Depressed skull fracture at Pacopampa in the Peru’s northern highlands in the Late Cajamarca Period

Abstract

The Pacopampa site is one of the largest Formative Period sites in Peru’s northern highlands. In the 2013 field season, we uncovered human remains from the stairs between the second and third platforms and found a rare case of a depressed skull fracture on the cranial vault of a middle-aged male. This study aims to describe the fracture and explore chronological changes in violence in Peru’s northern highlands. The radiocarbon date of this male is 910 ± 30 ¹⁴C yr BP, which corresponds to the Late Cajamarca Period (AD 950–1200). The fracture is elliptical in shape, 23.7 mm long and 23.3 mm wide. Depressed debris, adhering to part of the vault, entered the cranial cavity and may have compressed dura mater and brain substance. A healing reaction formed a smooth edge around the fracture, suggesting that it is an antemortem fracture and that the individual survived the injury. It is reasonable to infer that the presence of trauma on the Pacopampa cranium is consistent with the sociopolitical background, typified by high social tension and the appearance of organized warfare in Andean societies.