Maritime Communities of the Ancient Andes (Society and Ecology in Island and Coastal Archaeology) 081306614X, 9780813066141

Table of contents :
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
CONTENTS
List of Figures
List of Tables
Foreword
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: A Historical Perspective on the Studies of Andean Maritime Communities
Part I. Early Maritime Adaptations (13,000 to 5500 BP)
2. Marine Communities in the Atacama Desert: Masters of the Subtropical Pacific Coast of South America
3. Economic Organization and Social Dynamics of Middle-Holocene Hunter-Gatherer-Fisher Communities on the Coast of the Atacama Desert (Taltal, Northern Chile)
4. The Use and Construction History of Huaca Prieta, North Coast of Peru
Part II. Maritime Communities between 5500 and 2500 BP
5. Changing Complexity in the Norte Chico, 3000–1800 cal BCE
6. Maritime Communities and Coastal Andean Urbanization: Preliminary Insights from Early Horizon Samanco, Nepeña Valley, North-Central Peru
7. The Supply and Consumption of Marine Resources at the Inland Center of Caylán, Coastal Ancash
8. The Fisherman’s Garden: Horticultural Practices in a Second Millennium Maritime Community of the North Coast of Peru
9. The Ethnogenesis of Pescador Identity: The Implications of Biodistance Analyses of Initial Period (1500–1200 BC) Human Remains from Gramalote, Peru, for our Understanding of the Social and Economic Dynamics of Ancient Andean Maritime Communities
Part III. Maritime Communities between 2500 and 600 BP
10. Fisherman, Farmer, Rich Man, Poor Man, Weaver, Parcialidad Chief? Household Archaeology at Cerro la Virgen, a Chimú Town within the Hinterland of Chan Chan
11. Subsistence Economies in Marginal Areas with Natural Constraints: Interactions between Social Dynamics, Natural Resource Management, and Paleoenvironment in the Sechura Desert, Peru
12. Late Prehistoric Maritime Communities in Coastal Ecuador
Part IV. Maritime Communities between 600 and 300 BP
13. Maritime Adaptations at Cerro Azul, Peru: A Comparison of Late Intermediate and Twentieth-Century Fishing
14. El Contrato del Mar: Maritime Subsistence at Carrizales, Zaña Valley, Peru
15. Fish[i]stories: Seafolk of the Northern Peruvian Coast
List of Contributors
Index

Citation preview

Maritime Communities of the Ancient Andes Society and Ecology in Island and Coastal Archaeology

University Press of Florida Florida A&M University, Tallahassee Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers Florida International University, Miami Florida State University, Tallahassee New College of Florida, Sarasota University of Central Florida, Orlando University of Florida, Gainesville University of North Florida, Jacksonville University of South Florida, Tampa University of West Florida, Pensacola

Maritime Communities of the Ancient Andes Edited by

Gabriel Prieto and Daniel H. Sandweiss Foreword by Victor D. Thompson

University Press of Florida Gainesville · Tallahassee · Tampa · Boca Raton Pensacola · Orlando · Miami · Jacksonville · Ft. Myers · Sarasota

Copyright 2020 by Gabriel Prieto and Daniel H. Sandweiss All rights reserved Published in the United States of America This book may be available in an electronic edition. 25 24 23 22 21 20

6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Prieto, Gabriel, editor. | Sandweiss, Daniel H., editor. | Thompson, Victor D., author of foreword. Title: Maritime communities of the ancient Andes / edited by Gabriel Prieto and Daniel H. Sandweiss ; foreword by Victor D. Thompson. Other titles: Society and ecology in island and coastal archaeology. Description: Gainesville : University Press of Florida, [2020] | Series: Society and ecology in island and coastal archaeology | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019002017 | ISBN 9780813066141 (cloth : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Underwater archaeology—Andes Region. | Coastal archaeology—Andes Region. Classification: LCC CC77.U5 M3672 2019 | DDC 930.1028/04—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019002017 The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the State University System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida.

University Press of Florida 2046 NE Waldo Road Suite 2100 Gainesville, FL 32609 http://upress.ufl.edu

Contents

ist of Figures vii L List of Tables xi Foreword xiii Acknowledgments xvii 1. Introduction: A Historical Perspective on the Studies of Andean Maritime Communities 1 Gabriel Prieto and Daniel H. Sandweiss

Part I. Early Maritime Adaptations (13,000 to 5500 BP) 2. Marine Communities in the Atacama Desert: Masters of the Subtropical Pacific Coast of South America 39 Calogero M. Santoro, Victoria Castro, Chris Carter, and Daniela Valenzuela

3. Economic Organization and Social Dynamics of Middle-Holocene Hunter-Gatherer-Fisher Communities on the Coast of the Atacama Desert (Taltal, Northern Chile) 74 Diego Salazar, Carola Flores, César Borie, Laura Olguín, Sandra Rebolledo, Manuel Escobar, and Ariadna Cifuentes

4. The Use and Construction History of Huaca Prieta, North Coast of Peru 101 Tom D. Dillehay

Part II. Maritime Communities between 5500 and 2500 BP 5. Changing Complexity in the Norte Chico, 3000–1800 cal BCE 131 Winifred Creamer and Jonathan Haas

6. Maritime Communities and Coastal Andean Urbanization: Preliminary Insights from Early Horizon Samanco, Nepeña Valley, North-Central Peru 165 Matthew Helmer

7. The Supply and Consumption of Marine Resources at the Inland Center of Caylán, Coastal Ancash 188 David Chicoine, Carol Rojas, Víctor Vásquez, and Teresa Rosales

8. The Fisherman’s Garden: Horticultural Practices in a Second Millennium Maritime Community of the North Coast of Peru 218 Gabriel Prieto

9. The Ethnogenesis of Pescador Identity: The Implications of Biodistance Analyses of Initial Period (1500–1200 BC) Human Remains from Gramalote, Peru, for our Understanding of the Social and Economic Dynamics of Ancient Andean Maritime Communities 247 Richard C. Sutter and Gabriel Prieto

Part III. Maritime Communities between 2500 and 600 BP 10. Fisherman, Farmer, Rich Man, Poor Man, Weaver, Parcialidad Chief? Household Archaeology at Cerro la Virgen, a Chimú Town within the Hinterland of Chan Chan 267 Brian R. Billman, Dana Bardolph, Jean Hudson, and Jesús Briceño Rosario

11. Subsistence Economies in Marginal Areas with Natural Constraints: Interactions between Social Dynamics, Natural Resource Management, and Paleoenvironment in the Sechura Desert, Peru 301 Nicolas Goepfert, Philippe Béarez, Aurélien Christol, Patrice Wuscher, and Belkys Gutiérrez

12. Late Prehistoric Maritime Communities in Coastal Ecuador 318 Karen E. Stothert, Maria Masucci, and Benjamin Carter

Part IV. Maritime Communities between 600 and 300 BP 13. Maritime Adaptations at Cerro Azul, Peru: A Comparison of Late Intermediate and Twentieth-Century Fishing 351 Joyce Marcus, Kent V. Flannery, Jeffrey Sommer, and Robert G. Reynolds

14. El Contrato del Mar: Maritime Subsistence at Carrizales, Zaña Valley, Peru 366 Parker VanValkenburgh, Sarah Kennedy, Carol Rojas, and Gabriel Hassler

15. Fish[i]stories: Seafolk of the Northern Peruvian Coast 397 Susan Elizabeth Ramírez

ist of Contributors 425 L Index 435

Figures

2.1. Coast of northern Chile from Ilo to Los Vilos 40 2.2. Habitat at the exorheic basin of Caleta Vitor Bay 42 2.3. The southern abrupt endorheic coastal section (corresponding to the Huentelauquén cultural zone), from El Loa Basin to Los Vilos Bay 43 2.4. Choromytilus chorus circular stem shell fishhook, harpoons and potera, and vivid depiction of large marine specimens caught from small watercraft and terrestrial hunting at El Médano, north of Taltal 49 2.5. Human inhumation at Copaca 58 3.1. The Arid Coast of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile 75 3.2. Archaeological sites close to Morro Colorado 78 3.3. Early Middle Holocene specialized technology for extracting and processing marine and coastal resources 84 3.4. Late Middle Holocene lithic artifact known as “Taltaloid blades” which required high labor investment but whose functional utility remains unclear 91 3.5. Rock art at the El Médano site 92 4.1. Location map of the Huaca Prieta site in the lower Chicama Valley, Peru 102 4.2. View of the Huaca Prieta mound from the east 103 4.3. Topographic map of the Huaca Prieta and Paredones sites showing the location of excavation units 105 4.4. Late Preceramic textile from Huaca Prieta dated between 5000 and 4500 BP 109

viii · Figures

4.5. Decorative style on etched gourds from Paredones, radiocarbon dating between 6000 and 4000 BP 109 4.6. Detailed stratigraphic profile of the south wall of Bird’s HP-3 trench showing layers, floors, and stone footings 113 4.7. Chamber tomb made of cobblestones and dating to Phase 4 119 4.8. View of Preceramic house mound near wetlands north of Huaca Prieta 121 4.9. View of the late Preceramic stone architectural structures in the sunken plaza of the “looter’s hole” 122 5.1. Map of Norte Chico showing Late Archaic sites 132 5.2. Circle of monoliths at the base of the central staircase, Caballete 134 5.3. Excavated permanent structure at Caballete 135 5.4. View of Bandurria showing extensive shell midden 141 5.5. Theissen polygon analysis of Norte Chico mound sites 150 5.6. Schematic of pyramid and circular court indicating different levels of access 154 6.1. Map of Nepeña Valley, coastal Ancash, Peru 167 6.2. General map of Samanco’s standing architecture, topography, and features 170 6.3. East Samanco 173 6.4. Central Samanco 175 6.5. Isometric reconstruction of the excavated Compound 3 patio group at Samanco 175 7.1. Photograph of the urban core of Caylán 189 7.2. Map showing test pits and block excavations of Caylán 193 7.3. Photograph of floor scatter contexts with faunal remains and other trash from Compound-E (UE6) 194 7.4. Photographs of bone tools 197 7.5. Butchering marks on osteological remains 204 8.1. Map of the Moche Valley 225 8.2. Fishing gear recovered at Gramalote 225 8.3. Present-day marshlands around the Gramalote site 226 8.4. Macrobotanical remains recovered at Gramalote 229

Figures · ix

8.5. Modern fisherman from Huanchaco 234 8.6. Lithic tools (hoes) associated with agricultural activities found at Gramalote 239 9.1. The 2-dimensional multidimensional scaling solution using the R-matrix derived biodistances for Gramalote and 18 comparative prehistoric Andean skeletal samples 257 10.1. Map of the Moche Valley with relevant sites 268 10.2. Plan map of architectural compounds at Cerro la Virgen 269 10.3. Photo of the “island” created by illegal quarrying at Cerro la Virgen 278 10.4. Photo and profile drawing of XU 18 279 10.5. Box plots of densities and standardized counts of plant remains by category 284 11.1. Map of the Sechura Desert 302 11.2. Structures composed by beach rocks and posts used as screens 305 11.3. Excavation of the midden 308 11.4. Profiles of pit 1 excavated in the midden 309 11.5. Ceramic artifacts 311 12.1. The Atacames River region 320 12.2. Chanduy Valley, Santa Elena area 324 12.3. Stratigraphic excavations at El Cangrejito site 328 12.4. Spondylus shell fragments found at El Cangrejito site 329 12.5. Large earthen platform at the site of Mar Bravo 334 12.6. Mar Bravo radiocarbon dates 335 13.1. Boats for artisanal fishing 353 13.2. A 130-km stretch of the south-central Peruvian coast 354 14.1. Location of the Zaña Valley and the surveyed areas in this research 373 14.2. Preceramic Period settlements 375 14.3. Early Intermediate Period settlements 376 14.4. Late Intermediate and Post-Reducción settlements 378 14.5. Surface ceramic density, architecture, and excavations, Conjunto 123 380

x · Figures

14.6. Orthophoto of base of unit 123-007, assembled from pole aerial photographs 381 14.7. Comparison of fish consumption between Late Prehispanic and Colonial sites 385 14.8. Mammal, bird, and reptile presence and absence at Carrizales site 386 14.9. Prehispanic size frequency of Paralonchorus peruanus during Prehispanic and Colonial times 388

Tables

3.1. Frequency of minimum number of individuals of fish and mollusk species during the Early Middle Holocene 80 5.1. Macrobotanical remains from Late Archaic sites 137 5.2. Pollen from cultivated plant species 138 5.3. Coprolite analysis 145 6.1. Principal Samanco structures with size data 169 7.1. Absolute and relative frequencies for the number of identified specimens of fish remains per context at Caylán 199 7.2. Absolute and relative frequencies for the number of identified specimens of bird remains per context at Caylán 202 7.3. Absolute and relative frequencies for the number of identified specimens of mammal remains per context at Caylán 204 7.4. Anatomical parts of the camelid remains at Caylán 205 7.5. Absolute and relative frequencies for the number of identified specimens of the different vertebrate taxa per context at Caylán 207 8.1. NISP values of macrobotanical remains found at Gramalote 228 8.2. Microbotanical remains found at Gramalote 231 9.1. Information regarding the 19 prehistoric Andean skeletal samples examined by this study 252 9.2. Mahalanobis d2 values for the 19 prehistoric Andean skeletal samples examined by this study 254 10.1. Inventory and summary quantification of plants identified at Cerro la Virgen 281 10.2. Vertebrate taxa identified at Cerro la Virgen 286 10.3. Inventory of invertebrates identified at Cerro la Virgen 289

xii · Tables

12.1. Radiocarbon dates of the Cangrejito sites 327 13.1. Numbers of identified fish bones from two Late Intermediate middens at Cerro Azul 361 14.1. Calibrated radiocarbon dates from Conjunto 125 382 14.2. Fish species recovered in Conjunto 125 and Carrizales sites 384 15.1. North Coast fisherfolk mentioned in ethnohistoric sources 398 15.2. Fishing populations 405 15.3. Tenure status of lords, lineages, and ethnic groups 410 15.4. Fishermen who traded 411

Foreword

Nowhere in the world are coastal resources so intimately tied to archaeological ideas regarding the emergence and functioning of the state and complex polities than along the Andean coast. And, in fact, recent scholarship shows that the exploitation of marine resources goes far back in time some thousands of years before the first states would develop in the region. In this volume, Prieto and Sandweiss bring together an international group of scholars to discuss the nature of maritime adaptations and its influence on social, economic, and political histories along the Pacific Coast of South America. What these researchers collectively demonstrate is that maritime adaptations permeated the South American coastal landscape and had farranging implications for how individuals constructed their identities, as well as the development and functioning of large polities. These chapters will once again bring these issues not only to the forefront of South American archaeology, but also to those who are interested in the role of maritime resources and how they articulate with trajectories of complex societies. While early researchers, such as Max Uhle and Junius Bird, recognized the importance of maritime resources, it was Mike Moseley who in 1975 first formalized their role in his now-famous proposal, the “Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization” (MFAC). In one way, shape, or form, each of the chapters revisits this idea, adding new depth, nuance, and understanding to the role that coastal areas played in the long-term trajectories of Andean societies. These narratives are interwoven within some of the major environmental conditions and processes that take center stage along the Andean coastline by affecting the availability of resources in the region. These include the hyperarid coastal deserts that flank the coastline of South America’s west coast and the Humboldt Current, with its coldwater upwelling resulting in one of the world’s most productive ecosystems. Also, of central importance to many of the chapters is the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the periodic, albeit irregular, variation in the warming

xiv · Foreword

of the eastern Pacific Ocean that causes balmy wind and water to increase the temperature of western Pacific waters, resulting in a disruption in the kinds of resources and weather conditions experienced along the coast. Drawing on the history of ideas related to MFAC, the authors in this volume expand its scope and provide some broader contextualization and new ideas for the patterns and processes of coastal life along the Andes. Prieto and Sandweiss set out this agenda nicely in their introduction and a history of the research in the region. Organized geographically and more or less chronologically, the chapters that follow walk the reader through some of the key transitions that coastal communities experienced prior to and after contact with European groups during the time of Spanish Colonization. Among the broader themes that are considered by almost every author in the volume is how maritime resources articulated with population growth and the Neolithization of coastal societies. The Neolithic, a term familiar to most European archaeologists, and increasingly used in the Americas, describes the process by which groups shifted to an economy that was dominated by domesticated plants and animals. This shift among groups in areas such as the Near East and over much of Europe is thought to also be accompanied by the construction of monumental architecture and shifting identities, as social and economic networks were reframed in the light of these new landscape features and resources. While such transitions never come in such neat packets of traits (for example, domestic plants, monuments, and so forth), the archaeology of the coastal Andes seems to complicate such ideas that have permeated much of archaeological scholarship. In case after case in this volume, we see that the driver of many of the shifts in cultural traditions, which we associate elsewhere with a Neolithic economy, instead has its foundation in maritime resources. Monumentality and the construction of labor-intensive architecture and the attendant social relationships fostered by such constructions is another broader theme that the work in this volume sheds additional light on. Archaeologists now have a better understanding of the emergence of monumental architecture; however, the new research in this volume, especially at Huaca Prieta, illustrates the early manifestations of such traditions in the region. It is now clear that the peoples of the Andean coast were among the first to experiment with monumental constructions in the Americas. This and other early preceramic sites on the north coast of Peru appear to evidence a level of mound building and social complexity supported mainly by maritime resources. Regional work in the area suggests too that during

Foreword · xv

the Late Preceramic Period a series of exchange networks emerged, linking both larger and smaller regions in broader interaction spheres, which presaged the rise of regional polities. Archaeologists are keenly aware of the complexities of identity formation and how it is influenced not only by daily practices, but also by the larger networks and relationships that individuals are engaged in and subsumed by during the course of their lives. Many of the chapters in this volume deal directly with the idea that life by the sea and dependence on maritime resources factored heavily in the construction of identity during both Prehispanic times and Colonial entanglements. Many of the authors in the volume directly link their discussions of the idea of a “fishing” identity to the role of these communities in the development and functioning of larger polities. This is an important perspective as it moves away from the idea that such communities were on the margins of polities or pawns of inland settlements, a lesson that can be transplanted in other locations where coastal settlements are integrated into regional systems that include inland and maritime groups. How communities dealt with large-scale climate and environmental change is perhaps the most pervasive theme considered by the authors of this volume. While to some extent or another, all of the authors consider what it means to live in a region dominated by extremes, the latter chapters deal with some of the specific variations experienced by these groups who depended upon the waters that were subject to the winds of change. One of the things that becomes apparent in this research is that we are beginning to have a clearer conception of how climate shifts, such as how ENSO affected the availability of resources differently in different regions along the coast. Also clear is that coastal communities had the ability to deal with these shifts and had a deep awareness of how resources could be affected by such events. Thus, the picture that rises from these studies is of a resilience to the variations that could crop up in these environments. Such work adds to a growing body of research around the world that is investigating similar questions among both past and contemporary coastal and island populations. This volume, as a whole, represents a significant addition to the literature centering on island and coastal archaeology. With chapters by both renowned and younger scholars, this work goes beyond the question of social complexity and focuses on the processes and dynamics of economic interactions among fishing communities for more than 12,000 years. While

xvi · Foreword

in many respects the work done in this region has always had an underlying maritime focus, research by these scholars brings this research as a collective effort to a broader global audience. In sum, the united strength of this volume is that it brings all the variation in both time and space of how Andean communities linked to the sea and its resources, which will be of value to scholars around the world. Victor D. Thompson Series Editor

Acknowledgments

The editors are deeply thankful to all the contributors of this volume. Thanks to Angiolina Abugattas who has helped us through the editing process of the texts. Finally, our special thanks to Brian Billman, CEO of Moche INC, who provided financial support to finish the editing process of this volume.

1 Introduction A Historical Perspective on the Studies of Andean Maritime Communities

Gabriel Prieto and Daniel H. Sandweiss

The present edited volume is the outcome of a symposium held in 2014 in Austin, Texas, during the 79th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This symposium was organized by Gabriel Prieto, at the time a graduate student at Yale University, and Daniel H. Sandweiss from the University of Maine, an archaeologist who studies fishing settlements along the coast of Peru. Entitled “New Perspectives on the Social Dynamics and Economic Interactions of Andean Maritime Communities,” the goal of this symposium was to provide an updated overview of current archaeological research in coastal sites of western South America from different regions and periods. Scholars from Chile, Peru, Ecuador, the United States, and France congregated to discuss various aspects based on their ongoing research projects. Both early career and senior scholars had the chance to express their views on how and why the study of maritime adaptations is so important to understanding the emergence, consolidation, and collapse of Prehispanic civilizations in this region. The symposium also included two presentations dealing with the period of contact between locals and the Spanish conquistadors. Thirteen presentations were read and later discussed by Sandweiss, who emphasized the importance of how current research done in maritime settlements is using different approaches besides mere subsistence practices or technological aspects—but also that our archaeological predecessors carried out important studies that pointed the way toward current understandings and directions in coastal research. In some sense, this symposium and volume constitute an update on a 1986 SAA session titled “Maritime Foundations: Preceramic Subsistence and

2 · Gabriel Prieto and Daniel H. Sandweiss

Society on the Andean Coast,” organized by Sandweiss and partially published as a thematic section in Andean Past (Sandweiss 1992). Can we go beyond the classic “primary producers” framework in which fishermen have been encapsulated and understand their culture and settlements as part of maritime communities embedded in social, economic, and ideological dynamics? The present volume is an attempt to study Andean Maritime Communities (AMC) from broader perspectives and build on earlier attempts (for example, Moseley 1975, 1992; Quilter 1992) to go beyond mere subsistence practices or technological aspects related to these cultures. In this effort, the editors believe that the study of coastal societies along the entire Pacific coast of South America is critical to understanding these societies as a whole. The South American coastline was one of the main corridors for human mobility since the late Pleistocene Period (for example, Dillehay et al. 2008; Dillehay 2017). Therefore, it is not surprising that some of the earliest settlements yet discovered in this region are located along the shoreline (Sandweiss 2014). Unfortunately, not all of the early coast is still available for study. Thanks to the pioneering studies of James B. Richardson III, we can anticipate that several, perhaps many, early sites along the Andean coast were submerged by postglacial sea level rise and are no longer accessible to us (Richardson 1981). Richardson also pointed out that we are most likely to find surviving early maritime sites where the continental shelf is steepest and narrowest. This strategy led to the discovery of sites, such as the Ring Site, Quebrada Jaguay, and Quebrada Tacahuay, that demonstrated a Terminal Pleistocene origin for Andean fishing (Sandweiss et al. 1989, 1998; Keefer et al. 1998; Sandweiss 2014). We do not have enough space here to describe in detail all previous research done on Andean maritime communities, but it is worth mentioning Moseley’s pioneering proposal that the maritime economy was one of the prime movers for the emergence of Andean civilization (Moseley 1975, 1992; Moseley and Feldman 1988). Moseley was interested not only in subsistence and technology, but also “food, laws, tools, and people” as he titled Chapter 4 of The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization (Moseley 1975). Here, he presaged interest in topics, such as corporate authority, jural rights, and human ecodynamics (human-environment interaction), that have come to the fore in more recent years. In brief review, the archaeological study of Andean Maritime Communities in the Central Andes can be traced back to the beginning of the twentieth century. The first issue of the journal of the Peruvian National Museum had an article written by Max Uhle about the prehistoric fishermen

A Historical Perspective on the Studies of Andean Maritime Communities · 3

of the Peruvian central coast (Uhle 1906). Since then, a number of scholars have devoted significant attention to the importance of the sea in ancient Prehispanic societies. These studies have focused on marine iconography and ideology (McClelland 1990; Morgan 1988), watercraft and fishing technology (Lothrop 1932; Means 1942; Edwards 1965); diet and protein input provided by marine products (Quilter 1989; Moseley 1975); and climatic changes that have been affecting fishermen populations since the Pleistocene Epoch (Lanning 1967; Richardson and Sandweiss 2008). More complete overviews of maritime communities have been published in a number of books and reports as well as specialized papers by Daniel H. Sandweiss and Joyce Marcus among others (Sandweiss 1992, 1996, 2014; Marcus 1987a, 1987b; Marcus 2008). Historically, we can establish two main stages for the study of fisheries on the Andean coast and their importance in the formation of complex societies in this region. The first stage can be associated with the Virú Valley Project in northern Peru and its implications for determining the antiquity of the residents in this part of the Andes. While the problem of fishermen has been widely discussed in Peruvian archaeology since its origins (Uhle 1906), it was not until the discoveries made by Junius Bird, first in Chile (Bird 1943) and then at Huaca Prieta (Bird 1948, 1963, Bird et al. 1985), that the important role these groups played in the prehistoric Andes began to be understood. Bird’s work suggested that the inhabitants of Huaca Prieta constituted a society that predated Chavín, which had not yet adopted the use of ceramics but which had developed sophisticated textiles and an economy based on a mixed diet that emphasized marine products. It is important, however, not to marginalize the consumption of agricultural and wild products from the valleys; in fact, the inhabitants of Huaca Prieta were once proposed as the earliest farmers in the Americas (Bird 1948). The effect caused by the discoveries at Huaca Prieta motivated other researchers such as Edward Lanning and Frédéric Engel (for example, 1957) to conduct extensive archaeological surveys and excavations that subsequently identified a variety of new early coastal sites associated with hunter-gatherers and fishermen. One of the most significant was the site of Pampa de Santo Domingo where Engel recorded remains of fishing nets made of sedge fibers with an approximate age of 8830 BC (uncalibrated dates). The residents of this site exploited marine resources, which formed the basis of their diet, but also utilized some plant products such as fruits, capsicums (peppers), and some tubers (Engel 1976, 1988). In fact, Engel recovered a significant amount of archaeological data that are not yet well studied. His extensive

4 · Gabriel Prieto and Daniel H. Sandweiss

research along most of the Peruvian coast needs to be systematized and reevaluated, and his collections reorganized. He discovered many maritime sites (for instance, Quebrada Jaguay) and recognized some of the most impressive archaeological contexts related to fishing communities, such as the massive sites of El Paraíso, Río Seco, and Las Aldas (Engel 1957, 1960, 1970). Edward Lanning (1967) made one of the earliest theoretical contributions to explain the mechanisms by which social complexity arose in the Andes. He postulated that the drying out of areas with fog-based lomas vegetation produced a change in the subsistence economies of the communities of hunters and gatherers. The limited resources of the desiccated hills motivated the exploitation of the abundant marine products, which in turn created the necessary conditions for these groups to develop more complex forms of social and political organization. By that time, Frédéric Engel had proposed the timeline of a Preceramic Period without Cotton, followed by a Preceramic Period with Cotton. The importance of this separation was that in the latter period, people developed new technologies, mainly based on fishing nets made from cotton fibers, which optimized the extraction yield with less effort (Beresford-Jones et al. 2018). Later, Thomas Patterson (1971) followed Lanning’s earlier ideas to propose that the shift from nomadic hunter-gatherers based on lomas exploitation to sedentary fishermen was caused by an increase in population as a consequence of the higher nutritional level provided by maritime resources, and subsequently, these early groups overexploited some of the resources of the terrestrial habitats like the lomas of Ancón (Patterson 1971: 201). Here, Patterson states very clearly that this situation might be true only for the Peruvian central coast and he argued that we might expect to find distinct situations in different regions such as the south and north coasts of Peru. Michael Moseley built on Lanning’s and Patterson’s work through excavations in Preceramic sites in the Ancón-Chillón region of Peru’s central coast, resulting in his 1968 dissertation at Harvard. In his 1975 book, based on the dissertation, Moseley proposed his famous “Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization”(or MFAC) hypothesis, which states that marine products, thanks to their abundance and easy availability, prompted the emergent forms of social organization and economic basis that began with Late Preceramic centers such as El Paraíso and Aspero; this subsequently led to the large Initial Period centers such as La Florida in the Rimac Valley and then the agricultural states of the Early Intermediate and Late Intermediate periods. From Moseley’s perspective, coastal societies emphasized the production and exploitation of marine resources, rather than agricultural

A Historical Perspective on the Studies of Andean Maritime Communities · 5

production that was traditionally associated with the emergence of complex societies as seen, for instance, in the Middle East (Childe 1925). At the same time, Moseley acknowledged the role of farming in early maritime lifeways, although principally as a source of the “industrial” crops: cotton and gourd used for nets, textiles, floats, and containers. In subsequent iterations of the maritime hypothesis, Moseley more explicitly recognized the importance of agriculture as an essential counterpoint to fishing, pointing to the need for plant-based carbohydrates and other nutrients as well industrial plants (Moseley and Feldman 1988; Moseley 1992; Sandweiss 2009). Moseley was innovative in the anthropological sciences by establishing a new theory that explained the emergence of complex societies based on the exploitation of marine products, especially the abundant schools of anchovies and sardines in the Peruvian sea (Moseley and Feldman 1988). It is interesting to contextualize what Moseley proposed from two angles: one theoretical and the other circumstantial. In 1970 Robert Carneiro published his famous article in Science on “A Theory of the Origin of the State.” It proposed that the emergence of complex forms of social organization were due to the effect of environmental circumscription resulting from a lack of farmland. Under this situation, increasing population exceeded local “carrying capacity” and caused stress on production in these areas. The pressure on resources and their proper handling resulted in the emergence of the first complex forms of social organization (Carneiro 1970: 169). Later, Patterson (1971) was the first to apply Carneiro’s model for the Central Andean region. Following this perspective, Moseley (1975: 57) emphasized Patterson’s argument that population pressure (instead of the climatic causes proposed by Lanning) caused the depletion of the lomas resources. Loss of lomas in turn forced people to seek more stable sources of supply, ones which demanded a minimum investment of time and effort. In his view, the abundance of marine resources led to the transition from lomas exploitation to an economy based on fishing specialization. Thus, the growing coastal population could find a steady source of subsistence products. The abundance of resources allowed the development of the first surplus production and thereby the emergence of political leaders, the construction of monumental architecture, and so on. In this process, the pressure on resources was one of the main arguments of Moseley’s theory, in which the influence of Carneiro and Patterson is evident. Moseley developed his idea during the boom of industrial fishing in Peru. During the decade of the 1960s and 1970s, Peru became one of the

6 · Gabriel Prieto and Daniel H. Sandweiss

world’s leading producers of fishmeal and fish oil obtained from indiscriminate fishing of anchovies and sardines, two species critical to the maintenance of food chains in this part of the Pacific Ocean. The most intense fishing was in the area between the valleys of Supe in the south and Virú to the north. This area was just north of the sites Moseley used in his original 1975 proposal about the process of social complexity, in which the beginning of monumental architecture indicated the emergence of chiefdoms and pristine states. In subsequent versions (Moseley and Feldman 1988), he extended the region almost to Virú based on the presence of Late Preceramic monumental sites that far north. The second step in the research on fisheries in the Prehispanic Andes can be subdivided into two parallel processes. On the one hand, Maria Rostworowski used ethnohistoric sources to study the nature of Andean fishermen (Rostworowski 1975, 1981, 1989). Spanish chronicles from the Colonial Period and the study of documents (judgments, testaments, idolatries processes, and so on) from the archives in Lima, Trujillo, Lambayeque, and Piura in Peru and from the “Archivo General de Indias” in Seville, Spain, provided a corpus sufficiently strong to establish some generalizations about the fishing communities of the Peruvian coast. Rostworowski’s pioneering work was complemented by two important (but, sadly, unpublished) dissertations, by Patricia Netherly (1977) and Elizabeth Hart (1983). The data gathered from ethnohistorical sources comprised: (1) the specialization of fishermen and coastal residents in general, who developed a system of exchange based on what they produced; (2) patterns of endogamy in fishermen populations, (3) religious beliefs associated with the cult of birds, and (4) technology for the extraction and processing of marine resources. The concept of specialization among the fishermen is one of the most significant contributions of Rostworowski in this field. She cited testimony from many fishermen from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries to the effect that because they had no land, they were therefore not subject to a labor tax in farming activities or the annual operations of cleaning irrigation canals. Many of the testimonies offered by Rostworowski emphasize that coastal inhabitants were dedicated only to fishing and then selling or exchanging their marine products. Some years later, Susan Ramirez analyzed documentary sources for the Moche and Chicama valleys and found direct references to the fishermen who had no land but only had the sea to supply food, and who owned herds of llamas to transport their products for exchange with other populations (Ramirez 1995; but see also Ramirez, this volume; compare VanValkenburgh et al., this volume). As a consequence of

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this increase in ethnohistorical studies of Andean fishermen, there was an interest in testing ethnohistorical models through archaeological research. Archaeologists used this theoretical framework of economic complementarity between specialized fishermen and specialized farmers on the Andean coast, in contrast to the then-popular verticality model proposed by John Murra (2002) for the Andean highlands. In the 1980s, Joyce Marcus conducted excavations at the Late Intermediate Period (circa AD 1300–1470) and Late Horizon (circa AD 1470–1540) site of Cerro Azul in the Cañete valley, to test the ethnohistorical theoretical framework of specialized fishermen (Marcus 1987a, 1987b). Marcus concluded that Cerro Azul was the settlement of a small coastal state under whose aegis an interdependent network of fishing, farming, and craft communities could be administered (Marcus 1987a: 108). She proposed that the site controlled the exploitation and processing of sun-dried fish, specifically anchovies and sardines (Marcus 1987b). These small fish have an oily meat that is appreciated even today in inland valley towns and in highland towns of the Andes as a supplement to their diet (Majluf et al. 2017). Marcus’ excavations did not find fishhooks, but did find three types (sizes) of fish nets, which were probably used for the selective capture of fish species such as anchovies and sardines (Marcus 1987a, 1987b). Finally, Marcus observed an unexpected situation not seen in the ethnohistorical documentation. It appears that this specialization was initiated and directed from the top down, and it seems that Cerro Azul had been selected for the development of large-scale production of dried fish late in the archaeological sequence (Marcus 1987b: 400). However, her excavations were concentrated on the elite compounds, and it is possible that a lower class fishing community is located in the surrounding areas along the Cañete coast. To better understand fishing specialization in the Andes, Sandweiss (1992) directed an archaeological project at the site of Lo Demás in the neighboring Chincha valley, along the south central coast of Perú, at the same time as the Cerro Azul project. Lo Demás is a natural and elongated plateau next to the shoreline, which was identified as a Prehispanic fishing community. Sandweiss focused his research on testing two models derived from ethnohistoric sources. Model I is based on the ethnohistorical information provided by Rostworowski (1970) who found the well-known “Aviso” document (“Aviso de el modo que havia en el govierno de las indios en tiempo del inga y como se repartian las tierras y tributos”/“Notice of the way it was in the government of the Indians in the time of the Inka and how the lands and tributes were distributed”). This document provided a

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detailed description of the area of Chincha and the specialized activities of its inhabitants. According to the “Aviso,” the Chincha Valley was inhabited by three major groups divided by specialized occupation: the farmers, the fishermen, and the merchants. Thus, Sandweiss expected under Model I that a fishing settlement should be geographically discrete and should contain evidence only for fishing subsistence/practices. Additionally, the family would have been the basic unit of production. Under Model I, the fishing families also had their own lords, so the fishing settlement should include both elite and commoner sectors. Model II is similar to Model I, but is broadened to include the more extensive ethnohistorical information from the north coast of Peru (Rostworowski 1989; Hart 1983). The main difference is that fishing lords had attached specialists (people with a particular craft or practice who worked directly for the lord) (Sandweiss 1992: 16). Sandweiss concluded that archaeological data from Lo Demás suggest that ethnohistoric Model II applies to the Chincha fishermen elite groups, and that Model I applies best to nonelite members of the specialized groups although they, too, had part- or full-time nonfishing specialists (Sandweiss 1992: 145). However, it is important to mention that Sandweiss proposed, at least for the Late Horizon, that fishermen were also making their own tools (needles, nets, reed boats, and so on) and that they were possibly cultivating or encouraging stands of the plant resources needed for these tools (cotton, gourds, and totora reeds). Despite the fact that these conclusions are only applicable to the case of the Late Intermediate Period and Late Horizon—fishing communities of the south central coast of Peru (specifically Chincha and Cañete valleys), some scholars generalized and applied these models to other regions of the Central Andean coast. Use of ethnohistoric data from the north coast (Rostworowski 1970, 1989; Hart 1983) to supplement the Aviso for Chincha provides some justification for this approach. The generalizations drawn from one region and from one period in particular (especially the Late Intermediate Period and Late Horizon) have also been overextended to earlier periods of Peruvian prehistory. Perhaps for this reason, until recently there was little attention to social dynamics or initiative among earlier Andean maritime communities. In 1996, Sandweiss made a preliminary attempt to assess aspects of the Late Horizon specialized model through time using archaeological data. He wrote (54): I have focused on the evidence for specialization because of the startling degree to which specialized fishing groups were integrated into

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the complex societies of late Prehispanic coastal Peru, but in terms of the developmental sequence, the identification and role of specialization is far from resolved. We have only sporadic and inconclusive evidence concerning mobility, yet this is a key question in assessing specialization: if the coastal fisher-gatherers were also inland huntergatherers at a different time of year, then they can hardly be called specialists, even incipient ones. Only when the fisherpeople made a living from the ocean on a year-round basis can we consider specialization to be operative. The scarce anthropological research done on contemporaneous modern traditional Andean maritime communities (for example, Hammel and Haase 1962; Gillin 1947; Sabella 1974; Schaedel 1989) means that scholars do not have a body of ethnographic data to create theoretical frameworks to explain kinship and status systems within these groups, their economic milieu, and their diverse patterns of maritime production and exploitation. Finally, there has never been a systematic comparison of the AMC with other similar societies throughout the world. The chapters here presented demonstrate that the situation in different time periods, regions, and even spatially close maritime communities was dynamic and heterogeneous. From the perspective of these chapters, the study of Andean Maritime Communities is now focused on issues such as the composition of fishermen’s households and the impact of ideological and religious phenomena, or on questions such as their differences in terms of social complexity, technological achievements, and maritime production. The following pages summarize the information presented in each chapter. Because of regional research trajectories and individual preferences, dating schemes vary from paper to paper. We have tried to define named periods in terms of approximate calendrical age. The final paragraphs draw some brief conclusions from the studies included in this volume. Chapter Summaries

Calogero M. Santoro, Victoria Castro, Chris Carter, and Daniela Valenzuela (Chapter 2) review and analyze maritime-adapted communities on the southernmost coast of Peru and the north coast of Chile, from Ilo, Peru (17° S), to Copiapó, Chile (27° S). The entire region is hyperarid, but availability of water decreases to the south due in part to a latitudinal gradient

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in the highland precipitation that feeds the rivers and the groundwater resources that reach the coast. The authors divide their region into two sections, characterizing the north section (17°–21° S) as the exorheic coast, in which some rivers reach the shore, and the south section (21°–27° S) as the arheic coast, which has no rivers descending to the coast. In this chapter, Santoro and colleagues use sites at Caleta Vitor (9,500 cal BP through the Inca occupation) to represent the exorheic coast, while sites around Copaca Bay represent the arheic coast; for the arheic coast, the chapter mainly describes the Middle Archaic (7100 to 5200 cal BP) occupation at Copaca, but uses data from the adjacent Taltal region to the south (see Salazar et al., Chapter 3) to suggest earlier adaptations to the region and refers briefly to later prehistoric occupations. For both the exorheic and arheic coast, Santoro and colleagues present archaeological evidence to support their contention that subsistence did not change much over time—the vast majority of food resources in this section of the South American littoral are maritime, and that was the basis for Caleta Vitor and Copaca. The technological and social systems for extracting marine resources did change through the long occupation of the region. The authors track the introduction of netting, hooks of different materials, and harpoons, along with indirect evidence (pelagic fish, rock art) for the appearance of boats in Copaca by about 4500 cal BP and in Caleta Vitor in the subsequent Formative Period. Despite the distance and difficult travel to inland communities, both sectors have evidence of interaction with nearer inland and more distant highland communities, beginning in the Archaic Period after 6000 cal BP and particularly along the arheic coast. The pace of exchange for both sectors picks up in the Formative Period with the appearance of agricultural produce and domesticated animals on the coast. In the Late Horizon (Inca period) at Caleta Vitor, maize increases but stable isotopes show that the diet remained predominantly marine. The abundance of camelid dung coupled with a paucity of camelid bones suggests that these animals were used as transport but not as food. Caleta Vitor is located at the mouth of a canyon, while Copaca is not. This may explain the greater emphasis on high trophic-level marine food at the latter site, given that plant foods and other inland resources had to travel over 100 km by land, although water transport along the coast is also possible. Despite this isolation, foreign objects appear here by 2000 cal BP and show an exchange network with inland groups, a development that happened earlier at Caleta Vitor.

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Complex treatment of the dead beginning in the Archaic Period and the construction of tumuli in the Formative Period offer insight into social and ideological aspects of the maritime communities of northern Chile. Although for much of prehistory, funerary arrangements in the region do not suggest large social differences in terms of differential elaboration of tombs or grave goods, in the latest periods the influx of inland prestige goods was “creating certain levels of inequalities.” However, Santoro and colleagues conclude that, even if aggrandizing leaders accumulated goods and power in their lifetimes, these were not inherited. Rather, right up until European contact, “coastal people enjoyed a rather egalitarian and independent life.” In Chapter 3, Diego Salazar, Carola Flores, César Borie, Laura Olguín, Sandra Rebolledo, Manuel Escobar, and Ariadna Cifuentes summarize research on Middle Holocene (MH) (~7500 to 4500 cal BP) occupations of the southern extreme of the Atacama Desert, centered around Taltal on the north Chilean coast. In this context of limited terrestrial resources, no permanent streams, and a very rich ocean, marine resources played a key role. Salazar and colleagues use subsistence practices, technology, and settlement patterns to gain insight into social organization in their study area. During the Early Middle Holocene (7500 to 5500 cal BP), they find a technology specialized in harvesting and processing marine resources, a dependence on those resources (although some terrestrial foods were also acquired), and a settlement pattern consisting of semisedentary residential camps tied to small, scarce springs. These camps varied in size, perhaps reflecting water availability. Because most people resided at the camps (the few logistical stations do not indicate residence), Salazar et al. see sharing and cohabiting leading to kinship-based social bonds and group identity. Some individuals probably had higher status derived from specialized knowledge, in particular concerning long-distance lithic procurement and maritime hunting of large fish, but this status was not hereditary. Thus, Early MH groups were likely egalitarian. During the Late Middle Holocene around Taltal, subsistence patterns remain similar to the Early MH, but the settlement pattern is more complex. New residential sites appear and there is an abundance of rock shelters and small, open-air sites. At the residential camps, permanent dwellings appear in the form of semicircular to circular stone structures with midden and sometimes burials that suggest links between places and social groups—an increase in territoriality and social boundary defense mechanisms. Some of the residential sites have clusters of dwellings that may reflect different social groups. Settlement-pattern changes collate with an increase in ENSO

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frequency that would have increased unpredictability in marine resources while recharging groundwater (and hence springs) more frequently. A new artifact form, the “Taltaloid blade,” appears in the Late Middle Holocene in funerary contexts but rarely in domestic settings; there is no known function for this form, which may be a marker of increased complexity related to social identity, in-group differentiation, and long-distance alliances or affiliations. A complex rock art site inland from the coast, El Médano, may date to the period and could have been the locus of social aggregation for special members of the society such as ocean hunters and long-distance lithic provisioners. After 4500 cal BP, the Middle Holocene social system ended abruptly. Tom Dillehay (Chapter 4) summarizes the construction, subsistence, and social correlates of Huaca Prieta, a mound site in the lower Chicama Valley on the north coast of Peru, from the earliest evidence of human presence in the Late Pleistocene (circa 12,500 14C BP/14,600 cal BP) through abandonment at 3,800 14C BP/4100 cal BP. Throughout the occupation of Huaca Prieta, inhabitants subsisted on a mix of marine and terrestrial foods, with the importance of terrestrial foods growing through time as cultigens were added and increased. The later phases of site occupation in the Middle Holocene also saw increasingly complex architecture, including precocious monumentality. However, as Dillehay points out, the nature of Huaca Prieta, including its forms of monumentality, differ markedly from other Mid-Holocene sites of the Late Preceramic Period (circa 4500–3600 14C BP/5100–3850 cal BP) such as Caral or the other Norte Chico sites discussed by Creamer and Haas in Chapter 5. Huaca Prieta was first excavated by Junius Bird (et al. 1985) in the mid1940s. Dillehay directed extensive excavations and multidisciplinary analyses at Huaca Prieta and nearby sites from 2006 to 2013. He details five occupational phases. During Phase I (12,500–7500 14C BP/14,600–8300 cal BP), small groups of maritime foragers camped occasionally at the site. These people also exploited some terrestrial food sources, including wild game, and (after 10,000 14C BP/11,400 cal BP) cultivated a small number of plants. During this time, extensive lagoons developed on the inland side of the site. Phase II (7,500–6,300 14C BP/8300–7200 cal BP) saw the beginning of mound construction, with a 5 × 35 × 45 m structure composed of multiple layers of deliberately deposited sediment. The diet included more cultivated plants, and cotton appears during this phase as an “industrial” crop (Moseley 1975) for nets, bags, and textiles. Human burials also first appear in this phase but not in burial chambers as seen later. Exotics increase

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in frequency. Phase II ends with the shrinking of the lagoons and the start of sediment buildup in the lower middle valley. During Phase III at Huaca Prieta (6500–5500 14C BP/7200–6250 cal BP), ceremonial and burial functions came to the fore, with the first construction of burial chambers and other stone structures that are conjoined and appear contemporaneous. In this phase, the mound grows to 12–18 m high and 80 m long. The economy is still dominated by marine food, but there is a major increase in cultigens including a greater variety of maize—although maize was not particularly important in the diet. Nonlocal minerals become more common during Phase III, and the local settlement pattern now includes house mounds north of Huaca Prieta. Later in this phase, there is a shift from smaller, isolated mounds to larger house mound groups. Dillehay suggests that these isolated mounds may be farmsteads that would have complemented littoral households. Population in the lower valley appears to be increasing. A yellow clay cap separates Phases III and IV (5300–4500 14C BP/6250– 5100 cal BP); the latter phase is characterized by the expansion of ceremonial and funerary functions. A sunken circular court started in Phase III was completed at this time. The site now has a balanced maritime-terrestrial economy, with more cultigens and fewer wild foods from the shrinking wetlands. During this phase, raised fields were built over the infilled lagoon. At 5000 14C BP/5700 cal BP, there is a shift in tomb architecture, with the majority of stone-lined burial chambers built at this time. Primary and secondary burials with few offerings continue; Dillehay suggests that the different funerary contexts indicate social differentiation. During Phase IV, inhabitants begin covering the site with a hard plaster, probably to protect it from erosion as the site grew taller and steeper. According to Dillehay, the increase in construction and other task group activities such as the plaster cover provide the strongest evidence at Huaca Prieta for the exercise of ephemeral authority. The final phase at Huaca Prieta is Phase V (4500–3800 14C BP/5100–4100 cal BP). Activities at the site continue, mainly on the flat top, but the site was abandoned after 3800 14C BP/4100 cal BP. Settlement pattern data suggest that population peaked in the lower Chicama valley at 4500–4000 14C BP/5100–4400 cal BP, after which there was a steady decline along the coast that seems to be related to a greater reliance on cultigens. In Chapter 5, Winifred Creamer and Jonathan Haas discuss the Late Archaic (circa 3420–1830 cal BC/5370–3780 cal BP) in the Norte Chico, a section of the Peruvian coast and adjacent lower valleys located between

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about 100 and 175 km north-northeast of Lima. The Late Archaic was the first period of widespread monumental centers on the Peruvian coast, following smaller scale, earlier monumental construction such as Dillehay (Chapter 4) describes for Huaca Prieta. Creamer and Haas note that people of the Norte Chico were “borrowers not inventors,” but that once monumental architecture arrived in the region, it was adopted vigorously; the Norte Chico has the greatest concentration of early monumental structures anywhere on the Andean coast. Multiple lines of evidence show that domesticated plants provided the carbohydrates in the Norte Chico diet, while fish and probably mollusks provided the animal protein. Creamer and Haas detail their evidence for preceramic maize in this region, where it seems to have been more important for the period than elsewhere (see Chapters 4 and 8). They suggest based on coprolite evidence that fish “provided protein balance and flavor to the diet, [but] it was not a significant source of calories.” Coastal fishing centers, which were much fewer in number than inland, agricultural centers, would have exchanged fish for cotton and other agricultural produce, as suggested earlier by Moseley (1992), but there is little evidence for longdistance (out-of-region) exchange. Creamer and Haas focus on the emergence of ideological and economic power in the Late Archaic Norte Chico, evidenced principally in the construction and maintenance of an extraordinary number of monumental centers. They argue that each mound was an independent polity. Differences in residential structures show at least two social strata. Frequent visits to, and remodeling of, the centers; consistent form, layout, and spacing of these sites; and social differentiation seen not only in residential architecture but in the increasing restriction of access as one moved up the mounds toward inner sancta on the top—all indicate “a broad ideological power base.” Creamer and Haas do not see evidence of coercive power or military competition, although they suggest that site spacing and frequent renewal of mounds indicate competition between the different mound sites for followers/labor. In the absence of coercive power, however, they do not characterize Norte Chico social structure as a true state—something that arose only in the subsequent Initial Period. Chapter 6 details Matthew Helmer’s work at the Early Horizon, first millennium BC site of Samanco, very near the shore in the Nepeña Valley on the north coast of Peru. The site dates to about 450–150 cal BC/2400–2100 cal BP and was first occupied after the abandonment of Initial Period temple centers in the valley. Unlike large earlier sites, but similar to most of the

