The Alto Salaverry child: a case of anemia from the Peruvian preceramic.

Excavations during 1974 at the Peruvian Preceramic site of Alto Salaverry led to the discovery of a child's skeleton. The fragmentary skeleton exhibits cribra orbitalia, a pitting of the orbital roof associated with anemia. This specimen provides the first evidence of anemia in a population of the predominantly non-agricultural Peruvian Preceramic and extends the antiquity of the pathology among Precolumbian Peruvians.