remains excavated from the Cam 15D site at the mouth of the
Camarones River in Northern Chile. Radiocarbon dates identified
Chemical dietary reconstruction
of the Chinchorro mummies from
the CAM-15D site in northern
Chile
Arthur C. AUFDERHEIDE 1
Mario RIVERA2
RESUMEN
RECONSTRUCCIN QUMICA DE LA DIETA DE LAS
MOMIAS CHINCHORRO, DEL SITIO CAM-15D EN EL
NORTE DE CHILE
Se hicieron anlisis de elementos traza e istopos estables en
colgeno y mineral de muestras seas de 14 restos humanos
momificados excavados en el sitio CAM-15D, en la boca del ro
Camarones, norte de Chile. Las fechas de radiocarbono indican
que pertenecieron a la Fase Tarda de la cultura chinchorro,
alrededor del ao 2000 A.C. La momificacin es espontnea en
algunas deellas, y artificial en otras (momias "complicadas"; Uhle,
1917). A excepcin de una oteoporosis severa con fractura de
compresin en la vrtebra TI 1 en una momia femenina de 48
aos de edad, no se identificaron patologas significativas. Los
resultados de los anlisis qumicos se utilizaron para identificar
los principales componentes de la dieta en esta poblacin. Estos
indicaron una preeminencia de fuentes martimas con una
pequea contribucin de vegetales y carne terrestre. Comparaciones
con las dietas de otros sitios costeros en el norte de Chile indicaron
una dieta muy similar dominada por recursos martimos en
tiempos precermicos entre todos los grupos chinchorro
precermicos entre 7000 y 1500 aos A.C. Con la aparicin y
asentamientos de gentes de tierras altas andinas (Alto Ramrez)
en la costa alrededor de 1500 A.C., se reflejaron las prcticas
agrcolas y de pastoreo en un aumento de las fracciones no
martimas, cuyo patrn se hizo ms marcado en culturas
subsiguientes. La excepcin a esta tendencia fue un pequeo grupo
de la Fase Temprana Alto Ramrez en el sitio Pisagua 7, conformado
por un entierro en las playa y cuya dieta resulta indiferenciable del
patrn chinchorro.
ABSTRACT
CHEMICAL DIETARY RECONSTRUCTION OF THE
CHINCHORRO MUMMIES FROM THE CAM-15D SITE IN
NORTHERN CHILE
Trace element analysis and stable isotope ratios were performed on
bone coilagen and mineral samples from 14 mummified human
1 Paleobiology Laboratory, School of Medicine, University of
Minnesota, Duluth (USA).
2 Andes Archaeological Consultants. Oak Creek, Wisconsin (USA).
179
them as members of a Chinchorro Late Phase group about 2000 B.C.
Mummification was spontaneous in some and anthropogenic (Uhle's
[1917] "complicated" method) in others. Except for severe
osteoporosis with spontaneous compression fracture of T i l vertebra
in a 48 year old female, no significant pathology was identified. The
results of chemical analyses were employed to identify the principal
dietary components of this population. These indicated a primarily
marine resource diet with only minor contributions from terrestrial
vegetal and terrestrial meat sources. Comparison with the diets of
other sites and other cultures from the coastal area of northern Chile
indicated a very similar, marine resource-dominated diet among all
preceramic, Chinchorro groups from 7000 to about 1500 B.C., their
agricultural and pastoral practices were inmediately reflected in a
substantial rise in the nonmarine dietary fractions, wich trend became
exaggerated in subsequent cultures. An exception to this pattern was
a small group of early phase Alto Ramirez people at the Pisagua-7
site that constituted a beach burial and whose diet was
indistinguishable from that of the Chinchorro pattern.
INTRODUCTION
he arid climate of that narrow segment of
northern Chile sandwiched between the Andes
and the Pacific coast has generated one of the world's
driest regions -the Atacama Desert. The earliest residents
of this coastal area were the people of the Chinchorro
tradition. Operating out of estuaries where this desert's
occasional rivers meet the sea, theirs was a maritime
strategy that exploited the rich marine resources of the
coastal Peru current. Evidence of their presence as early
as 7500 B.C., has been identified in shell middens near
the modern city of Antofagasta (Llagostera 1979) and
the oldest of their bodies (about 7000 B.C.) was found
in the Acha valley, a dry tributary of the Azapa valley
near Chile (Aufderheide et al., 1993a). They are not
consistently identifiable archaeologically after about
1500 B.C. Approximately half of their recovered human
remains demonstrate at least partial preservation of
soft tissues in the form of spontaneous ("natural")
mummification, while most of the remainder show
signs of major and complex corporeal dissection and
reconstruction of body form by use of soil, vegetal and
animal material (anthropogenic mummification)
(Allison et al., 1984).
 Chemical dietary reconstruction of the Chinchorro mummies from de CAM-15D site irt northern Chile

