To the God of Death, Disease, and Healing. Social Bioarchaeology of Cemetery I at Pachacamac

Visto la suciedad y burleria del idolo nos salimos afuera a preguntar por que hacian caso de una cosa tan sucia y torpe como alli estaba; los cuales muy espantados de nuestra osadia volvian por la honra de su dios y decian que aquel era Pachacama, el cual les sanaba de sus enfermedades; y a lo que alli se entendio, el demonio aparecia en aquella cueva a aquellos sacerdotes y hablaba con ellos, y estos entraban con las peticiones y ofrendas de los que venian en romeria, como los moros y turcos que van a la casa de la Meca. (Estete 1924[1533]: 39) During the Ychsma Project’s 2003 season at Pachacamac, a large, mostly unlooted cemetery was identified directly adjacent to the Sacred Precinct. This location is notable for its favoured position relative to the site’s temples and also to the famous Cemetery 1 excavated by Max Uhle at the end of the nineteenth century, arguably the genesis of Peruvian archaeology (Uhle 1903). Uhle proposed the first chronological sequence for the Central Andes on the basis of the graves and offrenda located at this spot; his interpretations were used and affirmed by generations of his successors and constitute de facto the backbone of modern Peruvian archaeological chronology (Kaulicke 2010; Menzel 1977; Rowe 1954, 1998). Uhle was exceptionally fortunate in this regard, for the sediments in this sector were extensively looted both before and after his work at the site, and many of his postulations were thus based on evidence that was erratic, patchy and incomplete. Uhle’s work led to the conclusion — followed by many of his successors — that Cemetery 1 was defined by the great wall surrounding the Sacred Precinct.