 3? 50 F Occipital flattening no N-S Seated
E-07 1 - Sector
B
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C4 3? 10 n/a no S-N Seated
E-08 1 - Sector
B
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C2 4 7 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
E-09 1 - Sector
C
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C2 6 9 n/a no S-N Seated
E-11 1 - Sector
C
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C1 4 7 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
E-12 2 - Sector
B
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C2 4 8 n/a Occipital flattening yes fracture on crania? E-W Extended
E-13 2 - Sector
C
Continued
 Continued

PLC Cut

Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
Sacrificial Cut on marks Body Body
Burial # Site Area Level Event Age Sex Cranial modification Sternum on ribs Fractures orientation position
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C2 4 6 n/a yes E-W Extended
E-14 1 - Sector
C
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C2 ? 5 n/a no E-W Extended
E-16 2 - Sector
C
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C3 4 11 n/a yes yes E-W Extended
E-19 2 - Sector
C
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C2 ? 9 n/a no W-E Seated
E-27 5
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C2 ? 6 n/a yes E-W Lateral
E-46 17 - 18 flexed
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C1 ? Not E-W Fetal position
E-50 19 -20 Analyzed
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera RC1 ? 8 n/a possibly S-N Tightly
E-82 5 - 23 Flexed
83

PRALLO- PLC Trinchera RC3 ? Not N-S Seated

E-122 15 - 16 Analyzed
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C1 ? Not N-S Lateral flexed
E-130 46 Analyzed
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C2 ? Not S-N Lateral flexed
E-132 45 Analyzed
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera RC2 ? Not n/a n/a
E-134 45 Analyzed
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C1 ? Not N-S Resting on its back
E-136 32 Analyzed and lower limbs flexed
PRALLO- PLC Trinchera C1 ? 7 n/a missing E-W Lateral
E140 40 sternum flexed

Event numbers in black have secure temporal association by 14C dates. Event numbers in red means indirect temporal association with an event, based on similarity or physical
proximity to a close-by dated burial or other archaeological context
 Appendix 2
Description and results of the 80 AMS measurements prepared for this manuscript. PSUAMS or PSU: Pennsylvania State Institute of Energy and the
Environment. YU: Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Yamagata University. All samples were calibrated using OxCal V4.4.4 Bronk Ramsey
(2021), r:5 Atmospheric Data from Hogg et al. (2020).

Name Unmodelled (BC/AD)

Laboratory Code Context 14C age (BP) ± Material Dated PLC Event from to % from to % from to %
PSUAMS-10653 CA 04 420 15 Sedge rope EVENT 6 1459 1497 68.26895 1455 1617 95.44997 1450 1625 99.73002
PSUAMS-4529 PLC 137 410 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 6 1448 1475 68.26895 1439 1615 95.44997 1431 1624 99.73002
PSUAMS-4525 E-11 415 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 6 1446 1473 68.26895 1437 1610 95.44997 1429 1621 99.73002

Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

PSUAMS-10658 PLC 118 490 15 Cotton yarn EVENT 6 1441 1453 68.26895 1433 1458 95.44997 1419 1479 99.73002
YU-13275 PLC 103 - E1 429 22 Cotton yarn EVENT 6 1440 1461 68.26895 1430 1483 95.44997 1422 1618 99.73002
PSUAMS-4530 PLC 138 430 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 6 1440 1460 68.26895 1434 1477 95.44997 1423 1615 99.73002
YU-13290 PLC 359 435 21 Cotton yarn EVENT 6 1439 1458 68.26895 1430 1476 95.44997 1421 1615 99.73002
PSUAMS-10654 CA 19 500 15 Sedge rope EVENT 6 1438 1451 68.26895 1427 1455 95.44997 1417 1460 99.73002
PSUAMS-4522 PLC 139 455 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 5 1434 1450 68.26895 1425 1458 95.44997 1414 1475 99.73002
PSUAMS-10655 PLC 101 - A 510 15 Cotton yarn EVENT 5 1433 1448 68.26895 1424 1453 95.44997 1414 1457 99.73002
PSUAMS-4519 PLC 209 465 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 5 1431 1447 68.26895 1422 1454 95.44997 1409 1465 99.73002
YU-13299 PLC 240 483 21 Cotton yarn EVENT 5 1424 1441 68.26895 1412 1449 95.44997 1405 1457 99.73002
84