Twenty-four Chinchorro bodies were excavated additional i n f o r m a t i o n about the s a m p l e and

from the Cam-15D site at the river mouth in the
C a m a r o n e s valley about 19u south latitude i n
northern Chile. Nine of these were dissected in detail
and these findings are listed in Table 1. Nineteen
bodies were s a m p l e d i n 1989 f o r purposes of
reconstructing their diet by chemical methods and
comparing the results with similar studies of other
Chinchorro groups (Aufderheide and Allison 1992,
Aufederheide et al., 1993, 1994), with special
emphasis on the Transition Period (2000-500 B.C.)
at the end of the Chinchorro Period and the arrival
on the coast of the highland migrants -the Alto
Ramirez people. Methods, including trace elements
analysis and stable isotope ratios, have been described
in the above-mentioned reports. Results from the
Cam-15D group are compared with values from those
earlier studies.
RESULTS
Determination of vegetal dietary fraction
Trace element concentrations in bone can be
employed to reflect vegetal dietary consumption. While
study of multiple elements (usually by the inductively
coupled plasma-or I.C.P.-technique) can provide
sometimes the diet, we have the greatest experience
with strontium. Plants take up strontium (Sr) from
the soil readily. Following absorption of such strontium,
herbivores store it in bone while the muscle tissue is
virtually strontium-free. Thus, human bone strontium
content, expressed as Sr/Ca ratio, can provide an
estimate of the dietary vegetal fraction if its value is
compared with that of an herbivore (Aufderheide
1989). In a previous study of mummies from this area
the Sr/Ca ratio of bone mineral was unaltered by
changes in the bone calcium concentration unless the
latter was 2 0 % deviant from that of normal, modern
bone (Aufderheide and Allison 1992). Five values of
the Cam-15D m u m m y group proved to be outside that
range and thus were removed from the database. Table
2 lists the values derived from studies on the remaining
14 individuals.
The mean Sr/Ca ratio of the Cam-15D m u m m y
group was 0.44+.08. No herbivore bones were found
at the Cam-15D site, but those of llamas ( N = 10) from
an adjacent valley (Azapa) about 100km farther north
had been analyzed previously (Aufderheide and Allison
1992) and the human mean Sr/Ca value of .44 is about
29% of that of the llamas (1.54), the latter representing
a pure vegetal diet.

TABLE 1. Demography of dissected Cam-15D human mummies

Tomb No. Body No. (Yr) Sexi Stature (cm) Mummificatk

m Comments
Method2

6 48 F 158 S Osteoporosis, fracture T i l

9 - 27 F 153 S Pleural adhesions
16 1 1 M 53 A Body on abdomen of 16 -2
16 2 15 F I A Head absent
17 1 24 F 167 I No pathology
17 2 0 I I I Largely skeletonized
17 3 7 I I I Largely skeletonized
17 4 0 I I I Skeletonized
23 - 35 M 164 S Face mask. Viscera intact

180
 Arthur C. Aufderheide and Mario Rivera

However, at coastal sites strontium can be acquired
from either terrestrial plants or from marine resources.
These fractions can be separated by exploiting the fact
that the strontium isotope ratio 87Sr/86Sr of marine
resources (always .7091 worldwide) differs from that of
terrestrial resources at many sites (Sealey el al., 1991).
The value for that ratio had been measured previously
in the Azapa valley llamas and found to be .7071
000011 (two standard deviations). With this degree of
measurement precision and with a marine-terrestrial
range of 0020, the .7085 value determined in the human
bone from Cam-15D m u m m y 23 indicated that only
.0006/.0020 or 30 percent of the total strontium in the
human Cam-15D mummies had been derived from the
terrestrial plants. Thus, of the total Sr/Ca ratio value of
.44 for the human Cam 15D mummies, only 30 percent
(Sr/Ca=.13) represents the value that needs to be
compared to the purely vegetal llama diet value of 1.54.
The result of that comparison is .08, indicating that only
eight percent of the human diet at this site was of vegetal
origin, the remainder (92 percent) consisting of meat.
Determination of the marine/terrestrial dietary meat
fractions
Stable isotopes can be used to assess the marine
fraction of the meat (protein) dietary component. Tieszen
and Chapman (1992) have documented that northern

