Bioarchaeology in Huavinas colonial chapel in Quebrada de Tarapaca, Northern Chile

Abstract

Following the devastating earthquake that hit the Tarapacá region, northern Chile, in 2005, an important part of the colonial architectural heritage was seriously damaged. Five years later, the reconstruction of the Huaviña church took place. The church had been declared a historical monument in 1953 considering its historical and architectural values. During the reconstruction, we did archaeological excavations that allowed us to record a large number of burials and the different events of reconstruction and expansion of the building’s architecture. These events are the responsible for the important burial disturbances that we identified inside and outside the building. In our study we recognized two types of mortuary patterns: the first one is characteristic of the Colonial period, and the second one is from Republican times, thus evidencing the material result of the consolidation of Catholicism as a central axis in the spiritual life of the villages. Finally, this study allowed us to recognize some bioanthropological characteristics of the population, during a period rarely studied from this perspective, especially the high number of infants under three years old, the exclusion of female individuals from the interiors of the burial chapels, one individual with severe bone pathologies and the deposit of several skulls with intentional cranial deformation under the altar of one of the chapels.