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coast at this post–Initial Period time, Samanco does not have mounds but instead consists of what Helmer calls enclosure compounds. These multifamily compounds were centered around patios, where activities were not visible from outside. Until the final phase, when the large Plaza Mayor was built, Samanco had no central place for congregation. Helmer argues that each compound may have housed a faction, perhaps analogous to the later “ayllu system of exclusive family groups.” Community nucleation could have been a response to threats such as warfare; a wall surrounds the site, and defensive locations and architecture are typical of this time in Nepeña. Helmer presents evidence for diverse sources of food, both marine and terrestrial. Fishing and shellfishing were important, as was agriculture, with maize as the most important crop (like the evidence presented by Creamer and Haas in Chapter 5 for the earlier Norte Chico settlement system). Some of the pottery appears to be chicha (fermented maize beer) jars. Among the fish, sardines were the most abundant, in contrast to earlier, Initial Period fishing of larger species such as sharks at sites like Pampa Gramalote several valleys to the north of Nepeña (see Chapter 8 by Prieto). Among the terrestrial animals, camelids predominate, and Helmer excavated a corral full of camelid dung and hair. Along with the presence of juvenile and unusable parts from camelids, the corral suggests early camelid herding on the coast. Camelids were probably used for transport but they were certainly also eaten, as shown by cutmarks. Samanco may have been part of a larger Nepeña polity centered at Caylán, a very large site 15 km inland (see Chicoine et al, Chapter 7). In any case, Helmer argues that Samanco was a food production center supplying inland polities such as Caylán with subsistence goods from the sea and from fields in the Nepeña delta. Trade was a defining feature of Samanco identity, but unlike earlier periods, goods were utilitarian and local. Given that such goods tend to be bulkier and heavier than most high-value exotics, the availability of camelids for transport likely helped make this system feasible. David Chicoine, Carol Rojas, Víctor Vásquez, and Teresa Rosales (Chapter 7) review the results of their zooarchaeological research at Caylán, a large Early Horizon center located 15 km inland on the north side of the Nepeña Valley on the Peruvian north coast. The site was first occupied in the Nepeña Phase (800–450 cal BC/2750–2400 cal BP) and reached its maximum expansion in the Samanco Phase (450–150 cal BC/2400–2100 cal BP). Like the nearby Samanco site discussed by Helmer (Chapter 6), Caylán has multiple enclosure compounds as well as other architectural

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features, and has a dense urban population, many of which were supplied with plant and animal food by external producers or foragers. In this chapter, Chicoine and his colleagues view the site through the lens of shell and vertebrate remains, “to evaluate patterns of the exploitation, supply, consumption, and discard of marine resources.” Shells are mostly marine, so they had to be brought from the coast 15 km inland to the site. The most common shell species is a small surf clam, followed by two intertidal mussels. The surf clam is found in the sandy intertidal zone, and Chicoine and colleagues suggest that it was provided by littoral gathers from the north side of Nepeña where Samanco is located and where sandy bottoms are more common. At Huambacho, a contemporary site on the south side of the valley, rock-dwelling mollusks are most abundant and may come from collectors on the south shore where rocky habitats are more common. A variety of other shell species are present at Caylán, some of which were used to make artifacts or body ornaments. Vertebrate species include domesticated and wild mammals, fish, and birds. The remains show a reliance on domesticated mammals, while wild mammals and birds seem to have been procured more opportunistically. Fish (mostly marine) rank second to domesticated mammals in abundance, and among the fish, sardines are most common. Most of the fish could be harvested near shore with relatively simple technology, although a few species suggest ocean-going fishing. Sharks (like those found abundantly at Initial Period Gramalote to the north, Prieto, Chapter 8) are present but rare. As at Samanco, camelids at Caylán were important as food and likely for transport, but, unlike Samanco, Caylán has not yet yielded evidence for corralling. The relative frequency of mammals, fish, and birds (in that order) is consistent across different contexts at Caylán, but the size of fish taxa found at a mound is larger than those found in a compound and in a public space, pointing to differential access to foodstuffs. By the final prehistoric periods on the Peruvian coast, differential access to marine foods (as to other resources) became quite common (for example, Marcus et al. 1999, Chapter 13; Sandweiss 1992). Throughout the two phases of occupation at Caylán, marine foods acquired through these exchange mechanisms remained important, but there was an increasing reliance on animal domesticates. Chicoine and colleagues see little evidence in the zooarchaeological data from Caylán for top-down control of the subsistence economy. Rather, animal products moved through multiple networks structured by kinship and other exchange mechanisms that did not require central direction, even though

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architectural and artifactual forms and styles suggest a shared identity across the lower valley. In Chapter 8, Gabriel Prieto draws lessons about Peruvian maritime adaptations from his work at the early Initial Period site of Pampa Gramalote (1500–1200 cal BC/3450–1350 cal BP) on the north side of the Moche Valley in northern Peru. He traces the development of thinking from Junius Bird’s early fisher-farmers, a view supported by Frédéric Engel and Edward Lanning’s work (1940s to 1960s), through the processual view of Moseley and many others who saw evidence for specialized fisherfolk in an increasing asymmetrical relationship with inland farmers, to his own evidence-based arguments from Gramalote, namely, that in the Initial Period, at least, fishers also cultivated key economic plants in addition to trading with valley farmers for some products. Prieto notes that ethnohistoric accounts of specialized fishermen in the Colonial Period and Late Horizon (Inca period) supported the view of endogamous coastal specialists exchanging products across occupational lines (see Chapters 14 and 15). Gramalote is located close to the modern shore, with wetlands between the site and the beach. Multiple lines of macro- and microbotanical evidence show that wetlands were also present near the site when it was occupied. Prieto’s ethnographic work confirms that local fishermen today cultivate totora reeds in sunken gardens in the wetlands and may also have grown brown cotton near their houses in the recent past. Totora is a key species for north coast fishermen, as it was and is used to make reed boats, as well as mats for domestic use and for roofs. Totora, including mat fragments, was very common at Initial Period Gramalote. Brown cotton is considered to be stronger and better for fishing lines and nets than white cotton. In the Gramalote samples, fishing gear was made of brown cotton while textiles where woven from the white variety. Gourds were another important “industrial” plant (a plant used for manufacture rather than food) at Gramalote; the area is a major producer of gourds today. Macrobotanical remains and pollen, phytoliths, and starch grains are consistent with local cultivation of totora, cotton, and gourds. Food plants were also abundant at Gramalote. Peanuts and a variety of fruits were common and may have been acquired in exchange with valley farmers or grown locally. Tubers (manioc and sweet potato) are unsurprisingly rare among the macrobotanical remains but were the most commonly identified plants in residue analysis. These were likely grown inland and exchanged. In addition to totora, brown cotton, and gourd, several food crops may have been grown by the fishing community: squash, beans, chili, and

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tomatoes are the most common remains but might have been traded from elsewhere. Maize is present but rare in both micro- and macroremains. As Prieto points out, the relative unimportance of maize was also noted by Dillehay at Huaca Prieta in the adjacent Chicama Valley and seems characteristic of Late Preceramic and Initial Period Moche and Chicama valleys. The bulk of the protein at Gramalote came from the sea, but plants provided essential carbohydrates. Prieto differs from earlier analyses in concluding that, like their local descendants today, the site’s inhabitants practiced both cultivation and fishing. Some foods were exchanged with valley farmers, but Gramalotans grew the key industrial crops needed to support their maritime production as well as many of the plants they consumed. Seasonal availability of resources suggests that this combination was logistically feasible: the high water table needed for sunken field farming occurs in the winter, while the major marine species found at the site are fished in the summer. Prieto concludes that the inhabitants of Gramalote practiced a mixed economy that allowed them to practice symmetrical exchange with valley farmers. Richard C. Sutter and Gabriel Prieto (Chapter 9) return to the site of Gramalote (Chapter 8) to tackle the difficult challenge of ethnogenesis among fishing people on the Andean coast. Recognizing that material markers of ethnicity may be absent, variable, and/or situational, and that individuals may hold more than one ethnic identity, they approach this problem by investigating the genetic relationship between fishing and roughly contemporary inland communities. Sutter and Prieto carried out biodistance analyses on 42 Initial Period individuals from Gramalote using dental traits. They place these individuals in evolutionary context and then look at how similar or distinctive they were compared to 18 other populations from the Peruvian coast from the same and later periods. Results indicate that Gramalote is most similar to Early Horizon sites from the Paracas Peninsula, some 700 km south-southeast along the coast, and to an Early Intermediate Period Moche sample from a site on the shore of the Jequetepeque Valley, about 100 km to the north-northwest. The Early Horizon Period dates approximately to the second half of the first millennium BC, and the Early Intermediate Period dates to the first 800 years of the first millennium AD. Gramalote samples are also similar to other Moche Valley populations, but dissimilar to all pre– Initial Period samples except the Middle Preceramic Period site of Paloma (circa 8500–5500 cal BP) located about 550 km to the south-southeast. Sutter and Prieto don’t argue that there is a direct ancestral relationship

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with the more distant sample populations, but rather that both resulted from a “demographically driven expansion of food producers,” replacing the descendants of the initial Paleoindian settlers, as Sutter has argued elsewhere. In terms of more local relations, they conclude that Gramalote contrasts sharply with preceding maritime populations of the Peruvian Preceramic Period but “was neither genetically nor culturally isolated, but instead, clearly engaged in long-standing north coast mate-exchange networks with agropastoral populations from the adjacent coastal valley.” What, then, of pescador (fisher) ethnic identity? As Sutter and Prieto explain, ethnic identity here is not coterminous with genetics but rather a result of shared economic activities. At Gramalote, this identity was affirmed through ritual activities. As documented by Ramírez (Chapter 15) for the north coast, fishers could become farmers when it was economically imperative to do so—the relationship was fluid. Fishing identity on the Peruvian coast, then, was a cultural rather than a biological reality. In Chapter 10, Brian R. Billman, Dana Bardolph, Jean Hudson, and Jesús Briceño Rosario discuss their work at the Late Intermediate Period (1000– 1460 cal AD) and Late Horizon (1470–1532 cal AD) site of Cerro la Virgen, close to Gramalote on the north side of the Moche Valley on the Peruvian north coast (see Chapters 8 and 9). Originally a large Chimú town located only 6 km from the Chimú capital of Chan Chan, Cerro la Virgen consisted of masonry and quincha (wattle and daub) house compounds along a road connecting Chan Chan to Chicama, the next valley north. Directly associated with a vast Chimú field system, the site is only a few kilometers from the shore. Cerro la Virgen appears to have been abandoned immediately after the Spanish conquest of Peru in 1532 cal AD. Previous researchers believed Cerro la Virgen to be a state-sponsored settlement moved to this location to serve Chimú state fields and provision the capital (Keatinge 1975; Griffis 1971). In this view, the inhabitants also fished and collected shellfish, although later work indicated that most meat came from camelids (Pozorski 1979). In their chapter, Billman and colleagues present evidence from new excavations and analyses to support an alternative interpretation of the site as self-sufficient. The exception was water for the fields, which had to be allocated by a central authority given that the fields near the site were connected to a much larger irrigation system. Billman and colleagues review ethnohistoric models for socioeconomic organization on the north coast of Peru. In the the parcialidad (family group) model (see also Chapters 14 and 15), parcialidades specialize in a

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productive activity: products flow up to the lords as tribute and are redistributed throughout the hierarchy. In contrast, in the Inca-based mita model, communities pay tribute to the lords in labor, presumably receiving housing, food, and other necessary supplies while performing labor tribute (as with the Inca). Under the Inca, some communities were forcibly relocated for state purposes. The authors see archaeological evidence from late Prehispanic sites along the Peruvian coast supporting both models, which suggests “considerable diversity on household economic strategies” in the Chimú empire. Analysis of test pits in two middens produced a wide variety of tools suggesting that community- or neighborhood-level specialization did not characterize the site. Plant remains from the midden include a wide variety of domesticates as well as some wild plants, with corn occupying the top spot followed by chili pepper. Cultigens, fruits, and wild plant foods were about equally represented in the sample. Cotton seeds and fibers were common, and spinning and weaving tools were also found, indicating cotton production at Cerro la Virgen. The botanical remains make it clear that that the site had access to abundant irrigation water, which must have come at the cost of tribute goods or labor. Among the vertebrate animal remains, fish were by far the most common. Along with fishing tools, the zooarchaeological analysis shows that the site included fishing families. The species that predominate in the sample suggest fishing for local consumption rather than tribute, in contrast to late period fisheries south of Lima where small schooling fish were the major target (Marcus et al. 1999, Chapter 13; Sandweiss 1992). Camelids are present although a minor part of the diet. This contrasts with Shelia Pozorski’s (1979) analysis; one possible explanation suggested for the discrepancy is that Pozorki’s sample accessed different kinds of households than those represented in the two middens dug by Billman’s team. The invertebrate remains are dominated by the small surf clam Donax obesulus, which is the most common mollusk found in middens of the north coast dating to the last ~2,000 years. Women and children may have been involved in collecting shellfish along the shore, as is common worldwide. Reviewing the totality of available data, Billman and colleagues conclude that Cerro la Virgen households had privileged access to irrigation water and that fishing provided the bulk of animal-based food. The role of camelids is unclear. Remains of raw materials, tools, and products of textile making were very common, but the authors conclude that large-scale craft production was not practiced. Rather, the households engaged in multiple

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economic activities, although how those were divvied up among the households and community remains an area of speculation. Nicolas Goepfert, Philippe Béarez, Aurélien Christol, Patrice Wuscher, and Belkys Gutiérrez report on their work in the Sechura Desert (5° 30' to 6° S latitude), on the far northern coast of Peru, in Chapter 11. Despite the high degree of aridity in normal years, this desert also has high biodiversity on- and offshore. The Sechura Desert is particularly sensitive to El Niño events because it is located at the boundary between the warm-tropical Panamanian Province and the upwelling-enriched Peru-Chilean Province, which is dominated by the warm-temperate Peru Current (aka Humboldt) (for example, Briggs 1974). Considering these environmental factors, the region is an interesting laboratory in which to study human adaptation to a constrained, variable, and extreme environment. Prior to Goepfert and colleagues’ research program, the only archaeological research done in the Sechura was that of Mercedes Cárdenas and her colleagues on sites ranging from the Middle Preceramic Period to the Late Intermediate Period (Cárdenas et al. 1991, 1993; Milla 1989). Goepfert and colleagues excavated at Bayovar-01, a site 6 km inland from the southern shore of the Sechura Desert that dates to the transition between the Early Intermediate Period and the Middle Horizon (roughly between 550 and 770 cal AD based on 14C dates from the site). Bayovar-01 consists of two structures made of blocks of local marine sediments; the structures are separated from each other by 160 m, with a large midden in between. Rows of posts on the south side of the buildings probably functioned as wind screens. The lack of domestic deposits, their large size, and the discovery of an offering of shells and a pot all suggest a public function for the buildings. Excavations in the midden found abundant faunal remains and charcoal. Artifacts were scarce but represented both fishing and textile making. Fuel remains in hearths were mostly wood but included seeds and camelid feces; hearths were superimposed and grew through time. The presence of structured hearths shows that the midden was more than a discard pile. The faunal assemblage is mostly fish (>1M skeletal elements), but includes turtles, sea lions, birds, lizards, and shells; camelid bone is very rare. The predominant fish species is a warm-tropical drum today found from Ecuador to the north; its presence suggests either climatic or geographic differences at the time of occupation. Aside from charcoal, abundant macrobotanical remains include gourd, squash, and corn.

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During late–twentieth century El Niño events, a large, ephemeral freshwater lake formed in the Sechura Desert from the runoff of El Niño rainfall from further inland. To understand the presence of warm-tropical species in the mid-first millennium AD at Bayovar-01, Goepfert and colleagues did detailed studies of a paleolagoon in front (south) of the site. They suggest that this lagoon was also an ephemeral formation associated with El Niño, but saline. Mollusks include warm-tropical species, which may indicate sufficient local warming to explain the tropical fish species. The lagoon came close to Bayovar-01; if the site were occupied during El Niño events, that might explain the presence of a fishing site 6 km from the normal shoreline as well as the predominance of a warm-tropical fish species in the midden. The authors suggest that the period of occupation in the mid-first millennium AD coincided with a time of high-intensity El Niño, and at least one paleoclimate archive supports this view (Rein et al. 2004). Subsequently, the lagoon filled in and the site was abandoned. Considering all of the available data, Goepfert and colleagues suggest that Bayovar-01 was a “specialized site for fishing and the preparation of fish for export to other areas by llama caravans.” Ethnohistoric records for the Sechura show that inhabitants were known for production of salted fish. Bayovar-01 may be an earlier example of this regional practice. In Chapter 12, Karen E. Stothert, Maria Masucci, and Benjamin Carter review late prehistoric maritime communities of coastal Ecuador and investigate changes in adaptation at two sites in the Santa Elena area of southern Ecuador: Loma de los Cangrejitos in Chanduy and Mar Bravo in La Libertad. They also summarize changes over the period for coastal sites north of Santa Elena. Prior to 700 cal AD, Guangala sites of the Santa Elena region show an increasing population and important trade of maritime foods from the coast to inland sites. Fish remains include deepwater species that provide indirect evidence for boats. Maritime travel in this region has been suggested based on similarities in pottery and metalworking techniques to the north and south. Marine shell was also traded inland where it not only represents food but also raw materials used in household level manufacture of beads for exchange; broken beads and bead-working tools are common but finished beads are very rare. The most important species for beads at these inland Guangala sites was the ark shell Anadara. In Late Guangala (after 650 cal AD) and into the subsequent ManteñoGuancavilca (M-G) culture after 700 cal AD, changes in the distribution

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of the population and the nature of sites in the Santa Elena area suggest increased emphasis on the ocean, along with other transformations seen at this time along the Ecuadorian littoral. At Loma de los Cangrejitos, 4 km from the shore, fish are present, but mammals, especially deer, are more abundant during the transition from Late Guangala to M-G. Deer may have been traded down from the inland sites, even as large fish moved away from the shore. Griddles are common in the midden, indicating a greater reliance on maize. At a contemporary shoreline site (3a) near Cangrejitos, fish constituted almost the entire faunal assemblage, and this site may have provisioned Cangrejitos with marine foods. Late Guangala sites further inland have less overall fish but focus on sharks and rays, the biggest and most deepwater species, while at the nearshore sites 3a and Cangrejitos, smaller fish from closer to shore dominate the assemblage. Stothert and colleagues suggest that fishermen targeted the larger species for export. Like the inland sites, Cangrejitos has evidence for bead working, but using Spondylus. Between 900 and 1100 cal AD, platforms were built at Cangrejitos and shell bead workshops moved out to homesteads in the lower valley. Given the indications of ocean-going vessels and the presence of Spondylus workshops in Late Guangala times, Stothert and colleagues argue against Spondylus trade as the driver of the settlement, subsistence, and organizational changes that occurred at the start of the M-G period. Changes in and related to diet may have been important in these transformations, along with a multitude of other factors that may have included a major El Niño event at 650 cal AD. The authors propose that Cangrejitos was founded as populations began moving coastward during Late Guangala times and became a regional elite center after 900 cal AD. The site lost prominence after 1200 cal AD. Located on the coast to the north and east of Chanduy, the site of Mar Bravo was founded after 1000 cal AD, became a large platform by 1375 cal AD, and was occupied until 1500 cal AD. Mar Bravo people fished in the deep sea and estuaries and probably exported fish, salt, and other marine products. Most of their food came from the sea, with sea catfish as the most important species. They also had access to some plant foods, probably through exchange. The site’s fishing specialization gave it entrée into the regional socioeconomic system. Noting that Spondylus is more easily acquired and present across a broader latitudinal range than previously thought, Stothert and colleagues

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argue that it was one of many high-status elite goods, not the sole driver of Andean maritime trade as once thought. They do relate changes in production of Spondylus beads in Santa Elena sites to changing patterns of Spondylus consumption in northern Peru during Moche, Sicán, Chimú, and Inca times (circa 0–1532 cal AD); all were centered south of the natural habitat of Spondylus, although the Chimú and later the Inca eventually controlled territory within the Spondylus range. Stothert and colleagues conclude that late communities of coastal Ecuador were successful, sophisticated exploiters of coastal resources who intensified both marine and terrestrial production over time, who lived in well-organized, dense, kin-based settlements, but whose social and political organization varied across the region; although these people had many shared cultural traits, there is no clear evidence for centralization. Joyce Marcus, Kent V. Flannery, Jeffrey Sommer, and Robert G. Reynolds (Chapter 13) discuss Late Intermediate Period (~1000–1400 cal AD) and twentieth century fishing at Cerro Azul, a large site on the north margin of the Cañete Valley some 120 km south of Lima, Peru. Marcus’ team began excavating the site during the large magnitude El Niño event of 1982–1983, which gave her the opportunity to record fish landings in the modern fishing village as the region recovered from El Niño between February 1984 and July 1986. The authors delineate three principal fishing environments within the usual range of artisanal fishermen from Cerro Azul, each with a characteristic suite of exploitable marine species. During the 1982–1983 El Niño, sea-surface temperature (SST) rose as oxygen increased and the thermocline (the boundary between warm, nutrient-poor surface water and cool, nutrient-rich deep water) dropped, reducing the phytoplankton at the base of the marine food chain. Marcus and colleagues describe the responses of different fish species to these changes: some went deep, and some went south. With the decline or disappearance of their food, higher level predators (sea birds and sea mammals) suffered massive mortality. Many typical Peruvian mollusks were also negatively affected. Marcus and colleagues make the important point that no disaster is unmitigated: El Niño is no exception. A number of marine species either boomed locally or extended their range into Peruvian waters including the region from Lima south to Cañete. Some of the “exotic” species that appeared during El Niño were still being caught months after the return of cool, upwelling water, while normal species were not common until

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1985–1986. In the interim, a number of valuable species were abundantly available. Using the data from the 1982–1983 El Niño and its faunal aftermath, Marcus and colleagues turn to the faunal remains recovered from Late Intermediate Period elite and commoner middens at Cerro Azul to try to identify El Niño events. In general, the elite midden had larger fish, while the commoner midden had smaller and less desirable fish. Looking for traces of El Niño, the authors first note issues of preservation differences in the fishing technology of ancient and modern Cerro Azul that would produce some differences in fish assemblages between the first half of the second millennium AD and the twentieth century. In analyzing the midden fauna with all of these caveats in mind, Marcus and colleagues do not see evidence for El Niño, although such events certainly occurred during the three centuries of occupation at Cerro Azul. Perhaps fish were deposited differently or elsewhere during the events, or possibly issues of time averaging make events opaque. In any case, the detailed data on artisanal fisheries and El Niño provide an important baseline for future research. The final two studies in this book concern the early Colonial Period that followed the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532 cal AD. As Parker VanValkenburgh, Sarah Kennedy, Carol Rojas Vega, and Gabriel Hassler point out in Chapter 14, the anthropogenic and biological consequences of the conquest led to demographic collapse in coastal Peru, particularly on the north coast. VanValkenburgh and colleagues approach this period and the attendant transformations through a combination of documentary and archaeological data, with new attention to “the contingencies of representations contained in colonial period written sources.” They also point out that previous attempts to assess ethnohistoric models for late prehistoric maritime societies were carried out at late prehistoric sites, and until their study no one had investigated the same issues at Early Colonial Period sites occupied at the same time as the underlying documents were written. Here, the authors present their archaeological research on late Prehispanic and early colonial sites and landscapes in the lower Zaña Valley on the Peruvian north coast, mainly at the site of Carrizales. VanValkenburgh and colleagues explain that (like the Moche Valley people described by Billman et al. in Chapter 10), communities in the Zaña area were composed of parcialidades, “networks of producers, defined both by kinship and political obligation, who lived not in single nucleated settlements but in scattered hamlets of different sizes, among which rulership

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and tributary extraction were organized according to nested hierarchies.” Parcialidades were ranked, but fishing parcialidades were not always of low rank. Repartimientos (a Spanish system for organizing indigenous tribute labor) were composed of multiple parcialidades, with competition between leaders of these units sometimes leading to renegotiation of tribute relations. The authors suggest that similar renegotiations probably occurred during late Prehispanic times as multiple waves of conquest swept over the region. The Spanish conquest followed a similar spatial and institutional pattern to the Chimú and Inca invasions, but a pattern that was warped by the introduction of Spanish crops, animals, products, and desires, by the growing demographic catastrophe, and by the resettlement (reducción) policy implemented on the North Coast in the mid-1560s and early 1570s. Chérrepe, the center of the reducción to which Carrizales apparently belonged, was one of three reducciones in the lower Zaña and adjacent Chamán valleys. Although traditionally thought to be the port of Chérrepe on the coast, the small size of the colonial settlement there leads VanValkenburgh and colleagues to argue that Carrizales was actually the original lead town of the repartimiento. Survey data from the lower Zaña and Chamán valleys show that the region was occupied from the Late Preceramic Period throughout the rest of the Prehispanic sequence. These data do not show a clear demarcation between coastal and inland sites in the late Prehispanic periods, suggesting to VanValkenburgh and colleagues that fishing and farming people did not have obvious territorial divisions. In the wake of conquest during the sixteenth century, however, settlement patterns show a notable decrease in the number and total area of sites coupled with an increase in the average size of sites. This pattern most likely resulted from colonial depopulation combined with the implementation of the reducción policy. The Carrizal area was occupied from the Formative through the Early Colonial Periods. Excavations focused on two areas, one dating to Late Sicán, near the end the Prehispanic sequence (early second millennium cal AD), and one to the time of the reducciones. The Late Sicán remains show an emphasis on fishing, although wild and domesticated mammals were present in small quantities. The colonial sector also has fish remains, but fewer species with more nearshore specimens; this sector also had more terrestrial animal remains, including a preference for European domesticates, and more hunting and breeding of birds. Length estimates for fish

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suggest greater use of net fishing in the colonial sector. There are also indicators of increased coastal scavenging in the colonial sample. VanValkenburgh and colleagues interpret the differences in faunal assemblages between the Late Sicán and Early Colonial samples as a consequence of colonial tribute demands. Paleobotanical analysis also shows an increase in cotton and algarrobo seeds, products listed in a 1564 Chérrepe tribute list. This list was found with a legal claim for unpaid tribute, indicating that the parcialidades of Chérrepe were having trouble meeting their obligations, probably due in part to the demographic decline. In addition to settlement pattern evidence for the drop in population in the Early Colonial Period, VanValkenburgh’s project also found evidence for lifelong stress and poor health. The authors conclude that the documents underlying the maritime specialization model were actually the result of local leaders trying to deal with lost population and productive capacity by evading the burden of terrestrial tribute. In Chapter 15, Susan Elizabeth Ramírez focuses attention on the Early Colonial Period, sixteenth-century documentary record of fisherfolk of the Peruvian north coast. These documents “identify semiautonomous lineages of specialized fishing groups with their own language.” Although these groups were interspersed with other lineages, the records show not only the fishing people, but even the marine species that they targeted. The sixteenth century was the time of the economic, political, and demographic disruptions also discussed by VanValkenburgh and colleagues in Chapter 14. Ramírez begins her discussion of fisherfolk in this period by summarizing what the documents say about their lifeways. In addition to marine and some freshwater fishing, they gathered littoral products, made salt, plaster, lye, and lime, harvested guano, and maintained prehistoric maritime communication networks. Spaniards with access to native labor soon began demanding seafood. Maritime-adapted natives also played an important role in the civil wars shortly after the conquest, providing supplies and transportation. In the repartimiento of Chérrepe, the second wave of reducciones in 1572 led to the forced abandonment of Ñoquique, a native town with indigenous ceremonial functions. The Spanish official in charge required the fishermen of Ñoquique to go to Chérrepe and the farmers to Guadalupe, the other town in the repartimiento. Ramírez provides abundant native testimony that fishers did not farm, or did so only rarely. In support of the contention that fisherfolk were spe-

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cialized, she also cites cases of fishermen seeking permission to travel about to trade fish for agricultural products. Fishing communities were usually exempt from paying the mita, a rotating labor tax, to Spanish authorities. In the second part of her chapter, Ramírez details the case of the Chicamas, from the eponymous valley just north of the Moche Valley, between 1525 and 1565 cal AD. She traces the complicated history of leadership of the fishing lineage from Malabrigo, and in particular the story of Guaman Pinco, a leader who rebelled against the chief lord of the Chicamas and against the Spaniards. This account highlights the quasi-independence of fishing groups. Once again, however, there is evidence that specialization was not rigid or enduring. The document “indicates that in difficult times (like drought), the Chicama farmers fished to provide food.” The reverse could also have occurred. In any case, as Ramírez concludes, fisherfolk and farmers were certainly interdependent. Ancient Andean Maritime Communities in the Twenty-First Century

In light of the chapters in this volume, what can we now say about ancient Andean maritime communities? Forty years ago, Michael Moseley (1975) made manifest the crucially important contribution of maritime subsistence to the development of Andean civilization, building on seminal work by Bird, Engel, Lanning, Patterson, and others, as well as on his own research on the coast north of Lima. Early agriculture was part of this hypothesis, and by the time of his retrospective and prospective essay, Moseley (1992) had explicitly recognized that what made the Andean story so distinctive was the combination of highly productive fishing and farming systems in close proximity to each other. This variable but enduring relationship is the most common uniting theme of this volume, from the early onset of farming at Huaca Prieta to the complex, interwoven relations between fishing and farming lineages seen both in the documents and in the archaeological record of the sixteenth century. The studies in this volume show a distinct latitudinal gradient. From the late Prehispanic sites of Ecuador through the Late Preceramic Period mound sites of the Norte Chico to Late Intermediate Period Cerro Azul, the northern sites in this volume are located in valleys with significant potential for irrigation agriculture. The one exception is Bayovar-01 in the Sechura Desert, a special-purpose, specialized fish production site probably occupied only during large-magnitude El Niño events. In all of the

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northern regions covered here, from Cerro Azul to Santa Elena, complex, hierarchical societies with monumental architecture developed sooner or later, always with a major maritime contribution to the diet. In contrast, the Chilean sites from the southern Atacama Desert generally lacked sufficient water resources in the coastal zone to carry out local agriculture (Caleta Vitor is a small-scale exception). Even there, coastal people managed to acquire agricultural produce from inland farmers in exchange for marine products. However, coastal Atacamans did not build the large-scale monumental structures of the north, nor did they develop as marked inequalities as in Peru and Ecuador. It would be instructive to look at coastal populations in the intermediate area along the southern Peruvian coast to increase our sample of the diverse relations between fishing and farming. One area of interest is the coastal zone adjacent to productive valleys such as Ica and the Nasca drainages, where surface water disappears far inland from the shoreline. For instance, Carmichael et al. (2014) provide evidence that the Nasca, a complex society of the Early Intermediate Period (100 cal BC to 600 cal AD/2050–1350 cal BP), made little use of the ocean, although marine resources were more important in the region both earlier and later than Nasca. Another example of interwoven fishing and farming comes from the narrow, poorly watered quebradas between the Osmore (Ilo) and Tambo rivers on the south coast of Peru. There Zaro (2007) found Late Intermediate Period coastal communities practicing diverse productive strategies integrating fishing, farming, and gathering. Even in the nearby Osmore drainage, he suggests the “specialized” fishing and farming settlements had more fluidly constituted economies and concludes that “organization of production among, and within, particular communities likely vacillated between more extreme versions of specialization and more innovative techniques to economic sustainability that include, but are not limited to, more diversified strategies of production” (176). A surprise in these chapters is the ubiquity of camelids in the coastal sites, usually as transport but sometimes also as food, from the Sechura Desert in the north to the Atacama Desert in the south. These animals were domesticated and most abundant in the Andean highlands, so we tend not to think of them as playing a major role on the desert coast. Yet without camelid caravans, at least those sites most distant from agricultural zones (Bayovar-01 and the Chilean sites) would have found it more difficult to acquire sufficient agricultural produce. Even relatively late sites in rich coastal valleys, such as Samanco and probably Caylán in the Nepeña Valley, seem to have relied on animal transport between shore and valley settlements.

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Several of the studies touch on coastwise long-distance maritime interaction. Most notably Stothert et al. (Chapter 12) recognize that such interaction occurred but argue against specific maritime trading systems as primary drivers of social change in their region. We can expect much more on this subject to come out of the 2019 Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian conference on just this topic. Climate change is another frequent theme in the chapters, particularly in the form of El Niño. Several of the studies provide important examples of resilience in the face of apparently catastrophic events. Two chapters, in particular, bear witness that ancient Andeans followed Rahm Emanuel’s dictum, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste” (Seib 2008). Goepfert et al. (Chapter 11) make a good case that Bayovar-01 was designed specifically to take advantage of lagoonal resources that only existed during or in the immediate aftermath of a major El Niño event. Marcus et al. (Chapter 13) provide extraordinary data from coastal fishermen during and following the 1982–1983 El Niño that show the replacement species available during such events. These studies caution against seeing all Niños as unmitigated disasters; disasters are contingent and contextual. At about the same time as Moseley formalized the Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization hypothesis for the Late Preceramic Period, Maria Rostworowski (1970, 1975 inter alia) used colonial documents to elaborate the economic specialization model for the late Prehispanic and early colonial coast of the Central Andes. As noted in Chapters 14 and 15, many sixteenth century natives on the north coast gave testimony that fishermen did not have agricultural lands nor did they farm. Ramírez (Chapter 15) provides abundant and early testimony by natives that fishing lineages were specialized (and therefore not subject to the same tribute as farmers). VanValkenburgh et al (Chapter 14), Prieto (Chapter 8), and Billman et al. (Chapter 10) offer archaeological evidence for the spatial, functional, and sociopolitical intermingling of fishers and farmers, while Sutter and Prieto (Chapter 9) point to genetic admixture between them. VanValkenburgh and colleagues (Chapter 14) argue that asserting specialized fishing status was a ploy by parcialidad leaders to evade terrestrial tribute, and Ramírez cites some testimony suggesting that some fishing groups did or could plant crops. Prieto (in Chapter 8) contends that fishing communities carried out at least small-scale cultivation with a focus on industrial products essential to fishing, such as totora reeds and brown cotton, as early as the Initial Period, as also suggested by Sandweiss (1992: 135, 145). The reality is difficult to discern at this temporal and cultural remove. The fluidity

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of farming-fishing configurations seen in the documentary and some archaeological analyses suggests that specialization was only one end of a continuum from exchange-based interaction to full sociopolitical integration. As we continue studying ancient Andean maritime communities in the twenty-first century, our challenge is to recognize with greater certainty the social, political, economic, ideological, and genetic correlates of this variation in the archaeological and ethnohistoric records. The studies in this volume help move us in that direction. References Cited Beresford-Jones, David, Alexander Pullen, George Chauca, Lauren Cadwallader, Maria García, Isabel Salvatierra, Oliver Whaley, Víctor Vásquez, Susana Arce, Kevin Lane, and Charles French 2018 Refining the Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization: How Plant Fiber Technology Drove Social Complexity during the Preceramic Period. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 25: 393–425. Bird, Junius B. 1943 Excavations in Northern Chile. In Anthropological Papers, vol. 38, part 4, pp. 170–318. American Museum of Natural History, New York. 1948 Preceramic Cultures in Chicama and Virú. In A Reappraisal of Peruvian Archaeology, Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, vol. 4, edited by W. C. Bennett, pp. 21–28. Society for American Archaeology and the Institute of Andean Research, Menasha, WI. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ american-antiquity/past-title/memoirs-of-the-society-for-american-archaeology/information/AB3A021D8592B15945985FCA472E1EBB. 1963 Pre-Ceramic Art from Huaca Prieta, Chicama Valley. Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology (1): 29–34. Bird, Junius B., John Hyslop, and Milica Dimitrijevic 1985 The Preceramic Excavations at the Huaca Prieta, Chicama Valley, Peru, Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 62, part I, New York. Briggs, J. 1974 Marine Zoogeography. McGraw-Hill, New York. Cárdenas, Mercedes, Cirilo Huapaya, and Jaime Deza 1991 Arqueología del Macizo de Illescas. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Dirección Académica de Investigación, Lima, Peru. Cárdenas, Mercedes, Judith Vivar, Gloria Olivera, Blanca Huapaya 1993 Materiales Arqueológicos del Macizo de Illescas. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Dirección Académica de Investigación, Lima, Peru. Carmichael, Patrick H., Brenda V. Kennedy, and Lauren Cadwallader 2014 Coastal but Not Littoral: Marine Resources in Nasca Diet. Ñawpa Pacha 34: 3–26. Carneiro, Robert 1970 A Theory of the Origin of the State. Science 169(3947): 733–738.

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Childe, Gordon 1925 The Dawn of European Civilization. K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, London. Dillehay, Tom 2017 Where the Land Meets the Sea. Fourteen Millennia of Human History at Huaca Prieta, Peru. University of Texas Press, Austin. Dillehay, Tom D., C. Ramírez, M. Pino, M. B. Collins, J. Rossen, and J. D. Pino-Navarro 2008 Monte Verde: Seaweed, Food, Medicine, and the Peopling of South America. Science 320(5877): 784–786. Edwards, Clinton 1965 Aboriginal Watercraft on the Pacific Coast of South America. Iberoamericana 47. University of California, Berkeley, CA. Engel, Frédéric 1957 Early Sites on the Peruvian Coast. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 13(1): 54–68. 1960 Un groupe humain datant de 5000 ans a Paracas, Perou. Journal de la Société des Américanistes 49: 7–36. 1970 Las Lomas de Iguanil y el Complejo Las Haldas. Universidad Nacional Agraria–La Molina, Lima. 1976 An Ancient World Preserved: Relics and Records of Prehistory in the Andes. Crown, New York. 1988 Ecología Prehistórica Andina. El Hombre, su establecimiento y el ambiente de los Andes. La vida en tierras áridas y semi áridas. Chilca, Pueblo 1. Implementos de Hueso. Centro de Investigaciones de Zonas Aridas (CIZA) de la Universidad Nacional Agraria, La Molina, Lima. Gillin, John 1947 Moche, a Peruvian Coastal Community. Smithsonian Institution, Institute of Social Anthropology Publication. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. Griffis, Shelia 1971 Excavation and Analysis of Midden Material from Cerro la Virgen, Moche Valley, Peru. Unpublished Undergraduate Honor’s Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge. Hammel, E. A., and Y. D. Haase 1962 A survey of Peruvian Fishing Communities. Anthropological Records 21(2): 211– 230. Hart, Elizabeth 1983 Prehispanic Political Organization of the Peruvian North Coast. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Keatinge, Richard W. 1975 Urban Settlement Systems and Rural Sustaining Communities: An Example from Chan Chan’s Hinterland. Journal of Field Archaeology 2(3): 215–227. Keefer, David K., Susan D. deFrance, Michael E. Moseley, James B. Richardson III, Dennis R. Satterlee, and Amy Day-Lewis 1998 Early Maritime Economy and El Niño Events at Quebrada Tacahuay, Peru. Science 281(5384): 1833–1835.

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Lanning, Edward 1967 Peru before the Incas. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Lothrop, Samuel 1932 Aboriginal Navigation off the West Coast of South America. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 62: 229–256. Majluf, Patricia, Santiago De la Puente, and Villy Christensen 2017 The Little Fish That can Feed the World. Fish and Fisheries 18(4): 772–777. Marcus, Joyce 1987a Late Intermediate Occupation at Cerro Azul, Peru: A Preliminary Report. University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology Report. Technical Report 20, Ann Arbor, MI. 1987b Prehistoric Fishermen in the Kingdom of Huarco. American Scientist 75(4): 393– 401. 2008 Excavations at Cerro Azul, Peru : The Architecture and Pottery. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, Los Angeles. Marcus, Joyce, Jeffrey D. Sommer, and Christopher P. Glew 1999 Fish and Mammals in the Economy of an Ancient Peruvian Kingdom. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 96:6564–6570. McClelland, Donna 1990 A Maritime Passage from Moche to Chimu. In The Northern Dynasties: Kinship and Statecraft in Chimor, edited by M. Moseley and A. Cordy-Collins, pp. 75–106. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington DC. Means, Philip 1942 Prehispanic Navigation off the Andean Coast. American Neptune II(2): 107–126. Milla Villena, Carlos 1989 Inventario de un desierto. Prospección, inventario y catastro arqueológico del desierto de Sechura y el Bajo Piura. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima. Morgan, Alexandra 1988 The Master or Mother of Fishes: An Interpretation of Nasca Pottery Figurines and Their Symbolism. In Recent Studies in Pre Columbian Archaeology, BAR International Series 421(ii), edited by N. Saunders and O. Montmollin, pp. 327–361, Oxford. Moseley, Michael E. 1992 Maritime Foundations and Multilinear Evolution: Retrospective and Prospective. Andean Past 3: 5–42. Moseley, Michael Edward 1975 The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization. Cummings Pub. Co, Menlo Park, CA. Moseley, Michael Edward, and Robert A. Feldman 1988 Fishing, Farming, and the Foundations of Andean Civilisation. In The Archaeology of Prehistoric Coastlines, edited by G. Bailey and J. Parkington, pp. 125–134. Cambridge University Press. Murra, John 2002 El mundo andino: población, medio ambiente y economía. Fondo Editorial PUCP, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos (IEP), Lima.

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Patterson, Thomas C. 1971 Central Peru: Its Population and Economy. Archaeology 24(4): 316–321. Pozorski, Shelia G. 1979 Prehistoric Diet and Subsistence of the Moche Valley, Peru. World Archaeology 11(2): 163–184. Quilter, Jeffrey 1989 Life and Death at Paloma : Society and Mortuary Practices in a Preceramic Peruvian Village. 1st ed. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City. 1992 To Fish in the Afternoon: Beyond Subsistence Economies in the Study of Early Andean Civilization. Andean Past 3: 111–125. Ramírez, Susan 1995 De Pescadores y Agricultores: Una Historia Local de la Gente del Valle de Chicama antes de 1565. Boletín del Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos 24(2): 245– 279. Rein, Bert, Andreas Lückge, and Frank Sirocko 2004 A Major Holocene ENSO Anomaly during the Medieval Period. Geophysical Research Letters 31: L17211, doi: 10.1029/2004GL020161. Richardson, James B., III 1981 Modeling the Development of Sedentary Maritime Economies on the Coast of Peru: A Preliminary Statement. Annals of Carnegie Museum 50: 139–150. Richardson, James B., III, and Daniel H. Sandweiss 2008 Climate Change, El Niño and the Rise of Complex Society on the Peruvian Coast during the Middle Holocene. In El Niño: Catastrophism and Culture Change in Ancient America, edited by D. H. Sandweiss and J. Quilter, pp. 59–75. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections, Washington, DC. Rostworowski, Maria 1970 Mercaderes del valle de Chincha en la época prehispánica: un documento y unos comentarios. Revista Española de Antropología Americana 5: 135–177. 1975 Pescadores, Artesanos y Mercaderes costeños en el Perú Prehispánico. Revista del Museo Nacional XLI: 311–349. 1981 Recursos naturales renovables y pesca. Siglos XVI y XVII. Instituto Peruano de Estudios Andinos (IEP), Lima, Peru. 1989 Costa peruana prehispánica. Instituto Peruano de Estudios Andinos (IEP), Lima, Peru. Rev. ed. of Etnía y sociedad: costa peruana prehispánica. 1977. Instituto Peruano de Estudios Andinos (IEP), Lima, Peru. Sabella, James 1974 The Fishermen of Caleta San Pablo. Latin American Studies Program, Dissertation Series. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Sandweiss, Daniel H. 1992 The Archaeology of Chincha Fishermen : Specialization and Status in Inka Peru. Bulletin 29, Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Pittsburgh, PA. 1996 The Development of Fishing Specialization on the Andean Coast. In Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Fishing Strategies, edited by M. G. Plew, pp. 41–63. Boise State University, Boise, ID.

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2009

Early Fishing and Inland Monuments. Challenging the Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization? In Andean Civilization: A Tribute to Michael E. Moseley, edited by Joyce Marcus and Patrick Ryan Williams, pp. 39–54. Monograph 63, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. University of California–Los Angeles. 2014 Early Coastal South America. In The Cambridge World Prehistory, edited by C. Renfrew and P. Bahn, pp. 1058–1074. University of Cambridge Press, Cambridge. Sandweiss, Daniel H., Heather McInnis, Richard Burger, Asuncion Cano, Bernardino Ojeda, Rolando Paredes, Maria del Carmen Sandweiss, and Michael D. Glascock 1998 Quebrada Jaguay: Early South American Maritime Adaptations. Science 281(5384): 1830–1832. Sandweiss, Daniel H., James B. Richardson III, Elizabeth J. Reitz, Jeffrey Hsu, and Robert A. Feldman 1989 Early Maritime Adaptations in the Andes: Preliminary Studies at the Ring Site, Peru. In Ecology, Settlement and History in the Osmore Drainage, Peru, edited by D. Rice, C. Stanish, and P. Scarr, pp. 35–84. Archaeopress, Oxford, UK. Schaedel, Richard 1989 La etnografía muchik en las fotografías de H. Brüning, 1886–1925. Ediciones COFIDE, Lima, Peru. Seib, Gerald 2008 In Crisis, Opportunity for Obama. Wall Street Journal, November 21, 2008. Uhle, Max 1906 Los Kjoekkenmöeddings del Perú. Revista Historica 1: 3–25. Zaro, Gregory 2007 Diversity Specialists: Coastal Resource Management and Historical Contingency in the Osmore Desert of Southern Peru. Latin American Antiquity 18: 161–179.

I Early Maritime Adaptations (13,000 to 5500 BP)

2 Marine Communities in the Atacama Desert Masters of the Subtropical Pacific Coast of South America Calogero M. Santoro, Victoria Castro, Chris Carter, and Daniela Valenzuela

The people who inhabited the subtropical Pacific coast, along the Atacama Desert, created complex social systems that integrated the wide and bountiful array of marine resources in a territory marked by the lack of permanent freshwater. Was this sufficient to go beyond simple survival and to maintain innovative social dynamics, economic interactions, and technological and ideological constructions through time? By looking at the way of life of two particular cases of prehistoric maritime communities, we present key social and ecological factors to discuss how these communities evolved through time along the hyperarid coast of the Atacama Desert. Specifically, we look for signs of political fragmentation expressed by relative political independence, even during the Inca regime, as a possible explanatory key social factor. Current archaeological knowledge shows no evidence of paramount chiefs or prevailing powerful residential centers, which normally imply costly investment in architecture and sophisticated lifestyles. Alternatively, we look at whether progressive innovation in specialized technology to exploit marine resources, the development of extensive networks of exchange and political alliance, and complex ideological performances, evidenced by ceremonial paraphernalia and funerary rituals, were more important to explain the communities’ social sustainability. Investment in ideological performance may have helped to reduce factional competition and scalar social differentiations of aggrandizing elite leaders. For the purpose of this chapter, we focus on two major well-known geoecological zones that cover ~1,200 km (~745 miles) of littoral, from the Ilo Bay (~17° S), south of the Osmore Basin in southern Peru, to Copiapó Basin in northern Chile (~27° S), characterized by the most extreme hyperarid

PA C I F I C O C E A N Figure 2.1. Coast of northern Chile from Ilo to Los Vilos, the territories of the Chinchorro (Ilo to El Loa) and the Huentelauquén (El Loa Los Vilos), and their descendants (map edited by Daniela Valenzuela).

