Main Menu NEWS RELEASE
Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu
)
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
12/11/2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES-James Murrell found some recent patients a little more difficult to work with. Murrell, the director of radiologic technology at Northwestern State University, is part of a team working with the Bioanthropology Foundation of Peru to investigate cranial deformation in the Chirabaya Indians.
The Chiribaya culture flourished from 900 1450. They were in the El Algarrobal Valley around Ilo, Peru from 975 -1125 A.D. All artifacts that Murrell's group found were from this time period.
"With great ingenuity, the Chiribaya created a thriving society in one of the harshest environments in the world, the Atacama Desert," said Murrell. "Some areas of this desert have had no recorded rainfall. This arid climate is what helped preserve the bodies and artifacts."
Murrell said the bodies weren't embalmed like the Egyptians or other cultures. The bodies were simply placed in the sand with pottery, food, cocoa leaves and other items, then covered up. Over time the dry sand extracted the body fluids and left the bodies in a dried and often, perfectly preserved state, according to Murrell.
The research was partially funded with a grant of $1,998 from the Council for University Research Incentive Administrators (CURIA) at Northwestern. Murrell plans to continue his work next year.
Murrell was co-team leader of a group that recently excavated mummies then took them to an X-ray lab for investigation.
"We were looking for the deformities in the tribal members and tried to find out how the deformities occurred and why," said Murrell. "We wanted to know if it was based on religious grounds or was it a mark of social status because not all of the tribal members had it."
Murrell was invited to participate in the research Dr. Sonia Guillen, director of the Bioanthropology Foundation of Peru and Rick Carlton, director of the Center for Medical Imaging in Bioanthropology at Arkansas State University.
Guillen is a noted scientist whose work has been featured on the Discovery Channel's "Mummy Roadshow."
"It was an outstanding experience getting to work with people from throughout the United States and South America," said Murrell. " I found that I had a great deal of knowledge I could share with others."
Murrell found the work to be challenging and it gave him knowledge and information he shares with his students at Northwestern.
"In my work, I am accustomed to X-raying an entire body but during this project I was x-raying pieces of a body," he said. "It was a challenge. I am used to seeing bones in a certain way, so I had to figure out where everything else went. The work helped me in my understanding of anatomy, pathology and radiographic technique. I will be able to teach osteology, human anatomy and radiographic positioning more effectively to the radiologic technology students."