Cult of the Dead and Funerary Architecture: A Multidisciplinary Approach from the Marcajirca Site in the North Highlands of Peru, AD 1000–1500. 

Framing and aims

The article starts from the idea that mortuary contexts reveal more than social rank. They also show political organization, ancestor veneration, kinship formation, ritual practice, and how people related to the landscape. In the Andes, the key social unit is the ayllu: a kin group that traced descent from a founding ancestor, held usufruct rights to land, and usually venerated a sacred mountain or huaca. Ayllu members interacted regularly with their ancestors, who were present as mummies, bundles, bones, or monoliths. Study of the ayllu has traditionally relied on ethnohistory and ethnography. The article joins recent efforts to identify it archaeologically, supported by genetic studies that show increased biological relatedness in Late Intermediate Period collective burials. Following Isbell's concept of the "open sepulcher," it defines the cult of the dead as the standardized actions the living direct toward their ancestors, both immediately after death and through later commemorations. In this view, tombs are spaces that preserve memory and shape community identity.

The study area is the Puccha basin in eastern Ancash, made up of the Huaritambo, Mosna, and Puccha valleys. It spans ecological zones from warm quebradas to high puna. At Marcajirca the tombs fall into four types: chullpas, funerary caves, rock-shelter tombs, and subterranean burials. The paper argues that this variety reflects multiple ayllus buried at one site. It also tests chroniclers' accounts of burnt offerings, establishes the site's chronology, and assesses whether status differed between tomb types.

Historical and regional context

After the Wari collapse, the Late Intermediate Period (c. 1000–1476) brought political fragmentation, frequent conflict, and settlements on defensible hilltops above 3,800 m. These were smaller than earlier Recuay centers and are marked by Aquilpo ceramics. The Inca conquered the region around 1476, so their occupation lasted only about half a century before Spaniards passed through Huaritambo in 1532. At contact, the Huari lived north of the Puccha River and the Pincos to the south. Each group had its own apu: Llamoq for the Huari and Winaj for the Pincos. Llamoq lies about 3 km north of Marcajirca and is still a pilgrimage site today. It has concentric walls, Recuay and LIP ceramics, and domestic structures that probably housed the people who maintained its cult.

The site and methods

Marcajirca has 37 chullpas, the most of any LIP site in eastern Ancash. Its 40-hectare core has three sectors. The residential sector holds about fifty mostly circular houses with hearths, drains, and guinea-pig pens. The ceremonial sector contains an "Amphitheater," a terraced depression with a huanca (a standing stone representing a founding ancestor) where burnt animal bone points to food offerings, along with a "Torreón." The central funerary sector contains most of the tombs. Excavations from 2005 to 2014 placed units in front of chullpas to look for burning, and between chullpas and patio walls to establish construction sequence. Tomb interiors held hundreds of commingled, disarticulated bones. These were excavated in grid squares, with each bone drawn, inventoried, and later returned to the tomb. The work produced MNI counts, pathology data, and samples for aDNA, carbon, and strontium isotope analysis. Construction materials such as roof wood and stucco straw dated tomb building, while teeth dated periods of use.

Tomb types

The chullpas are rectangular, average about 3 × 2.5 m, and have corbelled false-vault roofs. Thirty-five have one story and two have two. Fourteen were built with the Recuay pachilla (wedge-stone) technique, and others used plain masonry finished with white stucco painted red. Door orientations vary: thirteen face north toward Llamoq and only two face east. This suggests the Inca solar cult had little influence, since even Inca-period Chullpa 1 does not face east. Some later modifications, such as a new north-facing door on Chullpa 2 and Chullpa 34 blocking Chullpa 33, point to Llamoq's rising importance late in the LIP. Hearths were found in front of eight of the seventeen excavated chullpas, containing calcined camelid bone and charcoal, which corroborates the chroniclers' accounts. Excavation also showed that the enclosing patios were built after the chullpas. This indicates a shift from public rituals to private ones restricted to direct descendants. Bones were periodically bundled with plant-fiber cords and pushed to the back of tombs to make room for new burials. The article argues that the Recuay originated chullpas, citing Coronajirca chullpas dating to about AD 300, and that pachilla construction and figurine offerings carried on for about 500 years after Recuay's political demise.

