Testimonies of a farewell. Rituals and abandonment in Juella with the Inka conquest of Humahuaca

Abstract

The opening and closing of spaces has been extensively documented at an ethnographic level in the Andes. At the archaeological level however, we have numerous examples of the first type and not many testimonies of abandon of a particular enclosure or settlement. In Juella, Quebrada de Humahuaca, Jujuy, we have a unique context that includes the closure of a door, a burial of an unborn in the occupation floor, and the intentional burial of some objects. In the context of an occupation restricted to the Regional Developments Period, we consider that the material found and analyzed here is related to rituals and ce-remonies of the closure and symbolic death of this space. From radiocarbon dates obtained from this particular event and its relationship to the overall site context, we believe that this event not only had to do with the abandonment of the structure, but is closely related to the site as a whole, and to the time of the Inca conquest of the region as well.