This dissertation research examines whether the specific arrangement and organization ofgeometric elements in designs found on ceramic vessels in a burial context reveals keyinformation related to the mortuary practices of the Chiribaya, a prehispanic coastal people. Thecemeteries of two sites are the focus of this research, Chiribaya Alta and Chiribaya Baja, whichare located in the Ilo valley region of the Osmore drainage in southern Peru. Radiocarbon datesplace the occupation of these sites between AD 700/750 – 1359 (Buikstra et al 2005). Scholarscite archaeological and bioarchaeological evidence to propose that Chiribaya people lived inloosely organized sub-groups that were united under one authority (Lozada 1998, 2011; Lozadaand Buikstra 2002; Buikstra et al 2005; Reycraft 2000; Jessup 1991). In particular, some scholars(Lozada 1998, 2011; Buikstra et al 2005) cite the differential distribution of ceramic style withother criteria to suggest that individuals who associated with a particular sub-group may haveindicated their membership according to cranial deformation style, ceramic style, and where theyburied their dead. If, in fact, the Chiribaya people were loosely organized into two sub-groupsthat were united under an elite class, were there underlying rules that unified the culture? In thisdissertation, I evaluate whether unifying factors can be detected by analyzing the geometricdesigns found on Chiribaya ceramic vessels from a mortuary context.In this dissertation research I use the method of symmetry analysis, as developed byWashburn and Crowe (1988), to examine if specific design structures were consistently used toarrange and organize geometric elements and motifs to form the designs on Chiribaya ceramicvessels. Design structure is an organizational feature of design that describes the basic layoutand arrangement of elements or motifs and the way the elements and/or motifs are repeated toform a design (Shepard 1948; Washburn and Crowe 1988). Symmetry analysis is the systematiccategorization of design structures according to their symmetric motions (Washburn and Crowe1988). Washburn and Crowe (1988:11) have argued that symmetry analysis discloses culturalpreferences for certain design symmetries on patterned material in a given culture. The questionis—do these continuities and preferences have cultural meaning?A detailed analysis of ceramic design structures on 247 ceramic vessels revealed thatartists who created the designs found on Chiribaya ceramic vessels preferred a specific andlimited set of design structures when organizing the patterns. Moreover, I propose that thesymmetric arrangement of the geometric designs metaphorically encoded critical spatial andtemporal knowledge referring to the physical environment and solar observations.
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