Noted biological anthropologist to offer modern look at human sacrifice of children

For a lecture titled "Human Sacrifice on the North Coast of Peru: Recent Discoveries Pose New Questions," the Anthropology Club and the Club Programming Committee will welcome John Verano, professor of anthropology at Tulane University, on April 2 at 5 p.m. in Russell 113.

Verano, a biological anthropologist, will discuss recent discoveries of human sacrifices made in northern coastal Peru that challenge previous models by re- interpreting Pre-Columbian ritual killing. He has worked in Andean South America with skeletal material from both coastal and highland populations.

Verano’s presentation will draw on data collected during more than 25 years of excavation and analysis of Peruvian sacrificial sites. Verano’s most recent work is from a sacrificial site that is the largest child sacrifice known in the New World. As part of his presentation, Verano will address the new analytical methods in stable isotope geochemistry that may provide insight into the identities and origins of the sacrificial victims.

Verano’s research, according to professor of anthropology Cassady Urista, provides "a careful contextual and bioarchaeological examination of a grim topic and is incredibly interesting research in a fascinating part of the world."

The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Urista at cjyoder@radford.edu.