Huaca de Centinela, Chinca province
Huaca de Centinela, Chinca province. Image: Jacob Bongers
© Jacob Bongers

Recommended Ages: 16+ years

Explore how the Inca and Spanish conquests shaped the mortuary rituals of Peru's Indigenous peoples in this fascinating, free presentation by our guest expert in Andean archaeology, Dr Jacob Bongers.

Unpacking the complex relationships of power between local communities and the empires that sought to conquer them, Dr Bongers examines various postmortem practices during a time of crisis in ancient Peru. He focuses on a landscape of over 500 tombs, including evidence of human vertebrae threaded onto reed posts, a practice that has never been found before.

Join us as we explore an ancient society on the Peruvian southern coast that carried out diverse and intriguing mortuary rituals during political turmoil, reflecting centuries of evolving relationships between the living and the dead.

Book your tickets now and unearth how unique use of human remains and burial rites helped Indigenous communities live through one of the most turbulent periods in Peruvian history.



Dr Jacob Bongers

Dr Jacob L. Bongers is a Lecturer and Tutor at the University of Sydney.
Dr Jacob L. Bongers is a Lecturer and Tutor at the University of Sydney. Image: A. Dumitru
© A. Dumitru

Dr Jacob L. Bongers is the Tom Austen Brown Postdoctoral Research Associate in Archaeoogy at the University of Sydney. He holds a Ph.D. in archaeology from the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. Bongers investigates how Indigenous communities respond to political and environmental change. His doctoral research examined how groups in southern Peru confronted successive waves of Inca and European rule through mortuary practices.

His current, multidisciplinary research leverages archaeological science and geospatial technology to advance understandings of past land-use strategies and how societies adapted to diverse environments through time. He has conducted archaeological fieldwork in Portugal, Chile, Ethiopia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, and Peru.