Variation in Gunire Wounds by Skeletal Region 441 Case Study 8.2: he Paciic War: A Chilean Soldier Found in Cerro Zig Zag Elsa Tomasto Cagigao Curator of Human Remains National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Peru, Professor, Catholic University of Peru Mellisa Lund, EPAF Assistant Curator of Human Remains National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Peru, Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team In 1879, Peru and Chile fought a war, which culminated in the invasion of the Peruvian territory by Chilean troops in 1880 and the signing of a peace agreement in 1883 (Basadre 1968). In March of 1998, during the construction of a wall in the National Police School located in the outskirts of Cerro Zig Zag, south of Lima, the body of a Chilean soldier was found (Figure 8.34). It had been shallowly buried and carefully disposed of along with part of his possessions: a saber, a bag with pockets, each containing a box of bullets, a poncho beneath the body, and a bag under the head. He also had a notebook in which he described his trip from Chile to Peru and aspects of his last days of life. he body was dressed in a brown jacket, which was not the typical Chilean uniform but had buttons with the Chilean coat of arms, two trousers, a shirt and hide boots. A red scarf knotted on the chin was used to wrap the head, broken into multiple fragments, to keep it together (Figure 8.35). he body was partially mummiied with remains of hair, beard, and moustache due to the dry conditions of the Peruvian coast. he available information indicates that this soldier died in the Battle of San Juan on January 13, 1881. In this battle, the Chilean troops attacked and broke the Peruvian lines defending Lima. Ten thousand soldiers from both sides died in the span of a morning (Basadre 1968; Ortiz 1996). Prior to examination, a full set of radiographs and a total body scan was carried out (Figures 8.36 and 8.37). he soldier, a Caucasian male 35 to 40 years of age at death, was about 1.66 m tall and showed a healed Bennett’s fracture on his right hand suggesting he was right handed, as this kind of fracture occurs more frequently on the dominant hand (Angulo 1995; Galloway 1999). Radiographs showed a heavily fractured skull with an apparent injury on the let side of the frontal bone and some radio densities consistent with metal fragments. Ater recon- struction, the skull showed an oval defect with internal beveling on the let side of the frontal bone (Figure 8.38), between the frontal eminence and the temporal line, 27.4 mm from the supraorbital let arch and 46 mm from the coronal suture. he wound coalesces Figure 8.34 General view of a soldier’s body with the Chilean uniform and poncho beneath the body (Alain Wittmann).