Marine Communities in the Atacama Desert · 41

conditions on the planet, which worsen from north to south (Figure 2.1). Rainfall over the high western slope of the Andes provides the subterranean and surficial runoff that ends up in the Pacific; drastic reduction of this rainfall is one of the factors that accounts for the ecological differences along the coast. The chronic absence of precipitation has molded the littoral environment for millions of years (Alpers and Brimhall 1988; Placzek et al. 2009) and has influenced the cultural processes that took place in the two coastal zones described below (Jackson et al. 2011; Llagostera 2005; Maldonado and Villagrán 2006; Marquet et al. 2012; Núñez 1999; Rothhammer 2014). The northern section, from the Ilo Bay to El Loa Basin (17–21° S, ~500 km, ~310 miles along the coast) is dissected by 11 major quebradas that drain to the Pacific coast. In the mouths of these quebradas, wetlands are formed that are partially covered with totora (reed, Scirpus sp.), widely used in burial bundles and domestic ware, and other plants. These wetlands are also home to several sea and lacustrine birds and mammals, which served as an important complement to marine resources (Dillehay and Saavedra 2010; Fariña and Camaño 2012; Standen 2003). These wetland ecosystems demarcate a “fertile or exorheic coast” (Schiappacasse et a1. 1989). Besides providing complementary riverine resources to the bountiful marine biomass, each river was a path to access different inland ecosystems (Figure 2.2). Today, the Coastal Cordillera from Arica to Iquique drops abruptly to the Pacific, leaving no space for the formation of a continental marine platform between the wetlands. South of Iquique, this mountain range is separated from the littoral by a continental platform. This discontinuous topography (Saillard et al. 2006) constituted different landscapes for hunter-gatherers. Inland, between Camiña and El Loa River, the absence of perennial rivers along the Pacific littoral is due not only to a decrease in the amount of rainfall along the western Andes, but also to the interruption of that runoff by a large exorheic basin (Pampa del Tamarugal, ~20–30 km from the coast). This hyperarid intermediate depression is located between the Andean foothills and the Cordillera de la Costa. The Cordillera interrupts groundwater and surface runoff that originates cyclically and seasonally in the high Andes, water that otherwise would reach the coast (Figure 2.2). The inland wetland and riparian system of Pampa del Tamarugal today supports sparse pockets of oases and gallery forests with meager vegetation and small-size fauna. Raw materials for lithic artifacts were also available for both coastal and inland populations. Temporary camps, such as those

42 · Calogero M. Santoro, Victoria Castro, Chris Carter, and Daniela Valenzuela

Figure 2.2. Habitat at the exorheic basin of Caleta Vitor Bay, whose wetlands, covered with totora (reed) and other plants, are home to sea and lacustrine birds and mammals—an important complement for marine resources. These canyons were natural paths to get access to interior enclaves (photo by Calogero M. Santoro).

of Tiliviche and Aragón, were established in inland oases, some 20 to 30 km from the coast (Núñez 1986; Núñez and Moragas 1977; Núñez and Zlatar 1976; Standen and Núñez 1984). The southern section, from El Loa Basin to Copiapó Bay (21–27°S, ~658 km, ~409 miles along the coast), has no riparian runoff flowing to the littoral, which is why it is known as “arheic coast” (Schiappacasse et al. 1989). In contrast, an increase in fog moisture intercepted by the high escarpment of the Cordillera de la Costa (Cereceda et al. 2008; Latorre et al. 2005; Rundel et al. 1991) generates an independent input of brackish spring water along this extreme hyperarid coast. Although these sources support a reduced plant community consisting mostly of cacti, it seems that there was enough water for people to select this conspicuous habitat, which in some locations was geographically circumscribed by a narrow continental platform (Rivadeneira et al. 2010; Saillard et al. 2006; Santoro et al. 2012) (Figure 2.3a–b). This condition, however, did not limit or block the social evolution of maritime communities, even within the arheic coast between the Loa–Copiapó coastal basins. There, the lack of nearby inland farming environments was made up for by intense interzonal movements, which was carried out by highland llama caravans starting circa 4,000 cal BP, and

Marine Communities in the Atacama Desert · 43

(a)

(b) Figure 2.3. (a) The southern abrupt endorheic coastal section (corresponding to the Huen­telauquén cultural zone), from El Loa Basin to Los Vilos Bay; it is characterized by the absence of runoff merging over the littoral (photo by Fernando Maldonado). (b) Thus people had access to brackish freshwater connected with coastal fog (camanchaca), as seen here. The selected habitats were in some cases geographically circumscribed by a narrow continental platform and the steep slope of the coastal cordillera (photo by Luis Eduardo Cornejo).

by coastal movement on foot (Pimentel et al. 2011; Pimentel et al. 2010). The interaction with inland communities was framed by the fact that inland economies were subject to unpredictable food crises due to droughts; thus, for the inland farming people, gaining access to the rich and abundant coastal surplus was imperative. This means that, although marine people could not practice agriculture, they enjoyed the consumption of food (meat and crops), raw material (wool, cotton), and exotic goods (pottery, textiles, metal objects) thanks to the exchange with inland farming and pastoral societies.

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The cultural differences between the exorheic and arheic zones are presented through two study cases: Caleta Vitor (18°45' S) and Copaca bays (22°20' S; 70°14' W), from the northern and southern section, respectively. Processes at these sites show important similarities and differences throughout time. The Caleta Vitor bay, at the mouth of the Chaca valley, was selected as a recent study example for the exorheic coast. People that settled there caught fish, collected mollusks, and hunted marine sea birds and mammals from ca 9500 cal BP until colonial times, under an economic system that did not change much over time. While a lot of corn and other cultivated plants were found in the Late (Inka) Horizon (circa cal AD 1400– 1530), stable isotopes show a continued marine diet. Similarly, the presence of camelid dung (in relatively large amounts) in the Late Intermediate Period (cal AD 1000–1400) suggests trade by llama caravan, although llamas were not a significant part of the diet (absence of camelid bone remains). Also, the impact of ENSO was not devastating in terms of local subsistence, as some mussels (chorito mayco, Perumytilus purpuratus) like warmer waters (El Niño) while the choro zapato (Choromytilus chorus) prefers cold waters (La Niña). Thus, there was always abundance of one species (Andrus et al. 2008; Díaz and Ortlieb 1993; Makou et al. 2010), which were part of the most preferable consumed mollusks. For the hyperarid arheic coast that extends from the Loa to Copiapó river, we have selected the case of Copaca, a small bay north of Cobija (Figure 2.1), where freshwater is provided by a brackish spring that still runs there. This location was part of a settlement system that extended from the coastal plain up to the high Andes (~4,000 m), a region strongly influenced by the constant action of the Pacific anticyclone, which causes a desert climate characterized by banks of dense camanchaca fog at 300 to 900 masl that generates lomas vegetation along the littoral. This ecosystem is composed of some shrubs, cacti, and bromeliads (Cereceda et al. 2008; Latorre et al. 2011; Masuda 1985, Rundel et al. 1991), as well as rodents, guanacos, foxes, and birds that provided food and raw materials (bones, hides, fur, feathers). These lomas resources complemented the marine diet of coastal people (Aldunate et al. 2010; Castro 2014; Castro et al. 2010, 2012; Olguín et al. 2015; Peña-Villalobos et al. 2013). The bountiful biomass production of the Pacific coast ecosystem along the arheic littoral supported local populations, which, besides managing coastal resources, also integrated distant inland ecosystem to sustain rather stable settlements that lasted for millennia along the coast (Ballester and Crisóstome 2017; Ballester et al. 2018).

Marine Communities in the Atacama Desert · 45

Thus, crossing the coastal mountain range, its incised quebradas and the vast desert behind it (~120–150 km away from the coast) were a common trend, one that required the allocation of certain items for exchange with inland communities (Ballester and Gallardo 2011; Núñez 1982; Pfeiffer et al. 2018). The peopling of this zone has been dated back to circa 12,000 cal BP at La Chimba archaeological sites, north of Cobija (Llagostera 2005), which show the settlements of fisher groups who caught different types of small fish. For the same epoch, people in Los Vilos, south of Copiapó, were also specialized fishers (Jackson et al. 2011; Jackson et al. 2012), possibly connected with earlier fishermen groups of northern and southern Peru (such as Huaca Prieta, Quebrada Tacahuay, and Quebrada Jaguay). This initial occupation continued at different coastal locations throughout the Archaic Period, supported by effective technologies for fishing and the collection of intertidal and shallow subtidal shellfish species (up to 6–12 m depth), obtained by diving and shoreline gathering (Castelleti et al. 2010; Olguín et al. 2014). At Copaca, initial stages show that fishing was carried out with circular and straight stem shell fishhooks, which, in later phases of the Archaic Period, were replaced by cactus spine fishhooks. Most of the faunal species captured during Prehispanic times are still found in these territories, including small numbers of camelids, pinnipeds (fin-footed mammals), canines, rodents, and birds. In sum, Prehispanic people at Copaca represent a mature sociocultural adaptation. As at Caleta Vitor, this southern coastal section of the Atacama Desert saw some noticeable changes in the amount and size of the captured fish species through time, meaning that, during the Middle Archaic, people started to incorporate in their economy the capture of deep-sea fish, which are described below. One feature that distinguishes this section from the northern region is the discovery of mining operations for red iron oxide, as early as circa 10,700 cal BP in San Ramón Ravine (San Ramón 15), carried out with stone hammers (Salazar et al. 2011; Salazar et al. 2015). Red pigments were intensively used throughout prehistory for painting on different media, including rock art, bodies, and the dead. Later on (5300 to 4000 cal BP), Archaic settlements were better structured with residential and/or burial stone masonry constructions sealed with mortar made out of seaweed ash, as seen at Aguada Gualaguala 04, Cobija, Los Canastos, Punta Guasilla, Caleta Huelén 42, and Taltal. During this period, people from the Salar de Atacama reached the Pacific coast

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more regularly, to carry Oliva peruviana (for decoration and ritual purposes), Pecten purpuratus, and Choromytilus sp. back to their highland camps (Núñez 1992; Yacobaccio and Núñez 1991). Social Dynamics and Economic Interaction by Maritime Communities in the Atacama Desert

When the first human populations arrived in South America, the continent offered a wide array of environments, some of which were “megapatches” (large, ecologically more or less homogeneous areas) (Beaton 1991; Kelly 2003) for hunter-gatherers. These megapatches were crucial for people moving possibly rather rapidly and randomly through unfamiliar territories that acted like corridors, as suggested for North America (Hamilton and Buchanan 2007). This is particularly true along the wetlands of the Pacific, a megapatch that traverses the continent from Alaska through to the Tierra del Fuego coast, including the Atacama Desert, as part of a likely migratory route to explore and colonize the continent (Codding and Jones 2013; Dillehay et al. 2008; Erlandson et al. 2011). The decision to stay in the hyperarid coast of the Atacama Desert seems to be a consequence of early settlers’ familiarity with these highly predictable, abundant, and diverse Pacific coast ecosystems. This means that early people had access to their bountiful resources, abundant in mammals, fish, mollusks, algae, and sea birds (Montecino and Lange 2009; Thiel et al. 2007). The archaeological evidence preserved along the coast of South America shows very early use of this habitat: Las Vegas in Ecuador (Stothert et al. 2003); Paiján (Chauchat et al. 2004) and Huaca Prieta (Dillehay et al. 2012) on the northern coast of Peru; and Quebradas Jaguay and Tacahuay in southern Peru (deFrance and Umire 2004; Keefer et al. 1998; Sandweiss et al. 1998). Marine People of the Ilo–El Loa Basins

From Ilo to El Loa Canyon, an exorheic coastal range of ~500 km (~293 miles) was the setting in which Chinchorro groups developed their longterm cultural processes, which span from the Early to the Late Archaic (circa 10,400–4,000 cal BP). As a foundational group, the Chinchorro spread over the territory from the mouths of the Lluta and Camiña valleys, extending north to Ilo and south to El Loa basins, respectively. The Chinchorro are characterized by a economy specialized in the exploitation

Marine Communities in the Atacama Desert · 47

of littoral spots circumscribed at the mouth of the quebradas or at coastal springs. They created complex funerary procedures in these places that have been widely described and discussed in the literature (see references in Arriaza et al. 2008; Marquet et al. 2012). For the purpose of this volume, we focus on the recent archaeological evidence uncovered from Caleta Vitor at the mouth of the Chaca Canyon as representative of the exorheic coast (Figure 2.2). This evidence encompasses Early Archaic to colonial times, providing the necessary data to discuss the questions put forward in this chapter concerning social, technological, economic, and ideological innovation in this environment. The Caleta Vitor Archaeological Sites

Evidence from sites at Caleta Vitor establishes occupation from at least 9500 cal BP through the Late Horizon (Roberts et al. 2013; Santoro et al. 2017). Rare colonial finds such as glass beads, a brass thimble, and an AD 1578 Spanish document associated with a mummy bundle (Bird 1943) are found in sites that otherwise are indistinguishable from late Prehispanic sites. Rock paintings in shelters next to the sea display mainly geometric and zoomorphic (camelid and fish) motifs. Excavations in one of these painting sites showed disturbed Prehispanic, colonial, and recent remains. The latter were related to the extraction of sea bird guano carried out during the nineteenth century (Oyaneder et al. 2014). The prehistoric evidence at Caleta Vitor was obtained from excavation of 10 trenches at 7 archaeological sites (CV1 to CV7) whose stratigraphic remains demonstrate different settlements and use of space through time (Santoro et al. 2017). Organic material (cane) from the basal layers on one of these trenches returned the earliest dates for the site (Early Archaic). This evidence indicates that the earlier settlement extended from the rear of the beach, flat along the valley floor, and upward across the slope. A later settlement was concentrated closer to the current intertidal zone and along the base of the cliffs. This may have been the result of beach formation processes, as the safer option was to settle away from the water’s edge (to avoid tsunamis) and away from the base of the cliffs (for fear of rock falls) (Berenguer 2008). Cultural variation is evident through this range of materials, and those living at Caleta Vitor had access to a broad economic base. It appears that the sea provided the foundation of their economy from the Late Archaic Period through the Late Horizon. This is borne out by the lack of structural

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changes in the economic system that show a shift in the intensity of the use of certain resources through time, and the introduction of a new technological tool kit for harvesting fish and shellfish and hunting sea animals. For example, analysis of fish vertebrae can be used to place fish within a size group (Colley 1990: 219); results of this analysis indicate that small fish species were common and caught in relatively large numbers by using nets. Net remains have not yet been found at Caleta Vitor. A total of 38,499 fish vertebrae (4.004 kg) were retrieved from excavated material at Caleta Vitor. Vertebrae were sorted into six size classifications based on the maximum diameter of the centrum—very small 1–3 mm, small 4–6 mm, medium 7–9 mm, medium-large 10–12 mm, large 13–16 mm, and very large >16 mm. The mean vertebrae diameter from the total assemblage is 4.657 mm, and ranges from 3.461 mm (CV1/3–Late Archaic) to 6.742 mm (CV4/1–Late Horizon). Simply put, this would suggest an increase in average fish size through time, possibly associated with improved fishing techniques and technology. There is a slight but consistent increase in diameter through time (Carter 2016). This may be the result of sampling strategies, but it may also be the result of either improved technology and strategies or the more efficient use of watercraft, as has been suggested for the Middle Archaic on the arheic coast (Olguín et al. 2014). The mean vertebrae size is classed as “small” fish, too small to be caught in large numbers using large shell or cactus spine fishhooks (Figures 2.4a–d). Anglers fishing from the piers at Arica today commonly catch fish of this size. However, they do so using relatively small steel hooks (compared to shell hooks). Very small fish, such as sardines or anchovies, are not target species for anglers using a baited hook. Small cactus thorn fishhooks were widely used since the Later Archaic in this zone, linked to an intensification of fish exploitation (Bird 1943; Llagostera 1979; Rivera 1991). These fishhooks, in different sizes, were also used in Middle Archaic Chinchorro burials as offerings to women without artificial mummification (Standen 2003), which may indicate gender labor differentiation. Strata in the basal units of CV3/1/30–31, dated to the Early Archaic, have a relatively high number of very small and small vertebrae (VS=58, S=428). The Middle Archaic (CV1/3/25) shows a high concentration of very small fish vertebrae (VS=1177 [NISP], S=605), while the numbers of large vertebrae are low and correspond to the remains of only two or three fish. The Late Archaic (CV2/1/47–58) shows high numbers of small vertebrae (VS=1148, S=1046). Given the size of the fish represented in this sample, the use of nets is assumed, particularly with regard to very small species

(a) (b)

(c)

(d)

(e) (f)

(g) (h)

(i)

(j)

Figure 2.4. (a) Choromytilus chorus circular stem shell fishhook, a typical artifact along the coast from Early to Middle Archaic; (b–c, e–j) vivid depiction of large marine specimens caught from small watercraft and terrestrial hunting at El Médano, north of Taltal; (d) harpoons and potera (materials curated at Museo Augusto Capdeville, Ilustre Municipalidad de Taltal, with the exception of the harpoon, which is curated at Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino; photo by Fernando Maldonado).

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(sardines and anchovies). Small- to medium-sized fish such as S. deliciosa (corvinilla or lorna) may have been captured with hook and line on occasion. However, they have a relatively small mouth and are a schooling species and, as such, are more likely to have been caught in large numbers using nets. This assumption is supported by Marcus (1987a), who has reported that local fishermen, at Cerro Azul (Peru), caught anchovies, sardines, and lorna using either cast or “curtain” nets (see also Marcus, Chapter 13 in this volume). There is a slightly higher percentage of large specimens in trenches from the Late Horizon (circa cal AD 1,400–1,530) at Caleta Vitor (CV4/1 and CV6/1–3). This may have been the result of improved technology (for example, metal hooks) and/or the use of watercraft, which increased catches in offshore fishing. The larger mean size from CV7/1 (which dates from the Late Archaic) is anomalous. However, given the small size of the sample and the general nature of the material from this trench, the sample may be representative of a site that was utilized only sporadically. Yet the mean size of fish vertebrae and abundance of very small and small fish varies little from the Archaic through to the Late Horizon, and very small/small fish consistently make up more than 80 percent of the total (NISP). This suggests that the earliest settlers (circa 9500 cal BP) of Caleta Vitor were adept fishermen and that this tradition continued into the Late Horizon. While fishing technology improved the ability to capture much larger specimens, net fishing for smaller species continued to be a major contributor to subsistence. This custom of fishing techniques, for the capture of large numbers of small fish, seems to have been practiced since the first maritime settlements on the coast of southern Peru, by the end of the Pleistocene, as discussed for Quebradas Tacahuay and Jaguay (deFrance and Umire 2004; Lavallée et al. 2011; Sandweiss 2003; Sandweiss et al. 1998). These data support the idea that maritime subsistence supported people living at Caleta Vitor from the earliest periods. The sea provided the foundation not only for their survival but also for their resilience to social changes and environmental fluctuations. This means that despite the fact that the staple of subsistence for people at Caleta Vitor continued without major variations, since the Formative Period (initiated circa 4000 BP, Roberts et al. 2013) these people also incorporated into their economy (for example, domestic and ritual lives) a large number of goods that typically identify Formative societies (that is, decorated and undecorated pottery,

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textiles with natural and dye color, metal, wood, bone prestige objects). This is particularly interesting at Caleta Vitor, where people had access to contiguous farming land that provided a range of cultivated and uncultivated plants (seeds, fruit, pods, reeds, stems) that included maize (Zea mays), cotton (Gossypium barbadense), squash (Cucurbita spp.), schinus (Schinus molle), capsicum (Capsicum spp.), algorrobo (Prosopis spp.), reed, and Solanacea. Marine People of El Loa–Copiapó Region

The territory from El Loa (~300 km south of Caleta Vitor) to Copiapó encompasses ~658 km (~409 miles) of extreme hyperarid coastline characterized by a chronic lack of freshwater: rainfall decreases in the high Andes, which affects the riparian and groundwater flows toward the Pacific (Latorre et al. 2005). Here, foundational social groups known as Huentelauquén (coeval with the Chinchorro) created a different and enduring cultural landscape with a social system linked to a different ideological world, materialized by the use of “cogged stones” and other geometric cut stones, which have been tentatively interpreted as ritual objects (Llagostera 1979). Morphologically similar artifacts have been described for Archaic coastal archaeological sites in southern California, and have been interpreted as objects utilized in nonutilitarian contexts, idiotechnical artifacts, ritual paraphernalia, caches of magic-religious objects, or gaming objects (Couch et al. 2009; Koerper and Manson 1998). The Huentelauquén people did not practice artificial mummification. In their ideological mortuary world, however, they customarily altered the corpses by applying a coat of red pigment to the deceased’s skin, which ended up impregnating their bones after soft tissue decomposition. The whole cultural system of the Huentelauquén people spread over a territory twice as large as Chinchorro, which may have been a consequence of multiple factors. In the Loa-Copiapó area people had to deal with unstable habitats that chronically lacked freshwater, which may have made them move their camps more frequently along the coast, including recurrent movement to the interior (Ballester and Crisóstome 2017; Ballester et al. 2018; Jackson et al. 2011; Koerper and Cramer 2011; Llagostera et al. 2000; Núñez and Santoro 2011). Further south, from Copiapó to Los Vilos (27° 31'–31° 56' S), freshwater was not a limiting factor, thus people organized their way of life with more dependence on inland food and other resources. Further north in the Ilo-Loa sector, people at Caleta

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Vitor never faced the problem of running out of freshwater; therefore, this natural condition was not a determining factor for moving along the coast. The Copaca Case

This report is grounded in the Copaca 1 archaeological site, one of several locations with long-term stratigraphic prehistoric sequences, which complement this case. Copaca 1 is a shell midden located north of Cobija (22° 20' S; 70° 14' W) that contains a detailed history over the Middle Archaic Period, which means that people were living there from circa 7100 to 5200 cal BP. Thus, historically, Copaca 1 covers Phases III and IV in the Llagostera sequence (Llagostera 2005) and Phases III and IV in the Salazar et al. (2015) chronology of Taltal. The occupation at Copaca was preceded by small groups of people who colonized the coast of Taltal by camping inside little caves, dated circa 12,000 to 11,500 cal BP. This early phase corresponds to Periods I and II in Llagostera’s sequence, and archaeological evidence, consisting of shell middens derived from logistical or working camps, is still meager. Thus mobility, technological, and subsistence patterns are assimilated into the Huentelauquén sociocultural complex (Salazar et al. 2015). This maritime tradition was started at Cascabeles cave camps by hunters who employed harpoons with stemmed projectile points (Castelleti 2007). The use of caves for protection is a typical behavior among Andean highland hunter-gatherers, who possibly explored the coast, as seems to be the case for the peopling from Ilo to El Loa (Rothhammer 2014; Santoro et al. 2012). They also used unifacial and bifacial lithic artifacts made of siliceous rocks obtained from sources located more than 30 km from the coast. These inland excursions were facilitated by wetlands available near the Cordillera de la Costa (Claudio Latorre, personal communication of unpublished data). Possibly, people established certain circles of mobility, but no early archaeological evidence has been found in these locations (Ugalde et al. 2012). Another reason to go inland was to exploit an iron oxide mine to obtain red pigment utilizing heavy stone hammers, as seen at San Ramón Prehispanic mine, near Taltal (see Salazar et al., Chapter 3 in this volume). People exploited the mine from late in the Pleistocene (circa 11,900 cal BP) until late in the Holocene (circa 4100 cal BP). It became an important factor for coastal societies in subsequent periods (Salazar et al. 2009; Salazar et al. 2011). Red pigment was used in a Late Pleistocene open camp in the core of the Atacama Desert, Quebrada Mani, Pampa

Marine Communities in the Atacama Desert · 53

del Tamarugal Basin (Latorre et al. 2013), and it was a key element in the ceremonial paraphernalia of funerary rituals among the Chinchorro and Huentelauquén people, as corpses were painted or coated with red pigment (Arriaza et al. 2008; Jackson et al. 2011; Llagostera et al. 2010; Llagostera et al. 2000; Sepúlveda et al. 2014). Copaca 1 covers an area of 5,000 m² and is more than 2 m deep, resulting from the accumulation of mollusk shells (most of them useless after extracting the edible parts), along with the remains of other marine and terrestrial fauna, and all sorts of discarded lithic, bone, and shell instruments for capturing, processing, and consuming food. The site was also used for a funerary interment arranged with a stone masonry structure. Archaeological excavations at Copaca 1 covered 14 m2, and, as in Caleta Vitor, since the beginning of the settlement people mastered the capture of a wide variety of marine resources. Twelve radiocarbon dates place the most intense occupation of the site between circa 6500 and 5100 cal BP. Groups of hunters, gatherers, and fishers that established semipermanent, multifunctional open camps for economic and ritual activities settled on a high marine terrace (22 masl), 100 m from the current littoral. From the whole range of fish that could be captured, people were very selective in first capturing jurel, or jack mackerel (Trachurus symmetricus), which is the most abundant, together with sardines (Sardinops sagax musica). Jurel migrates seasonally in schools toward the open ocean to reproduce and toward the coast to feed, especially on sardines, which would explain the relative abundance of these two species in the shell midden. Sardines may have also appeared in the shell midden as part of the stomach contents of larger species such as jurel and bonito. The seasonality of mackerel in Copaca seems to be reflected in their contrasting abundance between the layers of the shell midden, and it might have been caught along the littoral using nets. This species predominates in other sites of the area during the Middle Archaic (Guasilla site), and continues to be important in later periods in the Cobija coastal area (Castro et al. 2012). In sum, jurel was the most important food source of the area for over 5,000 years. Other littoral species captured at Copaca and other Archaic sites, such as Mantos de la Luna, included bilagay (Cheilodactus variegatus), rollizo (Pinguipes chilensis), tomollo (Auqueniochus microcirrhis), and pejesapo (Sicyases sanguineus), which were possibly captured by diving and using fishhooks. The presence of pelagic fish species, such as swordfish (Xiphias gladius),

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marlin (Istiophoridae), bonito (Sarda sp.), and elasmobranches (sharks, rays), which are today found 2 to 3 km off the littoral, implies that people needed some sort of watercraft to catch them. The same conclusion is proposed for the shell midden at the Agua Dulce open camp (Taltal), where people caught swordfish, marlin, and two shark species (Notorynchus cepedianus and Galeorhinus galeus) during the Middle Archaic (Olguín et al. 2014). Evidence of small vessels has not been found; however, certain bioanthropological marks have been interpreted as resulting from the use of oars. We must also consider that pelagic species can come close to the coast when chasing their prey, while certain elasmobranch species reach the coast when young. However, the use of watercraft is supported by the depiction of some sort of vessel in the vivid painted images with pelagic fish species found at several locations on the coast of Taltal (Figure 2.4i and 2.4j). Archaeological and iconographic evidence suggests that El Médano rock art style belongs to later Prehispanic phases (Late Formative or Late Intermediate Periods) (Ballester 2018; Berenguer et al. 2008), although direct Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dates from rock art motifs yielded a much earlier chronology for this style (circa 8700 cal BP; Castelleti et al. 2015). Gastropods were also intensively consumed, including loco (Concholepas concholepas) and lapa (Fissurella sp.), which are typical of the rocky littoral of Cobija and along the coast of northern Chile. It is noticeable that their size gradually decreased through time, which seems to be the consequence of several combined factors. Stratigraphically and chronologically, the larger specimens occurred during the time of increased marine upwelling, which increases primary bioproduction (Carré et al. 2012; Mohtadi and Hebbeln 2004; Ortlieb et al. 2011). Old local divers have commented that until the middle of the twentieth century, larger mollusks were frequent near the intertidal zone. Thus, the decrease in size could be the combination of environmental changes and overexploitation of the resources toward later prehistoric times as human populations increased (Marquet et al. 2012, Rivadeneira et al. 2010). Besides locos and lapas, another gastropod intensively consumed at Copaca was a sea snail (Tegula atra), despite its small size and rather meager biomass. It is estimated that mollusks, especially locos, were caught by diving because they migrate toward deeper sections of the littoral as they become larger (Castelleti 2007). These invertebrates were also used as raw material in the manufacture of expedient shell artifacts. The use of Choromytilus chorus shells stands out in the manufacture of fishhooks and knives. Other shells were used to make necklace beads.

Marine Communities in the Atacama Desert · 55

Sea birds, especially Phalacrocoracidae, followed in importance by Procellaridae and Laridae, were another source of protein, and several skeletal parts of these birds show cutmarks resulting from butchering. Coastal groups of the southern tip of South America used snares and nets to capture birds (Gusinde 1951). Similar tools have not been identified in Copaca, which is why it is assumed that the Copaca people employed spears with stemmed and lanceolate projectile points or slingshots, given the noticeable presence of pebbles of different sizes. Toward the later phases of the occupation at Copaca, Delphinidae were the most important captured taxa among marine mammals (presence of vertebrae, skull fragments: the occipital and frontal jaws and periodic bone). This means that primary and secondary bone discard was carried out in that place, a behavior typical of Archaic semipermanent residential camps. Other taxa consumed at Copaca were Cetacea and Otaridae. Camelidae played a marginal role as a source of protein. Parts of Delphinidae were placed with the human interment described below. Some of these species seem to have been depicted in rock art as seen in El Médano (Figures 2.4e–h). Artifacts at Copaca included lithic (siliceous) projectile points, harpoons (barbs and shafts), fishhook and fishhook weights, poteras (a wooden instrument consisting of a long stick and three or four thin and pointed barbs used to capture octopi), scrapers, planes, flakes, polishers (active or passive), choppers made of andesite, and knives made of Choromytilus chorus shells (Figure 2.4). For the processing of sea and land mammals obtained through hunting, the Copaca people used sharp-edged lithic instruments, which left a series of micro traces on the bones when cutting and scraping. These were identified in 12 morphological types of andesite and siliceous instruments, but the chopper was the most frequently used instrument for these and other functions. These activities seem to have been carried out more frequently in the upper layers of Copaca, when bifaces were incorporated. Andesite pebbles and (active) polishers (Aschero 1983) were used in abrasive tasks, such as the preparation of mammal hides destined for the manufacture of dwellings, clothes, and possibly rafts, especially during the later occupations that formed the upper layers at Copaca (Castro et al. 2016; GarcíaAlbarido 2014). In lesser amounts, andesite was also used to make fishhook sinkers/weights. Some of the polishers are impregnated with red pigment. Given the lack of wood on the arheic coast, people instead used the long bones of camelids at Copaca, as well as the bones of birds and sea

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mammals, mainly otarids. They used circular and straight stem shell fishhooks (Figures 2.4a, 2.4d). These are distinctive tools along the coast of northern Chile and have been used as chronological indicators, to the extent that circular hooks tend to appear in the earliest times of occupation at several littoral sites until circa 6100 cal BP. Later on, straight stem fishhooks became more common, as did the introduction of hooks made of cactus spine, and other hunting and fishing elements like lithic-stemmed, triangular points, bipoints, bone barbs for harpoons (Figure 2.4d), bone bipoints, shell sinkers for composite fishhooks, and “Taltaloid” points (Bird 1943; Boisset et al. 1969; Castro 2014; Contreras and Núñez 2008; Llagostera 2005). In sum, like other coastal groups along the littoral of northern Chile, the Copaca people based their subsistence on marine resources, which is reflected in the wide variety of artifacts linked to extraction, processing, and consumption of fish, shellfish, birds, and sea mammals. The permanent consumption of these resources also left traces in the chemical composition of the bones identified through isotopic analyses, which show high levels of nitrogen (Andrade et al. 2016; Andrade et al. 2014; Aufderheide et al. 1994; Aufderheide and Santoro 1999; Jackson et al. 2012; Santana-Sagredo et al. 2015; Tieszen and Chapman 1995). The marine diet is also reflected in the high recurrence of metabolic diseases in all the members of the community (women, men, and children), caused by the Diphyllobothrium pacificum parasite and linked to the consumption of raw fish and sea lion (Reinhard and Urban 2003). This and other parasites (Enteroblus vernicularis) affected all the Prehispanic populations of the north coast of Chile over time (Araújo et al. 2011; Araújo de et al. 1985; Arriaza et al. 2008; Cocilovo et al. 2005; Ferreira et al. 1984; Núñez and Hall 1982). Osteomyelitis was another disease that afflicted the population of Copaca as in other coastal locations (Cocilovo et al. 2005). Exostosis of the external auditory canal mainly affected male individuals at Copaca, also a phenomenon found in other coastal populations from exposure to cold air and water; this may have resulted from diving practices or other activities (rowing, swimming, underwater fishing, and hunting with harpoons). All of these tasks are linked to the exploitation of marine resources and were carried out mainly by men (Bonavia 1988; Jurmain and Kilgore 1995; Kennedy 1986; Molnar 2006; Standen et al. 1985; Standen et al. 1997). One of the individuals at Copaca shows signs of squatting facets; these might have been caused by the use of some sort of vessel that required squatting down to row or by supporting heavy loads with the arms and

Marine Communities in the Atacama Desert · 57

back, by long and/or constant marches to carry out gathering tasks, or by the processing of resources. This individual does not show signs of cavities, reflecting a diet rich in animal proteins which, together with the presence of severe flat dental wear, corresponds to the typical diet of coastal huntergatherers (Andrade et al. 2014; Standen and Núñez 1984). People at Copaca employed tubular beads made of white shells (4–5 mm length, 4–7 mm in diameter) as adornments. They possibly used the columella of Turritela cingulata, easy to craft and collect along the littoral. Discoidal beads made of Fissurella cumingi were also used (Castro et al. 2016). This care of the body was also transferred to the treatment of the dead, which displays innovative practices during the Middle Archaic. One male individual at Copaca was buried in an underground subcircular stone structure, over a specially prepared clay floor (Figure 2.5a and 2.5c). This is significantly different from the treatments observed in other areas of the arheic coast, where burials were sealed with a compact ash layer. This person was placed in an extended position: legs set apart, left arm bent, and right arm extended. Cervical vertebrae were disassembled and displaced to introduce three sea urchin shells aligned with the vertebrae (Figure 2.5a and 2.5b). Also, red-painted pebbles were added as an extension of both hands, and an infant (badly preserved), 3 to 5 years of age, was placed between the legs, as a secondary burial offering. Since there is no evidence of postdepositional alterations, it is estimated that these arrangements were part of a funerary rite that has not been identified at other places along the coast. In Copaca, this pattern is also repeated in other finds of two secondary disassembled and incomplete people whose inferior limbs were deposited as a “package” together with their respective skulls; in part, this resembles the funerary pattern of Zaña, on the north coast of Peru, for the same period (Rossen and Dillehay 1999; Santoro et al. 2005). In sum, as in the case of Caleta Vitor, these groups originated sociocultural processes that allowed people to cope with ecological instability, which later in the Archaic made it possible to establish little hamlets with stone masonry structures along the coast. Moreover, and despite the ecological constraints, during later periods, known as the Formative era, these groups managed to incorporate into their social system certain features of the agricultural world through different mechanisms of interaction with distant inland agropastoral societies.

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(a)

(b)

(c) Figure 2.5. (a) Human inhumation at Copaca with intentional interventions, including the deposition of an infant between his legs (badly preserved), placed over a prepared clay floor; (b) detail of the neck enlarged with sea urchin shells; (c) inhumation placed inside a masonry stone structure used also for domestic purposes (photos by Victoria Castro).

Conclusions

The unilinear construction of the cultural history of people along the coast of the Atacama Desert has portrayed them evolving, like many prehistoric societies throughout the world, from hunting-gathering social systems to agropastoral socioeconomic structures. This is because people at Caleta Vitor and Copaca interacted with other communities, evidenced by ceramics, metal objects, textiles, and other features of foreign origin. Despite the introduction of these elements and features, the coastal subsistence at Caleta Vitor and Copaca did not change much. However, these peoples modified

Marine Communities in the Atacama Desert · 59

and innovated their technological system for extracting marine resources through time. Since the Early Archaic (circa 10,400 cal BP), archaeological records show that people tried to consume the same selection of fish and shellfish. The relative abundance and size of the selected food items that entered the everyday menu of these people fluctuated through time. This was possibly provoked by climatic changes, technological innovation, population increase, and overexploitation. For instance, netting (assumed due to the small size of fish) was very important from the Archaic Period through the Late Horizon at the Caleta Vitor and Copaca coastal zones. This early technological device was complemented by the introduction of different kinds of fishhooks made out of shell, stones, bones, and copper. For hunting, harpoons were incorporated during the Middle Archaic in the Caleta Vitor zone (circa 6200 cal BP). In the Copaca coastal zone, this tool kit and watercraft seem to have been incorporated circa 4500 cal BP, linked to the capture of large pelagic fish species, which are vividly depicted in later rock art painting. In contrast, in the Vitor zone, both watercraft and pelagic fish become visible in the archaeological records in later Prehispanic phases (since the Formative). Abundant in large quantities on tidally exposed rocks or sandy beaches along the coast and not subject to seasonal variations (and when affected by warm El Niño events, new species show up almost immediately as replacements), shellfish were easy to collect with a simple device: a chope—a tool made out of sea lion ribs for collecting and processing gastropods). In both regions, shellfish complemented high trophic-level marine resources. As well, local subsistence and social life required movement to inland enclaves to obtain raw materials (for example, stones and pigments) and to create exchange networks with highland sociocultural groups (up to more than 150 km away) in order to obtain exotic goods, especially in later Prehispanic times (for example, camelid and cotton fibers and manufactures, farming products). Coastal inland interaction, particularly in the arheic littoral, started to be developed after around 6000–4000 cal BP (Ballester and Gallardo 2011); in both coastal zones (exorheic and arheic), inland influence was more evident with the arrival of agricultural products and domesticated animals (camelids and rodents) during the Formative Period. At Caleta Vitor during the Late Horizon, there was a visible increase of corn in the archaeological record, but stable isotopes show a continuing marine-focused diet. Similarly, although camelid dung is relatively abun-

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dant in shell middens, the absence of camelid bones suggests that their social function was as pack animals in interregional exchange networks. Camelids, then, were not a significant part of the diet, as has been identified in the exorheic coast and valleys (Valenzuela et al. 2015). In sum, the mainstay of the subsistence at Caleta Vitor focused on the sea and never diminished, and remains of fish, marine mammals, shellfish, and sea birds are found consistently from the earliest units excavated through the Late Horizon. Thus, the process of increasing complexity experienced by the Vitor communities around 4000 to 3500 cal BP, which started during the early Formative Period, did not qualitatively transform the subsistence of these societies. The remains of maize are abundant during the later part of the Late Intermediate Period but are not present in any of the older archaeological strata at Caleta Vitor. Cotton becomes common after 3500 cal BP along with camelid dung, but during the late prehistory (after 610 cal BP) it becomes substantially more abundant. At Copaca, the importance of high-level trophic marine resources is more dramatic, as this bay is not ecologically associated with a canyon mouth as is Vitor. Plant resources and other goods had to be brought from more than 100 km inland, because it is almost impossible to practice farming along this sterile coast. Movement in watercraft could be an alternative explanation for the presence of plants and exotic goods. The cultural continuity of the social groups that centered their way of life along the arheic coast, however, was not free from the incorporation of external elements, although this occurred much later than in Vitor. For instance, externally produced pottery, metal objects, and textiles were first introduced circa 2000 cal BP (Bland et al. 2017), showing extensive exchange networking with inland social groups, and from there the possibility of access to tropical forest items (Pestle et al. 2015). Ideologically, during the Archaic Period in Caleta Vitor, this social sphere was materialized in complex treatment of the dead, including some sort of artificial preservation of babies, children, and adults exposed in collective interment. At Copaca, although less complex procedures were applied, corpses were treated to transform their natural appearance and were buried under private individual arrangements (Figure 2.5). During the Formative, the typical tumulus landform was introduced through the building of ceremonial mounds that transformed the landscape. These highly visible ceremonial constructions, registered in several places along the arheic coast (Ballester and Clarot 2014; Castro et al. 2012; Moragas 1982), represent social and ideological conceptions that may have provided certain regional

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social bonds. They were also common along the exorheic coast and the associated valleys, where their distribution formed conglomerate landmarks that emphasized their monumental significance (Romero et al. 2004). At Caleta Vitor two big tumuli, located on the border cliff of a marine terrace over the southern slope of the quebrada (which was more intensively occupied through time), interrupt the view from the valley toward the sandy coastal beach, as they rise more than 2 m over the landscape. From the beach side, these tumuli appear more than 4 m tall, obstructing the view toward the interior of the quebrada. Copaca coastal Formative communities needed to interact with farming groups located in the Loa and the Puna de Atacama basins to the north. Exchange networks were also extended to communities located from Copiapó to Los Vilos toward the south. Since cargo animals, like llamas, could not be sustained along the sterile coast, people moved out of the coast by walking to the interior, carrying exchange items (dried fish, shells) in capachos (backpacks) (Pimentel et al. 2010). People from the interior moved goods and products down to the coast on llama caravans, which become more intense in later Prehispanic phases (1,000 cal BP). Possibly, more than one system was operating independently, considering that crossing the desert must have been a dangerous enterprise: no water and food were available for people and animals, and it was not uncommon to perish in this attempt (Pimentel et al. 2011). Interaction between coastal and inland groups, however, intensified toward the Late Intermediate Period (circa 1200 AD). Taltal, especially, experienced the introduction of an important number of exotic goods, such as textiles, pottery, stone beads, wooden carved objects, camelid fiber, Andean highland bird feathers, and obsidian, which ended up as burial offerings. The introduction of these exotic goods may be related to the exploitation of a variety of coastal ores (copper, gold, silver) by local populations; the products of coastal mining were highly attractive to inland groups, so they entered long-distance exchange circuits. As coastal people controlled the mining production, they gained a strong position regarding the exchange of raw ore or metal objects directly for the inland prestige goods. Thus, instead of waiting for the highlanders to come down to the coast, coastal people moved up and also brought back with them low nutritional value foods as chañar and algarrobo fruit (Ballester and Gallardo 2011). By the end of the Prehistoric Epoch, the incorporation of these goods into coastal social reproduction was creating certain levels of inequalities, as only some individuals were privileged to consume or wear these objects.

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Since the Late Intermediate Period (circa AD 1200), people established more permanent settlements by investing in more stable domestic architecture, and complex funerary rituals were performed in particular places in, or next to, domestic areas. All of these social changes, however, did not trigger processes of social differentiation, and if there were some aggrandizing leaders, their power was not transmitted to consanguine individuals or relatives in new generations. Until the time of contact with the Europeans, coastal people enjoyed a rather egalitarian and independent life. Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Chilean National Foundation for Science and Technology (FONDECYT 1120454 to CMS; FONDECYT 1100951 and 1050991 to VC; FONDECYT 1151046 to CMS, VC, and DV), Universidad de Tarapacá, and Universidad Alberto Hurtado, and CONICYT PIA program project ANILLO SOC1405. We thank the editors and the anonymous reviewer for their critical and key comments that helped to improve this chapter. References Cited Aldunate, Carlos, Victoria Castro, and Varinia Varela 2010 Los Atacamas y el pescado de Cobija en homenaje al maestro John Víctor Murra. Chungara Revista de Antropología Chilena 42(1): 341–347. Alpers, Charles, and George Brimhall 1988 Middle Miocene Climatic Change in the Atacama Desert, Northern Chile: Evidence from Supergene Mineralization at La Escondida. Geological Society of America Bulletin 100: 1640–1656. Andrade, Pedro, Victoria Castro, and Carlos Aldunate 2016 Reconstrucción del modo de vida de individuos del arcaico de la costa arreica del norte de Chile: una aproximación bioarqueológica desde el sitio Copaca 1. Chungara Revista de Antropología Chilena 48(1): 73–90. Andrade, Pedro, Diego Salazar, Josefina Urrea, and Victoria Castro 2014 Modos de vida de los cazadores-recolectores de la costa arreica del Norte Grande de Chile: una aproximación biarqueológica a las poblaciones prehistóricas de Taltal. Chungara Revista de Antropología Chilena 46(3): 467–491. Andrus, C. Fred T., Daniel H. Sandweiss, and Elizabeth J. Reitz 2008 Climate Change and Archaeology: The Holocene History of El Niño on the Coast of Peru. In Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology, 2nd ed., edited by Elizabeth J. Reitz, C. Margaret Scarry, and Sylvia J. Scudder, pp. 143–157. Springer, New York.

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Pfeiffer, Marco, Claudio Latorre, Calogero M. Santoro, Rodrigo Rojas, Eugenia Gayo, Maria L. Carrevedo, Virginia McRostie, Kari Finstad, Arjun Heimsath, Matthew Jungers, Ricardo De Pol-Holz, and Ronald Amundson 2018 Chronology, Stratigraphy and Hydrological Modelling of Extensive Wetlands and Paleolakes in the Hyperarid Core of the Atacama Desert during the Late Quaternary. Journal of Quaternary Science Review 197: 224–245. Pimentel, Gonzalo, Charles Rees, Patricio de Souza, and Lorena Arancibia 2011 Viajeros costeros y caravaneros. Dos estrategias de movilidad en el Período Formativo del desierto de Atacama, Chile. In En Ruta, Arqueología, Historia y Etnografía del Tráfico Sur Andino, edited by Lautaro Núñez and Axel Nielsen, pp. 43–82. Encuentro Grupo Editor, Cordoba, Argentina. Pimentel, Gonzalo, Charles Rees, Patricio De Souza, and Patricia Ayala 2010 Estrategias de movilidad del período Formativo en la Depresión Intermedia, Desierto de Atacama. In Actas del XVII Congreso Nacional de Arqueología Chilena, pp. 1353–1364. Ediciones Kultrún, Sociedad Chilena de Arqueología, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia. Placzek, Christa, Jade Quade, Julio L. Betancourt, P. Jonathan Patchett, Jason A. Rech, Claudio Latorre, Ari Matmon, Camile Holmgren, and Nathan B. English 2009 Climate in the Dry Central Andes over Geologic, Millennial, and Interannual Timescales. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 96(3): 386–397. Reinhard, Karl, and Otto Urban 2003 Diagnosing Ancient Diphyllobothriasis from Chinchorro Mummies. Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz 98: 191–193. Rivadeneira, Marcelo, Calogero M. Santoro, and Pablo A. Marquet 2010 Reconstructing the History of Human Impacts on Coastal Biodiversity in Chile: Constraints and Opportunities. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 20(1): 74–82. Rivera, Mario A. 1991 The Prehistory of Northern Chile: A Synthesis. Journal of World Prehistory 5(1): 1–47. Roberts, Amy, F. Donald Pate, Bianca Petruzzelli, Chris Carter, Michael Westaway, Calogero M. Santoro, Jaime Swift, Todd Maddern, Geraldine E. Jacobsen, Fiona Bertuch, and Francisco Rothhammer 2013 Retention of Hunter-Gatherer Economies among Maritime Foragers from Caleta Vitor, Northern Chile, during the Late Holocene: Evidence from Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic Analysis of Skeletal Remains. Journal of Archaeological Sciences 40(5): 2360–2372. Romero, Álvaro, Calogero M. Santoro, Daniela Valenzuela, Juan Chacama, Eugenia F. Rosello, and Luigi Piacenza 2004 Túmulos, ideología y paisaje de la Fase Alto Ramírez del Valle de Azapa. Chungara Revista de Antropología Chilena, Volumen especial: 261–272. Rossen, Jack, and Tom D. Dillehay 1999 La colonización y el asentamiento del norte del Perú: innovación, tecnología y adaptación en el valle de Zaña. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP 3: 121–140.

