Warrior queen of Peru?

She was a woman who died some 1,600 years ago in the heyday of the Moche culture, well before the rise of the Incas. Her imposing tomb suggests someone of high status. Her desiccated remains are covered with red pigment and bear tattoos of patterns and mythological figures.

But the most striking aspect of the discovery, archaeologists said yesterday, is not the offerings of gold and semiprecious stones, or the elaborate wrapping of her body in fine textiles, but the other grave goods.

She was surrounded by weaving materials and needles, befitting a woman, and 2 ceremonial war clubs and 28 spear throwers — sticks that propel spears with far greater force — items never found before in the burial of a woman of the Moche

From today's NY Times. Apparently weapons have never before been found in Moche women's burials, leaving open the question of whether their presence in this burial is a sign of rulership or of a female warrior. Further forensics should answer this question decisively, as martial training develops the body in unmistakeable ways; it does seem odd, however, that any warrior would have owned so many atlatls.

Posted by David on May 18, 2006 2:30 PM