TABLE 2. Analytical values of Cam 15D human mummies

Agei Sex2 Tomb Sr Ca Sr/Ca Collagen Collagen Apatite 87Sr/86Sr* 14C

(Yr) No. ppm ppmxl03 S13C 515N 813C Date

AD M 3 178.0 395.7 .45

? ? 5 175.5 391.5 .45 - - - - -

45 M 6 103.0 387.5 .27 - - - -

4249 :145 5
<2 I 10 160.0 385.0 .42 - - - - -

AD I 11 155.0 314.0 49 - - - - -

45 M 13 183.0 385.0 .48 - - - - -

<2 M 14 170.0 370.0 .46 - - - - -

14 F 16-2 201.0 395.0 .51 - - - - -

24 F 17-1 162.0 390.0 .42 -14.15 22.69 -9-34 - -

AD F 19 123.0 350.0 .35 - - - - -

40 F 20 158.0 415.0 .38 - - - - -

<2 I 21-2 142.0 375.0 38 - - - - -

<2 I 22 232.0 385.0 .60 - - - - -

35 M 23 214.0 397.5 .54 -12.84 21.03 -10.18 .708540+11 401075 6

Total mean = ,44 .08 (N = 14)

1 AD = Adult, exact age indeterminate.

2 M = Male, F = Female, I = Indeterminate.
3 d 13C 0/00 = 13C/12C sample - 13C/12C PDB standard x 1000
13C/12C PDB standard
4 Procedure performed at Geochron Laboratories, Krueger Enterprises, 711 Concord Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138.
5 and 6 Radiocarbon determinations were performed at Geochron Laboratories.

