Colleen Zori

University of California, Los Angeles | UCLA · Cotsen Institute of Archaeology (IOA)

In this article, we report on a noteworthy early Etruscan trench tomb of a young child, most likely a girl, found intact within the cemetery of San Simone at the San Giuliano necropolis (Viterbo Province). The richly appointed grave contained the remains of a toddler aged 2–3 years, inhumed with wealth befitting an elite adult woman. Typically, the...

Compositional analysis of glass from the medieval castle of San Giuliano (Lazio, Italy), occupied from approximately CE 1050–1250, sheds light on the financial wherewithal and integration of the castle’s elite inhabitants into wider economic networks. Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) of 261 shards was used to select 32 for further analysis using...

Mutual toasting using pairs of intricately carved wooden cups, called queros , was the fundamental act incorporating local communities into the Inka Empire (AD 1400–1532). These cups then remained in the possession of provincial communities and were used to reaffirm political ties in subsequent state-sponsored events. I argue that the value of thes...

The burial of unbaptized fetuses and infants, as seen through texts and archaeology, exposes friction between the institutional Church and medieval Italy's laity. The Church's theology of Original Sin, baptism, and salvation left the youngest children especially vulnerable to dying unbaptized and subsequently being denied a Christian burial in cons...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Guinea pigs (Cavia spp.) have a long association with humans. From as early as 10,000 years ago they were a wild food source. Later, domesticated Cavia porcellus were dispersed well beyond their native range through pre-Columbian exchange networks and, more recently, widely across the globe. Here we present 46 complete mitogenomes of archaeological...

Metal production in the prehistoric Andes entailed an array of political, economic, and ritual relationships that are increasingly the focus of archaeological investigation. One theme directing recent research is the link between metallurgy and political organization, including the origins of metal production, its relationship to sociopolitical com...

The Inca Empire reorganized conquered populations in different jurisdictions imposing the decimal system over local chieftainships or curacazgos, creating new provinces or administrative units where the local authorities lost, maintained or amplified their regional power. The system of encomiendas implemented by early Hispanic conquerors instrument...

Ongoing excavations at San Giuliano in central Italy are providing detailed evidence for testing explanatory models of cyclical shifts in settlements and socio-economic organisation from the Etruscan to medieval periods ( c . 800 BC–AD 1300). Download free here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/4822C8FC7248063...

Este artículo da a conocer el hallazgo de semillas de coca (Erythroxylum sp.) recuperadas en el sitio Tarapacá Viejo, I región de Tarapacá, norte de Chile. Al respecto se discute la posibilidad de que el cultivo de coca se estableciera en los Valles Occidentales, considerando el potencial agrario de las quebradas tarapaqueñas. La información arqueo...

The San Giuliano Archaeological Research Project (SGARP) is a new international project launched as a collaborative initiative of Baylor University in cooperation with Italian partners from the Municipality of Barbarano Romano, Virgil Academy, the Province of Viterbo, and the Italian Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per l’Area Met...

Under the rubric of “connectedness,” we investigate the Inka incorporation of northern Chile (A.D. 1450–1532). Using ceramic diversity as a proxy for economic connections, we argue that the Inka selected Tarapacá Viejo as an administrative center because of its already extensive trade relationships. Applying social network analysis we then evaluate...

Imperial conquest and subsequent strategies of integration can be detected in changes to regional infrastructure, such as road systems and the architectural layout and construction techniques of provincial settlements. Located in the Tarapacá Valley of northern Chile, the site of Tarapacá Viejo underwent significant architectural remodeling when th...

Excavations have taken place under the direction of Dr Colleen Zori (UCLA) and Jesús Gordillo at the Incan outpost site of Moqi, Southern Peru for the past two summer seasons (2012 and 2013), as part of an IFR (Institute of Field Research) archaeological field school with collaborations from archaeological staff from UCLA and USC in America, and UC...

The coniguration of the Inca Empire in Tarapacá, located in Northern Chile, is still a matter of investigation and discussion. In this paper we present a synthetic study of the material expressions of the Inca at an emblematic settlement, Tarapacá Viejo, in which populations of the Pampa del Tamarugal, or Yunga, articulated with peoples of the high...

Drawing on a survey of the Quebrada de Tarapacá in northern Chile and excavations at the Inka and Colonial administrative site of Tarapacá Viejo, we present archaeological evidence of small-scale purification of silver using lead. We argue that the use of techniques to refine silver-bearing ores most likely began in the Late Horizon (AD 1450-1532),...

Fragments of a cotton quipu were found in recent excavations in Tarapacá Viejo (Tr-49). This exceptional finding, added to the type of architectonic layout, the ceramics and to other inca weaves, indicates that this site take part of the superior category of facilities that the Incas distributed in the South Central Andes for to integrate them to t...