Abstract
Excerpt: Subadult mortuary remains from the Chiribaya polity of the Peruvian Late Inter-mediate Period (AD 1000-1300) were initially evaluated using gross morphology and were subsequently assigned to broad age ranges: below ten years and between ten and twenty-five years. In this study we apply the Streeter method which uses the sequential pattern observed in rib cortical bone thin sections to assign a developmental stage that is associated with a specific age range. The rate and quality of growth and development are known to be affected by variation in genetics, diet, health status, and activity levels. Because the Streeter method was developed using bone samples from a modern population, evaluation of its appolicability to archaeological samples is necessary. The goals for this study were to assign more precise ages and to compare the developmental sequence between the modern and archaeological samples.