181
 Chemical dietary reconstruction of the Chinchorro mummies from de CAM-15D site irt northern Chile
Chile's terrestrial food sources are commonly enriched
with nitrogen 15 ( 15 N) relative to air ( 5 l 5 N), but only
rarely exceed +8% while the uppermost trophic level of
marine food chain representatives (sea lions, larger fish,
etc.) may reach 25%. Mean values for such "control"
samples were 24.90. Of six Cam-15D human specimens
subjected to study, only two contained sufficient collagen
for analysis (mummies 17-1 and 13: both adults). Their
mean 8l5 N value is 21.86. This constitutes 88% of the
dietary protein fraction. Since the total dietary protein
components is 92% of the total diet, and 88% of that
comes from the sea, the marine resource dietary fraction
composes 81% (.92 X .88) of the total diet. Thus, 8% of
the total diet was acquired from terrestrial plants, 81%
from marine meat and the remainder (11%) from
terrestrial meat. The large marine resources component
is also supported by the carbon isotope ( 5 l 3 C) values.
Tieszen and Chapman (1992) showed the marine fauna
had fiHC values producing signals in humans in the range
of about -120/00. The actual mean human 8l3 C value as
measured in the bone collagen of the two Cam-15D
humans is -13-50, suggesting that the small
contributions of C3 signal from the vegetal fraction is
almost being "drowned out" by the greatly enriched
values from the high marine meat fraction. A similar
effect is detected by examining the difference between
8l3 C values measured in collagen and that measured in
the mineral part (apatite) or the same bone. Carnivores
average a difference (called "spacing") of about 30/00
between the 8l3 C values at these two bones sites,while the
spacing value for herbivores can be up to 70/00 (Krueger
and Sullivan 1984). The mean spacing value of the Cam-
15D humans is 3.74, very close to the carnivore spacing
value. Although Lee Thorp et al. identify additional
influencing factors, these 8l3 C values confirm that meat
(without indicating its source) constituted the majority
of the Cam 15D Chinchorro diet.
In summary, the three principal, chemically-
reconstructed components of the Chinchorro diet are
8% vegetal, 81% marine meat and 11% terrestrial meat.
Readers should be aware that the validity of the
calculated estimates is constrained in part by the
182
assumption that strontium concentrations of plants in
the diets of herbivore controls are similar to those
consumed by the humans, that the l l a m a bone
strontium control values from the nearby Azapa Valley
are similar to those of the Camarones Valley and that
increased bone collagen 8 l 5 N values generated by
m a r i n e f o o d consumption are arithmetically
proportional to their fractional ingestion.
DISCUSSION
Nature of methodfor estimating ancient diets
The analytical values indicate that the large
majority of the Chinchorro's diet was meat derived from
the sea; terrestrial vegetis and terrestrial meat sources
each contributed only a minor fraction. Archaeological
support for this division consists of predominantly
marine type of subsistence tomb artifacts: harpoons,
fishhooks, fish lines, fish nets, shellfish bags, etc.
Comparison of such a chemically reconstructed diet
with reconstructions based on other techniques can be
expected to reveal some differences. Dietary predictions
based on floral and faunal residuum of archaeological
sites are subject to several constraints, the most serious
of which is differential survival of vegetal and skeletal
food items, resulting in overestimation of the meat
component. Predictions based on coprolite studies are
constrained by the fact that meat is macerated, digested
and absorbed before reaching the colon where
coprolites form, leaving little or no evidence of its
ingestion within the coprolites. The opposite is true
about plants with a high cellulose content. Therefore
the coprolite approach contributes a bias in favor of
the vegetal fraction.
The chemical technique employed in this report
identifies only the dietary components that were
actually absorbed and incorporated into the body
tissues (both organic and mineral). Ingested but
unabsorbed foods (e.g., plants with little or n o
nutritional value) may form considerable dietary bulk,
but produce no tissue signal.
Thus, each of these can provide some information
 Arthur C. Aufderheide and Mario Rivera
that the others do not, while each also can fail to
recognize some foods that actually were ingested.
Undoubtedly, the chemical approach is most useful
when the primary interest lies in the diet's nutritional
value, and at coastal sites its ability to differentiate
marine from terrestrial resources provides additional
utility. However, when evaluating a population's
dentition characteristics, coprolite study's ability to
identify what was actually being chewed (even if never
absorbed) provides a valuable specificity useful for
explaining observed attrition features. Properly
identified midden contents, on the other hand, can
provide the genus and often the species nature of
potential food items as well as the nature of a
population's food-procuring efforts -information
capable of producing data valuable for reconstruction
of population behavior and even seasonality. Each of
these methods, therefore,continues to retain its value,
m a k i n g its individual a n d partially unique
contribution.The most accurate picture can be
synthesized by integrating the data from all three
methods, and whenever possible it remains desirable
to carry out all three approaches.
Comparison of Cam-15D diet and that at other sites
Table 3 lists all the Chinchorro sites we have studied.
Except for the Cam-15D site, the focus of this report,
all the Chinchorro groups in the table are from, or in
the inmediate vicinity, of Arica, Chile in the Azapa
Valley. All the AZ sites are from the Azapa Valley also,
while the PSG-7 site is from Pisagua, about 250km
south of Arica. The Cam-9 site is from the Camarones
Valley, about l/5km from its mouth. It represents a
local group under an Inca chiefdom, and was obviosly
exploiting marine resources as judged by their tomb
artifacts.
Perusal of the magnitude of the three primary
dietary components of the various groups (listed in
c h r o n o l o g i c a l order) indicates a clear and
unmistakable pattern. Beginning with the oldest body
(Acha-2) from 7000 B.C., and continuing until about
183
2000 B.C., the Chinchorro people occupied the northern
coast of Chile, indulging a diet characterized by a
predominantly marine fraction to which terrestrial
plants and terrestrial meats made only m i n o r
contributions. This includes the Cam-15D site which
represents the near-terminus of the five millennium
interval during which the Chinchorros remain
archaeologically identifiable. Between 2000 and 1500
B.C. their transitional group (Quiani- a few of which
are included in the Mo 1-6 site) began experimenting
with horticulture while still remaining basically
fishermen. The arrival of Titicaca-area highland
migrants to this coastal area about 1000 B.C., (Alto
Ramirez at PSG-7), is included in this table also. Buried
on the beach adjacent to a small Chinchorro cemetery,
and with tomb artifacts of primarily marine nature,
the small Alto Ramirez group here seems to be
functioning also as marine specialists, since their
artifacts as well as their diets are indistinguishable from
those of the Chinchorros (though their tombs contain
ceramic and textiles characteristic of the Early Phase
Alto Ramirez people). Late Phase (A.D. 0-350) Alto
Ramirez cemeteries in the Azapa Valley (AZ-14,70)
demonstrate an abrupt and prominent decrease in the
marine fraction with concomitant increases in the
vegetal and terrestrial meat fractions, reflecting the
agricultural and pastoral practices they appear to have
brought with them. Subsequent groups continue and
exaggerate this trend. The people of the Inka Period in
the Camarones Valley (Cam-9) are an exception that
appear to represent a very small group of primarily
fishermen that also farmed to a moderate extent, but
the group was probably too small and specialized to
herd camelids.
These trends are supported by archaeological
findings, but the chemical reconstruction of their diets
provides a quantitative element to the perspective. It
also allows a better understanding of the meaning for
the exceptions to the trend. In addition, it invites
speculation regarding the relation of the coastal to the
highland people (who were separated both by altitude
and the formidable Atacama Desert) during the coastal
 Chemical dietary reconstruction of the Chinchorro mummies from de CAM-15D siteirtnorthern Chile

TABLE 3. Comparison of Cam 15D mummies' diets with those of other Chile coastal sites