YU-13293 CA 12 485 21 Sedge rope EVENT 5 1423 1441 68.26895 1412 1448 95.44997 1405 1455 99.73002
YU-13280 CA 25 486 21 Sedge rope EVENT 5 1423 1441 68.26895 1412 1448 95.44997 1404 1455 99.73002
YU-13295 PLC 214 487 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 5 1422 1440 68.26895 1412 1447 95.44997 1404 1455 99.73002
YU-13298 PLC 203 495 21 Cotton yarn EVENT 5 1418 1439 68.26895 1408 1444 95.44997 1400 1454 99.73002
YU-13274 CA 01 496 22 Sedge rope EVENT 5 1417 1439 68.26895 1407 1445 95.44997 1398 1454 99.73002
YU-13252 CA 18 504 20 Sedge rope EVENT 5 1414 1434 68.26895 1406 1441 95.44997 1396 1450 99.73002
PSUAMS-6638 Wooden sculpture 505 20 Sedge rope EVENT 5 1414 1434 68.26895 1406 1441 95.44997 1396 1450 99.73002
YU-13247 PLC 201 511 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 5 1411 1431 68.26895 1404 1440 95.44997 1327 1450 99.73002
YU-13238 CA 118A-B 519 20 Sedge rope EVENT 5 1409 1426 68.26895 1401 1438 95.44997 1326 1445 99.73002
YU-13243 CA 09 519 20 Sedge rope EVENT 5 1409 1426 68.26895 1401 1438 95.44997 1326 1445 99.73002
YU-6058 A3-C1-R1-Hearth 524 20 Plant charcoal EVENT 5 1407 1426 68.26895 1398 1437 95.44997 1326 1444 99.73002
YU-13255 CA 83 524 20 Sedge rope EVENT 5 1407 1426 68.26895 1398 1437 95.44997 1326 1444 99.73002
YU-13234 PLC 375 535 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 5 1403 1423 68.26895 1327 1434 95.44997 1322 1440 99.73002
PSUAMS-10656 PLC 114 530 15 Cotton yarn EVENT 5 1424 1441 68.26895 1415 1448 95.44997 1406 1453 99.73002
PSUAMS-1273 CA 11 555 20 Sedge rope EVENT 4 1328 1418 68.26895 1324 1424 95.44997 1310 1433 99.73002
MF-2021-PSU-14 PLC-A22-CS-TX 247-1 610 15 Cotton yarn EVENT 4 1328 1408 68.26895 1323 1413 95.44997 1317 1421 99.73002
YU-13279 CA 15 OT 8 563 21 Sedge rope EVENT 4 1327 1410 68.26895 1321 1422 95.44997 1305 1430 99.73002
YU-13233 PLC 373 563 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 4 1327 1410 68.26895 1322 1421 95.44997 1306 1429 99.73002
YU-13281 PLC 116 576 21 Cotton yarn EVENT 4 1325 1405 68.26895 1313 1415 95.44997 1303 1424 99.73002
YU-13282 PLC 238 590 21 Cotton yarn EVENT 4 1322 1400 68.26895 1306 1408 95.44997 1300 1419 99.73002
YU-13166 PLC 380 597 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 4 1321 1398 68.26895 1305 1405 95.44997 1299 1411 99.73002
YU-13237 PLC CA 117G 605 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 4 1312 1396 68.26895 1303 1401 95.44997 1298 1409 99.73002
Continued
 Continued

Prieto et al.: A new mass sacrificial burial ground during the Chimú occupation in Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru
Name Unmodelled (BC/AD)
Laboratory Code Context 14C age (BP) ± Material Dated PLC Event from to % from to % from to %
PSUAMS-4524 PRALLO E-2 610 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 4 1307 1396 68.26895 1302 1400 95.44997 1297 1406 99.73002
PSUAMS-6637 PLC 346 625 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 4 1303 1392 68.26895 1298 1396 95.44997 1290 1402 99.73002
YU-13289 CA 81B 628 21 Sedge rope EVENT 4 1302 1392 68.26895 1296 1397 95.44997 1287 1401 99.73002
YU-13239 CA 62B 631 20 Sedge rope EVENT 4 1303 1391 68.26895 1296 1396 95.44997 1286 1400 99.73002
YU-13278 PLC 220 640 22 Cotton yarn EVENT 4 1300 1389 68.26895 1287 1395 95.44997 1283 1399 99.73002
YU-13297 PLC 228 643 21 Cotton yarn EVENT 4 1299 1388 68.26895 1288 1394 95.44997 1282 1398 99.73002
YU-13288 PLC 354 644 21 Cotton yarn EVENT 4 1299 1387 68.26895 1287 1394 95.44997 1282 1398 99.73002
PSUAMS-4523 PRALLO CA-18 645 20 Sedge rope EVENT 4 1299 1387 68.26895 1289 1394 95.44997 1281 1398 99.73002
MF-2021-PSU-5 PLC-A21-CS-TX 205-1 720 15 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1289 1381 68.26895 1284 1385 95.44997 1278 1390 99.73002
YU-13241 PLC 243 664 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1288 1383 68.26895 1282 1389 95.44997 1276 1395 99.73002
YU-13251 PLC 236 681 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1283 1377 68.26895 1277 1385 95.44997 1275 1390 99.73002
YU-13165 PLC 397 685 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1282 1377 68.26895 1277 1384 95.44997 1272 1390 99.73002
YU-13276 PLC 3101 716 22 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1275 1292 68.26895 1267 1378 95.44997 1230 1387 99.73002
YU-13245 PLC 235 718 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1275 1290 68.26895 1267 1300 95.44997 1260 1384 99.73002
PSUAMS-6642 PLC 271 730 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1271 1286 68.26895 1265 1297 95.44997 1228 1379 99.73002
YU-13283 A21-RC1-R114-OT 1273 742 21 Nectandra sp. seed EVENT 3 1268 1283 68.26895 1229 1294 95.44997 1223 1299 99.73002
YU-13284 PLC 278 TX1 749 21 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1265 1282 68.26895 1228 1288 95.44997 1222 1296 99.73002
85