There are 22 funerary caves, built beneath large boulders and in rock clefts with minimal walls. Nearly every large rock was used, which suggests a strong desire to be buried at the site. Three caves have their own patios, but caves and chullpas never share a patio, which implies that different groups oversaw the rites. Caves generally held more individuals than chullpas, and their grave goods are comparable. The single rock-shelter tomb sits beneath red camelid rock art. It may represent a distinct ayllu asserting a claim to the site.

Two subterranean burials, E7 and E10, are unusual for the highlands. Each is a shallow pit containing mostly articulated individuals of all ages, with no offerings: an MNI of 12 in E7 and 48 in E10. The article offers two hypotheses. One is an epidemic, since there is no perimortem trauma. The other, which it favors, is punishment between ayllus, in which a rival group removed still-articulated mummies from a tomb and buried them in the ground to erase their memory. Espinoza recorded a parallel practice among the Chachapoyas. The emptied rock-shelter tomb may be the source.

Human remains, isotopes, and cranial modification

The tombs yielded a total MNI of 620, with the highest single-tomb count being 77 in Chullpa 7. Chullpa 3 averaged 13 individuals per square meter, which confirms burial over many generations. Carbon isotopes show some individuals ate little maize, so they probably lived in the puna. Strontium isotopes form three clusters, which marks Marcajirca as a regional cemetery serving people from across the valley. Of the 33 modified crania, posterior flattening, likely unintentional, was most common, followed by annular erect (more frequent in males), annular oblique (more frequent in females), and one bilobular case. Cave 19 held 16 crania showing all of these types, and dates show they were contemporaneous. This makes it unique in the Andes and challenges the assumption that head shape marked ethnic identity.

Chronology

Nineteen radiocarbon dates, calibrated with SHCal20, place the main occupation in the LIP. Pachilla chullpas are the oldest structures: Chullpa 7 dates to cal. AD 1184–1267 and Chullpa 10 to 1132–1276. Chullpas and caves were otherwise used at the same time, and Cave 19 was in use for about 400 years. Both subterranean burials appear to predate the Inca. The article suggests Inca rule curbed rivalry between ayllus. During the Inca period, people built the large Chullpa 1 (cal. AD 1438–1518) but otherwise continued local rites, adding Inca items to offerings.

Grave goods and status

Both caves and chullpas contained similar assemblages: stone maces and projectiles, gourd bowls for food and chicha, spindle whorls, perforated marine shells (Spondylus, Mesodesma, Argopecten), copper discs and tupus, bone flutes, pendants, needles, and probable snuff inhalers suggesting willca use, which is otherwise documented in the LIP only in southern Peru. A 6 cm Inca-style wooden miniature kero is the only one known from the northern highlands. Because these goods are evenly distributed across collective tombs, the article concludes that status differences were minimal and that prestige objects belonged to the ayllu and were handed down through generations.

Discussion and conclusions

Placing tombs within residential areas departs from Recuay practice and reflects ayllus materializing themselves through open sepulchers. The cult of the dead was dynamic, however. The construction of patios privatized ritual, and political ceremony shifted to the Amphitheater and the remodeled Torreón. Ayllus held lands across several ecological zones, which explains why many valley settlements have no tombs of their own. Long-used collective tombs, Llamoq as mythic ancestor, and the huanca as founder together shaped a regional ayllu identity, consistent with Isbell's view of ayllus as a late means of resisting state formation. The article concludes that Marcajirca was a regional cemetery, in use from about 1000 to 1500, where caves and chullpas served contemporaneously as collective tombs, food was burned as offerings, and Recuay chullpa-building traditions endured.

epand to 1200 words include the other settings where ceremonies were performed

Thought for 2s

This is the copyedited (V2, August 2025) version of your article "Cult of the Dead and Funerary Architecture: A Multidisciplinary Approach from the Marcajirca Site in the North Highlands of Peru, AD 1000–1500," received in June 2024 and accepted in January 2025.

