@article{1d8d61cb5f1848a8817c9d70f09936ca,
title = "Toxic Pigment in a Capacocha Burial: Instrumental Identification of Cinnabar in Inca Human Remains from Iquique, Chile",
abstract = "We report on the analysis of a red pigment found in a lavish Inca burial from Cerro Esmeralda, Chile, associated with the human sacrifice of two young girls. The outcome shows that the red pigment is mainly cinnabar, with 95% of HgS content. Cinnabar is rarely found in the archaeological record of Chile. Thus, we propose that our results are another line of evidence supporting Iquique's Cerro Esmeralda inhumation as a unique Inca ritual. It was a special lower-elevation capacocha burial, most probably undertaken to politically and symbolically incorporate the coastal people into the Tawantinsuyo Empire.",
keywords = "Cerro Esmeralda, Raman spectroscopy, SEM, ancient poisoning, mercury, mortuary rituals, red pigments",
author = "B. Arriaza and Ogalde, {J. P.} and M. Campos and C. Paipa and P. Leyton and N. Lara",
note = "Funding Information: We are grateful to the Iquique Cormudesi Corporation for allowing us to study and sample the capacocha Collection of Cerro Esmeralda. Also, we are indebted to Cormudesi, the Museo Regional de Iquique, former Director Orietta Ojeda and current Director Marisol Mu?oz Rojas, and staff member Patricio Mu?oz, for providing all the facilities and assistance to this project. We also thank Annelise Ihle for editorial input and Octavio Lagos for the illustrations. Finally, we acknowledge Fondecyt Grants N? 1170120, N? 1130261 and N?1140524. Juan Pablo Ogalde is grateful for the financial support granted by the Doctoral Anthropology programme of the Universidad de Tarapac? (UTA) and the Fondo de Apoyo a Tesis de Postgrado, UTA-2017. Nelson Lara thanks projects UTA-Mayor 4744-17 and Patricio Leyton acknowledges projects FONDEQUIP-CONICYT EQM-130170 and EQM-140079. Finally, we thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which helped us to improve the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 University of Oxford",
year = "2018",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1111/arcm.12392",
language = "English",
volume = "60",
pages = "1324--1333",
journal = "Archaeometry",
issn = "0003-813X",
number = "6",
}