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Rothhammer, Francisco 2014 En torno a la emergencia de complejidad funeraria temprana en la costa norte de Chile. Chungara Revista de Antropología Chilena 46(1): 145–151. Rundel, P. W., M. O. Dillon, B. Palma, H. A. Mooney, S. L. Gulmon, and J. R. Ehleringer 1991 The Phytogeography and Ecology of the Coastal Atacama and Peruvian Deserts. Aliso 13: 1–49. Saillard, Marianne, Laurence Audin, Gérard Hérail, Joseph Martinod, Vincent Regard, José Machar, Luc Ortlieb, Sarah Hall, Daniel Farber, and Francis Bondoux 2006 Uplift of the Bolivian Orocline Coastal Areas Based on Geomorphologic Evolution of Marine Terraces and Abrasion Surfaces: Preliminary Results. Actas XI Geológico Chileno, vol. 2, pp. 453–456. Geodinámica Andina, Antogagasta, Chile. Salazar, Diego, Victoria Castro, Hernán Salinas, and Varinia Varela 2009 Nuevas investigaciones sobre la prehistoria y la antigua minería de Taltal. Taltalia 2: 111–118. Salazar, Diego, Valentina Figueroa, Pedro Andrade, Hernán Salinas, Laura Olguín, Ximena Power, Sandra Rebolledo, Sonia Parra, Héctor Orellana, and Josefina Urrea 2015 Cronología y organización económica de las poblaciones arcaicas de la costa de Taltal. Estudios Atacameños Arqueología y Antropología Surandinas 50: 7–46. Salazar, Diego, Donald Jackson, G. L. Guendon, Hernán Salinas, D. Morata, Valentina Figueroa, Germán Manríquez, and Victoria Castro 2011 Early Evidence (ca. 12,000 BP) for Iron Oxide Mining on the Pacific Coast of South America. Current Anthopology 52(3): 463–475. Sandweiss, Daniel H. 2003 Terminal Pleistocene through Mid-Holocene Archaeological Sites as Paleoclimatic Archives for the Peruvian Coast. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 194: 23–40. Sandweiss, Daniel H., Heather McInnis, Richard L. Burger, Asunción Cano, Bernardino Ojeda, Rolando Paredes, Maria del Carmen Sandweiss, and Michael D. Glascock 1998 Quebrada Jaguay: Early South American Maritime Adaptations. Science 281(5384): 1830–1832. Santana-Sagredo, Francisca, Mauricio Uribe, María José Herrera, Rodrigo Retamal, and Sergio Flores 2015 Dietary Practices in Ancient Populations from Northern Chile during the Transition to Agriculture (Tarapacá Region, 1000 BC–AD 900). American Journal of Physical Anthropology 158(4): 751–758. Santoro, Calogero M., Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, Claudio Latorre, Francisco Rothhammer, and Vivien G. Standen 2012 Rise and Decline of Chinchorro Sacred Landscapes along the Hyperarid Coast of the Atacama Desert. Chungara Revista de Antropología Chilena 44(4): 637–653. Santoro, Calogero M., Vivien G. Standen, Bernardo T. Arriaza, and Tom D. Dillehay 2005 Archaic Funerary Pattern or Postdepositional Alteration? The Patapatane Burial in the Highlands of South Central Andes. Latin American Antiquity 16(3): 329– 346.

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Santoro, Calogero M., Eugenia M. Gayo, Chris Carter, Vivien G. Standen, Victoria Castro, Daniela Valenzuela, Ricardo De Pol-Holz, Pablo A. Marque, Claudio Latorre 2017 Loco or no Loco? Holocene Climatic Fluctuations, Human Demography and Community Base Management of Coastal Resources in Northern Chile. Frontiers in Earth Science 5: article 77. Schiappacasse, Virgilio, Victoria Castro, and Hans Niemeyer 1989 Los Desarrollos Regionales en el Norte Grande (1.000–1.400 d.C.). In Culturas de Chile. Prehistoria, desde sus Orígenes hasta los Albores de la Conquista, edited by Jorge Hidalgo, Virgilio Schiappacasse, Hans Niemeyer, Carlos Aldunate, and Iván Solimano, pp. 181–220. Editorial Andrés Bello, Santiago. Sepúlveda, Marcela, Hélene Rousseliere, Elsa van Elslande, Bernardo Arriaza, Vivien Standen, Calogero M. Santoro, and Philippe Walter 2014 Study of Color Application in Archaic Chinchorro Mummies and Grave Goods at Chile’s Coastal Far North (7000–3500 b.p.). Heritage Science 7: 2–12. Standen, Vivien G. 2003 Bienes funerarios del cementerio Chinchorro Morro 1: descripción, análisis e interpretación. Chungara Revista de Antropología Chilena 35(2): 175–207. Standen, Vivien G., Marvin Allison, and Bernardo T. Arriaza 1985 Osteoma del conducto auditivo externo: hipótesis en torno a una posible patología laboral prehispánica. Chungara Revista de Antropología Chilena 15: 197– 209. Standen, Vivien G., Bernardo T. Arriaza, and Calogero M. Santoro 1997 External Auditory Exostosis in Prehistoric Chilean Populations: A Test of Chronology and Geographic Distribution. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 103: 119–129. Standen, Vivien G., and Lautaro Núñez 1984 Indicadores antropológico-físico y culturales del cementerio precerámico Tiliviche-2 (norte de Chile). Chungara Revista de Antropología Chilena 12: 135–154. Stothert, Karen E., Dolores R. Piperno, and Thomas C. Andres 2003 Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Human Adaptation in Coastal Ecuador: The Las Vegas Evidence. Quaternary International 109–110: 23–43. Thiel, Martin, Erasmo C. Macaya, Enzo Acuña, Wolf E. Arntz, Horacio Bastias, Katherina Brokordt, Patricio A. Camus, Juan Carlos Castilla, Leonardo R. Castro, Maritza Cortés, Clement P. Dumont, Ruben Escribano, Miriam Fernandez, Jhon A. Gajardo, Carlos F. Gaymer, Ivan Gomez, Andrés E. González, Humberto E. González, Pilar A. Haye, Juan-Enrique Illanes, Jose Luis Iriarte, Domingo A. Lancellotti, Guillermo LunaJorquera, Carolina Luxoro, Patricio H. Manriquez, Víctor Marín, Praxedes Muñoz, Sergio A. Navarrete, Eduardo Perez, Elie Poulin, Javier Sellanes, Hector Hito Sepúlveda, Wolfgang Stotz, Fadia Tala, Andrew Thomas, Cristian A. Vargas, Julio A. Vasquez, and J. M. Alonso Vega 2007 The Humboldt Current System of Northern and Central Chile. Oceanography and Marine Biology 45: 195–344. Tieszen, Larry L., and M. Chapman 1995 Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic Status of the Major Marine and Terrestrial Resources in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile. Proceedings of the First World

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Congress on Mummy Studies, pp. 409–425. Museo Arqueológico y Etnográfico de Tenerife, Puerto de la Cruz, Canary Islands. Ugalde, Paula C., Carolina Salas, Claudio Latorre, Daniela Osorio, Donald Jackson, and Calogero M. Santoro 2012 Poblamiento temprano del norte de Chile (18–25° s): estudio interdisciplinario arqueológico y paleoambiental. In Actas XVIII Congreso Nacional de Arqueología Chilena, pp. 197–206. Sociedad Chilena de Arqueología, Santiago. Valenzuela, Daniela, Calogero M. Santoro, José M. Capriles, María José Quinteros, Ronny Peredo, Eugenia M. Gayo, Indira Montt, and Marcela Sepúlveda 2015 Consumption of Animals beyond Diet in the Atacama Desert, Northern Chile (13,000–410 BP): Comparing Rock Art Motifs and Archaeofaunal Records. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 40: 250–265. Yacobaccio, Hugo Daniel, and Lautaro Núñez 1991 Recursos y espacio en quebrada Tulán: el sitio Tulán-52 (Puna de Atacama). In Actas del XI Congreso Nacional de Arqueología Chilena, pp. 165–174. Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Sociedad Chilena de Arqueología, Santiago.

3 Economic Organization and Social Dynamics of Middle-Holocene Hunter-Gatherer-Fisher Communities on the Coast of the Atacama Desert (Taltal, Northern Chile) Diego Salazar, Carola Flores, César Borie, Laura Olguín, Sandra Rebolledo, Manuel Escobar, and Ariadna Cifuentes

The Arid Coast of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile (Figure 3.1) is one of the most extreme environments of the Andean area. It is nearly 600 km in length with a very narrow littoral platform flanked by the Pacific Ocean and the coastal mountain range (circa 2000 mas1) that drops abruptly into the Pacific. Despite the high productivity of the Pacific Ocean, the terrestrial environment is a hyperarid coastal desert with no permanent sources of freshwater except for small and often salty “springs,” called aguadas. Archaeological research has shown that this arid coast has been inhabited at least since the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Five sites in the area of Taltal (Castelleti 2007; Salazar et al. 2011, 2013a, 2013b, 2015) show occupations related to the Huentelauquén Cultural Complex (Llagostera et al. 2000; Sandweiss 2008; Jackson et al. 2011) and have been dated between 10,000 and 12,500 cal BP. After a chronological gap of nearly two millennia for which we have no archaeological evidence, communities of huntergatherer-fishers continually inhabited this area until the late nineteenth century. Most researchers studying the long cultural sequence of the Arid Coast have proposed a conservative way of life and an economy characterized by a traditional technology well adapted to local ecosystems (Llagostera 1989; Bittmann 1984; Castro et al. 2012). Ethnohistorical models have also been used to reconstruct settlement systems going back as far as the sixth

Figure 3.1. The Arid Coast of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile (provided by the authors).

76 · Salazar, Flores, Borie, Olguín, Rebolledo, Escobar, and Cifuentes

millenium BC (Ballester and Gallardo 2011). However, it has been shown that local histories were more complex, including significant technological transformations (Llagostera 1982) and dramatic changes in settlement patterns (Castelleti 2007; Salazar et al. 2015). Within this cultural sequence, the Middle Holocene Period (8000–4500 cal BP) shows the prevalence of a specialized maritime economy, a semisedentary settlement system, and signs of growing social complexity. In this chapter we focus on this period and use data on subsistence, technology, and settlement patterns to infer economic organization and social dynamics within these local huntergatherer-fisher communities. Natural Environment

Our study area is located around the city of Taltal, in the southernmost part of the Peruvian-Chilean coastal desert (Figure 3.1). It is characterized by the complete lack of perennial rivers. The only permanent sources of freshwater are small and often salty aguadas near the coast, which are mainly fed by coastal rains linked to El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events (Herrera and Custodio 2014). Three main ecosystems have been described for the Arid Coast: terrestrial, coastal, and marine. In the terrestrial ecosystem, persistent coastal fogs known locally as camanchaca provide enough humidity to sustain relatively diverse vegetation communities of evergreen and annual flora such as lichens, cacti, and small bushes (for example, Pefaur 1982; Pliscoff and Luebert 2008). Vertebrate fauna is characterized by terrestrial mammals like Lama guanicoe, reptiles, and birds (Marquet et al. 1998). On the other hand, marine and coastal ecosystems in the study area are among the most productive in the world (Ortlieb et al. 2010) and include diverse species of seaweed, mollusks, fish, cetaceans, pinnipeds, and sea birds (Thiel et al. 2007; Medina et al. 2007). Even though present characteristics of terrestrial, coastal, and marine ecosystems of the study area can be assumed to have been similar during the Middle Holocene, past changes in the productivity of these ecosystems due to environmental variability have to be considered in order to understand the archaeological record of past human dynamics. Paleoceanographic studies from the central and northern coast of Chile present general scenarios of dry and humid coastal conditions during the Middle Holocene (Grosjean et al. 2003, 2007; Gayo et al. 2012; Latorre et al. 2002, 2005; Rech et al. 2002) related to sea surface temperature variation (Carré

Middle-Holocene Hunter-Gatherer-Fisher Communities on the Atacama Desert Coast · 77

et al. 2012; Kim et al. 2002) and ENSO events (Carré et al. 2011; De Vries y Wells 1990; De Vries et al. 1997; Rollins et al. 1986; Sandweiss et al. 1996; Vargas et al. 2006). These studies show hyperarid conditions during the first half of the Middle Holocene and an increase in the intensity and frequency of ENSO events around 5800–5000 cal yr BP (Marchant et al. 1999; Sandweiss et al. 2001; Veit 1996; Andrus et al. 2008; Williams et al. 2008; Vargas et al. 2006). Present-day conditions were installed at the beginning of the Late Holocene, even though more humid pulses have been reported around 2500–2000 cal yr BP (Gayo et al. 2012). The increment in intensity and frequency of ENSO around 5800–5000 cal yr BP has been proposed to be responsible for the recharge of the current aguadas in the study area (Herrera and Custodio 2014), which were circumscribed spatially and the only source of freshwater. Early Middle Holocene in Taltal (7500–5500 cal yr BP): Subsistence, Technology, and Mobility

The cultural history of the Arid Coast of what is today northern Chile began during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, some 13,000 years ago (Llagostera et al. 2000; Sandweiss and Quilter 2008; Jackson et al. 2011). The Huentelauquén Cultural Complex has been identified in one archaeological site in Antofagasta and five in the Taltal area (Llagostera et al. 2000; Castelleti 2007; Salazar et al. 2013b, 2015); four correspond to relatively small rock shelters located near the coast, while the fifth is an iron oxide mine located in the San Ramón Ravine, 2 km from today’s shoreline. These were all task-specific sites and as such do not provide a complete picture of the subsistence, technology, and settlement system of the Huentelauquén Cultural Complex. However, faunal analyses suggest a diversified subsistence economy focused on resources from marine, coastal, and terrestrial ecosystems, albeit predominantly mollusks and fish (Castelleti 2007; Salazar et al. 2015). Both the rock shelters and the iron oxide mine were abandoned around 10,000 cal BP and there are no archaeological sites dated for the following one and a half millennia. Around 8500 cal BP there is evidence for the first open-air residential site in the study area. The Morro Colorado site was excavated during the first half of the twentieth century by A. Capdeville, M. Uhle, R. Latcham, and J. Bird (Andrade and Salazar 2011). The first occupation of the site has been recently dated between 8500 and 7500 cal yr BP (Salazar et al. 2015). Archaeological deposits are characterized by the occurrence of thin charcoal/ash-rich layers (hearths) and small shell

78 · Salazar, Flores, Borie, Olguín, Rebolledo, Escobar, and Cifuentes

Figure 3.2. Archaeological sites close to Morro Colorado (provided by the authors).

midden accumulations separated by almost sterile layers. Archaeological material include circular shell fishhooks, shell openers, lithic knives, and projectile points, while faunal remains shows an emphasis on mollusks and fish, and to a lesser degree on marine and terrestrial mammals and birds (Salazar et al. 2015). We interpret the stratigraphic and contextual data of the Morro Colorado site as indicative of short-term residential occupations and as part of a settlement system characterized by a high degree

Middle-Holocene Hunter-Gatherer-Fisher Communities on the Atacama Desert Coast · 79

of residential mobility that may have included other sites located further north or south of the study area. The stratigraphic sequence of Morro Colorado shows a gradual change toward a more dense and stable occupation dated to 7469–7595 cal yr BP (Figure 3.2). This transformation shortly predates the appearance of other open-air residential sites such as Zapatero, Punta Morada, and Las Conchas, all of them dated between 7400 and 5500 cal yr BP (Figure 3.2). This time frame corresponds to the early phase of the Middle Holocene and is probably related to sites located further north such as Cobija 13 and Copaca in the Cobija area (Bittmann 1984; Castro et al. 2012), Punta Guanillos in the Tocopilla area (Ortlieb et al. 2010), and possibly Abtao 1 in Mejillones (Boisset et al. 1969). Junius Bird (1943, 1946) used the term “shell fishhook culture” to refer to the communities during this period spread along the northern coast of Chile from Arica (18°S) to Taltal (25°S). A later phase of the Middle Holocene has also been identified around the Taltal area between 5500 and 4500 cal yr BP (Castelleti 2007, Salazar et al. 2015). Archaeological sites from the early Middle Holocene (7500–5500 cal yr BP) show evidence of a clear maritime adaptation. In the first layers of Morro Colorado (8500–7500 cal yr BP), terrestrial mammals and birds represent almost 80 percent (number of identified specimens, NISP) of faunal remains (fish not included) (Salazar et al. 2015). In contrast, during the early Middle Holocene, around 95 percent of vertebrates (MNI, minimum number of individuals) correspond to fish. Mollusks, on the other hand, are the most abundant faunal assemblage, both in terms of NISP and MNI. These patterns are shared by the three sites where we have made systematic faunal analysis (Morro Colorado, Agua Dulce, and Zapatero). As shown in Table 3.1, diverse taxa of fish and mollusks are present at each of these sites during the Early Middle Holocene. However, local diet was focused on two key resources: the offshore fish jack mackerel (T. symmetricus) (84 percent, MNI) and several species of intertidal gastropods such as T. atra, Fissurellidae, and C. concholepas (98 percent, MNI of the mollusk assemblage). It is important to mention the presence of deepwater fish (3 percent-5 percent, MNI) such as Genypterus sp., and oceanic species (1 percent, MNI) such as Xiphias gladius and Kajikia audax (Table 3.1). These types of fish were absent in previous occupations and may be considered as indirect indicators for the use of watercraft and open sea hunting during the Middle Holocene (Olguín et al. 2014). Even though MNI are low for these species, together with marine and terrestrial mammals they provided significant

Table 3.1. Frequency of minimum number of individuals (MNI) of fish and mollusk species during the Early Middle Holocene (7500–5500 cal yr BP) at Morro Colorado, Agua Dulce, and Zapatero sites Morro Agua Total Total % Colorado Dulce Zapatero MNI MNI

Species Mollusk Gastropods Chilean abalone Muricidae Limpets

Sea snails

Sea cradles

Fissurellidae

Trochidae

Acmaeidae Chitonidae

Others snails Subtotal Gastropods Bivalves Clams

Verenidae

Mussels

Mytilidae

Oysters Subtotal Bivalves

Pectenidae

Concholepas concholepas Fissurella maxima Fissurella limbata Fissurella crassa Fissurella costata Fissurella bridgesii Fissurella latimarginata Fissurella picta Fissurella pulchra Fissurella spp. Tegula atra Tegula tridentata Diloma nigérrima Prisogaster niger Scurria spp. Acanthopleura echinata Enoplochiton niger Chiton granosus Chiton latus Tonicia spp. Chiton spp.

Protothaca thaca Mesodesma donacium Choromytilus chorus Perumytilus purpuratus Argopecten purpuratus

101

943

112

1,156

9.69

114 69 26 33 1 4

17 255 164 70

35 192 106 31 7

166 516 296 134 8 4

9.92

58 2,949 3 37 32 25 115 22 18 4 12 25 57 3,705

9

38 2 65 2,484 17

94 136

145 9 98 96

38 2 185 7,899 68.31 20 182 41 217 1.82 347 6.23

14 34 12 21 21 16 4,403

99 25 57 15 17 16 3,588

135 77 73 48 63 89 0.74 11,696 98.13

20

7 1

27 1

0.23

5

6

20

0.37

62 2,466

25

25

14

1

48

26

14

15

0.12

88

0.73

Morro Agua Total Total % Colorado Dulce Zapatero MNI MNI

Species Crustaceans Crabs Barnacles

Subtotal Crustaceans Echinoderms Urchins Subtotal Echinoderms

Decapodos Balanus psittacus Balanus laevis Balanus spp.

Loxechinusalbus

Total Mollusk Fish Near-shore Labridae

Kiphosidae

Haemulidae Scorpaenidae Bothidae

Aplodactylidae Cheilodactylidae Labrisomidae

Triakidae Sciaenidae

Batrachoididae

Semicossyphus maculatus Semicossyphus darwini Graus nigra Doydixodon laevifrons Isacia conceptionis Sebastes capensis Paralichthys microps Paralichthys adspersus Aplodactylus punctatus Cheilodactylus variegatus Auchenionchusmicrocirrhis Auchenionchus variolosus Auchenionchus spp. Mustelus mento Cilusgilberti Sciaena deliciosa Cheilotrema fasciatum Aphos porosus

6 5 4

1 2

15

3 2 1 1 7

0.08 0.12

3

10 9 5 1 25

8 8

55 55

46 46

109 109

0.91 0.91

3,776

4,491

3,651

8 5

0.20

11,918 100

8

0.85

5

10

3 7

1

5 7

0.56

4 11 6

3 13 2

7 29 8 1

0.33 1.37 0.42

10

0.47

65

3.08

3

3

0.42

1

2

3

8

2 1 5

2 1 33 4 1

1

5 1

10 2

61

1 2

2

20 4

2

0.04 1.80

0.09

(continued)

Table 3.1—Continued Morro Agua Total Total % Colorado Dulce Zapatero MNI MNI

Species Pinguipeschilensis Eleginops maclovinus Sicyases sanguineus Seriolella violácea Bovichthys chilensis Scartichthys viridis

Pinguipedidade Eleginopidae Gobiesocidae Centrolophidae Bovichthydae Blenniidae Subtotal marine nearshore Offshore Carangidae

Ophidioidei Gempylidae Merlucciidae Scombridae Clupeidae Coryphaenidae Lamnidae Subtotal Marine offshore Oceanic Billfish Xiphiidae Istiophoridae Shark

Tuna

Trachurus symmetricus Seriola lalandi Genypterus spp. Genypterus chilensis Thyrsites atun Merluccius gayi Sarda chilensis Ethmidium maculatum Coryphaena hippurus Lamnidae spp.

Xiphiasgladius Kajikia audax Istiophoridae spp. Triakidae Galeorhinus galeus Hexanchidae Notorynchus cepedianus Carcharhinidae Carcharhinus spp. Scombridae Katsuwonnus pelamis

Subtotal Oceanic Total Fish Compiled by authors.

1

3 1

2

1

6 1

0.28 0.04

1 27

130

54

1 0.04 2 0.09 1 0.04 1 0.04 211 10.00

320

234

1,230

1,784 84.54

1

1 1

3 16

3 14 1 2

340

3 1 1

239

3

0.14 0.99

16 2

3 19 3 45 2 18 2

1

1

0.04

30

3 1,301

3 3

2.13 0.09 0.85 0.09

3 0.14 1,880 89.09

6 3 2 4 2

0.28 0.14 0.09 0.18 0.09

1

1 1

0.04 0.04

19

0.90

2 4 2 1

1

11

7

368

380

1,362

2,110 100

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meat yields and thus must have played an important role in subsistence practices. Together with the probable use of watercraft during this period, the early Middle Holocene is characterized by a specialized technology for extracting and processing marine and coastal resources (Figure 3.3). The most common artifacts include circular and J-shape shell fishhooks; diverse types of fishing weights made from shell (Choromytilus chorus), stone, and bone; a variety of bone instruments including shell openers, harpoons, composite fishhooks, harpoon barbs, and drills; and finally an equally diverse lithic industry including bifacial projectile points, scrapers, awls, knives, choppers, manos, bifaces, and multifunctional artifacts. Although we do not have direct evidence of fishing nets, we inferred their use during this period based on the homogeneity of jack mackerel size and this species’ predominance in the icthyological assemblage (Rebolledo 2014). All the archaeological sites dated during the early Middle Holocene (7500–5500 cal yr BP) correspond to deeply stratified, open-air shell middens, with deposits 1 to 2 m deep and located close to present day shoreline, 10 to 20 mas1. Evidence for burials or domestic architecture has not been yet reported for this period. However, our data indicate residential occupations at these sites. The wide variety of artifacts and the evidence of complete operational chains for their manufacture indicate that diverse activities were carried out at these locations. Faunal remains show the exploitation of all the resources locally available, and stratigraphic deposits are very complex including numerous and often dense hearths and secondary refuse areas. Thus, in relation to previous periods, early Middle Holocene sites suggest lower residential mobility and therefore a semisedentary settlement system. No rockshelter occupation has been dated to this period, except for Alero Miguel (Castelleti 2007). However, recent research shows this rockshelter is located no more than 100 m away from an open-air shell midden, and therefore it is not a separate task-specific location. This pattern is in marked contrast to what is observed during the Early Holocene and the Late Middle Holocene, where occupations in rockshelters are common. In the latter case, there is also evidence of open-air sites characterized by very discrete occupations with low density and diversity of artifacts and ecofacts. This type of site has not been reported for the early phase of the Middle Holocene. We have systematically surveyed nearly 80 km of coastal platform around Taltal City and so far we have identified 10 open-air shell midden

Figure 3.3. Early Middle Holocene specialized technology for extracting and processing marine and coastal resources (provided by the authors).

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sites dated to the early Middle Holocene. They all show similar characteristics, suggesting residential occupations but with some intersite variability in terms of stratigraphic depth, size, and variety and frequency of artifacts. The sites of Zapatero, Morro Colorado, Punta Grande, and Las Conchas are the biggest, while the shell midden sites of Punta Negra 1b, Cachinales, Agua Dulce, Morros de Migue, Punta Morada, and Los Bronces-1 are smaller (Figure 3.2). Despite the fact that we do not have enough data to explain these differences, and various factors of erosion may well be biasing our sample, these characteristics may be the result of differences in the time spent at each site and/or in the frequency of residential moves between them (for example, Chatters 1987; Kelly 1995). Following this idea, Zapatero, Punta Grande, Las Conchas, and Morro Colorado would have been locations of longer and/or more regular residential occupations during the early Middle Holocene, and Agua Dulce, Cachinales, Punta Negra, Morros de Migue, Punta Morada, and Los Bronces would have been locations of shorter and/ or less visited residential occupations such as those reported by Veth (2005) for Australian aborigines. Ethnographic studies in arid environments have shown that water availability may act as an important criterion for choosing where and when to move a residential camp (Kelly 1995). Consequently, the spatial distribution of water springs could be partially responsible for the observed patterns during the early Middle Holocene, especially given that this was a hyperarid period and that water recharge on local aguadas began only around 5500/5000 cal yr BP, corresponding to the local onset of ENSO (Herrera and Custodio 2014; Vargas et al. 2006). These data suggest that during the early phase of the Middle Holocene, the absence of ENSO events would have implied deficient coastal spring recharge and very low water levels. Consequently, it can be proposed that before 5500/5000 cal yr BP, coastal springs were fewer and smaller, prompting local populations to stay longer periods at residential camps near the most reliable water sources. Water sources were not the only factor influencing hunter-gatherer residential movements, and social factors must have also been important in determining these choices. Furthermore, as Ingold (1987) has shown, decisions to move residential camps may be “located” at the level of individuals, heads of households, or leaders acting on behalf of the whole community. Therefore, even when settlement patterns are directly related to the spatial structure of natural resources (for example, Binford 1980), they are also determined by social organization and political structure. Unfortunately,

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available data do not allow adequate inferences regarding the role of sociopolitical organization on the settlement patterns observed for fishinghunting-gathering communities during the early Middle Holocene around Taltal. However, in the following section we propose some insights into part of the social dynamics behind residential movement and economic activities. Social Dynamics during the Early Middle Holocene (7500– 5000 cal yr BP)

Beside the precise choices and decisions involved in residential movements during the early Middle Holocene, artifact and faunal assemblages suggest the existence of different foraging radii for the acquisition of resources available in the vicinities of each residential campsite. These foraging movements included mollusk (and probably seaweed) gathering at the coastline, fish catching near the shore, and fuel and freshwater collection around the campsite. Hunting of sea birds and marine mammals were probably less frequent activities. Off-site surveys done around one of the Early Middle Holocene residential camps (Zapatero) have identified a high frequency of low-abundance archaeological remains around 1 to 1.5 km north and south of the site. Even though these dispersions may represent more than one time period, their presence suggests that during the Early Middle Holocene many of the daily activities of local communities were located off camp, but were all temporary and left few remains and no stratified deposits or features. Therefore, individuals must have returned to the base camps on a daily basis, where most of the artifact production and processing and the consumption of subsistence resources took place. Other activities demanded longer movements from residential camps, such as hunting of terrestrial mammals (Lama guanicoe) in the coastal mountain range. However, this did not necessarily require hunters to spend nights away from base camps. Off-site surveys done on the coastal mountain range near Morro Colorado and Punta Morada (both sites dated to the Early and Late Middle Holocene) have identified several small areas of scattered lithic debris and artifacts on slopes and hilltops, but all remains are found at short distances from campsites (2–3 km average) and not further inland. Even the iron oxide mine of San Ramon 15, located 2 km away from the nearest Middle Holocene base camp and with at least one radiocarbon date of 5500 cal BP, shows no evidence of domestic occupation, which implies that miners went back to their residential bases on a daily basis.

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The mobility patterns described above indicate that local communities of the early Middle Holocene coresided almost permanently at the residential camps. Foraging trips may have required cooperative labor, but it was at the residential camps where most group members engaged daily in faceto-face relationships, reproducing the ethos of sharing food, residence, company, and memories so characteristic of many hunting and gathering bands (for example, Ingold 1999). The practice of sharing and coinhabiting the same residential camp would have reproduced social bonds and group identity between community members, in accordance with social rules and regulations derived from kinship systems. Together with activities fostering social aggregation, some practices must have created differentiation within groups. Sources for siliceous raw materials are located around 40 to 100 km from the coast, in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert (Núñez 1984; Castelleti 2007; Galarce and Santander 2013), and therefore they had to be accessed through a special-purpose procurement strategy including anticipatory planning (Gould and Saggers 1985; Duke and Steel 2010). Systematic surveys in the hyperarid core have identified several superficial sites with flaking cores as well as a few small structures made of coarse stone that could have operated as logistic stations. Their size, frequency, and lack of stratigraphic deposit and ecofacts suggest that only a few individuals used these sites and for very short durations. Unlike daily foraging activities around the residential camps which were accessible to all, the small stations associated with lithic procurement trips show that only a few group members would be involved in this activity, probably those with knowledge about terrestrial routes, water sources, and outcrop locations. Casual and/or systematic encounters with individuals from highland groups were possible during these trips, increasing the possibilities for economic exchange and intergroup mating and agreements that would be managed by a few members within the coastal bands. Another activity that certainly created differences within Early Middle Holocene communities was the off-coast expeditions to hunt big oceanic fish. Complex artifacts (rafts) and specialized knowledge were required to travel by boat several km into the open sea (Ballester and Gallardo 2011). Although not very abundant, oceanic fish species are represented throughout the stratigraphy of all Early Middle Holocene archaeological sites around Taltal (Salazar et al. 2015), and their contribution to the subsistence economy should not be underestimated since the meat yield of one swordfish or marlin equals that of literally hundreds of jack mackerels. It is very likely that the product of such expeditions was shared extensively

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within the band or was even the support of social aggregation practices beyond individual bands (Ballester and Gallardo 2011), as it has been ethnographically reported for many hunter-gatherer groups. Together with the difficulties and danger inherent to offshore hunting, this activity probably provided prestige and status to the successful hunters within their bands (Wiessner 1996). It is unlikely that prestige and status could be transferred through generations to create lasting hierarchies within these local bands (i.e., status and prestige were acquired, not ascribed). At least based on our current data and variables commonly used for inferring social complexity in huntinggathering societies from an archaeological perspective (for example, Kelly 1995; Keen 2006; Sassaman 2004; Arnold 1996; Ames 2014), Early Middle Holocene communities around Taltal should be considered as egalitarian groups. Even though residential camps were probably used on a semipermanent basis, most likely due to a “tethered nomadism” (Binford 1980; Kelly 1995) centered on water availability, there is no clear evidence for social hierarchies, storage of food, population pressure, resource variability, or territoriality during this period as would be expected for nonegalitarian hunter-gatherers. In sum, during the Early Middle Holocene, egalitarian hunter-gathererfisher communities experienced potential social differentiations basically due to the status accrued to group members in charge of the most important activities for the social and biological reproduction of the band. Foraging trips to collect lithic raw materials would have been opportunities for social cooperation with outside groups, which provided some members with information, mating possibilities, and access to exotic goods not available for the bands that stayed permanently at the coast. The knowledge and skills required for constructing boats and using them in offshore hunting and collective fishing of jack mackerel provided certain members with the high prestige derived from hunting skills and generosity in meat sharing. Therefore, we suggest prestige was not accrued to aggrandizers, but to specific group members who managed the specialized knowledge for watercraft building, offshore hunting, and, eventually, lithic raw material acquisition.

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Social Dynamics during the Late Middle Holocene (5500–4500 cal yr BP)

In terms of subsistence, no changes are observed in the transition from the early to the later phase of the Middle Holocene. Faunal assemblages are similar in species abundance and diversity with a predominance of fish and mollusks. In terms of settlement system, on the other hand, changes are observed as new residential camps, numerous rockshelters, and small open-air sites appear during this phase. The rockshelters and small openair sites that were dated to this period show repeated short domestic occupations. This indicates a more complex settlement system (Castelleti 2007), probably with less face-to-face interaction and further differentiation of experiences and social activities within the band (Andrade et al. 2014). In most of the residential sites dated within the later Middle Holocene, stone structures were constructed following a standardized pattern reported regionally from the Loa River to Taltal and even further south (Zlatar 1983, 1987; Núñez et al. 1974; Castelleti 2007, among others). These stone structures have circular or semicircular shapes, are between 2 to 2.5 m wide, and were sometimes built around open patios 5 to 10 m in diameter. Stone structures show evidence of domestic occupations as well as floors made of seaweed-cemented ash, under which human burials have sometimes been found. This spatial organization suggests a very significant transformation toward more durable and permanent dwellings, which could indicate prolonged stays or anticipated returns to residential camps (for example, Binford 1990). As some of these domestic structures were also dwellings for the deceased, significant links between place and social groups can be expected for this phase. The ubiquity of these features in residential sites across the area suggests an increasing territoriality between bands (Salazar et al. 2015; Power 2015). This increasing territoriality seems to collate (sensu Sandweiss and Quilter 2012) with an increase in frequency and intensity of ENSO events, which produced unpredictable changes in oceanographic conditions and consequences on maritime and coastal ecosystems (Williams et al. 2008). This oceanographic anomaly also triggered an increase in coastal precipitation and therefore significant recharge of underground waters (Herrera and Custodio 2014) and possibly the appearance of new aguadas during this period. Given that dependable water sources were probably the environmental factor “tethering” mobility during the earlier phase of the period, there may be a relationship between greater availability of water, the

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emergence of new residential sites in previously unoccupied locations (for example, Caleta Bandurrias), and changes in the settlement system. However, if there were more and presumably larger aguadas during the Late Middle Holocene and subsistence resources were still highly predictable, dense, and, above all, spatially homogeneous, increased territoriality does not seem to have been determined by environmental context. Territorial strategies observed during the Late Middle Holocene were probably not aimed to physically defend specific locations but were nonetheless explicit social signals reinforcing group membership and affiliation, which in turn would have built a “social boundary defense” (Cashdan 1983) in relation to other hunter-gatherers. During this period there is abundant evidence of increased interaction and exchange with highland huntergatherers (Zlatar 1983, Núñez et al. 1974), while the use of watercraft could have extended the settlement system of the coastal bands northward and southward (Ballester and Gallardo 2011). It is therefore possible that, given the increased availability of water, at least some of the small open-air sites and rockshelters during this period were not occupied by local bands but by nonlocal bands extending their foraging circuits. This is of course difficult to test archaeologically with current available data, but could explain the “social boundary defense” mentioned above. On the other hand, at several local residential sites (for example, Los Bronces, Morro Colorado, Caleta Bandurrias, Zapatero), habitational space is divided into at least 3 clusters with around 5 to 10 structures each, located around an open patio to which all of them had access, but it is separated from other clusters. Based on ethnographic observation linking spatial arrangement of residential camps with social grouping and kin relations (for example, Whitelaw 1989, 1991), clustered structures could be indicative of different social units coinhabiting residential sites. This pattern has not been observed for earlier periods. In sum, during the late phase of the Middle Holocene, diverse lines of evidence indicate that local groups were more internally differentiated in terms of daily activities and social affiliation. However, the fact that these diverse social units coinhabited at residential sites, and that they shared important traits and practices across a wide territory (the arid coast), indicates that in spite of internal separation they also exhibited long-distance alliances with other coastal and/or inland groups (Ballester and Gallardo 2011), which probably affiliated these communities into higher levels of group identity or solidarity.

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Figure 3.4. Late Middle Holocene lithic artifact known as “Taltaloid blades,” which required high labor investment but whose function remains unclear (provided by the authors).

Within this context, it is important to mention the appearance during the Late Middle Holocene of remarkable lithic artifacts known as “Taltaloid blades” which required high labor investment but whose function remains unclear (Figure 3.4). The production of labor-intensive nontechnomic artifacts such as the Taltaloid blades has been considered a marker of increased social complexity among hunter-gatherers (Price 1981). If they were not functional implements, as has been suggested by their recurrent appearance at funerary sites and relative absence from domestic middens, their role may have been to materialize some sort of social identity, which reproduced differences within the bands (members with and without access to these blades) and affiliated these selected members across social

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Figure 3.5. Rock art at the El Médano site (provided by the authors).

units (Taltaloid blades have been found at least from the Loa River to Taltal and even further south during this period). Although more research is needed to prove this, we believe the complex rock art displayed at the El Médano site (Berenguer 2009), a few km north of our study area, could date to this period.1 This is the only place on the Arid Coast where such an amount of rock art has been recorded, and it is located in the coastal mountain range a day of travel from the coast through a very difficult terrain. Interestingly, some of the images depicted most often at this site are oceanic fish and offshore hunting (Figure 3.5). The site could be considered a place for social aggregation, but its secluded location and difficult access suggests it was not meant for everyone, but to a specific few, most likely those related to the use of watercraft and offshore hunting. Perhaps these group members had access to the Taltaloid blades as well. Conclusions

Social organization is not only determined by cultural norms, it is made meaningful through experience and is reproduced in practices (Pauketat 2001). Economic organization—and especially activities related to subsistence, technology, and mobility—makes up an important part of everyday experiences in hunting and gathering societies. Therefore, economy is in itself a set of ubiquitous practices. Through practices such as these, social organization and cultural worlds are reproduced. Accordingly, economic behavior does not only tell us about the organization of labor in order to meet subsistence needs at specific environmental and technological settings (Binford 1980). At the same time, economic organization informs us

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of the actual lived experiences of hunter-gatherers, through which cultural worlds were produced and transformed (that is, Sassaman and Holly 2011). From this perspective, we have attempted to understand the social dynamics of Middle Holocene hunting-gathering-fishing communities of the Taltal area through the study of changes and continuities in their economic organization between 7500 and 4500 cal yr BP. We propose that reduced mobility during the Early Middle Holocene, eventually as a response to hyperarid conditions, and highly packed residential sites may have fostered permanent face-to-face relations where hunting-gathering-fishing communities shared experiences, memories, food, and raw materials. Despite the fact that the ethos of sharing within a highly homogeneous material life expressed and reproduced an egalitarian social organization, certain activities such as long-distance lithic provisioning could have seeded a growing sense of differentiation within these egalitarian and homogeneous bands. Moreover, the existence of individuals with specialized knowledge and experiences not available to all, who were capable of providing part of the community’s daily subsistence base (collective net fishing of Trachurus symmetricus) as well as high amounts of meat to eventually sustain social aggregation and interband rituals (the hunting of big oceanic fish), could have accentuated differentiations within the bands. These patterns seem to have been intensified during the Late Middle Holocene. On the one hand, higher degrees of territoriality are suggested in the archaeological record through the appearance of habitational and funerary stone structures at residential camps. On the other hand, internally, these campsites show spatially segregated distributions of clusters of stone structures and patios. Furthermore, special nontechnomic artifacts appear around 5500 cal yr BP, marking local differences in funerary contexts between group members as well as affiliating these members with other social people at a regional scale. Finally, the appearance of a secluded ritual place densely marked with rock art suggests that by the Late Middle Holocene not all group members had equal access to symbolic knowledge. We have proposed that those group members involved in watercraft and offshore hunting were the ones involved in these intense intraband differentiations as well as in regional interband affiliations. These transformations were combined not only with intensified interactions and exchange networks with highland foragers and probably other coastal bands, but also with increased territoriality through the appearance of habitational and funerary stone structures at residential camps. The

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correlation of these processes needs further research, but indicates that interband relationships and affiliation were not exempt from social conflict, which may be signaled by increased territoriality and social boundary defense mechanisms. For reasons yet unknown, this social system abruptly ended by 4500 cal yr BP. Stone structures where abandoned and semisedentary occupations were replaced by high residential mobility and probably low demographic levels (Salazar et al. 2015). However, subsistence and technology did not suffer significant transformations at this time. Future research is needed to understand this sudden change in the local social system. Acknowledgments

This research was funded by Proyecto Fondecyt 1110196. We would like to thank all members of field and laboratory teams for their contributions and support, and especially the editors of this volume for their invitation to publish our chapter here. Note 1. In a residential site of the Late Middle Holocene, a stone from a structure wall was found carved with the same style as the El Médano paintings (Contreras, pers. comm., 2015).

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Medina, Marianela, Hugo Arancibia, and Sergio Neira 2007 Un modelo trófico preliminar del ecosistema pelágico del norte de Chile (18°20'S–24°00'S). Investigaciones Marítimas, Valparaíso 35(1): 25–38. Núñez, Lautaro 1984 Secuencia de asentamientos prehistóricos del área de Taltal. Revista Futuro 8: 28–76. Depto. Municipal Escolar, I. Municipalidad de Taltal. Núñez, Lautaro, Vjera Zlatar, and Patricio Núñez 1974 Caleta Huelén 42: una aldea temprana en el norte de Chile. Revista Hombre y Cultura 2: 67–103. Olguín, Laura, Diego Salazar, and Donald Jackson 2014 Tempranas evidencias de navegación y caza de especies oceánicas en la costa pacífica de Sudamérica (Taltal, ~7.000 años cal. a.p.). Chungara Revista de Antropología Chilena 46(2): 177–192. Ortlieb, Luc, Gabriel Vargas, and Jean-François Saliége 2010 Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Effect along the Northern Chile–Southern Peru Coast (14–24°S) throughout the Holocene. Quaternary Research 75: 91–103. Pauketat, Timothy 2001 A New Tradition in Archaeology. In The Archaeology of Traditions. Agency and History before and after Columbus, edited by T. R. Pauketat, pp. 1–16. University Press of Florida, Gainesville. Pefaur, Jaime 1982 Dynamics of Plant Communities in the Lomas of Southern Peru. Vegetatio 49: 163–171. Pliscoff, Patricio, and Federico Luebert 2008 Los Ecosistemas Terrestres. In Biodiversidad de Chile: Patrimonio y Desafíos, edited by J. Rodovira, J. Ugalde, and M. Stutzin, pp. 74–87. Edición Ocho Libros, Santiago. Power, Ximena 2015 Función y estructura del sitio Caleta Bandurrias (Taltal, II Región de Antofagasta). Una evaluación sobre las poblaciones costeras de los “círculos de piedra.” Unpublished Bachelor’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, Universidad de Chile, Santiago de Chile. Price, Douglas 1981 Complexity in “Non-Complex” Societies. In Archaeological Approaches to the Study of Complexity, edited by S. E. van de Leeuw, pp. 55–99. Universiteit van Amsterdam. Rebolledo, Sandra 2014 Arcaico Medio en la costa arreica: Estrategias de caza y pesca costero-marítimas en el sitio Zapatero. Unpublished Bachelor’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, Universidad de Chile. Rech, Jason, Jay Quade, and Julio Betancourt 2002 Late Quaternary Paleohydrology of the Central Atacama Desert. Geological Society of America Bulletin 114: 334–348. Rollins, Harold B., James B. Richardson III, and Daniel H. Sandweiss

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The Birth of El Niño: Geoarchaeological Evidence and Implications. Geoarchaeology 1(1): 3–15. Salazar, Diego, Donald Jackson, Jean Louis Guendon, Hernán Salinas, Diego Morata, Valentina Figueroa, Gabriel Manríquez, and Victoria Castro 2011 Early Evidence (ca. 12,000 BP) for Iron Oxide Mining on the Pacific Coast of South America. Current Anthropology 52: 463–475. Salazar, Diego, Hernán Salinas, Jean L. Guendon, Donald Jackson, and Valentina Figueroa 2013a Hunter-Gatherer-Fisher Mining during the Archaic Period in Coastal Northern Chile. In Mining and Quarrying in the Ancient Andes: Sociopolitical, Economic and Symbolic Dimensions, edited by K. Vaughn and N. Tripevich, pp. 137–156. Springer, New York. Salazar, Diego, Pedro Andrade, César Borie, Manuel Escobar, Valentina Figueroa, Carola Flores, Laura Olguín, and Hernán Salinas. 2013b Nuevos sitios correspondientes al Complejo Cultural Huentelauquén en la costa de Taltal. Taltalia 6: 9–19. Salazar, Diego, Valentina Figueroa, Pedro Andrade, Hernán Salinas, Laura Olguín, Ximena Power, Sandra Rebolledo, Sonia Parra, Héctor Orellana, and Josefina Urrea 2015 Cronología y organización económica de las poblaciones arcaicas de la costa de Taltal. Estudios Atacameños 50: 7–46. Sandweiss, Daniel H., and Jeffrey Quilter 2008 El Niño, Catastrophism and Culture Change in Ancient America. Harvard University Press, Washington, DC. 2012 Collation, Correlation, and Causation in the Prehistory of Coastal Peru. In Surviving Sudden Environmental Change: Answers from Archaeology, edited by P. Sheets and J. Cooper, pp. 117–141. University of Colorado Press, Boulder. Sandweiss, Daniel H., James B. Richardson III, Elizabeth J. Reitz, Harold B. Rollins, and Kirk A. Maasch 1996 Geoarchaeological Evidence from Peru for a 5000 Years B. P. Onset of El Niño. Science 273: 1531–1533. Sandweiss, Daniel H., Kirk A. Maasch, Richard L. Burger, James B. Richardson III, Harold B. Rollins, and Amy Clement 2001 Variation in Holocene El Niño Frequencies: Climate Records and Cultural Consequences in Ancient Peru. Geology 7: 603–606. Sassaman, Kenneth 2004 Complex Hunter-Gatherers in Evolution and History: A North American Perspective. Journal of Archaeological Research 12: 227–280. Sassaman, Kenneth, and Donald Holly 2011 Transformative Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology in North America. In HunterGatherer Archaeology as Historical Process, edited by K. Sassaman and D. Holly, pp. 1–13. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Thiel, Martin, Erasmo Macaya, Enzo Acuña, Wolf Arntz, Horacio Bastias, Katherina Brokordt, Patricio Camus, Juan C. Castilla, Leonardo Castro, Maritza Cortés, Clement Dumont, Rubén Escribano, Miriam Fernández, Jhon Gajardo, Carlos Gaymer, Iván Gómez, Andrés González, Humberto González, Pilar Haye, Juan-Enrique Illanes, José L. 1986

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Iriarte, Domingo Lancellotti, Guillermo Luna-Jorquera, Carolina Luxoro, Patricio Manríquez, Víctor Marín, Praxedes Muñoz, Sergio Navarrete, Eduardo Pérez, Elie Poulin, Javier Sellanes, Héctor Sepúlveda, Wolfgang Stotz, Fadia Tala, Andrew Thomas, Cristián Vargas, Julio Vásquez, and Alonso Vega 2007 The Humboldt Current System of Northern and Central Chile Oceanographic Processes, Ecological Interactions and Socioeconomic Feedback. Oceanography and Marine Biology 45: 195–344. Vargas, Gabriel, José Rutllant, and Luc Ortlieb 2006 ENSO Tropical-Extratropical Climate Teleconnections and Mechanisms for Holocene Debris Flows along the Hyperarid Coast of Western South America (17°–24°S). Earth and Planetary Science Letters 249: 467–483. Veit, Heinz 1996 Southern Westerlies during the Holocene Deduced from Geomorphological and Pedological Studies in the Norte Chico, Northern Chile (27–33°S). Palaeoceanography, Paleaoclimatology, Palaeoecology 18: 107–119. Veth, Peter 2005 Cycles of Aridity and Human Mobility: Risk Minimization among Late Pleistocene Foragers of the Western Desert, Australia. In Desert Peoples: Archaeological Perspectives, edited by P. Veth. M. Smith, and P. Hiscock, pp. 100–115. Blackwell, Melbourne. Wiessner, Polly 1996 Leveling the Hunter: Constraints on the Status Quest in Foraging Societies. In Food and Status Quest. An Interdisciplinary Perspective, edited by P. Wiessner and W. Schiefenhövel, pp. 171–192. Berghahn Books, Oxford. Whitelaw, Todd 1989 The Social Organization of Space in Hunter-gatherer Communities: Some Implications for Social Inference in Archaeology. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cambridge. 1991 Some Dimensions of Variability in the Social Organization of Community Space among Foragers. In Ethnoarchaeological Approaches to Mobile Campsites: Hunter-Gatherer and Pastoralist Case Studies, edited by C. Gamble and W. Boismier. Ethnoarchaeology Series 1, International Monographs in Prehistory, Ann Arbor, MI. Williams, Alan, Calógero Santoro, Michael Smith, and Claudio Latorre 2008 The Impact of ENSO in the Atacama Desert and Australian Arid Zone: Explotatory Time-Series Analysis of Archaeological Records. Chungara Revista de Antropología Chilena 40: 245–259. Zlatar, Vjera 1983 Replanteamiento sobre el problema Caleta Huelén 42. Chungara Revista de Antropología Chilena 10: 21–28. 1987 Un yacimiento precerámico y su problemática desde la perspectiva de sus recintos habitacionales. Hombre y Desierto 1: 1–36.

