Death and emotion in the Cercado Grande de los Santuarios, Tunja (Colombia), Late Muisca period (1000-1550 CE)

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Published: Sep 1, 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21676/16574923.5707
Keywords:
mortuary practices, archaeothanatology, Cercado Grande de los Santuarios, muisca societies, archaeology of emotion
Death and emotion in the Cercado Grande de los Santuarios, Tunja (Colombia), Late Muisca period (1000-1550 CE)

Main Article Content

Melissa Pratt
Universidad Externado de Colombia
https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4685-7973

Abstract

The Cercado Grande de los Santuarios is an archaeological site located in Tunja, on the grounds currently occupied by the Pedagogical and Technological University of Colombia. Since the first archaeological studies, the mortuary variability of the Cercado Grande has been analyzed to explore the sociopolitical organization of the Muisca chiefdoms and to identify changes in mortuary patterns between the Herrera and Late Muisca periods. This paper presents a preliminary approach to understanding little-known aspects of the commemoration of death in Muisca societies, such as the agency and emotions of the individuals who gathered in solemn and transcendental moments to ritualize the loss of a social being. Its purpose is to explore, through ideas that have emerged in contemporary perspectives on the archaeology of death, the ways in which the emotions of the living affect and transform the course of mortuary practices. An archaeothanatological analysis was implemented, using the photographic record of three burials from the Cercado Grande, to discuss attitudes towards death in Muisca societies, such as the exclusivity of primary inhumations and the presence or absence of grave goods. The results indicate that the emotions of the mourners are among the variables that affect the nature and appearance of the material culture of death. In that sense, the discussion establishes the need to expand the range of possibilities for interpreting funerary contexts through new epistemological frameworks and methodologies developed in recent decades within archaeological thought.

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How to Cite
Pratt, M. (2024). Death and emotion in the Cercado Grande de los Santuarios, Tunja (Colombia), Late Muisca period (1000-1550 CE). Jangwa Pana, 23(3), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.21676/16574923.5707
Issue
Vol. 23 No. 3 (2024): Revista Jangwa Pana
Section
General Section

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