New Directions in Household Archaeology: Case Studies from the North Coast of Peru

Imagine for a moment that we studied the Mediterranean world, not the north coast of Peru, and that this volume was about the period from AD 200 to 1460 in the Mediterranean world. In this strange parallel universe, archaeologists in the Mediterranean focused almost exclusively on the rise of Christianity. Nearly all of their research was about just one ritual of Christianity, a strange and mysterious ritual involving the transformation of wine and bread into the flesh and blood of the son of God. This ritual was performed only at monumental temples by powerful priests, who were dressed in elaborate