Bemabe Cobo, Cieza de Leon, and other Spanish chroniclers described the indigenous practice of retainer sacrifice in highland and coastal Peruvian societies in the late preHispanic and early colonial period. Cobo wrote, “After mourning the deceased in this way, they performed their sacrifices and superstitious acts” and “if he was a true noble, some of his wives and servants were killed, and others were buried alive in the tomb with him so that they could serve and accompany him in the other life” (Cobo [1653] 1990: 250). Archaeological evidence confirms that this was in fact an ancient tradition (Figure 52.2), extending back at least to the third century AD on the north coast of Peru (Alva and Donnan 1993; Verano 1997), and found in later sites throughout the Andean area (Doyon 2002; Verano 1995, 2001). Retainers in tombs can usually be recognized by their unusual body positions or location in a tomb (e. g., placed in a corner, thrown face down, or forced into small
Figure 52.2. Principal burial and retainer in a Moche chamber tomb. As is commonly seen in these cases, the principal burial (on the left in the photo) is in standard burial position, while the retainer is in an atypical position. Huaca Cao Viejo, El Brujo Complex, north coast, Peru. (John Verano)
Spaces). In cases of unusually good preservation, cords used to strangle the victims may still be in place, confirming cause of death (Verano 2001), but more often, retainers show no obvious signs of how they were killed and we must rely on contextual evidence.
In cases of multiple skeletons surrounding a principal burial in a tomb, one must be cautious about assuming that all auxiliary occupants are sacrificed retainers. In a high status Moche tomb (Tomb 1) at Sipan, northern Peru, some of the skeletons surrounding the principal burial showed jumbled bones (Figure 52.3), indicating that they were secondary burials and not sacrifices made at the time of tomb construction (Verano 1997). Re-entry of tombs, with the addition or removal of remains, can further complicate the issue. Recent research in coastal Peruvian cemeteries indicates that such practices, first documented in detail by Dorothy Menzel on the south coast of Peru (Menzel 1976), may have been more common than previously recognized (Buikstra 1995; Millaire 2002, 2004).
Figure 52.3. Female skeleton found in Tomb 1 at Sipan, Lambayeque Valley, north coast, Peru. Jumbling of the vertebrae and ribs (arrows) indicate that this was a secondary burial that was placed in the tomb after substantial decomposition of soft tissues had occurred. (John Verano)
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