A Cache of 48 Nasca Trophy Heads from Cerro Carapo, Peru

Abstract

The recent discovery of a cache of 48 Nasca severed heads provides archaeologists with the largest-known associated and provenienced corpus of this material. Although recovery of the skulls was conducted as a salvage operation and the wider spatial context of the find is still unknown, preliminary physical anthropological analysis of the skeletal material, along with archaeological comparison of the cache, provide valuable information on the nature and role of head-hunting in ancient Nasca society of the south coast of Peru.