Framing and aims

The article argues that mortuary contexts reveal more than social rank. They also show political organization, ancestor veneration, kinship, ritual practice, and relationships with the landscape. Its central unit is the ayllu: a kin group descended from a founding ancestor, holding usufruct rights to land, and usually venerating a sacred mountain or huaca. Ayllu members interacted regularly with ancestors present as mummies, bundles, bones, or monoliths. Study of the ayllu has relied mostly on ethnohistory and ethnography. The article joins recent efforts to trace it archaeologically, supported by genetic studies showing greater biological relatedness in Late Intermediate Period collective burials. Following Isbell's "open sepulcher," it defines the cult of the dead as the standardized actions the living direct toward their ancestors, both at death (wake and burial) and later (commemorations and visits). Tombs thus become spaces that preserve memory and shape community identity.

The study area is the Puccha basin in eastern Ancash, made up of the Huaritambo, Mosna, and Puccha valleys, which run from warm quebradas up to the puna. At Marcajirca the tombs fall into four types: chullpas, funerary caves, rock-shelter tombs, and subterranean burials. The paper argues that this variety reflects multiple ayllus buried at one site. It also tests chroniclers' accounts of burnt offerings, establishes the site's chronology, and assesses status between tomb types.

Regional context

After the Wari collapse, the Late Intermediate Period (c. 1000–1476) brought fragmentation, conflict, and small, intervisible hilltop settlements above 3,800 m, marked by Aquilpo ceramics. The Inca conquered the region around 1476, and Spaniards passed through Huaritambo in 1532, so Inca rule lasted only about fifty years. At contact, the Huari lived north of the Puccha River and the Pincos to the south. Each group had its own apu: Llamoq for the Huari and Winaj for the Pincos.

Ceremonial settings beyond the tombs

The article identifies several places where rituals took place besides the tomb interiors.

Llamoq, the sacred mountain. About 3 km north of Marcajirca, Llamoq is still the titular apu of modern Huari and receives a pilgrimage each year during the Fiesta de las Cruces. Ethnohistoric sources list it among the deities of the northern highlands. It has two summits. The western one, where today's pilgrimage takes place, has two concentric walls and badly damaged pre-Hispanic structures. The eastern summit is enclosed by six concentric walls, the largest about 300 m in diameter. Excavations there recovered Recuay and LIP ceramics, along with domestic structures containing large grinding stones, which probably housed the caretakers of the mountain's cult. Llamoq's influence extended to Marcajirca through the orientation of the chullpas.

The Amphitheater. In the ceremonial sector at the northern end of the site, a natural semicircular depression of about 26 × 20 m was reshaped into tiers of platforms resembling bleachers, with a staircase and a flat, stage-like floor. The floor yielded little pottery, which suggests it was kept clean. The article links the Amphitheater's growing importance to the moment when funerary ritual became private. Politically oriented ceremony appears to have moved here as rites at the tombs were enclosed.

The huanca. On one of the Amphitheater's platforms stands a huanca, an upright stone representing the protector of fields (chacrayoc) and of the town (marcayoc), understood as a mythical founder. Excavation around it revealed abundant burnt animal bone and broken pottery, evidence that food was offered and burned there. In the discussion, the huanca is the founding ancestor and Llamoq the mythic ancestor, and together they underpinned the regional identity of the ayllus.

The Torreón. This large building at the northern edge of the core sits against a perimeter wall that crosses the site from east to west. Its size and layout rule out domestic use, and its remodeling is described as part of the same architectural shift that produced the Amphitheater and the patios.

