Mortuary features

Chulpaburial towers (Stanish 2003: 229-234;Wernke 2003: 225-233) are found throughout the Block 3 area on promontories and sometimes in caves or niches in cliff faces. Chulpaswere constructed during the LIP and LH in this region, while cist tombs are known to date from the preceding Middle Horizon. Few Block 3 chulpasare standing, and many of the stones appear to have been reused in nearby modern field walls. Cave burials were also encountered where the interments were "cocoon bundle" burials (de la Vega, et al. 2005;Wernke 2003: 233-234); this kind of interment was evident in the partially looted cave burial of A03-815 on the north end of the Block 3 survey area.

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Figure 6-79. Recently looted cocoon-type interment from A03-815.