4 The Use and Construction History of Huaca Prieta, North Coast of Peru Tom D. Dillehay

During the Middle Holocene Period, indigenous communities along the littoral zone of the central Andes intensified maritime-adapted economies, adopted cultigens from distant regions, and contributed to a florescence of social complexity, interregional exchange, and cosmologically meaningful material culture that has long captured the attention of archaeologists. In coastal Peru, mounds and iconographically distinctive artifact assemblages are referred to as middle to late Preceramic or Archaic cultures (~7000– 4000 BP). Unfortunately, archaeologists have not extensively researched the Late Pleistocene to Middle Holocene prehistory of the littoral zone of the North Coast of Peru. The cursory investigations carried out at sites include limited testing at a few locations scattered across several valleys (for example, Pozorski and Pozorski 1977, 1979, 1990; Bonavia 1982). There are two problems, however, with our current knowledge of these sites. First, the excavated artifact and ecofact assemblages from them are so small and spatially confined in comparison to the large size of the sites (~1–2 ha) that they cannot be taken as representative of a site-wide interpretation. That is, there are significant sampling biases, with data from limited excavations providing information on highly specific activity areas only. Second, as a result, the chronological and noneconomic aspects of these sites are generally poorly understood, making it difficult to access their wider sociocultural contribution to early Andean prehistory. One site of special interest on the littoral of the north coast of Peru is Huaca Prieta in the Chicama Valley (Figures 4.1 and 4.2). The site was excavated first by Junius Bird of the American Museum of Natural History in the middle 1940s (Bird and Hyslop 1985). Huaca Prieta is an architectural anomaly in the sense that it dates from the Late Pleistocene to the

Figure 4.1. Location map of the Huaca Prieta site in the lower Chicama Valley, Peru (provided by the author).

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Figure 4.2. View of the Huaca Prieta mound from the east. Scale provided by person standing on the right slope of the mound (provided by the author).

Middle Holocene period (~12,500–3800 BP), and it has a large and ovoid earthen mound that conforms to the south end of an ancient terrace remnant overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The site contains some of the earliest cotton textiles, decorative etched gourds, and other iconic artifacts in the Americas; exhibits a mixed maritime and terrestrial economy; and has an unusually dark appearance resulting from excessive burning activities over several millennia. Perhaps most peculiar about Huaca Prieta is that it was deliberately sealed or covered over from time to time by a thick, extremely hard plaster coating made of sand, mud, marine shells, and especially sea salt (Pino 2017). This coating was seemingly applied to prevent erosion from wind and water when the mound became higher and steeper. Similar early sites near the shoreline in other Peruvian coastal valleys also date to the Middle to Late Holocene period, but they are smaller, do not reveal the same ovoid form, do not contain the same artifact assemblages and excessive burned material, and do not have an artificial plaster coating. This essay presents a synopsis of particular aspects of the archaeological data, on both the long history of the use and construction of the mound at Huaca Prieta and on the economy of the site, that were obtained by the Huaca Prieta Archaeological Project from 2006 to 2013. These data, along with similar evidence from the nearby site of Paredones, present a new

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understanding of the Preceramic history of the coastline of the Chicama Valley. The Huaca Prieta Project has already presented other synopses of the history of these two sites. This essay expands on prior publications (Dillehay et al. 2012 a and b; Dillehay et al. 2011) and provides background information for a much more detailed report published recently (Dillehay 2017). Not considered in this essay are the results of the interdisciplinary research our project has carried out in the lower Chicama Valley, especially a wide variety of paleocological studies. The Archaeological Background of Huaca Prieta

Bird excavated in and around Huaca Prieta in 1944 and 1945 (Bird 1948; Bird and Hyslop 1985). He placed a long northeast- to southwest-oriented trench (HP-3, Unit 3) on the northeast side of the mound facing sugarcane fields to the east, and another unit (HP-2) on the northwest side of the mound facing the ocean to the west (Figure 4.3). He also excavated smaller units on top of the mound, exposing what he termed late residential “houses,” and he opened several smaller units and trenches on the later Cupisnique mound immediately north of Huaca Prieta. The Paredones mound farther north of Huaca Prieta and numerous Preceramic house mounds located several hundred meters along the littoral north and south of Huaca Prieta were not examined by Bird but were studied by our project (Dillehay et al. 2012a). Over the years, several archaeologists have addressed the hypothesized functionality of Huaca Prieta (for example, Bird and Hyslop 1985; Tellenbach 1997; compare Rick 1990), all partially correct in their assessment of how the site was used. Bird thought that Huaca Prieta was an occupational mound. He was partly correct because the premound and early mound phases (Phases I–II) are habitational from the Late Pleistocene to the Early Holocene periods (~12,500–7,500 BP: Dillehay 2012a and b). Since Bird’s 1985 publication, investigators have followed his interpretations and cited the mound as primarily a residential site accretionally built up over time by discarded midden debris and by house remains and human burials. The only major dissent came from Tellenbach who believed that the site was more ceremonial, not occupational, in nature. However, he did not specify the nature of the ceremonies and how they might have related to outlying Preceramic and other settlements, and he had no hard evidence to support his idea other than the data previously presented by Bird. In his review of

Figure 4.3. Topographic map of the Huaca Prieta and Paredones sites showing the location of excavation units (provided by the author).

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Bird’s 1985 publication, Rick (1990) questioned the function of the houses identified by Bird, noting they were too small for domestic residency (~1.0– 1.3 m high and 1.3–2.0 m in diameter). We now have evidence to demonstrate that these structures are chamber tombs, not houses (Dillehay et al. 2012a; Dillehay 2017), and that most of the history of Huaca Prieta is associated with ceremonies and feasting. Furthermore, Bird, Tellenbach, and the authors in their initial work at Huaca Prieta were unaware of the deeper, older, premound habitational levels dating to the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene era. Bird recovered no evidence of the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene occupation at Huaca Prieta, probably because he did not excavate deeper into the buried surface of the Sangamon terrace below the mound. He also did not excavate the south end of the mound and deeply into the looter or huaquero hole on the summit of the south side where the early site occupational levels were recorded by our project. Bird radiocarbon-dated the deeper excavated levels of the west side of the site in his unit HP-2 to approximately 4500–5000 uncalibrated years ago (Bird and Hyslop 1985: 51– 58). After this date, use of the site continued, with no apparent gaps, until around 3800 uncalibrated years ago. However, several later Ceramic Period cultures dating from Cupisnique to Colonial times (~3200–400 years ago) placed burials in the mound, especially on the summit and on the northeast side. The architectural pattern of the lower initial layers of the mound that emerges is one of a nearly oval-shaped structure made of sediment layers but also exhibiting stone alignments representing low-walled rooms or spaces demarcated by unconnected lines of stones (~2–3 m in length). The architecture in the lower mound levels is vaguely similar to the lowtiered mound at the Cementerio de Nanchoc site in the middle Zaña Valley (Dillehay 2011) that dates to about 7500 BP, the same time period as the lower mound layers of Huaca Prieta. There is evidence in the form of multiple rock-lined levels to suggest that the lower mound deposits in Huaca Prieta were perhaps stepped or tiered like the structure at Nanchoc (Dillehay 2017). Both mounds also are characterized by individual sediment layers and by stone-lined markings that appear to define circumscribed spaces of individual-use episodes. The major difference is that the Huaca Prieta mound is more horizontally and vertically extended than the Nanchoc mound, and the latter mound is teardrop-shaped. Since the deeper levels of Huaca Prieta are buried between 18 and 26 m below the summit of the mound today, from north to south respectively, our excavations

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exposed only a few square meters of the older, deeper mound deposits. It is thus difficult to estimate whether the early stone alignments in the Huaca Prieta mound are remnants of modified rooms or other structures. All later mound levels, as described below, represent the continuous growth of the Huaca Prieta mound until about 3,800 years ago when it was abandoned. The stratigraphic and architectural history of Huaca Prieta is characterized by thousands of individual horizontally and vertically placed layers, none of which extend fully across the mound. One of the major features of the mound dates to the later use phases (~5,000–4,000 years ago). This is a large ramplike structure added as a northeast access route to the mound’s summit. This route appears to have been laid out in a zigzag form from the ground surface to the summit, forming at least four switchbacks to reach the top of the mound. On the western slope of the mound there appears to have been no access route, although if it once existed, it may have been erased by storm surges and wave action. The north side also may have been an access route, given its gentle slope from ground level to the summit and the presence of a rough, worn, now-buried U-shaped groove (a pathway?) along its crest. However, our excavations in this area revealed no formal zigzag footpath to the top, and its use today as an access route may give the impression that a similar one existed in the past. As for the south end, this portion of the mound has been destroyed by the construction of a modernday road, and at one time extended approximately 10 to 12 m farther south, as evidenced by buried mound deposits under and farther south of the dirt road there. All of these mound areas show continued use of earlier layers and use surfaces as demonstrated by the accumulation of many prepared floors and soil layers over prior remains. In turning briefly to the material content of the Huaca Prieta mound, one can see it differs from the late Preceramic stone architectural monuments such as El Paraiso, Caral, and others (for example, the Norte Chico area) that date as early as ~4,500 to 3,500 years ago (Moseley 1975, 1992; Quilter 1989, 1991; Dillehay et al. 2004; Shady and Leyva 2003; Haas and Creamer 2004; Fuchs and Briceño 2006). A single-stone impediment wall measuring ~8 by 10 m and several small, stone agglutinated structures (that is, chamber tombs) were revealed by Bird’s excavations on the northeast face of the mound and by our work on the summit. However, in the looter’s hole and along the side slopes of the mound, the structure is largely composed of a series of vertically and horizontally discontinuous earthen (and occasionally cobblestone) use surfaces, and prepared floors. The fills there are more reminiscent of the large earthen ceremonial and refuse mounds

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somewhat characteristic of the Hopewell and Mississippian periods in the Eastern United States (Milner 2004) and earthen mounds in other parts of the world than the classic Preceramic stone platform and multiroom monuments of coastal Peru. Furthermore, the use surfaces and floors at Huaca Prieta are often covered with reed mats, offerings, and other materials (see Bird and Hyslop 1985). Scattered among the floors and fills are numerous artifacts and trash, but no domestic hearths, house structures, postholes, storage pits, and other indicators of occupational activity were excavated by our project. Bird also never found domestic hearths. However, both Bird’s and our excavations recovered human burials (at least 55 in total) dispersed throughout the mound refuse. Some burials were associated with offerings of shell, textiles, gourds, and stone tools placed on the floor of chamber tombs (~2–3 m in diameter and ~1.1–1.3 m in height). Other burials were buried in mound fill and others were only disarticulated skeletal parts discarded on prepared floors or placed in rock walls, all of which perhaps indicated some degree of social differentiation. It appears that burials were a major but not dominating component of the Huaca Prieta mound during its construction-and-use stages. There also is some evidence for the acquisition of exotic materials (for example, silex, polished and grooved stone axes made of green rhyolite, malachite). Numerous cotton nets and textiles and etched gourd fragments have also been excavated by Bird and by our project (Figures 4.4 and 4.5), as well as the remains of a large amount and a wide variety of marine species and terrestrial animals (for example, camelids, deer, guinea pigs) and plants, including domesticates (for example, peppers, squash, beans, and others also found by Bird and our project). Particularly significant is our recent discovery of raised agricultural fields buried ~1.5–2.0 m below the present-day ground surface in previous wetlands just east of the site (Dillehay et al. 2012a). Subsurface testing and AMS radiocarbon dates of carbon from the use surfaces of the fields date them to the Preceramic Period. Described below are the two major excavation units at Huaca Prieta. These were the primary units that stratigraphically and archaeologically tied together the two projects, which are separated by more than 65 years, and, along with our 62 excavation units and trenches, provided data for a more detailed chronological and functional understanding of the long human history at Huaca Prieta. The cultural phase chronology of the site is then presented.

Left: Figure 4.4. Late Preceramic textile from Huaca Prieta dated between 5000 and 4500 BP (courtesy of Jeffrey Splitstosser). Below: Figure 4.5. Decorative style on etched gourds from Paredones, radiocarbon dating between 6000 and 4000 BP (provided by the author).

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Field Observations and Chronologies of Bird’s Major Excavation Units

Bird’s HP-3 in the main excavation trench of the mound is characterized by large, thick strata deposited from numerous Preceramic and a few Early Ceramic period activities. From our cut and profiled sections of the trench, we observed intact sequences of cultural deposits ~3 to 50 cm in thickness for a depth of ~18 m (Figure 4.6). These deposits comprise middenlike, black, fine, and coarse sands and cultural debris overlying reddish-brown sediments and cobbles; these in turn overlie cultural sediments with ash, charcoal, thousands of fragments of reed mats and various types of artifacts laid in microlaminated floors and fills, many truncated by subsequent deposits. Radiocarbon measurements from this trench indicate that this context is dated from ~8000 BP in the deeper premound occupational levels to the overlying mound summit between ~7400 and 4000 BP. Bird’s HP-2 excavation unit was located on the west side of the mound. In this unit is an intact sequence of thick and microlaminated, fine, black sandy cultural deposits containing bone, charcoal, shell, fish and bird remains, ash, various artifacts, and uncarbonized and carbonized wood fragments. As in HP-3, culturally sterile sand and well-sorted small gravel lie beneath the cultural layers. Radiocarbon measurements from HP-2 suggest that the cultural layers date from ~5000 to 3800 BP. Given that this side of the terrace was higher and exposed to the strong southwestern winds and to elements of the sea, it was not occupied in late premound times as was the lower eastern side of the terrace near the old lagoon. As noted above, these two units are specifically mentioned because they constitute the primary stratigraphic understanding of the architecture and building phases exposed by Bird. In addition to these main units, we also excavated a large area on top of the mound (Unit 23), in the looter’s pit on the south side (Units 15 and 21), in other areas on the north and south sides of the mound (Units 1–12, 18–25, and so on), and in other opportunistic places to test questions related to site function, chronology, and stratigraphy. We also placed numerous test pits and trenches, some of which were geological in nature, at various depths in off-mound areas and off-terrace areas to detect cultural deposits and to date stratigraphic deposits for understanding the paleoecology of the area. Extensive excavations also were carried out at the Paredones sites (Units 20, 22, 31, and 32 and several test pits) located about 500 m north of Huaca Prieta and in Units 13, 16 and 26

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and at residential localities on the south side of the Cupisnique mound just north of Huaca Prieta. The geological teams also excavated numerous core drills, trenches, and test pits in and around both sites and throughout the lower Chicama Valley. We also excavated 1 to 5 m–long trenches in the sugarcane fields east of the sites where we recovered the occurrence of several 4–5 m wide, belowground Preceramic camellones (raised agricultural fields) that radiocarbondated to about 4500 BP. In addition, we excavated several large “dune” structures in the same area, which turned out to be above-ground raised fields dated to the Moche and Lambayeque periods (~A.D. 500–1100). Modern methods of excavation and sample recovery were also applied to these features, including the analysis of soils and sediments (geoarchaeology) in anticipation that these would reflect the cultural and natural environments in which they were formed, especially in the off-mound areas of the sites and farther up valley (2–3 km) to the east where we carried out an extensive geoarchaeological survey. In considering soils and sediments in this way, they also became a record of past human activity and environmental conditions. Collectively, the stratigraphic profiles and radiocarbon dates from all excavation units constitute the primary database to reconstruct the site’s construction cultural phases and histories. Brief Consideration of Floors, Fills, Use Surfaces, Layers, and Features

There are two types of floors at Huaca Prieta and Paredones: (1) very hard, prepared cementlike floors (1–3 cm thick) which had plants and other cultural materials embedded in or on top of them; and (2) soft, penetrable, unprepared floors of sand or sediment that seem to have been laid for ephemeral or short-term activities. These floors were between 2 and 4 cm thick. Type 2 floors generally had thin reed mats placed on them. Fills between floors (30–50 cm thick) are comprised of loosely aggregated sand, rocks, artifacts, and food remains that tend to be much thicker than the floors. Use surfaces are relatively flat areas with unprepared surfaces where various activities, including mound building, stored debris, food preparation, and other activities took place. These surfaces are usually 2–8 cm thick. Layers are strata of sediments deliberately placed to achieve vertical accretion in the mounds. They are not fills between floors nor are they use surfaces; they usually contain cobbles, sediments, food remains, or off-mound midden

Figure 4.6. Detailed stratigraphic profile of the south wall of Bird’s HP-3 trench showing layers, floors, and stone footings (provided by the author).

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debris. These layers are between 10 cm and 1.5 m thick. Features are burials, ritual offerings (caches of shells, coca leaves or other items), reed mats, textile bundles, nonhearth burned areas, stains, and piles of rocks or shells. Phases and Cultural Chronology

Based on radiocarbon dates from Huaca Prieta and Paredones, five chronological phases have been proposed: one premound phase, which includes the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene occupations on the south end of the terrace, and four mound-building and use phases. This temporal framework provides a useful way of thinking about the social, demographic, and economic contexts that led to the long-term construction and use of Huaca Prieta (and Paredones). In particular, the proposed phase chronology simply highlights the major shifts in the architecture and material culture at Huaca Prieta and corresponding changes in the paleoecology, economy, and climate. Underlying the chronology is the assumption of long-term cultural continuity, punctuated by specific architectural and material changes. We believe that the locus of culture change was transformation related to several factors, including major environmental changes, greater contact and exchange with populations living along the coastline to the north and south and in the interior of nearby coastal valleys, and the increased adoption of an agricultural lifestyle. In total, more than 160 radiocarbon dates were obtained from 60 mound and off-mound excavations and from various geological cuts and cores (see Dillehay et al., 2012a). Obviously, not all floor and use episodes recorded in the mounds were radiocarbon-dated, which would have required many more chronometric measurements. However, the deeper stratigraphic cuts, primarily in Units 2 and 15, in Bird’s HP-3 at Huaca Prieta, and in Unit 22 at Paredones, were dated from the top to the bottom. There is general agreement and stratigraphic alignment between Bird’s 14C dates and his schematic profile of HP-3 trench and our 14C dates and stratigraphy in this and other units. This is significant because the dates from the HP-3 trench represent the single longest dated stratigraphic profile at Huaca Prieta. All of our radiocarbon dates were taken on single chunks of wood charcoal, corn, or cotton textiles recovered from features embedded in floors. No radiocarbon samples were taken from fills and middens, from the wood of long-living algarrobo trees (Prosopis sp.), or from marine shells. Given the different organic materials dated by four different laboratories over a period of six decades (including Bird’s radiocarbon dates by Willard Libby’s

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laboratory: see Bird and Hyslop 1985), nearly all dates agree and overlap chronologically and stratigraphically at the 2-sigma age range. A descriptive chronology of each phase and the major events associated with it are provided below. Phase I: Premound Phase: Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene Period (~12,500–7,500 BP)

At Huaca Prieta, Phase I is dated at least ~12,500 to 7500 BP and is associated with maritime and terrestrial foragers; later, around 10,000–9,500 BP, it is associated with incipient gardeners (as evidenced by the presence of squash, avocado, and chili pepper; Bonavia et al. 2017), who occupied the east side of the Sangamon terrace near the ancient estuarine lagoon to the immediate east. This occupation is estimated to have extended intermittently at least 100 m along the crest and lower flank of the southern end of the terrace. Unfortunately, this lengthy 7,000-year period cannot be broken down into more specific phases other than the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene subphases because the data are too limited and scattered underneath the deep mound deposits (18–32 m) or heavily destroyed by extensive modification of the terrace surface when the adobe bricks were produced for later mounds just north of Huaca Prieta (Dillehay 2017). More specifically, the terminal Pleistocene materials are buried in the upper 25–40 cm surface deposits of the Sangamon terrace upon which the Huaca Prieta mound sits. Because these deposits are deeply buried underneath the mound today, we have not fully studied the spatial extent and geological setting of this early occupation (Dillehay et al. 2012b). To date, we have recovered several thin intermittent occupation lenses (1–13 cm thick) red ochre, burned areas, simple edge-trimmed pebble flakes, several bone remains of fish and sea lion, and fractured shellfish valves from these deposits. There are habitational hiatuses between about 11,000 and 8,500 years ago, but they are presently not well understood due to the limited database. The earlier occupations on the south end of the terrace show some lithic technological continuity (primarily unifacial flakes and limaces), but not necessarily culturally affiliated with early human settlements located elsewhere in the lower and middle valley (Chauchat 1992). Most of these outlying settlements are unifacial lithic scatters associated with a variety of site types from small hunter-gatherer campsites to quarry sites along alluvial fans and drainages of the Andean foothills to the east. Later, in terminal

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Pleistocene and Early Holocene times, there is an increase in settlement types with the inclusion of large clusters of Paijan sites near springs in the foothills and the initial exploitation of the sea by Paijan people or exchange with people living in settings like Huaca Prieta; this was evidenced by the presence of marine shells and fish bones in the interior sites (Bird and Hyslop 1985). Overall, the picture developed along the coastline and in the adjacent wetlands for the Early Holocene Period (12,500–8000 BP) is one of smallscale, self-sufficient early settlements. There appears little in the way of social integration perhaps beyond everyday site-to-site interaction and exchange. By the Early Holocene, population density in the lower Chicama Valley was probably low; people were living on or around the Sangamon terrace and the outlying wetlands. People continued to aggregate at Huaca Prieta during the Early to Middle Holocene transition (10,000–7500 BP). Collectively, these data suggest a lower valley trend toward aggregation at some important places along the coastline and in the interior alluvial fans or quebradas. During this early premound period, people at Huaca Prieta focused primarily on the sea but also cultivated a few plants at the interface between the Late Pleistocene and the Early Holocene (Dillehay et al. 2012a). Faunal materials from early components throughout the buried surface of the terrace indicate a wide variety of shellfish and other marine products, fish, sea lions, and water fowl, with deer and other mammals making up a smaller component of the animal diet (Dillehay 2017). The Early Holocene pattern is likely an intensification of the earlier diversified subsistence regime of the Late Pleistocene, which was also focused on foraging, fishing, hunting, and collecting. Of particular interest during the Early Holocene is the presence of avocado (Persea sp.), squash (Curcurbita moschata), and gourd (Lagenaria sp.) remains. The end of this period 7500–7000 BP (Goodbred et al. 2017) is environmentally marked by the development of extensive lagoons behind the Sangamon terrace and the shoreline. Phase II: Initial Mound Construction, 7500–6300 BP

The previously defined activities and material culture of the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene generally hold up through the middle phase of the early Middle Holocene period. The material assemblage includes several new additions or elaborations on previous elements. For instance, gourd becomes more abundant after 7500 BP, although earlier fragments have

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been identified at Huaca Prieta (Dillehay 2017), and shell as a raw material for tools was used as early as 9,000 years ago. Other major markers for the early period include green cobblestones painted with red circles. Phase II represents the first mound construction stage. (As a cautionary note, it is possible that the earliest mound levels dated between 7946 and 7840 BP, as suggested by an AMS date in stratum 54 of Bird’s HP-3 trench (Dillehay et al. 2012a). Based on our excavations, the mound during this phase measured ~5 m high, 35 m wide, and 45 m long and consisted of several intermittent stone and soil layers (see Figure 4.6). The earliest layers were placed on the southeast flank and crest of the Sangamon terrace near the shoreline of the old lagoon just east of the terrace. From there, the mound gradually spread to the north and south along the south edge of the Sangamon terrace, with later construction layers eventually reaching to the far western edge of the terrace near Bird’s HP-2 excavation. Excavations also probed the southwestern edge of the terrace but due to heavy land modification, in both the past and present, extensive portions of this area are disturbed. The use of the terrace space along the lower eastern flank and the crest of the terrace eventually became more restricted by the increasingly steeper sloping sides of the mound. No stone room foundations were recovered for this phase, although a few postholes and cane poles were recovered, suggesting the construction of perishable structures. A few rock linings possibly demarcating separate spaces also were documented. The mound-building phase, beginning with Phase II, did not develop from gradual accumulation of occupation midden but from deliberate and gradual sediment mounding over a period of ~3,500 years. The beginning points of the individual building stages are represented in the form of “haystacking” strata, whereby a basal ring or layer of shingled cobblestone berms are laid out and angled to define the outer limits of the structure and to provide an architectural footing for the space inside to be infilled by floors and floor fills (Dillehay et al. 2012a). This technique begins in early Phase II. In addition to the presence of more cultivated plants during this phase, subsistence included wild plants gathered from the nearby wetlands (most notably typha and Scirpus sp.) and other edible leafy plants. Other cultivated, economic plants included cotton, avocado, chili pepper, beans, peanut, pacae, and popcorn maize, among others. Alhough not a subsistence plant, cotton was probably cultivated as early as 7000–6500 BP for use in a variety of technological (that is, fish nets, storage bags) and ceremonial and burial contexts (offerings, burial shrouds). Wild and cultivated plants were

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probably grown in the wet fields to the east where the shallow lagoon once existed and later on the raised agricultural platforms. In other words, early food production may have been in the form of an outfield/infield system where crops were grown in the low, wet fields away from the terrace settlements (outfield) and in smaller garden plots kept closer to domestic locales on the terrace (infield). The latter is suggested by the presence of buried furrows along the terrace just east and north of Paredones. In late Phase II, exotic or extralocal materials occasionally were encountered. That is, Huaca Prieta shows an increase in materials or finished objects that likely originated outside of the region (for example, malachite and various cultigens). Human burials appear for the first time during this phase. They were not placed in chamber tombs as seen in later phases but were flexed and located in shallow, nondescript graves. Disarticulated human remains also were found scattered among midden layers. The end of this phase coincides roughly with the lagoon just east of the Sangamon terrace beginning to shrink around 6500 BP and the gradual buildup of sediments in the floodplain of the middle lower valley. It is also during this period, around 6500 BP, that the Paredones area was occupied, as evidenced by the presence of hearths, food debris, and lithic tools. Phase III: Shift to Ceremonial and Mortuary Practices, 6500–5500 BP

During this phase, the focus of mound construction shifted more to the crest and the western edge of the terrace. Phase III dates between ~6500 and 5308 BP and is characterized by the addition of more artificial layers, several small stone-faced, terraced burial chambers (Figure 4.7), and other miscellaneous rooms placed along the eastern and western slopes of the mound. At the end of this phase were the lower floors of the circular sunken pit on the south side, and the lower part of a stone retention wall on the northeast side of the mound (see Bird and Hyslop 1985: fig. 42). These structural features are spatially and architecturally conjoined, suggesting roughly simultaneous construction and use across a large portion of the upper surface of the mound at this time. These features also began to give the mound a stepped, platform-like form that resulted from the chamber tombs having been built on narrow terraces along the eastern and western edges of the mound. During this phase, the mound expanded to ~12 to 18 m in height in some places and ~80 in length. The economy was still

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Figure 4.7. Chamber tomb made of cobblestones and dating to Phase 4. The tomb was roofed but empty of a human burial (provided by the author).

dominated by marine resources, although there is a significant increase in the number of cultigens, including more varieties of maize around 6500 BP. Lithic, wood, and shell tool manufacturing seems to follow the earlier pattern of a few formal unifacial tools; however, there are instances of basalt blades, incised gourds, and shell and bone adornments by Phase III. Other elements of lithic assemblages include ground stone tools, axes and adzes, discoidals, net sinkers, and grinding stones. Exotic material in contexts includes a variety of minerals and ores. Perhaps one of the more informative examples is a piece of malachite, probably derived from the nearby highlands. Cinnabar and hematite also were found in several contexts of this period, but they do not become more widely spread until Phases III–V. Other nonlocal minerals found in mound contexts include indigo, hematite, and fired clay. Phase III subsistence patterns also are an elaboration of earlier patterns; however, some differences do appear. The plant lists from the two sites, especially Huaca Prieta, do not show any substantive changes in terms of the kinds of plants utilized. As Bird revealed, the Huaca Prieta people relied

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on a diverse set of wild and cultivated plants by 5000 BP. Traditional models of the rise of a Preceramic lifeway suggest that the intensification of maize cultivation was a causal factor in early social complexity and perhaps population increases, but this seems not to be the case at Huaca Prieta. Our research indicates that the importance given the value of maize in the diet may be overemphasized (Grobman et al. 2012); the first variety was popcorn rather than meal corn. At other Preceramic sites where maize pollen has been found, it is not known whether the first use of corn was popcorn or meal corn because the evidence is derived from phytoliths, starch grains, and/or pollen and not macroremains. North of Huaca Prieta along the littoral zone extending to the modernday town of Malabrigo, several small, dispersed Preceramic house mounds (8–12 m in diameter and 0.5–1.0 m high, Figure 4.8) appear in the early part of this phase around 6400 BP. The latter part of this phase also experienced a shift from smaller isolated households to a landscape dominated by larger house mound groups (Dillehay 2017). Most of these clusters were located near the mouths of the fingerlike wetlands extending from east to west and draining to the sea. Off-mound domestic occupation at Huaca Prieta continued during Phase III, in the drier locales at the edge of the western terrace (Units 13, 16, 26), just south of the Cupisnique mound and out into the floodplain to the east. A few domestic settlements occupy the high ground along the edge of the ancient river meander (Goodbred et al. 2017). It also is at this time that the mound began to take its final elongated ovoid shape and extended to the full length seen today (138 m). Early in this period, the population probably increased markedly throughout the terrace and the littoral zone, as suggested by the greater number of “dark midden” mounded areas associated with huaquero holes in sites extending from the coastline near Malabrigo to the north down to the mouth of the Chicama River. Other small household mounds are present along the low terraces of wetlands located 1–2 km inland from the sea. The presence of crop remains, marine shells, and fish bones in the middens of small households located in the interior near wetlands suggests the probability of small farmsteads, perhaps complementing the littoral households. Surface evidence from disturbed huaquero holes in these sites suggests that both marine foods and cultigens are important dietary items. The incipient domestic nucleation seen at Huaca Prieta and along the littoral appears to be a region-wide occurrence around 6500–6000 BP (Lavallée 2000; Sandweiss 2014), as suggested by the appearance of other important Preceramic sites in the Jequetepeque (Dillehay 2011), Moche, and

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Figure 4.8. View of Preceramic house mound near wetlands north of Huaca Prieta (provided by the author).

in the Norte Chico area (Feldman 1980; Haas and Creamer 2004). Huaca Prieta stands out relative to other populated places because it appears to be a major littoral locale experiencing these shifts. The regional settlement pattern seems to shift from a relatively dispersed pattern of households to one with more concentrated household sites interspersed among smaller littoral communities and dispersed farmsteads in and around estuarine wetlands. The maritime and inland (possible farmsteads) household pattern thus represents a change from earlier ways where people tended to live in linear household clusters near the beach and the deltas of the wetlands. By the end of this period, the more extensive wetlands along the coast had shrunk or infilled (Goodbred et al. 2017). Around 6,500 years ago, the lower mound levels of Paredones appeared. This site shifted from a campsite exploiting the sea and the wetlands to a food preparation locality as seen by the sudden absence of domestic debris and the presence of prepared use surfaces that were intentionally built up vertically over time. Phase IV: Expansion of Ceremonial and Mortuary Services, 5300–4500 BP

Phases III and IV are separated by a ~30 cm thick yellowish clay cap placed over most of the mound. Phase IV is associated with the completion of the

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Figure 4.9. View of the Late Preceramic stone architectural structures in the sunken plaza of the “looter’s hole” on the south side of the Huaca Prieta mound (provided by the author).

sunken circular plaza with stepped levels and rooms made of cobblestones (Figure 4.9), large chunks of polychrites, whalebones, a vertical extension of the retention wall, and the first layers of a large ramplike extension built on the northeast side of the mound. The ramplike addition is ~40 m long and ~35 m wide and characterized by a series of thick cobblestone layers and intervening floors built over the lower retention wall and the lower portion of the mound. The mound during this phase was roughly the size it is today, although a few new layers were added in the following Phase V. In Phase IV, the economy was balanced between maritime and terrestrial resources, with more emphasis on cultigens and much less on wild plant and animal species from the shrinking wetlands. During this phase, the mound also spread over a more extended area of old and new ground to increase in height to approximately 30 m. Further additions during this phase were the first layers of a ramp built on the northeast side, the upper portion of the retention wall behind the ramp, and the stepped structures in the sunken plaza (Figure 4.9). The ramp addition is ~40 m long and ~35 m wide and characterized by a series of thick cobblestone berm layers and by intervening floors built over and sealing the retention wall and the first construction phases of the mound. Later, the

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foundations of the ramp rested directly upon the eastern edge of mound layers built during Phase III. Sometime around 5000 cal BP during Phase IV, there is a shift in the tomb architecture of Huaca Prieta. More stone-lined burial chambers appear in this phase. The burial chambers demonstrate a greater diversity than in earlier times with more oval, squarish structures appearing on the summit of the mound (see Bird and Hyslop 1985: 47). Although the earlier mortuary patterns of primary and secondary burials with few offerings (Spondylus sp. appears in one tomb at the end of this period) and without architecture continued to be used, the chamber tombs reflect a slightly greater degree of social differentiation, at least with regard to mortuary practices at the site. At this time, the site also begins to be covered in a laterally extensive, thick, and hardened plaster to protect it from erosion. The addition of this construction technique probably signals a concern with erosion and decay of the increasingly wider, higher, and steeper mound. If there ever was a time when there was a development of task groups organized by an ephemeral authority, it likely would have been during this time span to construct the retention wall, the ramp to the east, and additions to the sunken circular courtyard on the south side, and to place the thick plaster over the mound. Although these features seem out of place in regard to the architecture seen at other huacas of the late Preceramic Period, which represent stepped platform mounds made of stone, they worked at Huaca Prieta, which adds to its enigmatic nature. Near the end of this phase, around 4500 BP, narrow raised agricultural fields were built in the infilled areas of the old lagoon. Once the lagoon began to dry, the area would have provided rich organic soil for growing crops. Phase V: Refinement and Abandoment, 4500–3800 BP

During this phase, the steep sloping flanks of the mound on both the east and west sides were used less; most activity was now limited to the flat crest of the structure. Phase V dates between ~4500 and 3800 BP. During the early part of this phase, more cobblestone burial chambers were built along the upper rim of the sunken pit and on the top of the mound. More layers were also added to the ramp, which eventually covered and sealed the earlier retention wall. By ~4000 to 3800 BP, the Preceramic period use of the site terminated. Later ceramic cultures dated from the Cupisnique to Colonial periods interred their dead on the top of the mound.

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Based on settlement pattern data, we estimate that Preceramic population figures peaked in the lower valley near 4500–4000 BP. Afterward there was a steady decline along the coast with people moving up valley or farther north toward Malabrigo, although a few fishing communities of aggregated households continued to exist. After 3500 BP, Initial Period ceramic materials were replaced in the archaeological record, supplanted by materials related to the Gallinazo and Salinar traditions dated between 2,400 and 1,600 years ago. These demographic changes appear to relate primarily to greater reliance on food crops, to more agricultural fields placed in the infilled wetland adjacent to the mound where the lower valley floodplain had now developed, and to the invention (or adoption) of irrigation systems in the lower and middle valley. We believe this represents a fundamental break with the previous ways of doing things, where older lifestyles were supplanted with a new order headed by a greater representation of regional cultures, as suggested by the presence of the Initial Period Guañape and Cupisnique materials. Although linked to several major social developments, environmental stresses (El Niño events, marine transgression and regression) probably also placed causative influence on the increasingly diverse and growing population of the study area throughout this period. In sum, Phases II to V are characterized by a series of mound-building episodes defined by thousands of thin horizontally discontinuous floors, often covered with reed mats, thick fill sequences, ritual offerings, small retention walls, and rooms. After each episode in Phases IV and V, large portions of the mound were capped by a hard artificial plaster layer composed of saltwater, sediment, ash, crushed shells, and other organic debris, which prevented site erosion. Scattered among the floors and rooms are artifacts, burned areas, articulated and disarticulated human remains, and ritual offerings. No hearths, postholes, storage pits, food containers, and other indicators of domestic occupation were recovered at Huaca Prieta after ~6800 BP. Our team recovered several low-ceiling rooms dated to Phases III–V, which were burial chambers as evidenced by the presence of human skeletons on the floors of several of them. The sunken plaza of Phase III is defined by a series of stone-faced, stepped platforms and rooms constructed across a deep, roughly circular, concave pit measuring ~25 m in diameter. By 3800 BP, both sites were abandoned, although Huaca Prieta was continually used as a burial area for the later ceramic cultures until Colonial times. The abandonment of these sites coincides with the wider

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development of the lower floodplain for agricultural production, although sea resources were continually exploited as well. Epilogue

Temporally and archaeologically excavated contexts and AMS radiocarbon dates present a long history of the Huaca Prieta site. We have proposed a five-phase model for the construction of the Huaca Prieta mound. We found evidence that the mound overlies an earlier Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene occupation and that the subsequent mound construction proceeded in stages that were multilevel, initially spanning the entire south end of the terrace and covering much of the eastern end of the terrace. Prior to the Early Holocene Period, the site appears to have been a small intermittently occupied campsite of marine foragers on the Sangamon terrace. During the seventh millennium BP, Huaca Prieta rapidly and dramatically changed from a habitation site to a ceremonial and feasting locale, a shift likely related to the appearance of several household sites located along the littoral to the north and south of the mound. During this period, minor architectural elements were incorporated into the structure, seemingly demarcating small, spatially confined ritual spaces defined by low stone walls and stone-lined areas. There also is evidence of intermittent occupation of the south end of the terrace during the Early Holocene period, a lifeway similar to the earlier one but with slightly different plant and animal species and with a different frequency of their exploitation. During Phase II, the site expanded to the north and west, and vertically grew more than 10 m. The southern and eastern portions of the mound rose first, probably because they are on the lower side of the mound and protected from winds off the ocean. These areas also are in close proximity to the resource-rich lagoon immediately to the east. Mound construction appears to have commenced in this area by at least 7500 BP. The initial 4 meters of the mound were constructed slowly and associated with a series of residential occupations by maritime and wetland foragers, according to the numerous burned places, lithics, waste, and food remains placed alongside the southeast corner of the mound near the shoreline of the old lagoon and present-day cane field. Construction of Huaca Prieta (and Paredones) then proceeded in a series of roughly equivalent phases for the next 2,000 years. Huaca Prieta expanded in size from roughly scattered habitational units to a low, elongated oval mound that reached farther to the north.

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During Phases III to V, the site expanded even more, including formal chamber tombs and room structures indicative of mortuary function. The social and economic implications of the outlying domestic sites remain unclear at this time. These sites were probably linked to ceremonies at the mound. After the abandonment of the mound, the Cupisnique structure to the north grew and human burials were continually placed in the summit of Huaca Prieta. A few additional layers were placed on the ramp side of the mound during the Cupisnique period. This model may be considered a brief synthetic view of mound construction at Huaca Prieta whereby a prochronic history ultimately created its final form. In this view, the history of the mound is the cumulative practices of multiple peoples over a long period of time; thus, the regular practices and interactions of people created the mound in a continuous series of intermittently, if not yearly, specialized construction events. In this way, the construction of Huaca Prieta proceeded incrementally, and was no different from the construction of other mounds in the Preceramic Period of the Central Andes. However, mound building was at a slow temporal and spatial scale at Huaca Prieta. Consequently, the mound was built as an ongoing long-term intercommunity project. It would not have required a large population density and a centralized authority. Huaca Prieta eventually served an iconographic function, and the ritual process behind mound building there probably served to create a new regional social institution. References Cited Bird, J. B. 1948 America’s Oldest Farmers. Natural History 17: 296–303. Bird, J. B., and J. Hyslop 1985 Preceramic Excavations at Huaca Prieta, Chicama Valley, Peru. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, New York. Bonavia, D. 1982 Precerámico peruano. Los Gavilanes. Mar, desierto y oasis en la historia del hombre. Corporación Financiera de Desarrollo S.A. COFIDE, Instituto Arqueológico Alemán, Lima. Bonavia, D., V. Vazquez, T. Tham, T. Dillehay, P. Netherly, and K. Benson 2017 Plant Remains. In Where the Land Meets the Sea: Fourteen Millennia of Human History at Huaca Prieta, Peru, edited by Dillehay, pp. 367–433. University of Texas Press, Austin. Chauchat, C. 1992 Préhistoire de la côte nord du Pérou. CNRS, Paris.

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Dillehay, T. D. (editor) 2011 From Foraging to Farming in the Andes: New Perspectives on Food Production and Social Organization. Cambridge University Press, London. 2017 Where the Land Meets the Sea: Fourteen Millennia of Human History at Huaca Prieta, Peru. University of Texas Press, Austin. Dillehay, T. D., D. Bonavia, and P. Kaulicke 2004 The First Settlers. In Andean Archaeology, edited by Helaine Silverman, pp. 16– 34. Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology. Blackwell, Malden, MA. Dillehay, T. D., D. Bonavia, S. Goodbred, M. Pino, V. Vasquez, T. R. Tham, W. Conklin, J. Splitstoser, D. Piperno, J. Iriarte, A. Grobman, G. Levi-Lazzaris, D. Moreira, M. Lopez, T. Tung, A. Titelbaum, J. Verano, J. Adovasio, L. Scott Cummings, P. Bearez, E. Dufour, O. Tombret, R. Ramirez, R. Beavins, and L. DeSantis 2012a Chronology, Mound-Building and Environment at Huaca Prieta, Coastal Peru, from 13700 to 4000 years ago. Antiquity 86: 48–70. Dillehay, T. D., D. Bonavia, S. Goodbred, M. Pino, V. Vásquez, and T. R. Tham 2012b A Late Pleistocene Human Presence at Huaca Prieta, Peru, and early Pacific Coastal Adaptations. Quaternary Research 77(3): 418–423. Feldman, R. A. 1980 Aspero Peru: Architecture, Subsistence Economy and Other Artifacts of a Preceramic Maritime Chiefdom. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Harvard University. Cambridge. Fuchs, P. R., and J. Briceño 2006 Investigaciones arqueológicas en el sitio de Sechín Bajo, Casma. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP 10: 111–136. Goodbred, S., R. Beavings, M. Ramirez, M. Pino, A. Oliveira, C. Latorre, T. Dillehay, and D. Bonavia 2017 Holocene Geology and Paleoenvironmental History of the Lower Chicama Valley. In Where the Land Meets the Sea: Fourteen Millennia of Human History at Huaca Prieta, Peru, edited by T. Dillehay, pp. 49–87. University of Texas Press, Austin. Grobman, A., D. Bonavia, T. D. Dillehay, D. Piperno, J. Iriarte, and I. Holste 2012 Preceramic Maize from Paredones and Huaca Prieta, Peru. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(5): 1755–1759. pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas. Haas, J., and W. Creamer 2004 Cultural Transformations in the Central Andean Late Archaic. In Andean Archaeology, edited by Helaine Silverman, pp. 35–50. Blackwell, London. Lavallée, D. 2000 The First South Americans: The Peopling of a Continent from the Earliest Evidence to High Culture. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. Milner, G. R. 2004 The Moundbuilders: Ancient Peoples of Eastern North America. Thames and Hudson, London. Moseley, M. E. 1975 The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization. Cummings, Menlo Park, CA.

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1992

Maritime Foundations and Multilinear Evolution: Retrospect and Prospect. Andean Past 3: 5–42.

Pino, M. 2017 Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Chronology at Huaca Prieta. In Where the Land Meets the Sea: Fourteen Millennia of Human History at Huaca Prieta, Peru, edited by Dillehay, pp. 617–630. University of Texas Press, Austin. Pozorski, S., and T. Pozorski 1977 Alto Salaverry: sitio precerámico de la costa peruana. Revista del Museo Nacional XLIII: 27–60. 1979 An Early Subsistence Exchange System in the Moche Valley. Journal of Field Archaeology 6(4): 413–432. Porzorski, T., and S. Pozorski 1990 Huaynuná, a Late Cotton Preceramic Site on the Northern Coast of Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 17(1): 17–26. Quilter, J. 1989 Life and Death at Paloma: Society and Mortuary Practices in a Preceramic Peruvian Village. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City. 1991 Late Preceramic Peru. Journal of World Prehistory 5: 387–438. Rick, J. 1990 Review of The Preceramic Excavations at Huaca Prieta Chicama Valley, Peru, Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, edited by York Bird, John Hyslop, and Milico Dimitrijevic. American Anthropologist 92: 543–544. Sandweiss, D. H. 2014 Early Costal South America. In The Cambridge World Prehistory, edited by C. Renfrew and P. Bahn, pp. 1058–1074. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Shady, R., and C. Leyva 2003 La Ciudad Sagrada de Caral-Supe: los orígenes de la civilización andina y la formación del estado prístino en el antiguo Perú. Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral-Supe, Lima. Tellenbach, M. 1997 Los Vestigios de un ritual ofrendatario en el Formativo peruano-Acerca de la relación entre templos, viviendas y hallazgos. In Prehispanic Architecture and Civilization in the Andes, Archaeologica Peruana 2, edited by E. Bonnier and H. Bischof, pp. 162–175. Sociedad Arqueológica Peruano-Alemana, Reiss Museum, Mannheim, Germany.

II Maritime Communities between 5500 and 2500 BP

5 Changing Complexity in the Norte Chico, 3000–1800 cal BCE Winifred Creamer and Jonathan Haas

Monumental construction flourished in the Norte Chico region of Peru starting around 3000 cal BC based on cultivation inland, fishing on the coast, and active regional exchange of plant and marine products. The monuments and associated buildings and activities reflected the emergence of two interconnected bases of power: economic and ideological. Economic power grew from irrigation-based agriculture and provided a means for Norte Chico leaders to gain the compliance of their population. This economic base was supported and reinforced by a standardized religious ceremonial context focused on large- and small-scale public architecture. The positive and negative incentives of access to (or denial of) irrigation water and agricultural products proved an effective way to recruit and direct a significant labor force. Rather than serving to self-aggrandize or glorify individual rulers, however, labor was focused almost exclusively on the construction of large-scale ceremonial architecture. Physical coercive power manifested in some kind of military was absent. The full state triad of economic, ideological, and physical power did not emerge until the subsequent Initial Period. In a fairly short period of time between about 3100 and 2900 cal BC, at the beginning of the Late Archaic Period, the Andean region first witnessed a qualitative evolutionary change that resulted in a significant increase in the complexity of the cultural system. Communities were larger, there were more parts to the overall cultural system, and there were significantly more roles being played by interacting human agents. In contrast to the preceding Middle Archaic (and to the rest of the Andean region), the Norte Chico region specifically witnessed the appearance of large communities with permanent architecture (Figure 5.1), differentiation between maritime-oriented coastal sites of fishermen and

132 · Winifred Creamer and Jonathan Haas

Figure 5.1. Map of Norte Chico showing Late Archaic sites (provided by the authors).

inland agricultural sites of cultivators, emergence of locally (as opposed to regionally) centralized decision making, new kinds of relationships between respondent populations and power holding elites (Haas et al. 2005), and distinct differences in status and rank (Shady and Leyva 2003). Mound construction begins earlier in northern Peru than in the Norte Chico. Dillehay has identified corporate construction at both Nanchoc (Dillehay et al. 1989) and at Huaca Prieta (Dillehay et al. 2012). At Los Morteros, architecture may also be earlier than in the Norte Chico region (Mauricio Llonto 2015). The transformation of the Norte Chico cultural system at the turn of the third millennium BC differs from the other regions

Changing Complexity in the Norte Chico, 3000–1800 cal BCE · 133

in the rapid proliferation of sites and structures once monumental works were introduced. Anthropologically, this is interesting for the relatively rapid introduction and spread of monumental architecture in the region and the subsequent durability of that complex for more than a millennium (Haas and Creamer 2006, Moseley 2001). Below, we review the development of monumental architecture, irrigation agriculture including notable amounts of maize, and the contribution of fishing to the local diet through exchange. The monuments and associated buildings, cultivation, and trade reflect the emergence of two interconnected bases of power: economic and ideological. The intense focus on construction of large-scale structures related to ritual activities at several scales has been suggested as an indicator of peer polities across the region (Creamer et al. 2014), but does not appear to have resulted in competition and conflict that might have resulted in centralized coercive power, such as a military force (Carneiro 1970; Haas 1982). We suggest that despite developing complexity in the economic and ideological spheres, true state society was not in place until a system of coercive power, enforced by a military group, is found during the Initial Period (1800–1000 cal BC), for example, in the Casma Valley. Presence of Large-Scale Architecture

Mound sites of the Late Archaic are not the first occupation of the Norte Chico, but they are the first large-scale constructions in the region (Kosok 1965; Perales 2006, 2007). Thus far, the adjacent Rio Seco/Chancay Valley to the south (Wendt 1964) and the Huarmey Valley to the north have far fewer, if any, sites with the features characteristic of the Late Archaic (Bonavia 1982). At the same time, years of research in the Casma Valley, north of Huarmey, reveal nothing comparable during the Late Archaic (Pozorski and Pozorski 1990), despite recent finds of circular courts dating to the middle fourth millennium BC (Fuchs et al. 2008). What distinguishes the phenomenon of mound and sunken court centers in the Norte Chico is the limited region in which this rapid and large-scale construction occurred, its early date, and the density of sites, especially considering the massive size of the works erected. Enormous labor investment is visible in each construction and in the near-constant remodeling that is visible in the gigantic looters’ pits that have been dug into some of these sites. The sites identified that fit these parameters display Late Archaic characteristics in different combinations. Although there is some geographic evidence that some smaller sites may have budded off from larger sites

134 · Winifred Creamer and Jonathan Haas

Figure 5.2. Circle of monoliths at the base of the central staircase, Caballete (provided by the authors).

