PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF SKELETAL TRAUMA FROM AN ATYPICAL EARLY COLONIAL PERIOD PIT BURIAL WITH COMPARISON TO FRACTURES OBSERVED AMONG TYPICAL LATE INTERMEDIATE PERIOD (ca AD 1250) ABOVE‐GROUND TOMBS IN THE ANCASH REGION OF HIGHLAND PERU

An atypical subterranean pit burial discovered under a house floor at a prehistoric highland site in Ancash, Peru contains the skeletonized remains of adults and children who appear to have been deposited in a single event. It was hypothesized that the mass grave represents a deposit of individuals who were killed in a situation associated with warfare. To test this hypothesis, a macroscopic analysis of the traumatic injuries of a minimum number of 44 adult skeletons from the pit burial was compared to the pattern of injuries sustained by individuals from an earlier time period who were interred in more typical above‐ground tombs. Results demonstrate that the skeletons from the pit burial demonstrate 20 healed and unhealed traumatic injuries, many of which are found on the posterior aspects of the crania. In contrast, the individuals from the earlier time period demonstrate a low prevalence (1.6%) of postcranial fractures related to falling injuries, and relatively high frequency (33%) of healed and unhealed cranial injuries that cluster on the front left side of the face. Whereas this latter pattern of injury is reflective of face‐to‐face combat, the pattern of injury sustained by the individuals from the pit burial may suggest that the individuals were fleeing their assailants. Implications of these findings are explored. Support or Funding Information Visiting Scholarship awarded by the American Association of Anatomists