Tracking the life and last journey of an Altiplano woman from the Atacama Desert

The unusual burial of a young woman in the Pica Oasis in the Atacama Desert (northern Chile) during the Late Intermediate Period (AD 900–1450) raises questions about her origins. Here, we present the results of a programme of bioanthropological, radiocarbon dating and sequential analyses of teeth and hair to reconstruct aspects of her life and death. This is complemented by previous isotopic data (enamel and bone apatite, bone collagen). Results strongly suggest a highland origin for the woman. Sometime around age 25–30, she travelled to the Pica Oasis. In the process her diet changed from C3 resources to fertilized C4 crops. Partly healed fractures of the hip, shoulder and wrist show that she suffered a severe fall after arriving in Pica. Our study demonstrates that she was born and then lived until young adulthood in the Altiplano after which she undertook a journey to the Pica Oasis. Following the accident and in the last 10 months of her life, she would have required care. That she was buried in a local cemetery with a mixture of local and non-local features demonstrates both her acceptance into the Pica community and a recognition of her Altiplano origins.