PachacamacPachacamac
The site of Pachacamac is found on the Peruvian coast just south of Lima. For nearly a millenium this site was considered sacred by the ancient peoples of the Andes. It was believed to house a powerful oracle, and was in use through the time of the Spanish Conquest. Different pan-Andean cultures built monumental structures on the grounds of Pachacamac, and it served as a large pilgrimage center.
For my dissertation I examined skulls from Pachacamac, curated at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution. With such a sizeable collection issues such as ethnicity and class can be explored in depth.
read about my work on this collection
my poster from the 2003 AAPA meetings (4 mb pdf)
my brother and I at Pachacamac, c. 1980