Lapa do Santo

• Period: Early Archaic
• Location: Brazil
• Burials: 26 individuals
• Archaeologists: Strauss A, Oliveira RE, Bernardo DV, Salazar-García DC, Talamo S, Jaouen K, Hubbe M, Black S, Wilkinson C, Richards MP, Araujo AG, Kipnis R, & Neves WA
• Related Keyword/Categories: Funerary Practice, Trauma

The site of Lapa do Santo (Saint’s Rock Shelter) is located in the northern part of Brazil. Excavations of the site took place from 2001 to 2009, and evidence demonstrated use of the shelter began around 12,700 to 11,700 years ago. It was occupied by a hunter-gatherer group with low mobility. A total of 26 human burials were excavated, and these date from 10,600 to 8,200 years ago with different trends found. The first thousand years is characterized by shallow burial of individuals in a flexed position, followed by an emphasis on mutilation and reduction of the body through defleshing and burning, and finally in the last five centuries is characterized by disarticulation without manipulation. The decapitation case is found during the second phase of burial practices at Lapa do Santo, and dates from 9,100-9,400 years ago. It was found within the main cluster of burials, and included three distinct groupings of bone: a skull with the mandible and six vertebrae, an articulated left hand, and an articulated right hand with portions of the radius. The hands were laid over the face, with the right hand on the left side with fingers pointing to the chin, and the left hand on the right side of the skull with fingers pointing to the forehead. Cut marks were found on the skull, vertebrae and hands, suggesting two procedures occurred: 1) soft tissue was removed from the body, and 2) the individual was decapitated. The individual was a young male and likely lived locally. Based on the evidence, Strauss et al. (2015) argue that the decapitation in this scenario was not an act of violence. More likely, the individual’s remains were manipulated after death as part of some type of ancestral ritual or act of veneration. The careful arrangement of the hands over the face may have been an important aspect of the ritual and supported group beliefs about the afterlife.

References: Strauss A, Oliveira RE, Bernardo DV, Salazar-García DC, Talamo S, Jaouen K, Hubbe M, Black S, Wilkinson C, Richards MP, Araujo AG, Kipnis R, & Neves WA (2015). The Oldest Case of Decapitation in the New World (Lapa do Santo, East-Central Brazil). PloS one, 10 (9) PMID: 26397983