Evolution@Vanderbilt

Research Interests: Dr. Tung is a bioarchaeologist who examines mummies and skeletons from archaeological contexts to evaluate the health and disease status of ancient populations from the Peruvian Andes. Her primary research focuses on the ‘bioarchaeology of imperialism’, which includes the study of paleopathology and violence-related trauma to elucidate the impact of imperialism on community health and lifeways and individual life histories. Her ongoing research in the Peruvian Andes examines how Wari imperial structures (AD 600 – 1000) affected, and were affected by, heartland and hinterland communities, documenting such things as diet and disease, migration patterns, body modification practices, rates of violence, and specific kinds of culturally mediated violence (e.g., warfare, ritual fighting, corporeal punishment, domestic violence).

Keywords: Anthropological bioarchaeology, Andean archaeology, bioarchaeology of states and empires, imperial decline, early Hispanic colonialism, bioarchaeology of slavery in the Americas, skeletal trauma and violence, stable isotope analysis, paleopathology