Percent Dii?/ Compo,

nents
M'al
Site Culture Aprox.Date Vegetal Marine %l Reference
Terrestrk
Acha-2 Chinchorro 7000 BC 8 80 Aufderheide et al., 1993
Cam-17 Chinchorro 4900 BC - 88* - ibid.
12
Chin-1 Chinchorro 5560 BC - IT - ibid.
Mol Chinchorro 3500 BC 6 83 11 Aufderheide and Allison
1992
Cam 15D Chinchorro 2175 BC 8 81 11 This report.
Mol-6 Chinchorro 1900 BC 6 83 11 Aufderheide and Allison
1992
PSG-7 Alto Ramrez Early 850 BC - 87* - Aufderheide et al., 1994
AZ-14,70 Alto Ramrez Late 350 AD 37 49 14 Aufderheide and Allison
1992
AZ-141 Cabuza 750 AD 44 39 17 ibid.
AZ-140 M. Chiribaya 1200 AD 47 34 19 ibid.
A2-76 San Miguel 1300 AD 43 42 15 ibid.
Cam-9 Local 1400 AD 31 67 2 ibid.

These groups were studied only by stable isotope ratios and the given values represent the marine fraction of only the protein dietary component.

"reign" of the Chinchorros. Because the highland diet
should have generated a purely terrestrial signal, the
persistently small size for that signal throughout the
5000 years of the Chinchorro Period suggest that it is
most plausibly explained by those local terrestrial
resources available at the coast's river mouths. This
i m p l i e s that, w h a t e v e r the degree o f social o r
commercial contact between these groups was, they did
not share e n o u g h food to be detectable by these
reasonably sensitive chemical techniques.

184
 Arthur C. Aufderheide and Mario Rivera
REFERENCES
ALLISON M], FOCACCIG, ARRIAZA B, STANDEN V, RIVERA M and
LOWENSTEIN JM. (1984). Chinchorro: m o m i a s de
preparacin complicada: Mtodos de m o m i f i c a c i n .
Chungar 13:155-173-
AUFDERHEIDE AC. (1989). Chemical analysis of skeletal remains.
In: Reconstruction of Life From the Skeleton, M.Y. Iscan
and K.A.R. Kennedy (eds). New York: Alan R. Liss, Inc., pp.
237-260.
AUFDERHEIDE AC and ALLISON MJ. (1992). Chemical dietary
reconstruction of north Chile prehistoric populations by trace
mineral analysis. Proceedings of the First World Congress
on Mummy Studies. Santa Cruz: Museo Arqueolgico y
Etnogrfico de Tenerife, Tomo I pp. 451-461.
AUFDERHEIDE AC, MUOZ I and ARRIAZA B. (1993). Seven
Chinchorro mummies and the prehistory of northern Chile.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology 91:189-201.
AUFDERHEIDE AC, KELLEY MA, RIVERA M, GRAY L, TIESZEN LL,
IVERSEN ELYSHA K, ROY H and CAVERIC A. (1994).
Contributions of chemical dietary reconstruction to the
assessment of adaptation to ancient highland inmigrants (Alto
Ramirez) to coastal conditions at Pisagua, North Chile.
Journal ofArchaeological Science 21:515-524.
185
KRUEGER HW and SULLIVAN CH. (1984). Models for carbon
isotope fractionation between diet and bone. In: Stablejsotopes
in Nutrition. Tumland,)S. and Johnson, P.E. (eds). ACS
Symposium Series, 258: American Chemical Society, pp. 205-
222.
LIAGOSTERA A. (1979). 9700 years of maritime subsistence 011
the Pacific: An analysis by mean of bioindicators in the north
of Chile. American Antiquity 44(2):309-324.
LEE-THORP JA, SEALYJC and van der MERWE N (1979). Stable
carbon isotope ratio differences between bone collagen and
bone apatite, and their relationship to diet. Journal of
Archaeological Science 16:585-599-
SEALYJC, van der MERWE NJ, SILLEN A, KRUGER FJ and KRIJEGER
HW (1991)- 87Sr/86Sr as a dietary indicator in modern and
archaeological bone. Journal of Archaeological Science
18:399-416.
TIESZEN L and CHAPMAN M. (1992). Carbon and nitrogen
isotopic status of the major marine and terrestrial resources
in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Proceedings of
the First World Congress on Mummy Studies. Santa Cruz:
Museo Arqueolgico y Etnogrfico de Tenerife, Tomo I pp.
409-426.
UHLE M. Los aborgenes de Arica. Publicaciones de Etnologa y
Antropologa de Chile, 1(4-5): 151-176. Santiago de Chile.