Abstract

Several studies have described the skeletal collections and archaeological findings associated to the Colonial period (16th to 19th centuries) in the current Chilean territory. In this article, we carried out a bibliographic review of the bioarchaeological information from human remains found in 17 sites belonging to this temporal range. This review allowed us to describe broadly the lifestyles, population characteristics and funerary patterns during this period. In this systematization we observed a correlation with the written colonial testimonies, confirming the presence of a population with a precarious health condition, the presence of diverse ancestries and funerary rituals controlled by the Catholic Church. Finally, we reflect on the analytical potential that bioarchaeological remains have to reconstruct the different realities that affected the diverse social actors from the Colonial times in Chile.