(Rutherford 2008), there is no evidence that any sites were governed by or subservient to any other sites. For present purposes, each individual site is considered an independent polity. A polity in the Norte Chico during the Late Archaic consisted of a central place distinguished by the construction of one or more large, step-sided mounds built with shicra, stone-filled bags, and one or more circular courts, along with placement of huancas, or monoliths. Late Archaic polities in the Norte Chico were centered on sites having a single mound and circular court, or as many as six mounds and three circular courts arranged in a U shape. Occasionally, a circular court is found in an isolated location associated with only a small ancillary structure. Fifteen monoliths form a circle around a court area at Caballete (Figure 5.2), while individual monoliths placed at the top of a mound or by the steps into a circular court are a more common configuration. There is variability in the range of elements included in each center and in their arrangement on the landscape, although there is a defining set of features, all built on a monumental scale. Around this center, residential areas can be identified. Some of these include stone structures with carefully prepared floors (Figure 5.3), while other residential areas consist of temporary structures built of cane and woven mats, with floors of tamped earth or clay. Together, the range of structures present and the range of materials incorporated into each of them suggest the mobilization of labor to construct monumental works—a system divided socially into two or more strata—and the production of goods sufficient to support not only a resident population, but also a temporary or periodic population of individuals involved in construction of public works. Construction of the monumental structures was a multistage process, with numerous episodes of building and remodeling and tremendous in-

Changing Complexity in the Norte Chico, 3000–1800 cal BCE · 135

Figure 5.3. Excavated permanent structure at Caballete (provided by the authors).

vestment of labor in architecture. A similar labor investment is not seen in other areas such as craft specialization and mass production of resources. In other ancient civilizations, these developments appear to parallel monumental construction, such as the fourth millennium BC mass production of food bowls in Mesopotamia (Goulder 2010). Cultivation

Establishing a Late Archaic (3000–1800 BC) date for large sites with monumental architecture situated inland in the coastal valleys of the Norte Chico was the first step toward demonstrating the importance of agriculture. The growth of inland sites and dependence on irrigation-based agriculture have since been shown to be characteristic of the earliest Norte Chico polities (Haas et al. 2004, 2013; Shady et al. 2001). The inland location of the large majority of Late Archaic sites in the Norte Chico, coupled with the xeric conditions and close juxtaposition of the sites to simple irrigation systems, indicates that these were indeed farming communities practicing irrigation-based agriculture. The presence of a large number of inland sites constitutes indirect evidence of an agriculturally based economy and diet, but more direct evidence can be found in the botanical remains from excavated sites. The

136 · Winifred Creamer and Jonathan Haas

floral community on the coast of Peru is not immediately conducive to the development of domesticated plants. Plant diversity is relatively low, and in the absence of systems of irrigation there is little naturally arable land available for experimentation with domestication. Generally speaking, the coastal area was a consumer of domesticated crops rather than a developer of such crops (see Pearsall 1992; Piperno and Pearsall 1998). Evidence of domesticated plants in the archaeological record can be found in macroscopic remains recovered from bulk screening in the field, pollen, phytoliths, and microscopic remains from flotation, fine screening, or lab analysis of soil samples. For the same reasons the dry desert coast is not conducive to the process of plant domestication, it also provides excellent preservation of plants in the archaeological record. Macrobotanical remains have been recorded for sites up and down the coast of Peru: Aspero (Feldman 1980), Caral (Shady 1999, 2006a and b), and other sites (Zechenter 1988) in the Supe Valley; El Paraiso in the Chillon Valley (Quilter et al. 1991: 251); Huaca Prieta in the Chicama Valley (Bird and Hyslop 1985; Grobman et al. 2012). At sites in the Pativilca and Fortaleza valleys, the Proyecto Arqueológico Norte Chico (PANC) examined 1,200 samples of botanical remains from 10 different sites. The samples come from deposits with radiocarbon dates between 3240 and 1830 cal BC. Deposits with outlier dates, those prior to 3240 cal BC and after 1820 cal BC, were excluded from the present discussion. These samples included remains directly recovered from 6 mm mesh screens in the field, as well as flotation and fine-screen samples recovered from 1, 2, and 4 mm mesh screens in the laboratory (Table 5.1). The assemblage of cultivated plants recorded by PANC overlaps closely with the total assemblage found at the other Late Archaic sites on the Peruvian coast. Collectively the macroscopic remains point to a stable and widely distributed suite of fruits, vegetables, seeds, roots, and tubers in the diet of the Late Archaic occupants of the coastal region. Complementing the macroscopic remains, 126 pollen samples in radiocarbon-dated Late Archaic contexts were analyzed from sites in the Pativilca and Fortaleza valleys by PANC (Haas et al. 2013) (Table 5.2) The pollen analyses parallel the macroscopic remains with minor variations. The pollen records show that Schinus molle (molle, pink peppercorn), Cyclanthera pedata (caigua, a squash relatively common in Peru today), and Physalis spp. (aguaymanto, ground cherry) grew in the area. What stands out in the PANC pollen record, however, is the dominant presence of maize (Zea mays), found in 48 percent of all pollen samples and

Changing Complexity in the Norte Chico, 3000–1800 cal BCE · 137

Table 5.1. Macrobotanical remains from Late Archaic sites Scientific Name

Common Name

Zea maize Capsicum sp. Lagenaria siceraria

Maize Chili Bottle gourd

Canna edulis Phaseolus lunatus Pouteria lucuma Psidium guajava

Achira Lima bean Lucuma Guava

Phaseolus vulgaris Inga feuillei Bunchosia armeniaca Canavalia sp. Ipomoea batatas Persea americana Pachyrhizus tuberosus Cucurbita maxima Cucurbita moschata Solanum spp. Annona cherimola Arachis hypogaea Cucurbita ficifolia Typha spp.

Common bean Pacae Ciruelo de fraile Jack beans Sweet potato Avocado Jicama Squash Squash Potato? Tomato? Chirimoya Peanut Squash Cattail

Aspero Caral El Paraiso X X X

Huaca Prieta

Norte Chico

X X X

X X X

X X X

X X X

X X X

X X X X

X X X X

X X X X

X X X

X X

X

X X

X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X X X X

X X

Compiled by authors.

the second-most-common species of plant represented in terms of pollen count. From the perspective of the origins of complex society on the coast of Peru, the role of maize in the diet of the people of the Late Archaic is a critical element. These data are of particular interest given several decades of debate over the importance and even the presence of maize in the Andes prior to 1800 BC (Bird 1990; Blake 2006; Bonavia and Grobman 1989, 2000; Burger and van der Merwe 1990; Grobman et al. 2012; Pearsall 2002; Shady 2006b; Staller 2003; Staller and Thompson 2002). The PANC data suggest maize was a regular part of the diet at Late Archaic sites (Haas et al. 2013). Examining pollen samples, stone tool residues, and coprolites, analysts found that maize was the primary starch in the diet, and that it was widely grown, processed, and eaten. The presence of

guajava

sp.

armeniaca

siceraria

Psidium

Cucurbita

Bunchosia

Lagenaria

Bottle gourd

Ciruela del fraile

Squash

Guava

Lucuma

lucuma

Pouteria

50

0

85

144

156

146

1297

Pink peppercorn

Maize

1076 167

mays

Zea

Cattail

Tomato

spp.

Typha

41

147

67

4

41

72

61

88

72

# pollen grains

# pollen grains

Common Name

Solanum/ Lycopersicon Schinus molle

Species

Genus

33

85

126

Total # of samples

HCG

Total # of samples

CAB

Pollen Samples

Table 5.2. Pollen from cultivated plant species

2

0

1

0

0

1

0

1

21

# pollen grains

1

Total # of samples

CB1

1

0

0

2

0

0

1

1

262

# pollen grains

3

Total # of samples

POR

0

0

0

35

0

1

0

26

25

# pollen grains

2

Total # of samples

PYS

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

30

# pollen grains

1

Total # of samples

SHA

0

0

1

1

0

1

1

12

107

# pollen grains

1

Total # of samples

UP

96

147

154

186

197

222

232

1425

1,593

Total Pollen Grains

tuberosus

spp.

pedata

Pachyrhizus

Annona

Cyclanthera

Peanut

Arachis

Compiled by authors. CAB Caballete. CB1 Cerro Blanco 1. HCG Huaricanga. POR Porvenir. PYS Punta y Suela. SHA Shaura. UP Upaca.

Bean

Caigua 0

4

6

4

15

Squash

Chirimoya

36

32

8

31

59

Jicama

Phaseolus

hypogaea

spp.

Inga

Pacae

Groundcherry

spp.

Physalis

Sweet potato

Chili

batatas

Capsicum

Ipomoea

1

1

0

2

7

0

11

42

16

6

0

0

0

0

1

0

1

0

3

2

0

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

9

2

0

0

0

1

1

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

5

6

7

26

36

46

50

59

69

140 · Winifred Creamer and Jonathan Haas

maize pollen in almost half of the samples analyzed demonstrates that it was widely grown in the area immediately around the sites. Maize pollen is among the largest and heaviest of all wind-borne pollen types (Raynor et al. 1972). The distribution of maize pollen drops off sharply the further you move away from the plant. The frequency of maize pollen at a distance of 500 m from the plant is 0.05 percent of the frequency of pollen at a distance of one m from the plant (Emberlin 1999; Hodgson 1949; Jones and Newell 1948; McCartney 1994). These data indicate that the presence of maize pollen in samples taken from rooms and trash deposits is a strong indicator of the nearby presence of maize plants themselves. Stone tools were analyzed for starch grains. A sample of 30 stone tools from two different excavation units at the site of Caballete, including scraping, cutting, and grinding tools, were analyzed for residues. Maize starch grains were by far the most common botanical residue found on a variety of stone tools. The analysis revealed that maize starch grains were present on 18 (60 percent) of the tools. Six of the samples (20 percent) had starch grains from sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) and 4 (13 percent) from beans (Phaseolus sp.). Jicama (Pachyrhizus sp.) phytoliths were found on one cutting tool (Haas et al. 2013). The role of these plants in the local diet comes from coprolites. Sixty-two coprolites were recovered from secure Late Archaic excavation at Caballete and Huaricanga and subsequently analyzed (Haas et al. 2013). The bulk of the diet as revealed by coprolites was composed of domesticated plant foods. The dominant source of starch came from maize (Table 5.3). Fortythree (69 percent) coprolites from all species (a mix of human, dog, cervids, fox, unidentified carnivores, and unidentified wild omnivores) contained maize starch grains, including 23 human coprolites (68 percent) and 12 of 16 domesticated dog coprolites (75 percent). Other starches included sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), beans (Phaseolus sp.), potato (Solanum sp.), mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum), or oca (Oxalis tuberosa), yuca (Manihot esculenta), and arracacha (Arakaki xanthorrhiza). Plant phytoliths in the coprolites came from beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), chirimoya (Annona cherimola), squash (Cucurbita sp.), and maize (Zea mays). Pollen in coprolites came from maize (Zea mays), squash (Cucurbita sp.), beans (Phaseolus sp.), pacae (Inga feuilleei), chili (Capsicum sp.), and maca (Lepidium sp.). Macroscopic remains from coprolites reveal a different aspect of the diet. By far the dominant plant represented in the macro remains was guava (Psidium guajava) and pacae (Inga feuilleei), a local fruit. Twenty of the human coprolites and 8 dog coprolites include guava seeds (Psidium guajava),

Changing Complexity in the Norte Chico, 3000–1800 cal BCE · 141

indicating this was a source of sugars in the diet. Other seeds included maize, unidentified grasses, squash (Cucurbita sp.), and chili peppers (Capsicum sp.). From these data we see there was a varied diet of cultivated plants among the people of the Norte Chico.1 Fishing

There are three coastal sites in the Norte Chico region that fit the maritime model of a strong focus on fishing: Aspero (Feldman 1980), located at the mouth of the Supe Valley; Bandurria (Chu 2008; Fung 1988, 2004), on the southern edge of the Huaura Valley; and Bermejo (Silva 1978), on the northern edge of the Fortaleza Valley.2 A comprehensive survey of the Pativilca Valley did not reveal a Late Archaic site anywhere along the coastline. Bandurria and Bermejo are not strategically located to take advantage of the delta resources of river mouths, but they are clearly oriented toward the exploitation of marine resources. This is attested to not only by location but by the presence of thick deposits of mollusks and fish remains at all three sites (Figure 5.4). Although these sites appear to have been sources of marine resources, the mechanism by which fish and shellfish arrived at inland sites remains unclear.

Figure 5.4. View of Bandurria showing extensive shell midden (map data: Google, DigitalGlobe).

142 · Winifred Creamer and Jonathan Haas

Analysis of coprolites confirmed what has been noted by other scholars working in this early time period: anchovies (Engraulis ringens) were the primary source of animal protein (Feldman 1980; Moseley 1975; Shady and Leyva 2003). Bones of these small fish were found in 39 of the coprolites (63 percent—26 human and 13 dog), with an average of 20 anchovy bones in each of the 39. In a detailed analysis of fish remains from Caral, Béarez and Miranda (2003) found that in a large sample, there was on average 1 individual anchovy for every 48 bones counted. Thus, in the Norte Chico samples, for the coprolites that included anchovies, there was on average less than half a single individual fish represented. Although such a small amount would provide protein balance and flavor to the diet, it was not a significant source of calories. Collectively, the coprolites provide evidence of a varied and balanced diet with fish, primarily anchovies, providing protein (Feldman 1980; Moseley 1992); maize and root crops providing the starches and carbohydrates; and fruit, primarily guava, providing the sugars. (Although mollusks are not visible in the coprolites, shells from a wide variety of species are commonly found in refuse deposits. However, their frequency is relatively low and they would have provided an alternative source of protein to the diet rather than a major source of calories [Creamer et al. 2011; see also Quilter et al. 1991: 279].) Emergence of Economic Power

Roscoe has noted that culture and society are emergent properties of human interaction (1993: 116). The mounds of the Norte Chico region may be an example of the emergence of complexity from interactions that gradually increase in variety and frequency over time (Creamer and Haas 2009), shifting from what can be characterized as self-interested to collective action (Carballo et al. 2012). Archaeological evidence suggests this shift was initiated by economic interaction between residents of coast and inland sites. Middens that include fish and shellfish at sites well away from the coast confirm that marine foods arrived at inland sites and suggest the fundamental importance of exchange (Creamer et al. 2011). We suggest that agricultural products were produced in greater abundance inland than on the coast as a result of the water management, particularly canal irrigation, that was used on land adjacent to the rivers. Canals that appear to be ancient are still in use today, and techniques to direct the flow of water among canals using a small number of rocks or mud embankments are still

Changing Complexity in the Norte Chico, 3000–1800 cal BCE · 143

used in the region (Haas and Creamer 2006). The coordination of effort needed to construct canals and to apportion the water carried in canals provided a basis for collective action and for the coercion of cultivators in the construction and maintenance of canals. The absence of depictions of individuals and the relatively slow development of craft products that could have been used as sumptuary goods suggest collective or corporate leadership (Blanton et al. 1996). Coastal sites had direct access to fish and shellfish, and consumed proportionally more of these items than did their inland neighbors (Coutts et al. 2011). The need for cotton string for fishing nets, gourd vessels, maize, and other agricultural products may have spurred a certain level of exchange, as site autonomy in food production would diminish time available for harvesting marine products. The details of how these goods circulated remain to be identified and require sourcing techniques that are still being developed (compare Benson et al. 2008; Cordell et al. 2001). Exchange of marine resources for agricultural products in the Norte Chico is suggested by a study of least-cost pathways from the inland site of Huaricanga in the Fortaleza Valley to the coast (Carlson and Craig 2005). The analysis was expected to show that the most efficient route of travel followed the course of the river to the coast. The steep hills that border each coastal valley were seen as barriers to travel, as initially suggested by Carneiro (1970). Carlson and Craig’s analysis revealed that it would be most efficient for travelers on foot to cut across the hills on a route roughly due west to reach the ocean at approximately the site of Bermejo, a sprawling shell midden utilized during the Late Archaic and Initial Periods (2005). This locality was the source of substantial marine resources, and could have conducted exchange with inland sites such as Huaricanga and its neighbors. Exchange could have taken place anywhere, but the remains of temporary post and brush encampments at Huaricanga and Caballete suggest that at least some exchange took place at those inland sites. Some campsites held the remains of fishing gear, including bobbins, spools of string, and stone wrapped with string, a possible net weight. Exchange outcomes would include efficiency—obtaining cotton string and gourds, obtaining fish for farming groups—and diversifying the diet. Exchange also provides a context for less visible but equally important interactions of ritual, socializing, gift giving, mating, information exchange, and other activities that may accompany the physical remains of exchange. Exchange may also be motivated by the fact that, once harvested, fish, shellfish, and plant food in particular cannot be preserved indefinitely and

144 · Winifred Creamer and Jonathan Haas

need to be preserved, eaten, exchanged, or discarded within a relatively short time. There is archaeological evidence of other products more difficult to detect but known from Late Archaic sites. These include medicinal plants (Table 5.3), Spondylus shell beads (Chu 2008; Creamer et al. 2007, 2013), wood tools (Creamer et al. 2007, 2013), musical instruments (Shady 2004), clay figurines (Feldman 1980; Shady 2004), and textiles (Creamer et al. 2007, 2013), which are likely to have been part of exchange. Societies that practice barter often exchange services as well, such as healing, midwifery, dance or ritual expertise, and other skills that leave little trace archaeologically (compare Ford 1972). Surplus may also be generated based on differing abilities. The farmer with the best land or the easiest access to water might have larger crop yields than neighbors and thus more surplus, either to exchange for other products or to exchange for labor. Similarly, fishermen with greater skill or superior watercraft, or craftspeople with both skill and access to distinctive materials, had the potential to exchange goods for other products, or to gain the labor of others. In every case, individuals with bargaining and negotiating skills would gain further advantage over those they dealt with. Tiny advantages gained repeatedly generate inequality between individuals living in the same community or among communities, without any necessary evidence of intentionality. In the Norte Chico, such economic gains appear to have been employed to support individuals involved in the numerous, and possibly construction, projects at several sites. Temporary campsites are present at the large sites (Haas and Creamer 2012), marine and agricultural food remains are present at all large sites no matter how far they are from the coast, and we have not found any stockpiling of wealth goods that would present an alternative to exchanging surplus food for labor. Renfrew (1986: figs. 1.1, 1.2) suggests that polities regularly spaced on the landscape are an indicator of competition (see also Hodder and Orton 1976: 46–55). Thiessen polygon analysis by Rutherford (2008) shows that the spacing of Late Archaic sites in the Norte Chico is relatively even (Figure 5.5). Although this analysis may not provide a true gauge of control, it shows a spatial relationship consistent with Renfrew’s (1986) competitive model. The presence of both site hierarchy and regular spacing of sites with monumental architecture (Creamer et al. 2014; Rutherford 2008) suggests there was competition among the large sites and that exchange was among the factors involved in the development of the overall system. While initially the application of surplus goods to direct the labor of others may have been an individual action, the planning and consistency of mound and sunken court site

Human

Human

CVR006

CVR057

CVR036

CVR056

CVR049

M23

CVR027

CVR030

CVR039

CVR041

CVR043

CVR044

HCG

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

CVR035

M10

CAB

CAB

Human

CVR034

CAB

Type

Lab 3

Site

Table 5.3. Coprolite analysis

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM, PV

ZM, ST

ZM, IN

ZM, ME, IN

ZM, OVC

ZM, ST

IB

IB

IB

IB

Sweet Starch Grains Potato

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

UN

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

UN

AN

AN

Op V Unit 11

Op V Unit 11

Op V Unit 4

Op V Unit 11

Op V Unit 1

Op V Unit 1, Level 3A, Quad B

Op II Quad B

Op IX Unit 2, Quad E4, F. 5 offering

Op VII Unit 3, Quads C6, D6, Level 2, Floor 3

Op V Unit 1

Op VII Unit 1

Op VII Unit 8

Op V Unit 3

Op V Unit 1

Op V Unit 1

Fish bone Provenience

Plant fiber (continued)

Psidium guajava, plant fiber, leaves

Plant fiber, seed ectoderms

Psidium guajava

Charcoal, bivalve shell frag.

Plant fiber, seed ectoderms

Psidium guajava, Curcubita sp.

Psidium guajava, Curcubita sp.

Physalis sp. Poaceae, Psidium guajava

Land snails, seed endosperms

Charcoal, plant fiber

Charcoal, plant fiber

Macro Remains

Lab 3

M5

M24

CVR052

CVR046

CVR001

CVR007

CVR009

CVR017

CVR008

CVR024

CVR025

CVR026

Site

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

HCG

HCG

HCG

HCG

HCG

CAB

CAB

CAB

Table 5.3—Continued

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Type

None

none

OVE

TT

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

Sweet Starch Grains Potato

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

Op V Unit 1

Op V Unit 1

Op V Unit 1

Op VII Unit 8

Op VII Unit 1

Op VII Unit 1

Op VII Unit 8

Op X Quads E2, E3, Level 3 Op VI Unit 12

Op IX Unit 4

Op VI Quad 1

Op V Unit 1

Fish bone Provenience

Charcoal, Psidium guajava, Asteraceae, Capsicum sp. Monocotiledonea, Panicum sp. Physalis sp., Zea mays

Charcoal, Psidium guajava, Curcubita sp.

Charcoal

Asteraceae, Delonix regia, Fabaceae, Pachyrhizus sp., Poceae, Psidium guajava

Panicum sp., Psidium guajava, Zea mays

Cucurbita sp., Fabaceae, Nonocotiledonea, Panicum cf. replans, Psidium guajava

Capsicum sp. Cucurbita sp. Fabaceae, cf. Manihot sp., Panicum sp. Physalis sp., Psidium guajava, Zea mays

Solanaceae, Zea mays, cf. Chusquea sp., Passifloraceae, Psidium guajava

Poaceae sp., plant fiber

Fruit ectoderm, root fragments

Plant fiber, insect exuvia

Macro Remains

CVR010

CVR011

M21

CVR037

CVR038

CVR055

CVR050

CVR045

CVR062

CVR061

CVR053

CVR060

CVR028

CVR014

HCG

HCG

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

HCG

Dog

Dog

Fox

Fox

Fox

Fox

Fox

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

Human

ZM, PV

ZM, ST

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM, PV

AR, SO

None

None

IB

IB

IB

IB

IB

IB

IB

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

UN

AN

AN

Cucurbita sp.

Curcubita sp., plant fiber

Psidium guajava

Op VII Unit 1

Op VI Unit 9

Psidium guajava

Psidium guajava

(continued)

Charcoal, Psidium, guajava, shell fragments

Psidium guajava

Monocotiledonea, Psidium guajava, Zea mays

Astragalus cf. drummondii, Cucurbita sp.

Op V Unit 6, F. 39 construction fill Op VII Unit 1, Quads A7-A10, B7-B10, Layer 3b, Floor Op VII Unit 3, Quads D6D8, Layer 2c Op IX Unit 4 Quads C3, C4, F.9 Op VII Unit 1 Plant fiber, charcoal

Op IX Unit 4

Op VII Unit 3

Op VI Unit 9

Op V Unit 5

Op II Quad A

Op VII Unit 8

Op VII Unit 8

Lab 3

CVR058

CVR048

CVR019

CVR002

CVR040

CVR018

CVR004

CVR012

CVR020

CVR021

CVR015

CVR013

CVR016

Site

CAB

CAB

HCG

HCG

CAB

HCG

HCG

HCG

HCG

HCG

HCG

HCG

HCG

Table 5.3—Continued

Dog

Dog

Dog

Dog

Dog

Dog

Dog

Dog

Dog

Dog

Dog

Dog

Dog

Type

none

none

PV

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

ZM

IB

IB

IB

IB

Sweet Starch Grains Potato

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

AN

Psidium guajava, Pteridofita

Physalis sp. Psidium guajava, Lepidium sp., Pachyrhizus/Lepidum

Macro Remains

Op VII Unit 8

OP VII Unit 1

Op VII Unit 8

Op VII Unit 8

Op VII Unit 8

Op VII Unit 8

Op VI Unit 12

cf. Cannaceae/Maranthacea, Cucurbita sp.

Psidium guajava

Psidium guajava, Zea mays

Bromeliaceae/Cyperacea, Psidium guajava

Pachyrhizus sp., Physalis sp. Poaceae, Psidium guajava

Asteraceae, Liliaceae, Passifloracea, Psidium guajava

Op V Unit 14, Quad M25, F. 121 fill of stone duct Op 1 Trench 1 Asteraceae

Op VI Unit 6

Op VII Unit 1, Quads A6, A7, B6, B7, Layer 3a, Floor Op IX Unit 1, Quads B5, C5 Level 2 Op I Trench 1

Fish bone Provenience

CVR029

M4

M8

CVR064

CVR003

CAB

CAB

CAB

CAB

HCG

Wild Omnivore

Rodent

Carnivore

Possible cervid Possible carnivore

Dog

Compiled by authors. AN Anchovy. AR Arracacha. CAB Caballete. HCG Huaricanga. IB Ipomoea batatas. IN Inga feuillei. ME Manihot esculenta. OVC Ovoid with central hila. PV Phaseolus vulgaris. SO Solanum spp. ST Solanum tuberosum. TT Trapaeolum tuberosum. UN Unidentified. ZM Zea mays.

CVR059

CAB

ZM

none

ZM

ZM

IB

IB

AN

Op VI Unit 14

Op XII Unit 1

Op V Unit 1

Op V Unit 1

Op V Unit 1

OP VII Unit 1

Poaceae

Panicum sp.

Psidium guajava

Insect exuvia

Panicum sp.

Plant fiber

Figure 5.5. Theissen polygon analysis of Norte Chico mound sites (provided by the authors).

Changing Complexity in the Norte Chico, 3000–1800 cal BCE · 151

elements suggest collective action developed over time, perhaps as the scale of construction increased. Labor invested in mound construction was a likely key to the concentration of economic power. Begun as localities for exchange and group activities, perhaps expanding to accommodate ancillary activities of food preparation, feasting, ritual performance, and short-term residential areas, mound construction appears to have drawn people from the coast to inland localities. Mound construction began in several places at about the same time, and appears to have been a competitive exercise between site polities (Creamer et al 2014). This construction, visible in profiles through looted sections, often shows a constant series of alterations to mound surfaces. Although the net result was to make each mound iteration larger, the process could well have been designed to draw participants back to improve or care for the setting where both ritual and secular interactions took place. The relatively small area of permanent residences at each site was probably home to those who managed the irrigation system, dictating the frequency of ritual events and coordinating the labor or other contribution expected from participants. Competition between centers might well have accelerated the pace of construction. During this time, there is limited evidence of surplus converted to craft production and specialization. Individual objects have been recovered, such as clay figurines (Creamer et al. 2013; Feldman 1980; Shady and Leyva 2003; Willey and Corbett 1954). Shell beads, objects made of animal bone (Shady and Leyva 2003), and textile fragments have also been identified. Production of these items appears to be at the household scale, as workshop areas for these items have not been identified despite a number of recent investigations (Chu 2008; Creamer et al. 2007, 2013; Piscitelli 2014; Shady and Leyva 2003; Vega-Centeno 2007, 2010). Workshop areas for weaving cane bags, mats, and rope are the only specialized work areas yet identified (Creamer et al. 2007, 2013). Stone carving produced masonry blocks and roughly shaped monoliths with none of the elaboration found at later sites such as Cerro Sechin, Caballo Muerto, or Chavin. There is no evidence yet for the use of domestic ceramic vessels, loom weaving, or painted imagery. Evidence for long-distance exchange is extremely limited for this region and probably took place through indirect or “down-the-line” exchanges (Renfrew 1975). Chu reports obsidian from Bandurria (2008) and small beads of Spondylus shell have been recovered from midden deposits (Chu 2008; Creamer et al. 2007, 2013; Shady and Leyva 2003). Both the quantity

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and size of these objects are very small. It is only the distinct color and layers in the shell that identify Spondylus, a species that originates in tropical Pacific waters generally north of 4° S latitude, approximately the modern border of Peru and Ecuador. Warfare and Raiding: Physical Coercive Power

The wielding of power through physical control or aggression is not apparent in the Norte Chico during the Late Archaic. The primary source of physical power in early complex societies is derived from a military force in societies engaged in war with external enemies. Yet in the Norte Chico, there are no physical indications of warfare of any kind or at any level during the Late Archaic Period. Furthermore, the available evidence in terms of site location and settlement pattern is inconsistent with a pattern of conflict (Carneiro 1970; Haas and Creamer 1993; Keeley 1996). Sites are consistently located on flat terraces immediate adjacent to the river bottoms and often surrounded by hills. While the hills themselves might provide a small measure of defense, there are no defensive structures on the hills, and approaching enemies would have had open access to the undefended sites below. The sites are also not placed strategically to defend (individually or collectively) the access routes into any of the valleys. While excavations at these sites are extremely limited, there are to date none of the signs of burning or physical violence that might be expected to occur in a warfare or raiding situation. The nondefensive settlement pattern, coupled with the absence of any positive evidence for warfare, precludes any inference at this time of a military force anywhere in the Norte Chico region in the Late Archaic. Neither is there evidence for any kind of standing police/enforcer class that could have provided power holders with some kind of physical power base. The absence of archaeological indications of a police force is not surprising, however, given that such a force would have negligible archaeological manifestations in the material record of any prehistoric society. Altogether, given the current state of archaeological research, there is no immediate evidence for a prominent physical power base in the Norte Chico. It is perhaps significant to note, however, that the first signs of warfare in the Andean region occur outside the Norte Chico in other sites on the coast during the Late Archaic. Warfare is inferred on the basis of the presence of walls and slingstones at the Ostra site (Topic 1989), and signs of violence have been found at Asia with headless bodies, bodiless heads, and one skull with the face removed (Engel 1963). This is not to say that

Changing Complexity in the Norte Chico, 3000–1800 cal BCE · 153

violent death did not occur. Shady reports what appear to be human sacrifice victims at Caral in dedicatory caches (Shady and Leyva 2003). Human remains recovered from the sunken court at Bandurria (Coutts et al. 2011) may be late enough to represent the arrival of systematic warfare at the tail end of the Late Archaic period (compare Roscoe 2008). Emergence of Ideological Power

In contrast to the lack of solid evidence of a physical or military power base, there is ample evidence of a broad ideological power base among the people living in the Norte Chico region. As mentioned, there is evidence that people visited the monumental centers on a temporary basis and that people from the coast were among those who contributed labor to construction and maintenance of the monuments. In addition to economic motivation for participation, Sandweiss (1996) suggests that during the Middle Archaic period the coastal population was still being pushed inland by rising sea levels that had started at the end of the Pleistocene (compare Binford 1968). Pressure on the availability of land along the coast may have made visits inland desirable for ritual activity, exchange, and as a way for coastal residents to consider relocation options (Roscoe 1993). The mere gathering of people does not indicate shared ideology, but their actions, once they gathered, demonstrate common beliefs. The consistent form of monumental structures, their layout, and the spacing of such sites across the region reveal common norms for the display of power. A number of sites have now been examined, in the Supe (Chu 2008; Shady 2006), Pativilca, and Fortaleza valleys (Creamer et al 2007, 2013; Piscitelli 2014; Vega-Centeno 2007, 2010), and indicate that the mounds and courts follow general patterns of composition and layout. All of the monumental sites in the region have at least one platform mound, and most have between two and five mounds. These mounds range from 10,000 to 200,000 cu m; most are under 100,000 cu m. The circular courts range from 22 to 45 m in diameter. Most of these are “sunken” in the sense that they are excavated from 1 to 3 m below the original ground surface. The layout of sites with more than a single mound tends to be a large “U” encompassing a broad open area. This pattern is repeated at sites across the region in a regular pattern (Rutherford 2008). Both the platform mounds and the circular courts appear to be part of a Norte Chico tradition that serves as a foundation for subsequent mound and court traditions extending forward for millennia in the Andes (Moseley 2001) (Figure 5.6).

154 · Winifred Creamer and Jonathan Haas

Figure 5.6. Schematic of pyramid and circular court indicating different levels of access (provided by the authors).

Social differentiation also implies ideological power, and such a pattern can be reconstructed from excavations at Caral (Shady and Leyva 2003) and Bandurria (Chu 2008), as well as from mapping (Vega-Centeno et al. 1998; Williams 1985) and test excavations (Creamer et al. 2007, 2011) in the region. Mound features correspond to the system described by Pozorski for Caballo Muerto (1982). He described an open performance/viewing space at the lowest level—the sunken circular court—that was visible to all with unrestricted access. A staircase rose up the pyramid to an atrium that provided a space for ritual involving a smaller number of participants, presumably of higher status. From the atrium, sets of stairs led off to several small enclosed rooms at the top of the structure that accommodated an even smaller number of individuals, presumably the ruling elite. That the upper rooms were spaces for elite activities is shown by finds of distinctive artifacts such as clay figurines, musical instruments, and whale vertebrae seats (Feldman 1980; Shady 2006a). The growth in size and complexity of pyramids paralleled development of status differences in society, mediated and reinforced through architecture and artifacts. This pattern of open presentation of some ritual activities, followed by restricted access to others, is another manifestation of an ideological base of power. The competition among large sites for participants that is suggested by

Changing Complexity in the Norte Chico, 3000–1800 cal BCE · 155

site spacing could suggest that the Norte Chico polities reached a point where they tried to extend their bases of power outside the immediate area. Within the region, competition for participants was limited by total population (Roscoe 1993). The distance between sites was such that households probably could choose between two or more centers to participate in ritual and exchange without great differences in transportation costs. Mound centers may have competed through the timing of events, the range of activities offered, facilities for obtaining food and water during visits, and the perceived stature of individual leaders. Expanding influence beyond the borders of the Norte Chico region and its broad coastal plain, which merges at the mouths of the rivers, may have been a goal of local leaders toward the latter half of the Late Archaic. However, it would have faced structural barriers to expansion because of the time and distance required for them to participate in group events (Roscoe 1993). North of the Fortaleza Valley is a stretch of coastline without water until the Huarmey River. Although travel from the site of Bermejo to Huaricanga in the Fortaleza Valley may have taken place, localities further north along the coast were at least a two-day walk from any monumental center in the Fortaleza Valley. Similarly, to the south of the Huaura Valley is another Rio Seco, where the same barriers to participation in activities at Bandurria or Caral would have existed. Lacking evidence of physical coercion, ideological coercion does not seem to have been effective at overcoming distance. One mound center was established in Rio Seco (Wendt 1964), but others are not known until the Initial Period when coercive power in the form of large-scale warfare and militarism developed in the Casma Valley and elsewhere. Conclusions

The people of the Norte Chico were borrowers rather than inventors of the material culture and practices of daily life that they employed. The irrigation technology needed to bring dry-valley lands into cultivation had already developed elsewhere (Dillehay et al. 2005) before being put to use in the Norte Chico. Likewise an array of edible plants was brought under human control in other parts of the Andean region before being brought together in this small cluster of coastal valleys (Dillehay et al. 2007; Pearsall 1992; Piperno 2011). In contrast, a new kind of social organization was independently developed in the Norte Chico in the Late Archaic. Coordination and control of

156 · Winifred Creamer and Jonathan Haas

water management—and therefore production of cotton, maize, and other plant resources—ultimately appears to have provided an inland powerholding elite with the critical edge in the means for exercising power over respondent populations. The economic power exerted by control over crucial products such as cotton or fish, and desirable products such as maize, was reinforced by a ritual that involved participation in periodic labor contributions, but also feasting and socializing, as indicated by the numerous temporary campsites and widespread shallow midden deposits. Competition would have been a key variable in this system, as sites were comprised of the same architectural elements, and individuals would therefore choose whether and where to participate based upon perceived benefits, both economic and ideological. Large centers proliferated between 2400 and 2200 cal. BC, possibly due to the absence of not only a physical coercive power that might have tried to control people’s choice of exchange or ritual location, but also of the strength of ideological coercive power that might have attempted to draw people to centers based on their perception of duty, reward, and other intangibles. There are three large Late Archaic coastal communities recorded in the Norte Chico region to date: Aspero, Bermejo, and Bandurria. No doubt they competed with inland sites in the interregional network of interaction, competition, exchange, and ritual, but there were at least 10 inland sites for each coastal site. Complementing the apparent disparity between the maritime sites providing fish resources and the inland sites providing cotton and comestibles is the issue of the other maritime sites up and down the Peruvian coast. If we look at sites such as Huaca Prieta in the Chicama Valley, or Ancón on the central coast, we see that they have cotton for nets, as well as domesticated beans, tubers, and other plant foods. Some inland centers have been identified in valleys both to the north and south (Benfer 2012; Engel 1963; Quilter 1985, 1991; Patterson 1973), but not in similar density to the Norte Chico. It is possible that early inland sites have been covered by subsequent structures, but very little evidence of these earlier occupations has yet emerged. Thus it is possible that the web of coast-inland relationships that developed in the Norte Chico extended beyond the borders of the region and stimulated similar relationships where they did not already exist, or spurred expansion of smaller systems. This could occur through indirect involvement via down-the-line exchange, or the occasional longdistance traveler, since there is no evidence of conquest or political relationships beyond the region. A widespread Late Preceramic interaction sphere fits Willey’s (1948) scheme of Andean horizons. Is it possible that

Changing Complexity in the Norte Chico, 3000–1800 cal BCE · 157

a Preceramic horizon, not stylistic but political/ideological and economic, linked together the entire coast and preceded the Initial Period when distinctive regional polities such as Casma became dominant? Acknowledgments

The comments of Matt Piscitelli, Gabriel Prieto, and Dan Sandweiss helped us improve the text. We appreciate support from the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation (Grants OISE-0701243, BCS0542160, BCS-0542088, BCS-0211014, and BCS-0211020), Northern Illinois University (NIU), the NIU Center for Latino and Latin American Studies, The Field Museum, and many friends of the Proyecto Arqueológico Norte Chico. Notes 1. In the Norte Chico and at El Paraiso, Solanum is only identified to the genus level. This genus includes both the potato (Solanum tuberosum) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). 2. Silva reports Initial Period dates from the extensive shell mound at Bermejo. Reexamination of the site surface in 2006 revealed exposed deposits lacking ceramics, as well as a large complex of platform mounds and sunken circular courts not previously recorded.

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Lima-Ancash, Perú. Informe final 2007. Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Lima, Peru. Piperno, D. R. 2011 The Origins of Plant Cultivation and Domestication in the New World Tropics: Patterns, Process, and New Developments. In The Beginnings of Agriculture: New Data, New Ideas, edited by Douglas Price and Ofer Bar-Yosef. Special Issue of Current Anthropology 52: 453–470. Piperno, Dolores, and Deborah Pearsall 1998 The Origins of Agriculture in the Lowland Neotropics. Academic Press, San Diego, CA. Piscitelli, Matthew 2014 Ritual is Power: Late Archaic Small-Scale Ceremonial Architecture in the Central Andes. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Chicago. Pozorski, Shelia, and Thomas Pozorski 1990 Re-examining the Critical Preceramic/Ceramic Period Transition: New Data from Coastal Peru. American Anthropologist 92: 481–491. Pozorski, Thomas 1982 Early Social Stratification and Subsistence Systems: The Caballo Muerto Complex. In Chan Chan: Andean Desert City, edited by Michael E. Moseley and Kent C. Day, pp. 225–253. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. Quilter, Jeffrey 1985 Architecture and Chronology at El Paraiso. Journal of Field Archaeology 12: 279– 297. 1991 Late Preceramic Peru. Journal of World Prehistory 5: 387–438. Quilter, Jeffrey, Bernardino Ojeda E., Deborah Pearsall, Daniel H. Sandweiss, John G. Jones, and Elizabeth S. Wing 1991 Subsistence Economy of El Paraíso, an Early Peruvian Site. Science 251: 277–283. Raynor, G. S., E. C. Ogden, and J. V. Hayes 1972 Dispersion and Deposition of Corn Pollen from Experimental Sources. Agronomy Journal 46: 420–427. Renfrew, Colin 1975 Trade as Action at a Distance: Questions of Integration and Communication. In Ancient Civilization and Trade, edited by C. Renfrew, pp. 243–270. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. 1986 Introduction: Peer Polity Interaction and Sociopolitical Change. In Peer Polity Interaction and Sociopolitical Change, edited by C. Renfrew and J. Cherry, pp. 1–18. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Roscoe, Paul 1993 Practice and Political Centralization: A New Approach to Political Evolution. Current Anthropology 34: 111–140. 2008 Catastrophe and the Emergence of Political Complexity: Some Models from Social Anthropology. In Climate and Catastrophe, edited by Jeffrey Quilter and Daniel H. Sandweiss, pp. 77–100. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.

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Rutherford, Allen 2008 Space and Landscape in the Norte Chico Region, Peru: An Analysis of SocioPolitical Organization through Monumental Architecture. Unpublished M.A. thesis, Anthropology Department, Northern Illinois University, De Kalb. Sandweiss, D. H. 1996 The Development of Fishing Specialization on the Central Andean Coast. In Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Fishing Strategies, edited by Mark Plew, pp. 41–63. Boise State University, Boise, ID. Shady, Ruth 1999 El Sustento Económico del Surgimiento de la Civilización en el Perú. Boletín del Museo de Arqueología y Antropología 2: 2–4. 2004 Caral: The City of the Sacred Fire / La Ciudad del Fuego Sagrado. Interbank, Centura SAB, Lima, Peru. 2006a America’s First City? The Case of Late Archaic Caral. In Andean Archaeology III: North and South, edited by William Isabell and Helaine Silverman, pp. 28–66. Springer, New York. 2006b Caral-Supe and the North Central Area of Peru: The History of Maize in the Land Where Civilization Came into Being. In Histories of Maize: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Prehistory, Linguistics, Biogeography, Domestication and Evolution of Maize, edited by John Staller, Robert Tykot, and Bruce Benz, pp. 381–402. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, CA. Shady, Ruth, Jonathan Haas, and Winifred Creamer 2001 Dating Caral, a Preceramic Site in the Supe Valley on the Central Coast of Peru. Science 292: 723–726. Shady, Ruth, and Carlos Leyva 2003 La Ciudad Sagrada de Caral-Supe: Los origins de la civilización andina y la formación del Estado pristino en el antiguo Perú. Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Lima. Silva, Jorge 1978 Acercamiento al estudio histórico de Bermejo. In Actas y Trabajos del III Congreso Peruano del Hombre y la Cultura Andina, edited by Ramiro Matos, pp. 310–324. Editorial Lasontay, Lima. Staller, John 2003 An Examination of the Paleobotanical and Chronological Evidence for an Early Introduction of Maize (Zea mays) into South America: A Response to Pearsall. Journal of Archaeological Science 30: 373–380. Staller, John, and Robert Thompson 2002 A Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Initial Introduction of Maize into Coastal Ecuador. Journal of Archaeological Science, 29: 33–50. Topic, John R. 1989 The Ostra Site: The Earliest Fortified Site in the New World? In Cultures in Conflict: Current Archaeological Perspectives: Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Conference of the Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary, edited by Diana Claire Tkaczuk and Brian C. Vivian, pp. 215–228, Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta.

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Vega Centeno, R. 2007 Construction, Labor Organization, and Feasting during the Late Archaic Period in the Central Andes. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 26(2): 150–171. 2010 Cerro Lampay: Architectural Design and Human Interaction in the North Central Coast of Perú. Latin American Antiquity 21(2): 115–145. Vega-Centeno, Rafael, Felipe Villacorta, Luis Cáceres, and Giancarlo Marcone 1998 Arquitectura monumental temprana en el valle medio de Fortaleza. In Perspectivas regionales del Período Formativo en el Perú, edited by Paul Kaulicke, pp. 219–238. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP 2. Fondo Editorial de la PUCP, Lima. Wendt, W. E. 1964 Die Prekeramische Siedlung am Rio Seco, Peru. Baessler-Archiv, Neue Folge 11: 225–275. Willey, Gordon 1948 A Functional Analysis of “Horizon Styles” in Peruvian Archaeology, In A Reappraisal of Peruvian Archaeology, edited by Wendell C. Bennett, Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology 4, Menasha, WI. Willey, Gordon, and John M. Corbett 1954 Early Ancon and Early Supe Culture: Chavin Horizon Sites of the Central Peruvian Coast. Columbia University Press, New York. Williams, Leon C. 1985 A Scheme for the Early Monumental Architecture of the Central Coast of Peru. In Early Ceremonial Architecture in the Andes, edited by Christopher B. Donnan, pp. 227–240. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC. Zechenter, Elzbieta 1988 Subsistence Strategies in the Supe Valley of the Peruvian Central Coast during the Complex Preceramic and Initial Periods. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.

