The Chincha people used to finger paint their ancestors' skulls as part of a ritual to give them a new kind of social life.
The Chincha Valley contains hundreds of human remains. Skeletal remains were found in more than 100 chullpas, large mortuary structures where multiple people were buried together. The team's goal was to find out why red paint was applied to the bones.
Different types of red paint were used and only a few people were painted after they died.
The process of dealing with deceased members of society has been going on for thousands of years. The researchers said that death was not the end. A critical transition from one state to another provided the basis for further life.
The samples of red paint were taken from artifacts and bones. Three scientific techniques were used to identify the composition of the red pigments. Red paint on 24 of the samples came from iron, 13 came from mercury, and one was a combination of both. The chemical analysis shows that the cinnabar was imported from hundreds of miles away. The study authors said that the differences may be related to elite and non-elite uses of paint.
An aerial investigation has revealed 168 previously undetected lines.
Most of the people whose bones were painted were male. The bones of women and children, as well as those of several people with healed traumatic injuries, were painted.
The researchers were able to figure out how the red paint was applied. The first author of the study told Live Science that the Chincha people used textiles, leaves, and their own hands to apply red pigment to human remains. There are thick horizontal or vertical lines of paint on skulls.
Bongers said that finger painting was important for forming close relationships between the living and the dead. This living-dead relationship and social differences are brought to light by the red pigment.
A bioarchaeologist at the University of Illinois Chicago who was not involved in the study told Live Science that the research made an important and exciting contribution to understanding the ritual economy of death in the Andes. The hand-painting of the dead offers a glimpse into the lives of people in the Chincha Valley.
Bongers and colleagues don't know when the red paint was applied. The act of painting the bones may have been a response to colonization.
The researchers said that some painted bones were removed and placed over other graves to protect the dead. They suggest that transgressions against the dead, such as looting, would have needed to be corrected by the living. The researchers theorize that people reentered disturbed chullpas to paint human remains that had been destroyed by the Europeans.
A bioarchaeologist who was not involved in the study told Live Science in an email that the research provided a path for others to follow.
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