Lethal violence and its funerary incorporation in the Bato culture: a bioarchaeological analysis of individual EM-2/12 from the mouth of the Aconcagua river, Concón, central Chile

Abstract

This case report presents the bioarchaeological and palaeopathological analysis of individual EM-2/12, who was exhumed at the archaeological site of El Membrillar 2 (Concón, Valparaíso region, Chile), and examines its interpretation as an exceptional case of lethal violence in a funerary context ascribed to the Bato culture (300 BC-AD 1100). Several potential interpretations—interpersonal violence, punitive execution and socially-regulated forms of violence amongst others— are assessed following a study of the mortuary arrangement, the evidence for peri mortem trauma and the associated archaeological context, thus positing that this event was part of a structured mortuary sequence. The present case expands the debate regarding the social management of violent death in the village societies of Central Chile in the pre-Hispanic period.