6 Maritime Communities and Coastal Andean Urbanization Preliminary Insights from Early Horizon Samanco, Nepeña Valley, North-Central Peru Matthew Helmer

The coastal Andes saw the development of a series of civilizations, or complex societies, spanning back more than four millennia. Despite harsh desert conditions, these societies flourished thanks to a rich sea biomass and one of the most diverse arrays of cultigens known to the ancient world. Archaeologists studying the emergence of complex societies have traditionally overlooked maritime adaptations in favor of agrarian modes of subsistence. In the central Andes, the agriculture-centric situation was challenged some 40 years ago (Moseley 1975). Since then scholars have debated the relative importance of maritime economies in the rise of social complexity in coastal Peru (for example, Feldman 1983; Quilter 1992; Raymond 1981; Wilson 1981). Studies of maritime adaptations have emphasized the emergence of early monumental architecture during the Late Preceramic. Meanwhile, less is known about succeeding maritime groups, especially those who developed during the Early Horizon. In this chapter, I address the character of Early Horizon coastal society through recent fieldwork at the settlement of Samanco in the Nepeña River Valley of coastal Ancash, north-central Peru. The Early Horizon is a time period generally ascribed to the Chavín religious phenomenon which swept across modern-day Peru as the first panregional Andean ideology (Tello 1943, 1960). Recent research at Chavín has resulted in considerable debate over the time period and nature of Chavín influence, centered at the religious temple Chavín de Huántar (Burger 1992, 2008; Burger and Matos Mendieta 2002; Conklin and Quilter 2008; Kembel 2001; Rick 2014; Rick et al. 2010). The strikingly different layout of

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stone enclosure sites throughout the north and north-central coast, such as Samanco, suggest disconnection with Chavín and previous Cupisniquerelated coastal temples (Chicoine 2006). Rather than focusing on the frequently discussed religious aspects of Early Horizon societies, I turn here to less-researched Early Horizon daily life. In my earlier research, I have directed, alongside Jeisen Navarro-Vega, a project at a large archaeological complex known as Samanco on the coast of the Nepeña River Valley in north-central Peru. Results of two field seasons indicate an expansive, probably urban site, dedicated to daily activities as opposed to Chavín-like religious events. Samanco appears tied to a local tradition of densely packed enclosure compounds interacting with one another throughout the Nepeña Valley and possibly between neighboring valley oases. Samanco likely controlled and exploited most of Nepeña’s rich marine and delta resources for sustaining large residential populations. These goods were also exported, probably via camelid caravans, to inland sites where animal protein was scarcer. I present evidence for Samanco’s proto-urban nature of life and contrast this with earlier temples dedicated to religious pilgrimage. It would appear that new forms of leadership developed in association with multifamily compounds as opposed to religious canonists. Maritime industry appears to have played a key factor in the urbanization of Nepeña, a situation likely mirrored throughout the coastal Early Horizon enclosure tradition. Research Background

Samanco’s maritime environment played a crucial role in shaping the industrial nature of the site. The modern town of Samanco is an artisan fishing town which is one of the wealthiest communities of Nepeña, despite its small size. The modern town of Chimbote, located some 20 km north of Samanco, is the largest seafood producer of the Peruvian coast. Here, fishing provides an economic backbone for a population of over a quarter million people. As stated earlier, the extent to which marine-centric diets contributed to Andean social complexity has been intensely debated. I argue that the rich sea biomass obviously created an exceptional scenario to Andean sociopolitical development that cannot be ignored, just as the role of agriculture and animal husbandry cannot be ignored in creating an abundant foodscape for ancient Andeans to exploit. Analyses of the relative importance of marine resources to Early Horizon societies such as Samanco have not been as discussed. Some 2,000 years after the first appearance of large

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Figure 6.1. Map of Nepeña Valley, coastal Ancash, Peru (credit: David Chicoine).

monuments and evidence of early social complexity, Samanco continued to rely on rich marine resources as well as more intensive agriculture and even sophisticated animal husbandry. I provide preliminary evidence for the complementary nature of each food production realm from Samanco excavation. Nepeña is a relatively small river valley located between the much larger Santa and Casma valleys to the north and south. Despite its small size, Nepeña was host to numerous important sites (Figure 6.1). To date, over 300 sites have been recorded in a roughly 300 sq km area between the Pacific Ocean and the base of the steep Cordillera Negra slopes where Nepeña divides into different montane tributaries (Daggett 1984; Proulx 1968, 1973, 1985). Nepeña is well known for its iconic Formative temples, including early sites like Cerro Blanco and Punkuri and its Moche temple, Pañamarca. Samanco was occupied between these two periods during the lesser known Salinar phenomenon (Ikehara and Chicoine 2011; Larco-Hoyle 1944). Recent work at Nepeña’s Formative temples, Cerro Blanco and Huaca Partida, indicates an abandonment phase between 800 and 500 BCE

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(Shibata 2010, 2011). This corresponds with the florescence of sites with radically different layouts and functions, including Samanco. Nepeña’s early temples emphasized large platform mounds fronted by smaller lateral mounds resembling a U-shape. These temples were decorated with rich polychrome murals of fanged supernaturals tied to Chavín and Cupisnique styles (Tello 1943; Tello et al. 2006; Shibata 2010, 2011). At these temples, there is no evidence for permanent housing structures or intense occupation, rather a superposition of temple buildings clean of refuse. There is evidence for episodic feasts and public ceremonies at Nepeña’s temples (Ikehara and Shibata 2008). During the abandonment phase of these temples (Shibata’s Nepeña Phase), sites like Samanco were being built to radically different standards. These sites put less emphasis on monumental construction and instead built expansive stone and mortar multiroom enclosures around central patios or plazas. A diagnostic feature of the rooms is interior colonnades reminiscent of Cupisnique, usually finely plastered with white paint. Structures are organized in what I refer to as distinct enclosure compounds. I believe these enclosure compounds foreshadow and influence the eventual development of later sprawling urban centers like Chan Chan, the capital of the Chimú Empire. In fact, they bear such uncanny resemblance that Early Horizon enclosure compounds have often been mistaken for later period sites (Daggett 1984; Proulx 1973; Warner 2010). Similar sites have been documented in the valleys of the surrounding area, including the Casma (Collier 1960; Ghezzi 2000, 2006; Pozorski and Pozorski 1987), Santa (Wilson 1988), Virú (Collier 1955; Strong and Evans 1952; Willey 1953), and Moche (Billman 1996; Brennan 1978, 1980, 1982). Recently, most research on Early Horizon coastal enclosure compounds has taken place in Nepeña. Richard Daggett (1984, 1987, 1999) was the first to ascribe Nepeña’s enclosure compound sites to the Early Horizon. David Chicoine was the first to systematically investigate them, with projects at archaeological complexes Huambacho and Caylán which frame the Samanco research. Huambacho is dominated by two large plazas surrounded by multiroom enclosures, and is interpreted as an elite residential center utilized for administration and public events (Chicoine 2006, 2011). Chicoine and Rojas (2012) also recorded significant marine aspects at Huambacho, namely shellfish. Caylán is much bigger and spans over 50 ha into a dozen compounds further surrounded by low-status perishable dwellings (Chicoine and Ikehara 2008). Each of Caylán’s compounds has a plaza nucleus exclusively accessed by zigzagging corridors. The site shows evidence of central planning through

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several crosscutting avenues dictating access throughout the various compounds. Dense domestic refuse suggests a large, permanent population. The site has been interpreted as the center of a polity-like network, including Samanco. Despite Caylán’s location 15 km from the coast, nearly 250 kg of shell refuse has been recovered in addition to thousands of fish bones found through coprolites and soil sampling (Chicoine and Rojas 2013). This immediately hinted at the importance of seafood to Caylán’s large populace and outlined the need to better understand the relationship of the sea to Nepeña’s Early Horizon proto-urban polity network. The Samanco Archaeological Project

Samanco is the second-largest Early Horizon enclosure site in Nepeña and is located closest to the coast, just 2 km from the rich Samanco Bay. Today the area is one of Peru’s few surviving artisan fishing towns with a few thousand residents. The Samanco archaeological complex spans 36 ha, with a 20 ha dense architectural core (Figure 6.2). The site is located on the northern Nepeña margin between marshes and hillside slopes overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Six distinct compound sectors are interpreted, which are separated by terraces, high walls, or topography (Table 6.1). Compounds are composed of mostly agglutinated stone and mortar interspersed with cane and mud brick architecture. Fieldwork spanned 16 weeks over two years and totaled approximately 400 sq m of excavation. In 2012, we systematically mapped all standing architecture and surrounding topography. Our excavations sampled each Table 6.1. Principal Samanco structures with size data Area

Visible Rooms

Patio Groups

Compound 1

Structure

East Samanco

Location

21,000 sq m

30+

10

Compound 2

East Samanco

3,000 sq m

15+

Plaza Mayor

East Samanco

1,600 sq m

2

Compound 3

Central Samanco

35,000 sq m

30+

12

Corral

Central Samanco

1,500 sq m

10

N/A

Compound 4

Central Samanco

3,250 sq m

10+

N/A

Compound 5

West Samanco

7,500 sq m

30+

N/A

Compound 6

West Samanco

6,750 sq m

30+

8

Compiled by author. N/A Not available.

4 N/A

Figure 6.2. General map of Samanco’s standing architecture, topography, and features (credit: Matthew Helmer and Jeisen Navarro).

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of the six compound sectors to investigate contemporaneity and basic comparative analysis with a minimal 2 × 2 m test pit, and area excavation in the site’s monumental plaza (Plaza Mayor). Detailed information on the 2012 field season can be found elsewhere (Helmer and Chicoine 2015). The 2013 field season focused on systematically excavating two of the six compound sectors (Compounds 2 and 3) with over 100 sq m of excavations in each. Excavation results indicate multiple Early Horizon renovations of all compound sectors associated with dense materials, suggesting a long, permanent occupation contingent with urbanization. Spatial Layout

Samanco’s enclosure compounds are quadrilateral, multiroom structures agglutinated around a series of patios (Table 6.1). Eastern Samanco pertains to Compounds 1 and 2, which are surrounded by marshlands, hillsides, and a large defensive wall. Primary features in this area include a large terraced platform separating the compounds by 25 m of altitude, with a 100 m causeway leading to the summit. Samanco’s largest monumental feature, the Plaza Mayor, is located on top of the summit, connected to Compound 2. The Plaza Mayor is organized as a sort of amphitheater measuring 53 × 50 m, with encircling platform benches lining two open spaces. We found four phases of renovations leading up to the Plaza Mayor, which was built on top of previous colonnaded patios extending down over 3 m. Central Samanco is separated from East Samanco by an area of about 100 m that is void of dense architecture, and it is the largest area of the site. Central Samanco comprises the massive Compound 3 in addition to a monumental camelid corral, and is mostly located on the upper terraces of Samanco, with terraced, stone-lined gardens lining the southern extent near to the marshlands. Western Samanco pertains to the remainder of Samanco lining the western hillsides. Compounds 4 and 5 are poorly preserved, but appear to be closely related, except that Compound 4 is built primarily of mud brick and cane rather than stone and mortar. Compound 6, located on the far western site extent, is much better preserved and nearly identical to the other compound sectors from east and central Samanco. To the north of Compounds 5 and 6, a 5.5 ha refuse dump lies between compound structures and the hillsides laden with middens extending over 1.5 m deep. South of Compound 6, remnants of a defensive wall are visible, which may have

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extended nearly a kilometer toward other preserved wall portions around Compound 1. Excavations

Excavations were conducted in natural layers, and all materials were collected through 3 mm mesh screens, with certain features fine-screened through soil sampling. Test pits from each sector focused on diachronic data through vertical excavation down to sterile subsoil. Excavations inside the Plaza Mayor and Compounds 2 and 3 focused on horizontal units to expose large areas of architecture and activity areas with sections taken down to sterile. Samanco’s stratigraphy generally comprises a surface layer of windblown sand mixed with wall collapse above an abandonment-level floor. Below abandonment floors, dense layers of secondary refuse are located between variable sequences of previous floors and leveled architecture. In many cases, internal layouts are kept in place by reuse of walls, including reshaping columns into new walls and sealing previous entrances. In general, a minimum two-phase sequence of Early Horizon occupation was documented throughout Samanco’s six sectors: An early phase composed of colonnaded architecture which was later leveled and raised, with blocked entrances, raised walls, and pole and thatch architecture. Here, I focus on excavations from interior sections of Compounds 2 and 3. Compound 2

Investigations into Compound 2 began with an 11 × 3 m trench (UE-1) placed on the northwest perimeter wall of the Plaza Mayor (Figure 6.3). The Plaza Mayor was built during the last phase of occupation, on top of earlier colonnaded patios and associated rooms. In total, five phases of renovations were documented over 3 m deep leading up to the Plaza Mayor, one of the deepest occupations on-site. Inside the plaza, dense camelid dung and hundreds of corn cobs and kernels (Zea mays) provide hints into how the plaza was used. Throughout the plaza construction fill, numerous ceramic panpipe fragments, decorated textiles, bottle fragments, and large fragments of tinaja beer fermentation jars further suggest public use. Near to the sterile layer beneath the plaza, a child burial was located, a possible dedicatory offering associated with 10 large (Argopecten sp.) shells. The pattern of burials in construction-fill renovations would permeate throughout Compounds 2 and 3.

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Figure 6.3. East Samanco; excavated areas are shaded (credit: Matthew Helmer).

Behind the Plaza Mayor, we excavated over 100 sq m (UE-7) around a 300 sq m patio and surrounding rooms associated with the northeast patio groups of Compound 2 (Figure 6.3). Here, we discovered convincing evidence of intense domestic use of the enclosure compounds. The patio was accessed via long zigzagging corridors leading to 1 m wide entrances. To the south, the patio terraces down into a larger, more open patio space. To the east, trash refuse was dumped into a ravine directly outside the compound. A low platform extends across the western end of the patio where we uncovered evidence of a kitchen area. In total, five stone-lined hearths were found in this area, some of which were packed with as much as half a meter of charcoal, totaling 5 kg of carbon debris. Food features surrounded the hearths, including butchered animal bones, shell deposits, scattered plant refuse, and fish bones. Most of the ceramics in this area were domestic neckless jars showing evidence of cooking residue. Scattered camelid dung

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atop the patio floor indicates their continued presence in daily as well as public activities. Two small ramps provided access from the kitchen platform down to the patio, which was cleaner of refuse. During the final phase of patio use, one of these access ramps was sealed and two burials were placed on either side of the entrance, an elderly woman and a child. Other offering-type features in the fill included a gourd filled with potato leaves (Solanacium tuberosum), and a small juvenile dog (Canis familiaris) burial. In total, three renovation phases were documented in the patio with successive colonnaded patios built on top of one another. Just like the Plaza Mayor, during the final phase of patio use, columns were leveled. In this case, wood and thatch architecture were used in place of columns associated with the kitchen. Compound 3

In the center of Samanco (Figure 6.4), the uppermost patio groups (Figure 6.5) of Compound 3’s 8,000 sq m nucleus structure were excavated (UE-2, UE-3). Compound 3’s nucleus consists of patio groups gradually terracing up 25 m. It is lined on either side by steep, 5 m drainages making the area one of the most exclusive on-site. Patterns were remarkably similar to Compound 2, with smaller food preparation/dormitory areas lining a medium-sized patio leading down to a larger, more ornate patio space. In one 3 × 3 m back room, a possible dormitory area was located with semicircular cane pole remnants built atop leveled columns. Inside this small space we found food features including a concentration of 40 gastropod shells (Thais chocolata) next to a butchered pelican wing (Pelecanus thagus), numerous plants, and ashy concentrations. In the fill beneath this room we located a burial of a young male who showed signs of perimortem and postmortem trauma. To the north of the smaller room is a slightly larger colonnaded back room where we uncovered more hearth features and massive shell deposits. Here we also located a wooden paddle possibly used in ceramic production. In two other back rooms, we located burials of two infants, an adult male, and a subadult in the construction fill of the final renovation. In the open patio area, floors were cleaner of refuse, with similar dense construction-fill patterns. On the floor in the open patio, we found remnants of a fine red Patazca-style bottle and a complete sardine (Sardinops sajax) skeleton. This suggests a consumption/serving context for open patio areas, probably produced and supplied in back rooms. Throughout

Left: Figure 6.4. Central Samanco; excavated areas are shaded (credit: Matthew Helmer). Below: Figure 6.5. Isometric reconstruction of the excavated Compound 3 patio group at Samanco (credit: Matthew Helmer).

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Compound 3 we found a two-phase renovation sequence: a primary phase utilizing finely plastered, white-painted columns, followed by a second phase where the columns were leveled and raised, creating modified spaces using pole and thatch architecture. This renovation phase may have occurred at the same time as Compound 2 renovations as they show identical patterns, and may highlight central planning. On the western edge of Compound 3, we located and excavated a monumental corral measuring 1,500 sq m. The corral has 10 large symmetrical rooms with remnants of wooden gates. It was constructed with large boulders analogous to the Plaza Mayor, with high walls. The northwestern corner of the corral was excavated between a central open room and back room (UE-4). Beneath wall collapse, we located a layer of caked camelid dung and hair totaling 22 kg, interspersed with Early Horizon ceramics, shells, and botanics, including large amounts of maize and beans (Phaseolus sp.). The structure is interpreted as a corral primarily used to house camelids. Based on the quantity and depth of the deposits, it is likely that large numbers of camelids were corralled for long periods of time. The corral appears to have been built during a single phase of construction in an area already utilized for pastoral activities. South of Compound 3, convincing evidence exists for on-site cultivation. Here, we located possible stone-lined terrace gardens that extend beneath Compound 3 and down toward the western hillsides of Compound 6. In one test excavation from the terraced garden area, hundreds of stalk and shuck maize fragments and over 30 roots were found cut and leveled, interspersed with camelid dung packed with maize refuse. Data from the stone-lined terraced gardens emphasize the need to consider all food realms associated with Early Horizon maritime diets. Finally, fascinating site reuse was documented in the area around Compound 3. In the open Early Horizon midden that lines the northern hillsides outside of Samanco’s architectural core, our team documented an elite Chimú-Inka burial (UE-5). The burial consisted of a subterranean multichamber adobe structure over 4 m beneath a destroyed adobe platform. Space does not permit a detailed presentation of the tomb discovery, but it should be mentioned that the site enjoyed dynamic reuse long after abandonment. While there is no evidence for subsequent Gallinazo-Moche occupation, Samanco’s patios and open areas were used as Middle Horizon cemeteries for Casma culture commoners. Later, the Chimú-Inka tomb discovery suggests a shift toward elite cemetery use in certain areas. There is no evidence for any post–Early Horizon habitation. Rather, preliminary

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evidence would suggest an intriguing form of ancestor veneration associated with site ruins. Summary and Material Remains

To sum up the excavations, our data indicate a complex, multicomponent site centered mainly on domestic life. With regard to materials, over 25,000 ceramic sherds have been recovered that date to the Early Horizon. The most common vessel is the neckless jar, comprising nearly 70 percent of the entire rim assemblage. Decorated ceramics accounted for less than 1 percent of the total ceramic assemblage, further emphasizing the utilitarian nature of the site. The most common decorated styles include geometric White-on-Red designs, Stamped Circle and Dot designs, and Textile Impressed designs. Most decorations occur in distinct incised zones. The most common fine vessels at Samanco are decorated stirrup spout bottles and carinated bowls. No ceramics displaying fanged designs were recovered, reinforcing disconnection with earlier Andean ideologies. Rather, the vast majority of materials show both local production and consumption. Tinaja jars with flaring rims are distinctive to Samanco’s occupation phase (Shibata 2011: fig. 14) and appear for the first time in the region. Thirty tinaja rims were recovered from our excavations. These were likely used for maize fermentation and underscore the importance of maize production on-site. Another key diagnostic to the Early Horizon seen at Samanco is ceramic panpipes (Proulx 1985: 205). We recovered over a thousand fragments comprising over 500 individual tubes. These are made with a dark red polished slip. Food remains were the most frequent artifact recovered in our excavations. The most common of these is shell remains, which survive well in the archaeological record. In total, we recovered 467 k of complete shells accounting for over 100,000 MNI. Mollusks were mainly harvested from rocky and sandy outcrops surrounding Samanco Bay. Combined, Semimytilus algosus and Perumytilus purpuratus rock-dwelling mollusks account for almost 80 percent of the total shell assemblage. More meaty varieties included sand-dwelling clams (Mesodesma donacium, MNI 2,647) and gastropods (Thais chocolata, MNI 623). Samanco’s populace also had the technology to dive for sublittoral dwelling mollusks like large scallops (Argopecten sp.) with 212 MNI identified. Colorful Argopecten scallops were also shaped into body adornments. Ornamental shellfish include mainly small gastropods (Prunum curtum) worked into beads, perhaps due to

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their resemblance to the symbolically important pututo conch (Strombus galeatus). Finally, Mesodesma clams were sometimes found painted with red cinnabar, possibly associated with maritime ritual activity documented both in Nepeña (Chicoine and Rojas 2012, 2013) and elsewhere (Prieto 2013). Interestingly, shellfish may have contributed more to Early Horizon coastal urban diets than later Moche groups, evidenced by a comparatively low shellfish prevalence at their capital, Huacas de Moche (Rosello et al. 2001). Analysis of fish remains is still ongoing, but thousands of fish bones were recovered. The most common fish at Samanco were sardines (Sardinops sajax), backbones of the ancient Andean fish diet. Most of the fish recovered are nearshore species, which appear to be pragmatically rather than selectively harvested, represented by the large array of approximately 30 species identified. The predominance of sardines over anchoveta (Engraulis ringens) may suggest shifting climatic conditions and high frequency ENSO during the Early Horizon, as Sandweiss et al. (2004) have demonstrated through ratios of anchovetas to sardines in Inka and modern historical cases. Mass harvesting of smaller fish such as sardines contrasts with earlier fishing villages such as Pampa Gramalote (Prieto 2013: 95), which relied more heavily on the exploitation of larger species such as shark (Carcharhinus sp.). Such differences may lend further weight to mass fish production for trade at Samanco, rather than selective local consumption, although further analysis is needed. High densities of island-dwelling bird remains were recovered and likely played a significant part in the ancient Samanqueño diet. These include pelicans (Pelecanus thagus), penguins (Spheniscus humboldti), petrels (Pelecanoides garnotii), cormorants (Phalacrocrorax bougainvillii, Phalacrocrorax olivaceous), and seagulls (Larus pipixcan, Larus belcheri), among others. Samanqueños also exploited surrounding marshlands where continental birds such as doves (Columbina cruziana) were hunted and trapped. Other animals recovered at Samanco include sea lions, guinea pigs, canines, deer, and camelids. The high density of canine remains recovered (369 NISP [number of identified specimens], 45 MNI) indicates these animals may have provided more of a meat diet to ancient Andeans than what is traditionally emphasized. They probably were also important to social and ritual life evidenced by the dog burial in Compound 2. Along the same lines, the importance of camelids (92 NISP, 40 MNI) cannot be understated. Camelid bones recovered include juvenile remains and inedible animal portions, which detract from the idea that these animals only came

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down temporarily from the mountains. Combined with the evidence from the corral, it is clear that herding developed early in coastal Andean prehistory. Many of the camelid remains show cutmarks indicating their use as a food source. I would argue that camelids played a large role in transporting goods to and from Samanco. The high density of large animal domesticates may have alleviated the need to hunt game animals, reflected in the dearth of sea lions (7 NISP, 6 MNI) and deer (3 NISP, 2 MNI) remains. With regard to plant remains, 56 plant species have been identified. The majority of remains pertain to corn (Zea mays), sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), beans (Phaseolus sp.), cotton (Gossypium barbadense), gourds (Lagenaria siceraria), squashes (Cucurbita sp.), and chili peppers (Capsicum sp.). Maize dominates the assemblage with nearly a third of the total 36,000 NISP. Corn’s florescence during the Early Horizon has been argued to have changed the entire social landscape through its use as a fermented beverage (Chicoine 2011; Pozorski and Pozorski 1987). It probably replaced manioc as the central crop in the area, based on data from nearby Casma (Pozorski and Pozorski 1987). Preliminary analysis has revealed at least eight different varieties of maize. We hope to eventually be able to piece together a chronology of types, as larger varieties seem to appear in later sequences. Thousands of bean and sweet potato elements recovered also indicate their importance to Samanco’s subsistence. A massive deposit of mixed corn, beans, and sweet potatoes located in the Compound 2 fill beneath the kitchen contained bushels of bean stalks and branches with hundreds of pods left on the branch. It would appear that they were harvested very nearby and brought to the compound for processing, much like the evidence mentioned earlier for corn cultivation. Gourds make up a sizable percentage of our plant assemblage. These were commonly used as serving vessels probably for drink, and as fishing floats. Two of the burials were placed with gourds possibly containing liquids. One of our most richly decorated artifacts is a pyro-engraved gourd with interlocking images of a serpent. The last bit of material remains I would like to discuss is evidence for weaving. Twenty-two spindle whorls were recovered in addition to wooden spinning rods and hundreds of textile fragments. The spindle whorls were recovered from across Samanco, indicating widespread weaving rather than specialized workshops. Some of the spindle whorls were richly decorated, underscoring the importance of weaving to the community. Geometric designs were made in zoned incisions, some of which showed residue from a red substance, probably cinnabar. The density of cotton on-site (2,191 NISP)

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further suggests local textile production. Samanco’s textiles are beige with diverse weave patterns. Decorated textiles are indigo blue or vermilion red, and decorations are usually in geometric zones similar to ceramic designs. Other decorations were created through embroidery or alternate weave patterning. Most of the decorated textiles recovered came from the Plaza Mayor fill, perhaps indicating finer textile production and usage closer to public or ornate spaces. Discussion

I would like to conclude by outlining some preliminary ideas on contextualizing the rich domestic data recovered from Samanco in terms of daily practice. In some of my previous work, I focused on performance and public life at one of neighboring Caylán’s monumental plazas inside an enclosure compound. While I found significant data on extraordinary public events (Helmer and Chicoine 2013; Helmer et al. 2012), much of the materials recovered suggested plaza use in daily life as well. I began to think about the lines drawn in terms of what constitutes performance, given the similarity of plazas to the residential patios found at Samanco, Caylán, and other Early Horizon enclosure compounds. In certain cases like these, performance was probably important in daily life as well as in ceremonies and special events. Others, like Hodder (2002), have emphasized analyses of daily performance as central to archaeology. In this case, I would define performance as culturally influenced tasks, behaviors, interactions, and experiences specific to particular communities. I hypothesize that structured daily encounters in Samanco’s exclusive residential compounds aided in urban transformations and maintenance seen during the Early Horizon during the decline of Chavín and earlier religious political organizations. The nexus of life at Samanco was the large, probably multifamily compounds sprawled across the site. These were walled spaces where people slept, ate, worked, and hosted public or semipublic events. Everything nucleated around central patios that operated as the center of daily activities. Most of these patios are well over 100 sq m and could have housed large portions of the community. Yet, they were likely invisible outside of the compound and restricted by long, zigzagging corridors, creating an aura of exclusivity. I would tentatively put the population of Samanco at 2,000–5,000. A sizable population probably created factions divided into the various compounds, who lived together, yet maintained communal exclusivity in their daily lives. The ayllu system of exclusive family groups

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documented from Inka times may be broadly analogous to these early communities (See also Burger and Salazar-Burger 1991: 291). The rigid pattern in which compounds are constructed probably disciplined and structured daily interactions at Samanco to specific cultural expectations. The way these compounds interacted on a daily basis was probably the key to Samanco’s success and long-term occupation over hundreds of years. Unlike later period coastal groups where status was much more pronounced, there is not currently evidence for craft specialization or workshops. It would appear that inhabitants throughout Samanco engaged in similar activities geared toward subsistence and trade. This included daily trips to the sea and down to the marshlands for fishing, hunting, and cultivation. Camelids were likely present in most of these activities as beasts of burden. Materials were harvested and brought back to the compound for processing, likely involving a huge amount of labor, which thus created a place where most social interaction took place. Activities included weaving, meat butchering and curing, ceramic production, beer fermentation, tool manufacture, and likely myriad other activities. In the modern town of Samanco, for instance, maintenance of fishing nets and tools is done outside in groups of families and is the main time for socializing outside of the house. The importance of the house to Samanco’s prehistoric population is reflected in their practice of burying individuals underneath domestic structures. Here, their memory could be maintained on a regular basis. In terms of ceremony and public events, these may have become more localized within each compound, rather than previous groups who congregated at ritual monuments without resident populations. With the exception of the Plaza Mayor, which was constructed at the end of Samanco’s Early Horizon occupation, there is no central congregation space on-site. Rather, the patios probably functioned as diverse centers for communal interaction. The fragmented social landscape may have served as a precursor to individual elites vying for power, influencing the later development of marked group hierarchies with Moche and Chimú. Reasons for community nucleation may have involved warfare, competition, and social conflict. Large defensive walls line the entirety of Samanco, and the site is hidden within valley margin hillsides. This pattern exists throughout Early Horizon Nepeña, with many fortified villages located in the upper margins of the valley (see Daggett 1987; Ikehara 2010). Samanco’s various coresident groups probably came together in a collective effort to control Nepeña’s rich bay and delta area. Because of Samanco’s privileged location on Samanco Bay, its communal

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identity likely revolved around trade. During earlier periods, trade seems to have revolved around the exchange of exotic goods associated with religious networks (Burger 1992; Burger and Matos Mendieta 2002). In contrast, most of Samanco’s goods are utilitarian and locally produced. The site is the closest to the coast for the time period, and many lines of evidence from excavations suggest trade as a daily practice for Samanco’s populace. The density of food remains and evidence for primary production suggest a surplus on-site. In contrast, large inland sites show a pattern based more on consumption. For instance, at neighboring Caylán, 220 kg of shellfish remains have been recovered in addition to thousands of fish bones, despite the site’s location some 15 km inland. Additionally, the site does not show any evidence of the primary crop production seen at Samanco. Therefore, one of our preliminary hypotheses is that Samanco functioned as a food production center supplying large inland peer polities, namely, Caylán, with subsistence goods. Further evidence for a trade focus at Samanco comes from the discovery of the camelid corral. During later time periods, camelid caravans formed the backbone of long-distance trade sustaining the vast empires of the Andes (for example, Pozorski 1979; Shimada and Shimada 1985; Thornton et al. 2011; Wheeler et al. 1994; Wing and Wheeler 1988). The Samanco case may provide one of the earliest examples of camelid caravans supplying small networks with supplies, and small-scale caravans have recently been suggested for the immediately succeeding Gallinazo (Szpak et al. 2014). Coastal resources from Samanco probably provided a backbone for the urban transformations seen in Early Horizon Nepeña and elsewhere. Conclusion

To conclude, our research at Samanco is providing a number of new avenues for understanding complex societies and daily life. Research at Samanco highlights lesser known aspects of Andean prehistory. This includes an investigation into first millennium BC maritime societies that developed after the oft-debated earlier coastal groups. There is a continued centrality of the sea to sociopolitical development during urbanization. The research also sheds light on coastal events during the decline of Chavín-related religious centers, events associated with the lesser known Salinar phenomenon. What we see is a shift toward tight-knit subsistence-based networks living in decentralized coresident enclosures who relied on trade to sustain large residential populations. Further work is needed to better understand

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trade relationships between Samanco and other peer centers, such as the hypothesized polity capital of Caylán. Ultimately, I argue that early urban Nepeña society centered on daily practices in enclosure compounds, which foreshadow the long history of urban civilizations on the Andean coast. References Cited Billman, B. R. 1996 The Evolution of Prehistoric Political Organizations in the Moche Valley, Peru. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of California–Santa Barbara. Brennan, C. T. 1978 Investigations at Cerro Arena, Peru: Incipient Urbanism on the North Coast of Peru. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson. 1980 Cerro Arena: Early Cultural Complexity and Nucleation in North Coastal Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 7(1): 1–22. 1982 Cerro Arena: Origins of the Urban Tradition on the Peruvian North Coast. Current Anthropology 23: 247–254. Burger, R. 1992 Chavín and the Origins of Andean Civilization. Thames and Hudson, London. 2008 Chavín de Huantar and Its Sphere of Influence. In Handbook of South American Archaeology, edited by H. Silverman and W. Isbell, pp. 681–703. Springer, New York. Burger, R., and R. Matos Mendieta 2002 Atalla: A Center on the Periphery of the Chavín Horizon. Latin American Antiquity 13(2): 153–177. Burger, R., and L. Salazar-Burger 1991 The Second Season of Investigations at the Initial Period Center of Cardal, Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 18(3): 275–296. Chicoine, D. 2006 Early Horizon Architecture at Huambacho, Nepeña Valley, Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 31(1): 1–22. 2010 Cronología y Secuencias en Huambacho, Valle de Nepeña, Costa de Ancash. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP 12: 317–347. 2011 Feasting Landscapes and Political Economy at the Early Horizon Center of Huambacho, Nepeña Valley, Peru. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 30(3): 432–453. Chicoine, D., and H. Ikehara 2008 Nuevas evidencias sobre el Período Formativo del valle de Nepeña: resultados preliminares de la primera temporada de excavaciones en Caylán. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP 12: 349–369. Chicoine, D., and C. Rojas 2012 Marine Exploitation and Paleoenvironment as Viewed through Molluscan Resources at the Early Horizon Center of Huambacho, Nepeña Valley, Peru. Andean Past 10: 283–288.

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Shellfish Resources and Maritime Economy at Caylán (800–1 B.C.), Coastal Ancash, Peru. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 8: 336–360. Collier, D. 1955 Cultural Chronology and Change as Reflected in the Ceramics of the Viru Valley, Peru. Chicago Natural History Museum, Chicago. 1960 Archaeological Investigations in the Casma Valley, Peru. Proceedings of the Thirty-fourth International Congress of Americanists, Vienna. Conklin, W., and J. Quilter (editors) 2008 Chavín: Art, Architecture and Culture. University of California–Los Angeles, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. Los Angeles. Daggett, R. E. 1984 The Early Horizon Occupation of the Nepeña Valley, North Central Coast of Peru. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. 1987 Toward the Development of the State on the North Central Coast of Peru. In The Origins and Development of the Andean State, edited by J. Haas, S. Pozorski, and T. Pozorski, pp. 70–82. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1999 The Early Horizon in Nepeña: An Update. In the 64th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Chicago. Feldman, R. A. 1983 From Maritime Chiefdom to Agricultural State in Formative Coastal Peru. In Civilizations in the Ancient Americas: Essays in Honor of Gordon R. Willey, edited by R. M. Leventhal and A. L. Kolata, pp. 289–310. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque; Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge. Ghezzi, I. 2000 Proyecto Arqueológico San Diego (Casma, Perú): Informe Preliminar. Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Lima. 2006 Religious Warfare at Chankillo. Andean Archaeology III, edited by W. H. Isbell and H. Silverman, pp. 67–84. Springer, New York. Helmer, M., and D. Chicoine 2013 Soundscapes and Community Organization in Ancient Peru: Plaza Architecture at the Early Horizon Centre of Caylán. Antiquity 87(335): 92–107. 2015 Seaside Life in Early Horizon Peru: Preliminary Insights from Samanco, Nepeña Valley. Journal of Field Archaeology 40(6): 626–643. Helmer, M., D. Chicoine, and H. Ikehara 2012 Plaza Life and Public Performance at the Early Horizon Center of Caylán, Nepeña Valley, Perú. Ñawpa Pacha: Journal of Andean Archaeology 32(1): 85–114. Hodder, I. 2002 The Spectacle of Daily Performance at Catalhoyuk. Archaeology of Performance, edited by T. Inomata and L. S. Coben, pp. 81–102. Altamira Press, Lanham, MD. Ikehara, H. 2010 Kushipampa: El Final del Período Formativo en el Valle de Nepeña. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP 12: 371–404.

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Ikehara, H., and D. Chicoine 2011 Hacia una revaluación de Salinar a partir de la evidencia del Formativo Final en Nepeña, costa de Ancash. Arqueología de la Costa de Ancash, edited by M. Giersz and I. Ghezzi, pp. 153–184. Centro de Estudios Precolombinos de la Universidad de Varsovia, Warsaw. Ikehara, H., and K. Shibata 2008 Festines e Integración Social en el Período Formativo: Nuevas Evidencias de Cerro Blanco, Valle Bajo de Nepeña. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP 9: 123–159. Kembel, S. R. 2001 Architectural Sequence and Chronology at Chavín de Huántar, Peru. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA. Larco-Hoyle, R. 1944 Cultura Salinar. Síntesis Monográfica. Sociedad Geográfica, Buenos Aires. Moseley, M. E. 1975 The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization. Cummings, Menlo Park, CA. Pozorski, S. G. 1979 Late Prehistoric Llama Remains from the Moche Valley, Peru. Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA. Pozorski, S. G., and T. G. Pozorski 1987 Early Settlement and Subsistence in the Casma Valley, Peru. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City. Prieto, G. 2013 Un Estudio Preliminar del Sitio Pampas Gramalote, Valle de Moche. Arkinka: Revista de Arquitectura, Diseño y Construcción 17(207): 90–99. Proulx, D. A. 1968 An Archaeological Survey of the Nepeña Valley, Peru. Research Report No. 2, Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. 1973 Archaeological Investigations in the Nepeña Valley, Peru. Research Report No. 13, Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. 1985 An Analysis of the Early Cultural Sequences in the Nepeña Valley, Peru. Research Report No. 25, Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. Quilter, J. 1992 To Fish in the Afternoon: Beyond Subsistence Economies in the Study of Early Andean Civilization. Andean Past 3: 111–125. Raymond, J. S. 1981 The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization: A Reconsideration of the Evidence. American Antiquity 46(4): 806–821. Rick, J. 2014 Cambio y continuidad, diversidad y coherencia: Perspectivas sobre variabilidad en Chavín de Huántar y el Período Formativo. Centro Ceremonial Andino: Nuevas Perspectivas para los Períodos Arcaico y Formativo, edited by Y. Seki, pp. 261–289. Senri Ethnological Studies, Tokyo.

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Rick, J., C. Mesia, D. Contreras, S. R. Kembel, R. M. Rick, M. Sayre, and J. Wolf 2010 La Cronología de Chavín de Huántar y sus implicancias para el Período Formativo. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP 13: 87–132. Rosello, E., V. Vásquez, A. Morales, and T. Rosales 2001 Marine Resources from an Urban Moche (470–600 AD) Area in the “Huacas del Sol y de la Luna” Archaeological Complex (Trujillo, Peru). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 11: 72–87. Sandweiss, D. H., K. A. Maasch, F. Chai, C.F.T. Andrus, and E. J. Reitz 2004 Geoarchaeological Evidence for Multidecadal Natural Climatic Variability and Ancient Peruvian Fisheries. Quaternary Research 61(3): 330–334. Shibata, K. 2010 El Sitio de Cerro Blanco de Nepeña Dentro de la Dinámica Interactiva del Período Formativo. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP 12: 287–315. 2011 Cronología, relaciones interregionales y organización social en el Formativo: esencia y perspectiva del valle bajo de Nepeña. Arqueología de la Costa de Ancash, edited by M. Giersz and I. Ghezzi, pp. 113–134. Centro de Estudios Precolombianos de la Universidad de Varsovia/Institut Français d’Études Andines. ANDES Boletín del Centro de Estudios Precolombianos de la Universidad de Varsovia, Warsaw/Lima. Shimada, M., and I. Shimada 1985 Prehistoric Llama Breeding and Herding on the North Coast of Peru. American Antiquity 50(1): 3–26. Strong, W., and C. Evans 1952 Cultural Stratigraphy in the Virú Valley, Northern Peru: The Formative and Florescent Epochs. Columbia University Press, New York. Szpak, P., J. F. Millaire, C. D. White, and F. J. Longstaffe 2014 Small Scale Camelid Husbandry on the North Coast of Peru (Virú Valley): Insight from Stable Isotope Analysis. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. Tello, J. C. 1943 Discovery of the Chavín Culture in Peru. American Antiquity 9(1): 135–160. 1960 Chavín: Cultura Matriz de la Civilización Andina. Antropológicas del Archivo. Publicación antropológica del archivo “Julio C. Tello” de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima. Tello J. C., Víctor Paredes, and Wilbert Salas 2006 Arqueología del valle de Nepeña. Excavaciones en Cerro Blanco y Punkurí. Cuadernos de Investigación del Archivo Tello 4. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Museo de Arqueología y Antropología. Lima. Thornton, E. K., S. D. Defrance, J. Krigbaum, and P. R. Williams 2011 Isotopic Evidence for Middle Horizon to 16th Century Camelid Herding in the Osmore Valley, Peru. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 21: 544–567. Warner, J. 2010 Interpreting the Architectonics of Power and Memory at the Late Formative Center of Jatanca, Jequetepeque, Peru. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, Lexington.

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Wheeler, J. C., A.J.F. Russel, and H. Redden 1994 Llamas and Alpacas: Pre-Conquest Breeds and Post-Conquest Hybrids. Journal of Archaeological Science 22: 833–840. Willey, G. R. 1953 Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Virú Valley, Peru. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Wilson, D. J. 1981 Of Maize and Men: A Critique of the Maritime Hypothesis of State Origins on the Coast of Peru. American Anthropologist 83(1): 93–120. 1988 Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in the Lower Santa Valley, Peru: A Regional Perspective on the Origins and Development of Complex North Coast Society. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC. Wing, E. S., and J. C. Wheeler (editors) 1988 Economic Prehistory of the Central Andes. BAR International Series 427. Oxford.

7 The Supply and Consumption of Marine Resources at the Inland Center of Caylán, Coastal Ancash David Chicoine, Carol Rojas, Víctor Vásquez, and Teresa Rosales

Since Moseley (1975) published The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization, marine resources and their exploitation have been a dynamic and debated topic in the archaeological study of social complexity. In the central Andes, research questions have often revolved around whether the rich east Pacific Ocean could support permanent settlements and dense human demographics (Benfer 1990; Haas and Creamer 2006; Moseley 1975; Pozorski and Pozorski 1987; Quilter 1991; Raymond 1981; Sandweiss et al. 1989; Wilson 1981). In contrast, little effort has been concentrated on the use of marine taxa and their social and economic meanings. This chapter examines the consumption and discard of animal resources at the inland urban settlement of Caylán during the first millennium BC. Mapping, survey, and excavation data indicate that Caylán (~800–200 BC), located 15 km inland from the Nepeña Valley littoral, was a dense human settlement with a diverse resident population (Chicoine and Ikehara 2010, 2014) (Figure 7.1). Preliminary analyses of faunal and botanical remains point toward the dual emphasis on terrestrial and marine resources, including plant and animal domesticates, as well as a vast array of wild products. Here, we use shell and vertebrate remains collected during the 2009 and 2010 excavations at Caylán to evaluate patterns of exploitation, supply, consumption, and discard of marine resources. We explore coast-inland interactions from the standpoint of urban settlements traditionally associated with intensive agrarian economies. We are particularly interested

Figure 7.1. Photograph of the urban core of Caylán (view from the adjacent Cerro Caylán to the west) (provided by the authors).

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in understanding mechanisms of economic interdependence beyond the traditional dichotomy between “terrestrial” and “maritime” patterns of adaptations. Excavations at the Early Horizon settlement of Caylán have yielded faunal remains, including 220 kg of marine shells and 10 kg of animal bones. We present taxonomic and quantitative analyses with the objective of determining the biotopes under exploitation, defining exchange networks, and exploring the potential social and economic meanings associated with the different animal taxa. At the site level, shell remains indicate a focus on a few select bivalve species, close ties between inland and coastal populations, and a dynamic shell industry materialized in fishing implements and body adornments (see Chicoine and Rojas 2013). As for vertebrate remains, preliminary results of the osteological analyses indicate a strong reliance on mammal domesticates and marine fish. Fish were mostly collected from nearshore biotopes, most likely with limited fishing and seafaring technology. The low diversity of the fish assemblage—in particular the predominance of sardines—suggests that seafood was supplied by specialized maritime communities who selectively fished and/or filtered the fish products shipped inland. Wild birds, meanwhile, occupied a secondary role. The on-site presence of trade goods and butchering marks suggest that Caylán residents relied on camelids for transportation, meat, and possibly fibers. Osteological remains also inform on the use of dogs, guinea pigs, and other small animals as food sources. At a broader level, zooarchaeological analyses bring insights into the dynamic human-animal relationships in the context of a nucleated urban community and their impact on the socioeconomic transformation of coastal economies at a time of increasing political complexity (deFrance 2009; Gumerman 1997). Background: Coastal Nepeña and Early Horizon Communities

Nepeña is a small coastal drainage located in the modern Department of Ancash, some 400 km north of Lima. The lower section of the valley is particularly attractive for marine exploitation. Resources are clustered in distinct places including, proceeding from the coast to the sea: coastal lagoons, the rocky littoral, the sandy littoral, the rocky shore sublittoral and the open-beach sublittoral (Moseley 1975: 13–14). The littoral zones are well suited for net fishing, clam and mussel gathering, and mammal and bird

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hunting, whereas the sublittoral zones, less accessible, can only be fished using either handlines or watercraft. A large bay, the Bahía de Samanco, protects and encloses the shorelines and renders the water unusually slow moving. The western cliffs of the peninsula are very rugged and steep, but the narrow strip of land that separates the Bahía de Samanco from the Bahía de Chimbote to the north, as well as the eastern edge of the peninsula, are well-suited for line fishing, water diving, and gathering. A similar area is located to the south, in the Bahía de Tortugas. The Nepeña coastline (9°S) and its oceanic conditions are typical of the Peruvian coast (5°S–40°S) where the cold waters of the Humboldt Current provide abundant marine resources. Based on settlement pattern evidence, the coastal portion of the Nepeña Valley witnessed intense cultural innovations and deep socioeconomic transformations between 800 and 450 BC. Stratigraphic excavations by Shibata (2011) at the site of Cerro Blanco suggest the following three phases: (1) Cerro Blanco (1100–800 BC), (2) Nepeña (800–450 BC), and (3) Samanco (450–150 BC). The end of the Nepeña Phase in particular seems to have marked profound socioeconomic transformations, including the disruption of interregional elite networks; the increased importance of camelids, guinea pigs, and maize; as well as major population resettlements on the valley margins. By 450 BC, monumental constructions were interrupted at the ceremonial centers of Cerro Blanco and Huaca Partida as populations appear merged at the urban settlements of Caylán, Huambacho, and Samanco. Based on its size, density, and complexity, Caylán is currently interpreted as the primary hub of a multitiered polity centered in the lower Nepeña Valley with possible satellite communities at Huambacho, Samanco, Sute Bajo, and potentially Cerro Blanco (Chicoine and Ikehara 2010, 2014; Helmer 2015; Helmer et al. 2018). The Early Horizon occupation at Caylán, while beginning in the Nepeña Phase perhaps as early as 800 BC, reached its largest extent during the following Samanco Phase. Current radiocarbon measurements suggest that the settlement was abandoned by the turn of the Common Era. The Caylán research brings further insights into the changing role of human-animal interactions in Early Horizon coastal Ancash, including the increasing importance of camelids as pack animals and food sources, as well as the continuous reliance on maritime ecosystems as major food sources. Previous analyses of shell remains from the Early Horizon site of Huambacho suggest an emphasis on rocky cliffs and other littoral environments

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(Chicoine and Rojas 2012). Yet, the virtual absence of fishing implements and other tools linked to the primary exploitation of marine resources argues for exchange with fishing communities established directly along the littoral. Zooarchaeological evidence from Caylán reinforces the consuming role of inland communities in patterns of marine exploitation during the Early Horizon. Excavations at Caylán and Zooarchaeological Study

Caylán (PV31–30), named after a lagoon directly to the east of the ancient settlement, is a large archaeological complex located in a sandy pampa enclosed within rocky hills three hours’ walk from the Pacific coast (Kosok 1965; Proulx 1968). Farm- and marshlands are accessible directly to the east, while the mountainous desert extends to the north and west until the Lacramarca drainage some 20 km north. The hills support lomas, limited but significant ecosystems feeding off coastal fogs where xerophytic plants grow and some animals live, mainly deer, reptiles, foxes, birds, and landsnails. The Nepeña River can be reached by foot within an hour or so (~3 km). Both the riversides and Caylán Lagoon provide access to key plant and faunal resources including various types of reeds and sedges, as well as waterfowls, amphibians, and small freshwater fish. In 2009, Chicoine and Ikehara (2010) undertook the first systematic mapping and scientific excavations at Caylán. The first phase of the project, carried out over 16 weeks in 2009 and 2010, allowed the sampling of 564 sq m for more than 800 cu m through test pits and block excavations (Figure 7.2). The site is remarkable for the density and complexity of its urban nucleus. Hundreds of stone structures are organized into rectangular walled enclosures articulated through a network of streets, corridors, and baffled entryways. Results of the vertical and horizontal excavations indicate that most of the stone constructions were built during the Early Horizon (Chicoine and Ikehara 2014). Early Horizon deposits are rich, and local conditions are conducive to excellent preservation. Excavations sampled different types of primary and secondary discard contexts including floor scatters, open-air middens, and construction fills. A total of 220 kg of shell remains, 15 kg of plants, 10 kg of animal bones, and more than 45,000 pottery fragments were recovered. Results of the malacological analyses have been presented elsewhere (Chicoine and Rojas 2013). In this chapter, we supplement the shell data with the zooarchaeological analysis of the macrofaunal vertebrate remains.

Figure 7.2. Map of Caylán showing test pits and block excavations (provided by the authors).

194 · David Chicoine, Carol Rojas, Víctor Vásquez, and Teresa Rosales

Figure 7.3. Photograph of floor scatter contexts with faunal remains and other trash from Compound-E (UE6) (photo by David Chicoine).

A total of 6 excavation areas (UE1–6) and 16 test units (HP1–16) were excavated, along with the clearing of a looter’s pit (PH1). Overall, the excavated contexts and associated structures and materials allow for a preliminary consideration of: (1) a monumental platform complex (Main Mound [UE1, 4]), (2) a semipublic space (Plaza-A [UE2, 5]), (3) a multifunctional residence (Compound-E [UE6]) (Figure 7.3), and (4) several other discard areas located throughout the site and sampled through UE3, the test pits, and PH1. All excavated materials were screened using a 3 mm mesh (⅛ in). Recovery efforts targeted 100 percent of the screened remains, which were then bagged, tagged, preliminarily air-brushed, cleaned, and catalogued in the project’s field house in Nepeña. It is important to note that screening methods are likely contributing to the underrepresentation of small vertebrate fauna, in particular small fish, while overrepresenting larger vertebrates. As for shells, clams and other thick-shelled mollusks (for example, Donax spp.) are likely overrepresented in comparison to thin-shelled mussels (for example, Semimytilus algosus).

Marine Resources at the Inland Center of Caylán, Coastal Ancash · 195

Shell Remains

More than 220 kg of shells were recovered, mostly marine shells. Methods have been presented in detail elsewhere, but suffice it to mention that for the quantification procedures, minimum number of individuals (MNI) values were favored over weight and number of identified specimens (NISP) (Grayson 1978: 53) (see Chicoine and Rojas 2013: 346, table 1). The Caylán mollusk assemblage is represented by a total of 42 species belonging to 18 families. Gastropoda dominate in terms of species diversity with 36 taxa, in contrast to 11 Pelecypoda. Meanwhile, three species of Polyplacophora are present. Although taxonomically diverse, MNI values are largely dominated by bivalves (n=94,901, 91.72 percent), while chitons (n=5,066, 4.90 percent) and gastropods (n=3,492, 3.38 percent) are more marginal. Meanwhile, the phylum Arthropoda is represented by three families (that is, Cirripeda, Echinoidea, and Crustacea) and four species including Balanus sp. (barnacles), Tetrapygus niger (black sea urchins), Platyxanthus orbignyi (purple crabs), and Xanthidae sp. In comparison to the mollusks, MNI values for arthropod specimens are rare (MNI=314). Xanthidae dominates (n=223, 71.02 percent), followed by barnacles (n=71, 22.61 percent), black sea urchins (n=16, 5.10 percent), and crabs (n=4, 1.27 percent). Overall, with more than 40 species of mollusk and 4 species of arthropods, the Caylán assemblage can be described as taxonomically rich. Yet, the overwhelming predominance of bivalves point toward little diversity, an observation confirmed by the overrepresentation of three species of bivalves. The mollusk assemblage is largely dominated by the small intertidal clam Donax spp. (n=63,731, 61.59 percent), followed by two species of small rock-perching mussels, Perumytilus purpuratus (n=17,813, 17.21 percent), and Semimytilus algosus (n=11,898, 11.50 percent). With the exception of chitons (n=5,050, 4.88 percent), Mesodesma donacium (n=1,378, 1.33 percent), and Tegula atra (1,327, 1.28 percent), all other MNI values for mollusk taxa fall under 1 percent. Some of these include rock-perching limpets (Fissurella sp., MNI=436, 0.42 percent), and several species of gastropods including Prisogaster niger and Thais sp. (MNI=458, 0.44 percent), as well as Prunum curtum (MNI=26, 0.03 percent). Coastal folks also exploited, to a lesser extent, muddy biotopes, as exemplified by the presence of the razor clam Tagelus dombeii (MNI=16, 0.02 percent) and Trachycardium procerum (MNI=16, 0.02 percent). Signs of sublittoral shell fishing are rare and evidenced by the scallop shell Argopecten sp. (MNI=22, 0.02 percent) and the large mussel Aulacomya ater (MNI=5, 0.01 percent).