YU-13242 CA 72A 754 20 Sedge rope EVENT 3 1263 1281 68.26895 1228 1285 95.44997 1221 1292 99.73002
PSUAMS-6641 PLC 275 760 15 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1264 1278 68.26895 1229 1282 95.44997 1224 1285 99.73002
PSUAMS-4528 Spondylus sp. shell 765 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1233 1279 68.26895 1226 1280 95.44997 1220 1286 99.73002
PSUAMS-6640 PLC-A19-C1-Me 81 770 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1232 1278 68.26895 1226 1279 95.44997 1220 1285 99.73002
YU-13287 PLC 391 783 21 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1229 1272 68.26895 1224 1275 95.44997 1216 1282 99.73002
PSUAMS-4520 PLC 129 785 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1229 1271 68.26895 1224 1275 95.44997 1216 1280 99.73002
YU-13235 PLC 3102 785 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1229 1271 68.26895 1224 1275 95.44997 1216 1280 99.73002
YU-13296 PLC 309 787 21 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1229 1270 68.26895 1223 1275 95.44997 1215 1283 99.73002
YU-13248 PLC 310 788 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1229 1269 68.26895 1223 1274 95.44997 1215 1281 99.73002
YU-13294 PLC 279 792 22 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1229 1267 68.26895 1220 1275 95.44997 1180 1282 99.73002
YU-13250 CA 82 794 20 Sedge rope EVENT 3 1229 1266 68.26895 1221 1273 95.44997 1181 1280 99.73002
PSUAMS-4521 PLC 136 795 15 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1229 1265 68.26895 1223 1270 95.44997 1218 1276 99.73002
PSUAMS-4527 PLC 147 795 15 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1229 1265 68.26895 1223 1270 95.44997 1218 1276 99.73002
PSUAMS-10657 PLC 123 830 15 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1227 1270 68.26895 1221 1276 95.44997 1213 1283 99.73002
MF-2021-PSU-8 PLC-A3-C1-TX 18 825 15 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1228 1271 68.26895 1223 1276 95.44997 1215 1284 99.73002
YU-13249 PLC 208 814 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1222 1260 68.26895 1213 1271 95.44997 1175 1276 99.73002
YU-13273 PLC 326 815 22 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1222 1261 68.26895 1180 1273 95.44997 1171 1276 99.73002
YU-13292 PLC 265 817 21 Cotton yarn EVENT 3 1220 1260 68.26895 1180 1271 95.44997 1169 1275 99.73002
YU-13291 PLC 343 835 21 Cotton yarn EVENT 2 1180 1260 68.26895 1172 1264 95.44997 1161 1271 99.73002
YU-13236 PLC 385 852 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 2 1176 1223 68.26895 1161 1257 95.44997 1053 1267 99.73002
Continued
 Continued

Name Unmodelled (BC/AD)

Laboratory Code Context 14C age (BP) ± Material Dated PLC Event from to % from to % from to %
YU-13244 PLC 361 861 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 2 1175 1219 68.26895 1158 1228 95.44997 1051 1264 99.73002
YU-13246 CA 103B 862 20 Sedge rope EVENT 2 1175 1218 68.26895 1157 1227 95.44997 1051 1264 99.73002
YU-13253 PLC 324 862 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 2 1175 1218 68.26895 1157 1227 95.44997 1051 1264 99.73002
YU-13254 PLC 392 862 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 2 1175 1218 68.26895 1157 1227 95.44997 1051 1264 99.73002
YU-13286 CA 104 886 21 Sedge rope EVENT 1 1160 1212 68.26895 1050 1220 95.44997 1040 1225 99.73002
YU-13285 PLC 369 896 21 Cotton yarn EVENT 1 1053 1207 68.26895 1046 1219 95.44997 1040 1222 99.73002

Ñawpa Pacha, Journal of the Institute of Andean Studies

YU-13256 CA 107A 902 20 Sedge rope EVENT 1 1051 1206 68.26895 1046 1217 95.44997 1039 1220 99.73002
PSUAMS-6639 Chimu knife 920 20 Unspun cotton EVENT 1 1047 1164 68.26895 1040 1198 95.44997 1033 1213 99.73002
YU-13240 PLC 301 932 20 Cotton yarn EVENT 1 1046 1158 68.26895 1038 1162 95.44997 1029 1208 99.73002

PSUAMS or PSU: Pennsylvania State Institute of Energy and the Environment. YU: Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Yamagata University. All samples were calibrated
using OxCal V4.4.4 (Bronk Ramsey 2021), r:5 Atmospheric Data from Hogg et al. 2020.
86