Dabeiban child case, an aproximation to funerary practices from South American northwest during prehispanic times by thaphonomic perspective

Abstract

Usually, the funerary contexts from South American northwest in Colombian territory, have human remains in very complex conditions for osteological analysis. This situation affects the possibility to obtain more information from bioarchaeological record. In this sense, this work aims to show the advantages of taphonomic perspective in the approach to funerary contexts and in the osteological analysis, taking as reference the case of a mound burial excavated in the western Andes from Colombia, in Dabeiba. There, by the recognition of the site formation process, and taphonomic factors in which human remains were subjected, we obtained empirical information that helped us to establish some of the funerary treatments that pre-Hispanic populations gave to their dead, and also, events after inhumation related to posterior raid of the tomb. Consequently, it allows us to highlight the potential of the human remains recovered in the reconstruction of the pre-Hispanic past of the region and respond to the challenge represented in the approach to complex funerary contexts.