Perimortem trauma in the Atacama Desert and social violence during the late Formative period (2500–1700 years BP)

This paper describes a case of a mass grave containing three naturally mummified adults with multiple traumas to the skeletal and soft tissues, buried in an isolated and informal grave in one of the valleys that traverses the Atacama Desert, north of Chile. These traumas do not appear to be indicative of post‐depositional alterations. Instead, we hypothesise that the observed marks correspond to lethal perimortem trauma, the result of acts of extreme violence brought to bear on the three individuals. Three radiocarbon dates from the site identify that the burial occurred circa 2000 BP in the Azapa Valley, which corresponds to an epoch of important cultural changes linked to the development of farming communities that broke away from an ancient marine hunter–gatherer cultural tradition. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.