Alysia Leon | Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (original) (raw)

Thesis Chapters by Alysia Leon

Mortuary remains within an archaeological context can illuminate the social and political aspects... more Mortuary remains within an archaeological context can illuminate the social and political aspects not only of the individual(s) buried, but also of the living who interred them. Although this is so, a consensus has not been reached in regard to the following questions: how can we determine the social identity of the living that interred the dead? What are the implications of the living-dead interaction, and how do mortuary practices alter social memory in order to fit political needs? This thesis constitutes an initial attempt to answer these questions while examining pre-internment mortuary practices, and associated ideologies regarding the afterlife based on data collected during the 2015 field season by members of the Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológica Panquilma (PIAP), under the direction of Dr. Enrique Lopéz-Hurtado, of the Instituto de Estudios de Peruanos Programa de Investigación. This project is centered at the Late Intermediate Period (LIP) to Late Horizon (LH) secondary Ychsma site of Panquilma in the mid-Valley of the Lurín River Valley, Central Coast of Peru.

This research aims to determine the time period and significance of a puzzling structure that was excavated at the cemetery’s margin at Panquilma in order to determine the building’s potential role in ancestral veneration practices of the lesser-elites. Upon first glance this structure appeared to have a layout of a household structure but was located near the cemetery, far from the residential center of the site. A wide array and substantial quantities of exotic and/or ritual items such as sheet metal fragments, colorful bird feathers, orpiment, and manuports, as well as Spondylus sp. and Nectandra sp. beads were discovered within this building suggesting non-mundane or non-domestic usages. Was this structure used in the preparation and care of the funerary bundles? Did it house an important figure (e.g., a shaman) in both their life and death? Or did it serve as a workshop for preparing ritual items? In an effort to ascertain the significance of this structure, this thesis examines the aforementioned remains as well as its relative location and the results from portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) analyses of some of the excavated artifacts in order to provide a deeper understanding of mortuary practices at Panquilma and thus the Ychsma’s concept of and interaction with the dead on the Central Coast of Peru.

The exact function of this structure cannot be concretely stated, but the diverse lines of evidence present appear to favor the first hypothesis in which this structure functioned as a funerary preparation area, but principally for elite and/or ritually significant bundle(s). This was ascertained due to the numerous exotic and/or ritual artifacts found associated within this Inkaic structure that likely served a ritualistic function in regard to water and agricultural fertility as well as serving as indirect evidence for elite ancestral veneration practices.

Papers by Alysia Leon

Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Florida owns a Pre-Columbian Artifact Collection that have be... more Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Florida owns a Pre-Columbian Artifact Collection that have been in storage for the past 30 years. The catalog was last updated in the mid-1970s and from 2012-2013 I updated the section of Costa Rican artifacts. This included a detailed analysis of specific Costa Rican artifacts in which I researched their cultural contexts, wrote descriptive catalog and didactic text on a few selected artifacts for potential future museum exhibition.

Conference Presentations by Alysia Leon

St. Augustine is one of only a few cities in America that have an Archaeological Preservation Ord... more St. Augustine is one of only a few cities in America that have an Archaeological Preservation Ordinance, which stipulates that any ground penetrating construction on a property within the city limits cannot begin without inspection by the City Archaeologist, Carl Halbirt, and his team (COSA Codes, Chapter 8). The plans for constructing an admissions building by Flagler College triggered an excavation at 63 Cordova. Excavations for the property began in 2008, but in 2011 a new excavation was needed when new plans were made for a larger building that would cover most of the property. Flagler College students began to help Halbirt and his team through an introductory archaeological field course in May of 2011. The new excavations helped to explain more of the property’s history and the different occupations that have occurred in St. Augustine.

Funerary interments allow insight into the social hierarchical composition of prior societies. Th... more Funerary interments allow insight into the social hierarchical composition of prior societies. Through funerary analysis at the site of Panquilma, which is located within the Lurin Valley of Cieneguilla, Peru, generalizations can be made in regards to the structure of social classes during the Late Intermediate Period. Burials discovered in the public sector as well as the domestic sector exhibit different characteristics in regards to the treatment of the deceased, tomb appearance and funerary offerings in comparison to those found within the funerary sector. Prior to the examination of the funerary sector at the site it was believed that the people of higher importance were buried within the household compounds of the site and the lower class citizens were intermitted in the funerary sector. Further examination of the looted remains discovered in the funerary sector and public sector in comparison to the untouched human remains located within the domestic sector lead us to believe that the prior statement no longer holds validity.