In 2013, the discovery of a mausoleum at Castillo de Huarmey containing elite females was announced to the world. Located on the coast 250 km north of Lima, the Middle Horizon site (AD 600–1000) had been heavily looted for decades. Illicit diggers had ransacked the upper story of the mausoleum but had stopped after encountering a thick layer of gravel. The 2012 excavations, directed by Miłosz Giersz, removed this gravel to uncover a lower story that contained the remains of 64 women and subadults. These individuals were buried with a wealth of objects, many of which were in the Wari style. Giersz and his colleagues suggested that the women were royalty who were attached to the state and were stationed at an imperial administrative center.
The Castillo de Huarmey project members have published their results widely, with this volume detailing the bioarchaeological work conducted by Wiesław Więckowski. Bioarchaeological research tends to be presented in journal articles and book chapters, and the result is that discussion is often minimized and data siloed. Więckowski's book-length treatment of the mausoleum allows him to methodically reconstruct the lives and mortuary treatment of those buried in the chamber, as well as seven others found in an adjoining antechamber and reliquary, in a writing style that makes the volume accessible to a more general audience.
Wari Women from Huarmey is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter introduces the site and history of the investigations, the second chapter discusses what we know about the Wari state and its associated funerary practices, and the third chapter situates the mausoleum within the funerary traditions of Castillo de Huarmey and the immediate region. The next three chapters present the results of Więckowski's analysis of the 71 individuals found in the undisturbed layers of the mausoleum, and he closes with a chapter titled “Who Were the Women of Castillo?”
The first of Więckowski's three data chapters discusses taphonomic and preservation issues. The individuals in the lower level of the mausoleum were buried in a chamber partially hewn into the bedrock that was then covered by 30 metric tons of adobe and gravel. Więckowski reconstructs how most of these individuals were placed inside the tomb as mummy bundles, with the exception of six individuals who were interred in an extended position on top of these bundles. Trapped water and bodily fluids led to the decomposition of flesh and most textiles, with better preservation documented in the reliquaries and antechamber.
Chapter 5, the longest in the book, presents a wealth of data on sex, age, trauma, diet, origin, and relatedness that were collected by Więckowski and researchers external to the Castillo de Huarmey project. Their analyses indicated that most of those buried in the mausoleum were young women, with the only males found in the reliquary (one of three individuals who could be sexed) and antechamber (one of two individuals). All were in good health, eating a starchy diet that was likely rich in maize. Trauma levels were low, with the exception of the man and woman buried in the antechamber who had each lived for some time after their left foot was amputated. The man also had head wounds that are often associated with violence. Carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of those buried in the mausoleum revealed variations in diet, although strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of a subset of these individuals (n = 34) suggested that the women were from Huarmey or another part of the central or northern coast of Peru.
Chapter 6 reconstructs the funerary rites associated with the lower story of the mausoleum. The rectangular chamber was subdivided into a main chamber and three subchambers against the northern wall. Mourners then placed a total of four individuals in these subchambers, with an older woman in the middle subchamber—Więckowski calls her the Queen of Huarmey—buried alongside the richest set of offerings. Evidence from bone articulations and insect remains suggests that the bundles of the deceased may have been curated over time either in situ or at a nearby location. The exception is the six women found in an extended position who were likely sacrificed just before the tomb was sealed with gravel.
Więckowski positions the lower story's entombment as isolated in time from the activities that took place later in the mausoleum's badly looted upper story where human remains and Wari-style objects were also found. This may be the case, yet neither Więckowski nor his colleagues in the Castillo de Huarmey project have been able to rule out the possibility that the structure was constructed in a single event, with the women entombed underneath the principal burial where the mausoleum's entrance is located. Thinking about the mausoleum as a single context would not affect the details of Więckowski's excellent analysis but might have an impact on his interpretations of the women's role in Wari society.
The lower story's assemblage contains many weaving implements, and Więckowski notes dental wear and skeletal physical activity markers consistent with textile production. An all-female burial of dedicated weavers understandably brings to his mind the chosen women of the Inca state. These women became “Inca” through a process of dislocation from their communities and ritualized seclusion in imperial facilities. Local women buried underneath a principal burial might suggest instead a role more akin to wives or servants. This relationship would have been a more interpersonal one, and importantly, the women may have felt less “Wari” and more like part of an elite Huarmey household that had access to Wari objects.
However Castillo de Huarmey is ultimately interpreted, Więckowski and his colleagues should be applauded for their scholarship. Wari Women from Huarmey is an exciting addition to the literature on the Andean Middle Horizon and an exemplar of the power of bioarchaeological analysis to address critical questions of culture history and change.