Spaces in front of the chullpas. Excavation units placed before 17 chullpas found hearths at eight of them, containing calcined camelid bone and charcoal. This matches 16th- and 17th-century chroniclers (Arriaga, Guamán Poma, Polo de Ondegardo) who describe burning food and llama fat for the dead. Small animal figurines of snails and camelids were also left beside the doorways, a Recuay custom that persisted. Eleven chullpas face open areas that probably once hosted public rites; the article thinks these were originally walled spaces whose walls farmers later dismantled for fields.

Enclosed patios. Eight chullpas and three caves are surrounded by patio walls. Stratigraphy shows these were built after the tombs, which marks a shift from public to private ritual in which only direct descendants took part. Caves and chullpas never share a patio, which implies that separate groups ran their own rites.

Funerary-sector residences. Many circular structures in the funerary sector probably housed the people responsible for maintaining the cult of the dead.

Methods and tombs

Excavations from 2005 to 2014 covered all sectors. Tomb interiors held dense layers of commingled bone up to 50 cm thick. These were excavated in grid squares, with each bone drawn and inventoried, then returned to the tomb. The chullpas are rectangular, average about 3 × 2.5 m, and have corbelled roofs. Fourteen used the Recuay pachilla technique and others used red-painted stucco. Thirteen doors face north toward Llamoq and only two face east, so the Inca solar cult had little effect. Later changes, such as a new north door on Chullpa 2 and Chullpa 34 blocking Chullpa 33, show Llamoq's rising dominance. Bones were bundled with fiber cords to make room for new burials. The article traces chullpas to the Recuay, citing Coronajirca examples dating to about AD 300.

The 22 caves, set beneath boulders and in clefts, held more individuals than the chullpas but similar grave goods. The single rock-shelter tomb lies beneath red camelid rock art and may represent a distinct ayllu staking a claim. Two subterranean pits, E7 (MNI 12) and E10 (MNI 48), contain articulated individuals of all ages with no offerings. They may reflect an epidemic or, as the article prefers, punishment between ayllus that removed rivals' mummies to erase their memory.

Bioarchaeology and chronology

The tombs yielded a total MNI of 620, with up to 77 individuals in a single tomb. Carbon isotopes show some individuals ate little maize, pointing to puna residents. Strontium isotopes form three clusters, which marks Marcajirca as a regional cemetery. Of the 33 modified crania, Cave 19 held 16 showing every modification type, and they were contemporaneous, which challenges the idea that head shaping marked ethnicity. Nineteen dates calibrated with SHCal20 place the main occupation in the LIP. The pachilla chullpas are oldest (twelfth to thirteenth centuries), chullpas and caves were otherwise used at the same time, and Cave 19 was in use for about 400 years. The subterranean burials predate the Inca, which suggests Inca rule curbed rivalry between ayllus. Chullpa 1 was built in the Inca period (cal. AD 1438–1518).

Grave goods

Caves and chullpas held similar items: maces and sling stones, gourd bowls for food and chicha, spindle whorls, perforated Spondylus and other Pacific shells, copper discs and tupus, a llama-bone flute, pendants, needles, and probable snuff inhalers for willca. A 6 cm Inca-style wooden kero is the only one known from the northern highlands. Because these goods are evenly distributed across collective tombs, the article concludes that status differences were minimal and that prestige objects belonged to the ayllu and were inherited across generations.

Conclusions

Marcajirca, occupied from about 1000 to 1500, was a regional cemetery where ayllus from across the valley, all venerating Llamoq, buried their dead in contemporaneous collective tombs. Ritual included burning food before the chullpas and placing offerings inside them. Over time, worship moved from open, participatory settings to enclosed patios, while the Amphitheater, its huanca, and the Torreón took on the communal ceremonial role. The site also carried forward Recuay chullpa traditions into the Inca period.