The biocultural evolution in the Osmore valley. Morphological dental traits in pre-inca populations

The Osmore (Moquegua) Valley, in the South Central Andes, has an extremely varied history of human occupation that goes back at least 12,000 years (Rice, 1989). The discovery, over the past decades, of a considerable number of Chinchorro, Tiwanaku, and Chiribaya mummies has triggered an extensive investigation of the cultural and genetic changes that took place in the valley in pre-Inca times (Blom, 2005; Blom et al., 1998; Lozada, 1998; Moraga et al., 2005; Sutter, 1997, 2000, 2005; Sutter and Mertz, 2004). These studies resulted in the formulation of different hypotheses that were aimed at accounting for the diversity and diffusion of the material culture throughout the region (Rostworowsky, 1977; Browman, 1980, 1984; Dillehay and Nuñez, 1988; Sutter, 2000). The most widely accepted hypothesis is the spread of ethnically diverse colonists from the Tiwanaku Empire, which occupied many areas of the Upper Osmore Valley, establishing permanent settlements like Chen Chen and Omo (Goldstein, 2013; Sutter and Sarrat, 2010). Archaeological evidence seems to indicate that the culturally and ethnically diverse Tiwanaku colonists had established relationships with the valley’s indigenous populations (Goldstein, 2013). Conversely, the fewer Wari outposts in the valley, such as Cerro Baul (Nash and Williams, 2005; Williams, 2001), seem not to have instituted cultural relationships with their neighboring communities