196 · David Chicoine, Carol Rojas, Víctor Vásquez, and Teresa Rosales

The high MNI values for the three dominating bivalve species are particularly significant in terms of subsistence economy, considering that many of the more marginal shell taxa display evidence of cultural modification associated with the production of artifacts. We evaluate evidence linked to the extraction and preparation of mollusks, the distribution of molluscan taxa with respect to the different contexts, and the transformation of shell materials into artifacts. Summary

Considering that the geography of coastal Ancash changed little over the past 3,000 years (Sandweiss et al. 2009: 1363), seafood found at Caylán was likely collected from the Bahía de Samanco. Collectors focused on nearshore and intertidal areas, favoring sandy beaches along with rocky cliffs to a lesser extent. Supralittoral areas were less intensively relied upon, suggesting that the use of boats and diving techniques was not systematic. Nearshore and intertidal settings are readily available along the coast of the Bahía de Samanco and can be exploited with minimal technology, on foot, using simple fine-meshed nets, sand rakes, digging sticks, and baskets. For harvesting sandy substrates, collectors typically enter water that is knee– or waist-deep, and sweep the sea floor with their bare hands, or by using rakes complemented with small mesh nets, washing away the sand and trapping mollusks, arthropods, and other small remains (Gillin 1945: 30). This technique is rather indiscriminate since the harvesters have little visual contact with the substrate, especially in coastal Peru where waters are often turbid. This could account for the inadvertent collecting of species with little economic value including some of the smaller gastropods. Roselló and colleagues (2001: 77) point out that the use of such a technique to collect small intertidal clams in sandy-beach environments can be particularly productive as “fishermen can collect up to 30 kg [of live clams with shells] in 3 h of work at places such as Huanchaco. The equipment includes various types of rakes such as the caván from Huanchaco and Huaca Prieta. Rock mussels and snails require more specialized instruments but it is normally the dangerous biotopes they inhabit that restrict their present day cropping to specialized gatherers” (see also Sandweiss 1979 for similar observations). Indeed, the Donax clams are easily collected as they inhabit active surf zones frequently washed out by waves (see Carson 1955: 137; compare Pozorski 1976: 74).

Marine Resources at the Inland Center of Caylán, Coastal Ancash · 197

Vertebrate Remains

Vertebrate remains were transferred to the Centro de Investigaciones Arqueobiológicas y Paleoecológicas Andinas (Arqueobios) where they were classified, identified, measured, and quantified. Osteoarchaeological analyses focused on unworked bone remains and are believed to represent patterns of subsistence, in particular the acquisition, processing, and discard of meat. Worked bones were found in several contexts at Caylán, but not included in the current analysis (Figure 7.4). Taxonomic identifications were carried out using Arqueobios reference collections and published literature for comparisons (Allen and Robertson 1994; Altamirano 1983; Barreda 1978; Chirichigno 1974; Emmons 1990; Falabella et al. 1995; Gilbert et al. 1981; Kasper 1980; Kent 1982; Koepcke 1970; Lawlor 1979; Olsen 1968; Vegas 1987; Yee 1987). Considering the preliminary nature of the vertebrate sample, numbers of identified specimens (NISP) were preferred over weight and minimal number of individuals (MNI) for time efficiency. NISP values were calculated based on the number of anatomical parts specific to each species analyzed. Values were then tallied for each identifiable taxon. Meanwhile, taphonomic observations emphasized cut, breakage, and other marks indicating butchering and other processing practices. Taxonomic analyses allowed the identification of 3,289 NISP, and indicate that the dwellers of the Early Horizon settlement interacted with, used, ate, and processed a vast array of wild and domesticated terrestrial, marine,

Figure 7.4. Photographs of bone tools, including (a–c) awls; (d, g) spatulas; (e) a fish scale peeler; and (f) a body adornment (photo by David Chicoine).

198 · David Chicoine, Carol Rojas, Víctor Vásquez, and Teresa Rosales

riverine, and lacustrine vertebrates including amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds, and mammals. Mammals (NISP=1,661, 50.50 percent) account for about half of the NISP values, followed by fish (NISP=1,218, 37.03 percent) and birds (NISP=308, 9.36 percent). Amphibians (NISP=73, 2.22 percent) and reptiles (NISP=29, 0.88 percent) are marginal. Overall, with 36 and 20 species, respectively, fish and bird taxa display more richness than mammals (n=8) and amphibians (n=1). The only amphibian identified is the toad (Bufo sp.). Soil sample analyses are currently under way and have revealed the presence of insects, but entomological data are too preliminary at this point to evaluate the potential significance of terrestrial arthropods in human activities. Fish

Fish are the richest category of vertebrates and comprise mostly saltwater species. In our Nepeña (9°S) assemblage, most marine fish are typical of the Peru-Chilean marine faunal province (5°S–40°S), although two species (Larimus sp., Pareques sp.) are also common in the warmer Panamanian marine faunal province (5°S–5°N). Marine fish can potentially travel through and inhabit diverse oceanic biotopes including deeper offshore waters, as well as shallower nearshore coastlines (Table 7.1). Based on documented fishing techniques for the Early Horizon, typical location of fish habitats (mostly demersal and benthonic), and oceanic substrates (mostly sandy), most fish could have been caught in the shallow waters (mostly up to 40 m) of the the Bahía de Samanco shore using a combination of small boats, fishing lines, weights, floaters, hooks, and nets. Some of the schooling fish, in particular sardines (Sardinops sagax sagax), jack mackerels (Trachurus symmetricus murphyi), menhadens (Ethmidium maculatum), and bonitos (Sarda chiliensis chiliensis), would have been difficult to capture without embarkations and special nets. This suggests multiple fishing strategies, both from the sandy beaches around the Bahía de Samanco and off boats farther away in the ocean. Overall, the fish assemblage is rich, but relatively less diverse, with the five most common taxa accounting for more than 60 percent of the fish remains. More than 30 percent of the fish remains belong to sardines (Sardinops sagax sagax) (NISP=378, 31.03 percent of total fish), followed by drums and croakers of different sizes (Sciaena sp.) (NISP=119, 9.77 percent). Considering the size of the screen mesh used (3 mm), sardines are likely underrepresented. Found in lesser quantities are sea bass (Paralabrax

6

0.3

1

2

Sphyrna sp. 0.9

4

0.7

6

6

4 2

0.4

Scomber sp.

1.4

1

Galeichthys peruvianus

0.4

1.1

0.3

1.2

1.8

1.8

0.6

1

1

4

10

4

3

16

1

3.0

2

3

1

Rhinobatos planiceps

7

0.4

Paralonchurus peruanus

2.2

1

6

Myliobatis sp.

0.7

2

Sarda chiliensis

5.6

2

18

6

13

1.2

7

8

12

34

13

15

99

NISP

23

1.1

4

2.1

1.5

13.0

4.8

7.3

6.3

41.4

%

3

2.6

7

5

43

16

24

21

137

NISP

0.3

0.3

1.3

3.2

1.3

1.0

5.1

1.9

7.3

0.6

5.8

2.2

2.6

3.8

10.9

4.2

4.8

31.6

%

Others (UE3, HPs)

Trachurus symmetricus

6

0.4

13.7

6.0

2.6

4.3

3.9

6.9

39.5

%

Compound-E (UE6)

Pareques sp.

6.5

1.8

5

14

18

5.7

6.1

2.9

Stellifer minor

Paralabrax sp.

9 10

Mugil cephalus

8

17

Larimus sp.

13.3

20.4

1

37

Cynoscion sp.

16

92

32

57

Anisotremus scapularis

1.8

17.9

16

5

Sciaena sp.

NISP

Micropogonias altipinnis

50

Sardinops sagax

%

Plaza-A (UE2, 5)

Engraulis ringens

NISP

Fish taxa

Main Mound (UE1, 4)

6

9

10

11

14

18

20

22

23

26

27

31

32

44

69

97

103

119

378

NISP

0.49

0.74

0.82

0.90

1.15

1.48

1.64

1.81

1.89

2.13

2.22

2.55

2.63

3.61

5.67

7.96

8.46

9.77

31.03

%

TOTAL

A

A

A/B

A/B

A

A

A/B

A

A/B

B

A

B

A/B

A/B

Deptha

S

S

S

S

S

S

R/S

S

R/S

S

R

S

Substrateb

B

P

B

B

D

B

P

P

D

D/P

D

D

D

D/P

D

P

Habitatc

Table 7.1. Absolute and relative frequencies for the number of identified specimens (NISP) of fish remains per context at Caylán

(continued)

SH

BO

SH

SH

SH

SH

BO

BO

SH

SH

SH

BO

SH

SH

SH

BO

Captured

279

TOTAL

100

13.3 233

16 100

6.9

0.4

0.4

0.4

0.4

0.9

0.4

%

331

50

1

1

1

1

NISP

100

15.1

0.3

0.3

0.3

0.3

%

Compound-E (UE6)

Compiled by authors. a Depth: A, 0–2 m; B, 2–40 m; C, 40–200 m. b Substrate: L, lomas (“fog vegetation zone”); M, mangroves; R, rocky; S, sandy. c Habitat: B, benthonic; D, demersal; P, pelagic. d Capture: SH, shore; BO, boat.

1

37

Unknown fish

1

Acanthistius sp.

1

0.4

0.7

Serranidae

2

Menticirrhus sp.

Muraenidae

Rajidae

Merluccius gayi

Caulolatilus sp.

1

2

1

NISP

1

1.1

0.7

%

Plaza-A (UE2, 5)

Calamus sp.

3

2

NISP

Main Mound (UE1, 4)

Mustelus sp.

Trachinotus sp.

Labrisomus philippii

Carcharhinus sp.

Ethmidium maculatum

Paralonchurus sp.

Fish taxa

Table 7.1—Continued

313

26

1

2

1

3

2

1

1

NISP

100

8.3

0.3

0.6

0.3

1.0

0.6

0.3

0.3

%

Others (UE3, HPs)

1218

129

1

1

1

1

1

2

2

2

2

3

3

3

3

5

NISP

100

10.59

0.08

0.08

0.08

0.08

0.08

0.16

0.16

0.16

0.16

0.25

0.25

0.25

0.25

0.41

%

TOTAL

A/B

B/C

B

A

A/B

Deptha

R/S

R/S

S

R/S

R/S

R

S

S

Substrateb

D

D

B

D

B

B

D

Habitatc

BO

SH

SH

BO

SH

SH

BO

SH

Captured

Marine Resources at the Inland Center of Caylán, Coastal Ancash · 201

sp.) (NISP=44, 3.61 percent), anchovies (Engraulis ringens) (NISP=32, 2.63), giltheads (Micropogonias altipinnis), mullets (Mugil cephalus) (NISP=27, 2.22 percent), stardrums (Stellifer minor) (NISP=26, 2.13 percent), highhats (Pareques sp.) (NISP=23, 1.89 percent), jack mackerels (Trachurus symmetricus murphyi) (NISP=22, 1.81 percent), bonitos (Sarda chiliensis chiliensis) (NISP=20, 1.64 percent), manta rays (Myliobatis sp.) (NISP=18, 1.48 percent), and banded croakers (Paralonchurus peruanus) (NISP=14, 1.15 percent). Finally, numerous fish taxa are found in less than 1 percent of the fish remains, including several species of teleost and cartilaginous fish. The latter are rare in the Early Horizon contexts sampled so far at Caylán (NISP=42, 3.45 percent). They include smooth-hound sharks (Mustelus sp.), hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna sp.), requiem sharks (Carcharhinus sp.), and manta rays (Myliobatis sp.). Rays and sharks are cartilaginous and might not preserve as well as teleost, or bony fish. Birds

Birds display a less rich but more diverse assemblage, especially considering edible taxa. Of the total of 20 identified avian taxa, the eared dove (Zenaida asiatica) (NISP=74, 28.14 percent of total bird remains) is by far the most common and ubiquitous bird at Caylán (Table 7.2). More remains of the Columbidae family were encountered (NISP=10). Today, these birds dwell in bushes, trees, and fields in the vicinity of Caylán. In the Early Horizon, wild birds could have been hunted with a variety of projectile weapons including slings, spears, and nets. Columbidae are followed by cormorants (Phalacrocorax bougainvillii) (NISP=27, 10.27 percent), and seagulls (Larus sp.) (NISP=26, 9.89 percent). Also present less frequently are wild ducks (Anas sp.) (NISP=12, 4.56 percent), meadowlarks (Sturnella sp.) (NISP=11, 4.18 percent), and black vultures (Coragyps atratus) (NISP=11, 4.18 percent). The remains of vultures are restricted to UE6 in a single context within Compound-E. They are unlikely to have played a major role in local subsistence. A similar observation can be made about the remains of owls (Stigidae, compare Asio sp.) and swallows (Hirundo sp.). Other marginal species—which could nevertheless have played an economic role in Early Horizon Nepeña—include the marshland egrets (Egretta sp.) (NISP=1, 0.38 percent), swamp chickens (Gallinula chloropus) (NISP=1, 0.38 percent), and shearwaters (Puffinus sp.) (NISP=2, 0.76 percent). Finally, a proximal section of a condor ulna (Vultur gryphus) was recovered from the Main Mound construction fill during UE4. It displays

202 · David Chicoine, Carol Rojas, Víctor Vásquez, and Teresa Rosales

Table 7.2. Absolute and relative frequencies for the number of identified specimens (NISP) of bird remains per context at Caylán Main Mound (UE1, 4) Avian

taxaa

Zenaida asiatica Phalacrocorax bougainvillii Larus sp.

Plaza-A (UE2, 5)

Compound-E Others (UE6) (UE3, HPs)

TOTAL

%

NISP

%

NISP

%

NISP

%

NISP

%

Habitatb

12

19.4

35

42.7

14

21.2

13

24.5

74

28.14

W

8

12.9

5

6.1

1

1.5

13

24.5

27

10.27

L

9

13.6

1

1.9

26

9.89

L

12

4.56

M

11

4.18

L

11

4.18

M/W

5

1.90

W

5

1.90

M/W

4

1.52

M/W

2

0.76

L

NISP

15

24.2

1

1.2

Anas sp.

1

1.6

11

13.4

Sturnella sp.

8

12.9

Coragyps atratus Zenaidura sp.

1

1.2

Columbina sp.

1

1.6

4

4.9

Laridae

2

3.2

2

2.4

2

3.0

11

16.7

2

3.0

Puffinus sp.

1 2

2

1.9 3.8

3.8

Charadridae

2

2.4

2

0.76

Diomedea sp.

1

1.2

1

0.38

M/W

Scolopacidae

1

1.6

1

0.38

Egretta sp.

1

1.6

1

0.38

L/M

1

0.38

L/M

1

0.38

W

1

0.38

1

0.38

M/W

1

0.38

M/W

76

28.90

Gallinula chloropus Strigidae cf Asio sp. Vultur gryphus

1

1.5 1

1

1.6

Bartramia sp.

1

Icteridae Unknown bird

12

TOTAL

62

1.9

19.4 100

1.2

1

1.2

18

22.0

82

100

26 66

39.4 100

20 53

37.7 100

263

100

Compiled by authors. a Hirundo sp. not included. b Habitat: L, littoral; M, marshy; W, woodland.

cutmarks suggesting the production of musical instruments. In the Andes, wing bones of large birds are particularly prized in the manufacture of flutes (Shady et al. 2003). Overall, the taxonomic analysis of bird remains indicates the exploitation of the lagoon and marshlands adjacent to the urban settlement of Caylán. Meanwhile, marine taxa appear limited to cormorants and seagulls.

Marine Resources at the Inland Center of Caylán, Coastal Ancash · 203

The Caylán zooarchaeological sample is still limited and more research is needed, but the absence of penguin remains could be significant. Peruvian penguins (Spheniscus humboldti) typically nest on rocky shores and islands, zones readily accessible along the coast of Ancash. Other absent bird taxa at Caylán include the Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata), pelican (Pelecanus sp.), booby (Sula sp.), and heron (Casmerodius albus). More excavations and zooarchaeological research at Caylán and elsewhere in Nepeña are needed before solid inferences be made on the presence or absence of these bird taxa from Early Horizon contexts. In sum, bird resources at Caylán appear less systematic and more opportunistic compared to fish and mammalian taxa. Bird domesticates have so far to be documented, and most of the wild taxa are rather small. Hunting was clearly a significant option to acquire meat, but the relative small size and low demographic densities of birds do not lend weight to the theory that these animal resources are sustainable for a dense urban population. Indeed, it appears unlikely that local populations of small wild birds (that is, doves) were large enough to constitute a regular and predictable source of animal protein for Caylán urbanites. At the same time, a sustained hunting pressure on wild bird populations might have led to the extinction of such species. Current data does not support such a scenario, as wild bird taxa appear continuous throughout the occupational sequence at Caylán. In any case, it appears that Caylán residents consumed marine fish and shellfish (see Chicoine and Rojas 2013), as well as mammals, more systematically. Mammals

At Caylán, camelids were sources of meat and bones, probably served as pack animals, and may also have provided fibers. Camelids dominate the osteological assemblage: 437 NISP for 37.41 percent of all mammalian remains (Table 7.3). They are followed by dogs (Canis familiaris) (NISP=263, 22.52 percent), guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) (NISP=235, 20.12 percent), mountain viscachas (Lagidium peruanum) (NISP=20, 1.71 percent), sea lions (Otaria sp.) (NISP=15, 1.28 percent), felines (Felis sp.) (NISP=6, 0.51 percent), and white-tail deer (Odocoileus virginianus) (NISP=4, 0.34 percent). Llamas, dogs, guinea pigs, and mountain viscachas are ubiquitous throughout the excavation units, while the distribution of felines, sea lions, and deer appears more limited. It is unlikely that the Caylán felines were consumed as foods. In contrast, llama and dog remains display traces of butchering and burning (Figure 7.5).

Table 7.3. Absolute and relative frequencies for the number of identified specimens (NISP) of mammal remains per context at Caylán Main Mound (UE1, 4) Mammalian taxaa

NISP

sp.b

165 Lama Canis familiarisb 46 b Cavia porcellus 73 Lagidium peruanum 10 Otaria sp. 1 Felis sp. 4 Odocoileus virginianus Unknown mammal 63 TOTAL 362

Plaza-A (UE2, 5)

Compound-E (UE6)

Others (UE3, HPs)

TOTAL

%

NISP

%

NISP

%

NISP

%

NISP

%

45.6 12.7 20.2 2.8 0.3 1.1

72 46 63 6

32.0 20.4 28.0 2.7

151 144 42 3 7 2

38.9 37.1 10.8 0.8 1.8 0.5

49 27 57 1 7

26.5 14.6 30.8 0.5 3.8

1

0.4

3

1.6

437 263 235 20 15 6 4

37.41 22.52 20.12 1.71 1.28 0.51 0.34

37 225

16.4 100

22.2 188 100 1168

16.10 100

17.4 100

39 388

10.1 100

41 185

Compiled by authors. a Muridae not included. b Domesticates.

Figure 7.5. Butchering marks on osteological remains, including (a) right dog humerus (caudal view, cut marks on epicondylar crest); (b) right condor ulna (proximal, transversal section on foramen pneumatic); (c) left albatross humerus (distal, section on diaphysis); (d) right camelid calcaneus (lateral view, cuts on posterior side of the body of the bone, on top of the sustentaculum); and (e) camelid ribs (top: parallel cut marks on interior of rib, middle/bottom: oblique cut marks on exterior body of ribs) (photo by David Chicoine).

Marine Resources at the Inland Center of Caylán, Coastal Ancash · 205

Table 7.4. Anatomical parts of the camelid remains at Caylán Main Mound Anatomical part (llama) Cranium Thorax Anterior limbs Posterior limbs Feet Total

Plaza-A

N

%

N

12 36 11 13 9 81

14.8 44.4 13.6 16.0 11.1 100

3 24 8 8 6 49

Compound-E %

6.1 49.0 16.3 16.3 12.2 100

N

%

10 25 22 9 7 73

13.7 34.2 30.1 12.3 9.6 100

Compiled by authors.

For the llamas, the distributional analysis of anatomical parts across the three main contexts of area excavations—Mound-A, Plaza-A, and Compound-E—indicates consistency (Table 7.4). Throughout the excavation contexts, sections of thorax dominate the llama remains, ranging from 34.2 percent of the total llama remains at Compound-E to 49 percent at PlazaA. Anterior and posterior limbs follow in importance. Meanwhile, remains of crania and feet appear relatively on par with those of limbs, depending on the context. Out of the 203 bones recovered at Mound-A, Plaza-A, and Compound-E, cutmarks are present on 23 bones (11.33 percent), while 19 (9.36 percent) are burnt. The majority of the cutmarks were observed on ribs (NISP=14, 60.87 percent of total cutmarks), suggesting the body parts were especially prized. Based on the shape and size of the grooves, the butchering was likely performed with sharp stone and/or metal instruments. The cutmarks at the joints suggest disarticulation rather than skinning motions. Ribs show two distinct steps in the butchering process. First, slicing motions are visible near the proximal ends of the ribs indicating the intention to separate them from the thoracic spinal cord. Second, heavier hacking motions are registered in the mesial sections of the ribs indicating a desire to divide the rib cages in half or in more pieces. Overall, anatomical observations do not lend weight to the acquisition of camelid meat through traded packages consistent with the chark’i effect (Miller and Burger 1995). Rather, the predominance of thoraxes, combined with the representation of most anatomical parts, suggests that llamas were butchered locally. The predominance of rib cages with cutmarks—especially at Mound-A and Plaza-A, two contexts likely involved in feasting events—suggests the roasting of llama chops, perhaps as a delicacy. It is still preliminary to draw conclusions about local herding practices. At Caylán, for instance, corrals, dung, or other indications of in situ

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husbandry have yet to be detected. It is, however, significant that recent fieldwork at Samanco allowed the discovery of a series of rectangular rooms with large amounts of compacted camelid dung (Helmer 2015; this volume). With a surface area of more than 800 sq m, the structure could have easily housed up to 100 llamas. More research is needed on the Samanco assemblage, but it appears possible that llama caravans were traveling to the coastal center to move marine resources (see Szpak et al. 2016). Dog remains are surprisingly abundant and ubiquitous at Caylán. All excavation units have yielded dog remains, several of them showing cutmarks, in particular on limb bones. Cutmarks on limbs indicate that dog meat was consumed. It is significant that Shibata (2013) reports on the high frequency of dog bones in the feasting refuse at Cerro Blanco. While Shibata suggests that dog meat might have been related to feasting activities and the food for high-status guests and visitors, the ubiquity of dog remains at Caylán suggests a more widespread consumption, perhaps beyond elite and feasting contexts. Preliminary data on dog morphometry and age suggests a high range of variability inconsistent with standardized forms of consumption. Rather, Caylán dogs might have been consumed opportunistically. In north coastal Peru, the consumption of dog meat has been documented at several sites in the Jequetepeque Valley (Cutright 2009; Swenson 2004: 174), in a long tradition that appears to have lasted until Chimú times in the late fifteenth century AD. Guinea pigs are also well represented at Caylán. The animals were likely consumed and perhaps used in ritual divination and other special activities (Sandweiss and Wing 1997). More information is needed on specific butchering patterns. Finally, deer, sea lion, and mountain vizcachas are represented in lesser frequencies. Deer were likely hunted from the lomas and adjacent forested areas. However, their limited occurrence indicates the wild game was likely of minor importance in the overall diet, in contrast to domesticated camelids, dogs, and guinea pigs. Summary

Taxonomic analyses of vertebrate remains reinforce results from the analysis of shell remains and indicate that Early Horizon populations in the lower Nepeña Valley exploited different littoral resources, including sandy beaches and deeper shorelines (see Chicoine and Rojas 2013: 346, Table 1). Vertebrates also came from freshwater lagoons, marshlands, lomas, and woodlands. The relative importance of each of these in local subsistence

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Table 7.5. Absolute and relative frequencies for the number of identified specimens (NISP) of the different vertebrate taxa per context at Caylán Main Mound Vertebrate

Categorya

Fish Birds Mammals Total Excavation volume Density per cu m

Plaza-A

Compound-E

NISP

%

NISP

%

NISP

%

279 62 362 703 369 1.91

39.69 8.82 51 100

233 82 225 540 212 2.55

43.15 15.19 41.67 100

331 66 388 785 164 4.79

42.17 8.41 49.43 100

Compiled by authors. a Amphibians, reptiles, and Muridae not included.

and meat input is still unclear, but in light of the richness, diversity, and ubiquity of fish remains, it appears the sea provided the most systematic source of wild animal protein. Most fish remains pertain to small to medium-size fish such as sardines, drums, croakers, and sea bass likely caught both from boats and from the Samanco shorelines. Sardines account for more than 30 percent of NISP values, yet they are likely to be underrepresented. This could suggest a specialized form of fishery to supply inland settlements and/or selective fishing strategies. Urban dwellers might have received small fish, perhaps even preprocessed (for example, dried) (see Marcus et al. 1999). Sea birds and mammals are also present, albeit less frequently. Combined with the high frequency (MNI=103,473) and ubiquity of marine shells, mostly small intertidal clams (Donax spp.) (MNI=63,732, 61.59 percent of total shell remains), marine resources appear to have occupied a central place in Early Horizon coastal economies. In contrast, wild species of birds and mammals, mostly hunted in the marshlands, lomas, and woodlands adjacent to Caylán and beyond, occupied a more limited place, perhaps due to the more sporadic and/or opportunistic nature of their exploitation. Deer remains, for instance, are scarce and point toward low cervid demographics in the lower Nepeña during the Early Horizon, their inaccessibility to urban dwellers, and/or a preference for meat cuts from mammal domesticates. The high richness and diversity, yet low frequency, of bird remains suggest an opportunistic exploitation of waterfowls and other small birds living around Caylán, perhaps by a limited number of hunters. It is unclear

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at this point whether these small birds were particularly prized. In contrast, the high frequency and low richness of domesticated mammals point toward a more systematic and intense exploitation. Animal domesticates were critical to Caylán dwellers, especially camelids. Although it is unclear whether these were consistently raised and maintained within the urban settlement, anatomical and taphonomic data indicate that llamas were butchered locally. Discussion

Zooarchaeological analyses of the Caylán assemblages bring preliminary insights into inland patterns of consumption and the supply of marine resources to groups traditionally seen as mainly involved in agrarian subsistence strategies. At some point during the Nepeña Phase (800–450 BC), populations merged to the northern margin of the lower valley, some three hours’ walk from the Pacific littoral. It is unclear where these people came from, but it is significant that the late Initial Period ceremonial constructions at Cerro Blanco and Huaca Partida, located one to two hours’ walk east of Caylán, respectively, were abandoned at the end of the Nepeña Phase. The following Samanco Phase (450–150 BC) saw the peak of Caylán as an incipient urban center with clear defensive, civic, religious, and residential functions. Based on current radiocarbon measurements (Chicoine and Ikehara 2014), this important center was abandoned by the end of the first century BC. During its occupation, Caylán stood out as the largest population center in Nepeña. It is hypothesized that several thousand people lived in some form of urban lifeways, potentially detached from primary subsistence activities, including farming, raising animal domesticates, hunting, and fishing. From that standpoint, zooarchaeological studies have the potential to bring significant information to further develop this hypothesis and inform on the consuming habits of Caylán dwellers. More specifically, basic assumptions about zooarchaeology and the development of complex societies include (1) the increasing importance of networks of subsistence interdependence between specialized communities, potentially under the influence or control of some form of organized or centralized leadership (for example, Pozorski and Pozorski 1979); and (2) the materialization of increasingly salient social distances as viewed through differential access to prestige goods, including animal products.

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The marine shell evidence indicates that the collectors who supplied the urban dwellers at Caylán exploited nearshore areas, focusing on both small clam beds and rocky cliffs for small mussels and chitons. Although other species were discarded at the site, their exploitation was likely opportunistic. For instance, many of the smaller gastropods could have been gathered inadvertently during the collection of economically significant species. At the same time, some rarer taxa, including Prunum curtum, Fissurella crassa, Olivella columellaris, Argopecten sp., and Spondylus, were used in the manufacture of shell artifacts (see Chicoine and Rojas 2013: 354: fig. 9). A comparison of the Caylán results with data from neighboring sites provides insights into the diversity of maritime strategies and shellfish exploitation along the coast of Peru. In Nepeña, research at Huambacho, a secondary satellite of Caylán, allowed the recovery and analysis of 11,274 MNI pertaining to 53 molluscan taxa (Chicoine and Rojas 2012). As for Caylán, the triad of Donax spp., Perumytilus purpuratus, and Semimytilus algosus largely dominate the sample with 80 percent of the total MNI. Yet, at Huambacho it is significant to note that Semimytilus algosus is the most frequent followed by Perumytilus purpuratus, while Donax spp. represents less than 15 percent of the assemblage. The Huambacho data suggest a stronger emphasis on rocky settings. Geographically, such biotopes are more abundant in the southern portion of the Nepeña shoreline in the vicinity of Los Chimús. Meanwhile, sandy strips are mostly found in the northern portion of the littoral, in the area of Samanco. Combined, the Huambacho and Caylán evidence suggests that both communities obtained seafood supplies by independent collectors located in the southern and northern portion of the Nepeña shoreline, respectively. The shell data thus suggest that maritime resources, at least mollusks, were not part of a centralized system of redistribution, but rather composed of several entangled exchange networks that linked specific communities and perhaps kin groups. Here, the main defining variables for the access and consumption of seafood appear to have been geographical proximity and availability. At Caylán, and throughout coastal Ancash, current evidence from Early Horizon contexts indicates a focus on a few mollusk species from specific nearshore biotopes. Harvesters relied on simple technologies to exploit intertidal zones including steep rocky cliffs and low-gradient sandy beaches. Geographical proximity to each setting appears to account for the relative importance of corresponding molluscan taxa in archaeological deposits. Mollusks were mostly consumed in stews and soups, likely mixed with

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cereals and legumes, and little evidence exists for marked differences in access to certain, more highly valued seafood. Yet deposits sampled from the monumental core at Caylán display more taxonomic diversity linked to the use of shells in the production of body adornments and other artifacts. Paleoethnobotanic analyses are ongoing, but preliminary results indicate that Early Horizon inland populations relied on the dual exploitation of sea resources and production of domesticated plant crops via irrigation farming, as well as smaller scale gardening (Chicoine et al. 2016). Whereas the cultivation of maize and other crops was intimately linked to the extension of irrigation networks which have the potential to be under the supervision of a coordinated authority, the management and access to animal products provide a contrasting view. Mollusk resources, and most likely other marine products, traveled in multiple independent exchange networks between coastal and inland communities. For example, Caylán consumers were supplied by fisherfolk exploiting the sandy beaches around the area of Samanco in the northern portion of the coast. The Huambacho sample contrasts by being dominated by rock-perching mussels likely collected from the southern portion of the valley, around the area of Los Chimús. Overall, with the possible exception of camelid domesticates, Early Horizon exploitation and flow of animal resources in the lower Nepeña Valley do not conform to a pattern of strong, centralized political economy. More information is needed on the preservation, storage, and redistribution of animal products, but current evidence renders the scenario of a centralized tribute or redistributive system unlikely. Rather, we hypothesize that urban, rural, and coastal subsistence economies were enmeshed in complex and heterogeneous arrangements structured by kinship, ritual calendars, debt obligations, patron-role feasting, and other noncentralized forms of economic exchange. The social composition of the Caylán population can be assessed from the perspective of access to meat and other animal products. The comparison of the osteological assemblages from three different contexts (that is, monumental [Main Mound], semi-public/ceremonial [Plaza-A], residential [Compound-E]) offers insights into the intrasite distribution of animal taxa at Caylán (Table 7.5). In all contexts, the respective relative importance of mammals, fish, and birds is consistent. The relative frequency of mammals is 41.67 percent at Plaza-A, 49.43 percent at Compound-E, and 51 percent at the Main Mound. Fish remains represent 39.69 percent at the Main Mound, 42.17 percent at Compound-E, and 43.15 percent at PlazaA. Birds are limited to NISP ratios of 8.41 percent (Compound-E), 8.82

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percent (Main Mound), and 15.19 percent (Compound-E). Preliminary distributional analyses indicate a consistent pattern in which animal resources discarded at the three main excavation contexts are dominated by mammals, followed by fish and birds. Mammal and fish differ little in terms of NISP ratios. At the same time, the distribution of fish taxa based on their size suggests potential differential access between the sectors at Caylán. Indeed, while sardines are the dominant taxon at Plaza-A and Compound-E, Peruvian grunts (Anisotremus scapularis) dominate the assemblage at the Main Mound. At maturity, the latter average 40 cm in length, roughly twice the size of sardines. Other medium-sized fish, including Cynoscion sp., are also more common at Mound-A. More information is needed on the intrasite distribution of fish by size, but the preliminary results hint toward a privileged access to larger fish by the users of the monumental structure. In any case, large fish are rare throughout the Caylán assemblage. Conclusions

In this chapter, we have presented and discussed macrofaunal remains from the Early Horizon urban center of Caylán, Nepeña Valley (Ancash), Peru. The recovery of shell and verterbrate remains allowed for taxonomic observations. Insights into human-animal interactions at Caylán are particularly important to shed light on the process of urbanization that occurred in coastal Ancash during the first millennium BC. Research indicates the emergence of a dense urban agglomeration where most dwellers could have been detached from primary subsistence activities and supplied by neighboring farmers, hunters, herders, and fishers. Such socioeconomic transformations had a profound effect on animal exploitation. Results indicate that the Caylán deposits contain a rich assemblage dominated by marine mollusks, fish, and birds, as well as domesticated mammals. The high frequency of camelids, dogs, and guinea pigs indicates the importance of animal domesticates in economic practices. Although it is still unclear whether large-scale herding facilities were present at Caylán, llamas clearly occupied a privileged place within Early Horizon diets and socioeconomics. Based on their ubiquity and frequency, dogs and guinea pigs were other significant mammals butchered on-site. Marine fish and shellfish represented another viable, predictable, and heavily exploited source of animal protein. Taxonomic data argue for the exploitation of the waters around the Bahía de Samanco. The relative low diversity and apparent select nature of fish remains at Caylán argues the existence of

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specialized fishers who worked from the nearshore littoral, possibly with small boats. In contrast, birds were preyed upon opportunistically in and around the Caylán Lagoon, marshlands, and woodlands. The Caylán data indicate a trend of increased reliance on animal domesticates, mostly camelids, dogs, and guinea pigs. In Nepeña, the use of domesticated animals appears to have begun during the transition from the Cerro Blanco to Nepeña Phase around 800 BC. The practice later gained momentum when people settled into more urban lifeways. The sea continued to provide rich, diverse, and heavy supplies of animal products, including fish and shellfish, but llamas probably represented one of the most valued animal resources for transportation, meat, bones, and hair. Comparisons of zooarchaeological assemblages from neighboring Early Horizon sites in the lower Nepeña Valley suggest the existence of interdependent communities during the Samanco Phase. Strong similarities—in architectural styles, building materials, spatial layouts, and overall material culture—point toward shared cultural identities including cosmology and ritual life (see Chicoine 2006; Chicoine and Ikehara 2014; Helmer 2015; Helmer et al. 2018). From that standpoint, it is difficult at this point to envision distinct ethnic groups involved in different and exclusive economic activities. Rather, it appears that inland and coastal communities were enmeshed in a web of interrelated political economic activities. At Caylán, urban dwellers were supplied through indirect systems of resource management and distribution that likely depended on kinship, urban-rural-coastal ties, and other channels that operated independently from more formal political enterprises (for example, territorial defense, armed conflicts, and diplomacy). In sum, little evidence exists at the moment to lend weight to heavy top-down control of the subsistence economy from Caylán, the largest settlement and hypothesized primary center of the integrated lower Nepeña system. Rather, animal products appear to have been channeled through a multitude of networks. The attraction of Caylán might have resided in its demographic density as well as its concentration of ritual spaces for communal feasts and other public gatherings. This scenario somewhat contrasts with what scholars typically envision for complex agrarian societies. More data are needed on the cultivation practices and the management of surplus crops, but the Caylán animal research calls for a reassessment of hegemonic economic models in the context of incipient urbanism, and a reconsideration of the complexity and heterogeneity of human-animal interactions in the development of Andean civilizations.

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Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Gabriel Prieto and Daniel Sandweiss for the kind invitation to contribute to the volume. Fieldwork at Caylán was sponsored by Louisiana State University’s Office of Research and Economic Development, and the Department of Geography and Anthropology. Laboratory analyses were funded by a grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents (contract number LEQSF [2011–2014]-RD-A-05). Thanks to the Ministerio de Cultura del Perú for considering favorably and supervising the field project (excavation permits 804/INC-050609, 1230/INC-280510), as well as to Hugo Ikehara who codirected the excavations. Vásquez and Rosales carried out the taxonomic analyses of the vertebrate remains, Rojas analyzed the shell remains, and Chicoine drafted the text, figures, and tables. References Cited Álamo, Víctor and Violeta Valdivieso 1987 La Lista Sistemática de Moluscos Marinos del Perú. Lima: Instituto del Mar del Perú. Allen, Gerald R., and D. Ross Robertson 1994 Fishes of the Tropical Eastern Pacific. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu. Altamirano, Alfredo 1983 Guía osteológica de cérvidos andinos. Serie Investigaciones 6. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima. Barreda, Mario 1978 Ictiología general. Imprenta La Popular, Lima. Benfer, Robert A. 1990 The Preceramic Period Site of Paloma, Peru: Bioindicators of Improving Adaptation to Sedentism. Latin American Antiquity 1(4): 284–318. Carson, Rachel 1955 The Edge of the Sea. Signet/New York American Library, New York. Chicoine, David 2006 Early Horizon Architecture at Huambacho, Nepeña Valley, Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 31(1): 1–22. Chicoine, David, Beverly Clement, and Kyle Stich 2016 Macrobotanical Remains from the 2009 Season at Caylán: Preliminary Insights into Early Horizon Plant Use in the Nepeña Valley, North-Central Coast of Peru. Andean Past 12: 155–161. Chicoine, David, and Hugo Ikehara 2010 Nuevas evidencias sobre el Período Formativo del valle de Nepeña: Resultados preliminares de la primera temporada de investigaciones en Caylán. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP 12 (2008): 349–370. 2014 Ancient Urban Life in the Nepeña Valley, North-Central Coast of Peru: Investi-

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gations at the Early Horizon Center of Caylán. Journal of Field Archaeology 39(4): 336–352. Chicoine, David, and Carol Rojas 2012 Marine Exploitation and Paleoenvironment as Viewed through Molluscan Resources at the Early Horizon Center of Huambacho, Nepeña Valley, Peru. Andean Past 10: 284–290. 2013 Shell Resources and Maritime Economy at Caylán, Coastal Ancash, Peru. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 8(3): 336–360. Chirichigno, Norma 1974 Clave para identificar los peces marinos del Perú. Informe 44. IMARPE, Callao. Cutright, Robyn E. 2009 Between the Kitchen and the State: Domestic Practice and Chimú Expansion in the Jequetepeque Valley, Peru. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. deFrance, Susan D. 2009 Zooarchaeology in Complex Societies: Political Economy, Status, and Ideology. Journal of Archaeological Research 17: 105–168. Emmons, Louise 1990 Neotropical Rainforest Mammals: A Field Guide. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Falabella, Fernanda, Roberto Melendez, and Loreto Vargas 1995 Claves osteológicas para peces de Chile central: un enfoque arqueológico. Edición Artegrama, Santiago. Gilbert, B. Miles, L. D. Martin, and H. G. Savage 1981 Avian Osteology. B. M. Gilbert, Laramie, WY. Gillin, John 1945 Moche: A Peruvian Coastal Community. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC. Grayson, Donald K. 1978 Minimum Numbers and Sample Size in Vertebrate Faunal Analysis. American Antiquity 43(1): 53–65. Gumerman IV, George 1997 Food and Complex Societies. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 4: 105–139. Haas, Jonathan, and Winifred Creamer 2006 Crucible of Andean Civilization: The Peruvian Coast from 3000 to 1800 BC. Current Anthropology 47: 745–775. Helmer, Matthew 2015 The Archaeology of an Ancient Seaside Town: Performance and Community at Samanco, Nepeña Valley, Peru (ca. 500–1 BC). BAR International Series 2751. Archaeopress, Oxford. Helmer, Matthew, David Chicoine, Hugo Ikehara, and Koichiro Shibata 2018 Plaza Settings and Public Interactions in Formative Nepeña, North-Central Coast of Peru. Americae: European Journal of Americanist Archaeology 3: 7–31.

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Kasper, Jan 1980 Skeletal Identification of California Sea Lions and Harbor Seals for Archeologists. Ethnic Technology Notes 17. San Diego Museum of Man, San Diego. Keen, Myra 1971 Sea Shells of Tropical West America. Marine Mollusks from Baja California to Peru. 2nd ed. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA. Kent, Jonathan D. 1982 The Domestication and Exploitation of the South American Camelids: Methods of Analysis and Their Application to Circum-Lacustrine Archaeological Sites in Bolivia and Peru. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO. Koepcke, María 1970 The Birds of the Department of Lima, Peru. Livingston, Wynnewood, PA. Kosok, Paul 1965 Life, Land and Water in Ancient Peru. Long Island University Press, New York. Lawlor, Timothy 1979 Handbook to the Orders and Families of Living Mammals. Mad River Press, Eureka, CA. Marcus, Joyce, Jeff D. Sommer, and Chris P. Glew 1999 Fish and Mammals in the Economy of an Ancient Peruvian Kingdom. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 96: 6564–6570. Miller, George R., and Richard L. Burger 1995 Our Father the Cayman, Our Dinner the Llama: Animal Utilization at Chavín de Huántar, Peru. Latin American Antiquity 60: 421–58. Moseley, Michael E. 1975 The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization. Cummings, Menlo Park, CA. Olsen, Stanley 1968 Fish, Amphibian and Reptile Remains from Archaeological Sites. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, MA. Peña, Mario 1970 Zonas de distribución de los gasterópodos marinos del Perú. Anales Científicos de la Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina 8: 153–160. 1971 Zonas de distribución de los bivalvos marinos del Perú. Anales Científicos de la Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina 9: 127–138. Pozorski, Shelia 1976 Prehistoric Subsistence Patterns and Site Economics in the Moche Valley, Peru. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin. Pozorski, Shelia, and Thomas Pozorski 1979 An Early Subsistence Exchange System in the Moche Valley, Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 6(4): 413–432. 1987 Early Settlement and Subsistence in the Casma Valley, Peru. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.

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Proulx, Donald A. 1968 An Archaeological Survey of the Nepeña Valley, Peru. Research Report 2. Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Quilter, Jeffrey 1991 Late Preceramic Peru. Journal of World Prehistory 5: 387–438. Raymond, J. Scott 1981 The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization: A Reconsideration of the Evidence. American Antiquity 46(4): 806–821. Roselló, Eufrasia, Víctor Vásquez, Arturo Morales, and Teresa Rosales 2001 Marine Resources from an Urban Moche (470–600 AD) Area in the Huacas del Sol y de la Luna Archaeological Complex (Trujillo, Peru). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 11(1–2): 72–87. Sandweiss, Daniel H. 1979 Mollusc and Main in Prehistoric Peru: Preliminary Studies. Senior Research Project, Yale University, New Haven, CT. Sandweiss, Daniel H., James B. Richardson III, Elizabeth J. Reitz, J. T. Hsu, and Robert A. Feldman 1989 Early Maritime Adaptations in the Andes: Preliminary Studies at the Ring Site, Peru. In Ecology and Prehistory in the Osmore Drainage, Peru, edited by D. S. Rice, C. Stanish, and P. R. Scarr, pp. 35–84. BAR International Series 545, Oxford. Sandweiss, Daniel H., Ruth Shady, Michael E. Moseley, David K. Keefer, and Charles R. Ortloff 2009 Environmental Change and Economic Development in Coastal Peru between 5,800 and 3,600 years ago. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(5): 1359–1363. Sandweiss, Daniel H., and Elizabeth S. Wing 1997 Ritual Rodents: The Guinea Pigs of Chincha, Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 24(1): 47–58. Shady, Ruth, Carlos Leyva, Martha Prado, Jorge Moreno, Carlos Jiménez, and Celso Llimpe 2003 Las flautas de Caral-Supe: aproximaciones al estudio acústico-arqueológico del conjunto de flautas más antiguo de América. In La ciudad sagrada de Caral-Supe, edited by R. Shady and C. Leyva, pp. 293–300. Instituto Nacional de Cultura and Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral-Supe, Lima. Shibata, Koichiro 2011 Cronología, relaciones interregionales y organización social en el Formativo: esencia y perspectiva del valle bajo de Nepeña. In Andes 8: Arqueología de la Costa de Ancash, edited by M. Giersz and I. Ghezzi, pp. 113–134. Centro de Estudios Precolombinos de la Universidad de Varsovia/Institut Français d’Études Andines, Warsaw/Lima. 2013 Food for Visitors? An Unusual Consumption of the Canis in the Feasting Activities at the Formative Ceremonial Center of Cerro Blanco, Peruvian North Central Coast. Paper presented at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Honolulu. Swenson, Edward R.

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8 The Fisherman’s Garden Horticultural Practices in a Second Millennium Maritime Community of the North Coast of Peru

Gabriel Prieto

This chapter is a response to the view of Prehispanic fishing settlements as exclusively specialized in maritime tasks. For this purpose, I will use as a case study the site of Gramalote, an early Initial Period (1500–1200 cal. BC) maritime community of Northern Peru. The idea of fisher-farmers is not new in Andean archaeology. Junius Bird (1948 a and b) argued that the people of the Late Preceramic fishing settlement of Huaca Prieta cultivated a variety of plants in the nearby marshlands. Bird inferred this conclusion based on the abundant macrobotanical remains found in the rich deposits of this site. While living with his family for 10 months next to Huaca Prieta, Bird observed that the local fishermen and their relatives cultivated the wetlands in the vicinity to grow a number of species including gourds, chili peppers, maize, beans, and tomatoes. Hence, a combination of personal experience, ethnography, and more important archaeological data were present in Bird’s mind to propose the idea of fisher-farmers, arguing that “on the basis of field observations, it appears that the huge midden deposits of this early time, . . . mark a cultural period in which the local economy was based in part on a simple agriculture, in part on fishing” (Bird 1948a: 180). This statement was a prescient vision of the economy during the middle stages of coastal prehistory. The archaeological evidence from Huaca Prieta that supports Bird’s observations was the discovery in the same context of fishing implements and seafood along with digging sticks and cultivated plants such as cotton, gourds, squash, chili peppers, beans, a root of the Canna genus, and a variety of sedges that were presumably eaten (1948a: 180; Bird 1948b: 302). Detailed analysis of

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the macrobotanical remains of Huaca Prieta by Margaret Towle led her to conclude that a simple type of agriculture was practiced including cucurbits, gourds, and lima beans (Towle 1961: 105). Similarly, during his excavations in the Late Preceramic site of Asia– Unit I in the Omas Valley, south-central coast of Peru, Engel proposed that the inhabitants of this site based their daily subsistence in a mixed economy that comprised an effective exploitation of the marine resources and small-scale agriculture in the surrounding marshlands (Engel 1963: 6). Later on, Edward Lanning interpreted the presence of cucurbits and other food plants in the deposits of fishing settlements along the coast between the Rímac and the Chillón rivers in the central coast of Peru as ineludible evidence of early groups of people combining both activities for their daily maintenance. Lanning called these groups “fishermen and squash farmers,” who “began as both fishermen and farmers, then gradually gave up their farming and adopted a diet almost exclusively of sea food” (Lanning 1967: 53). In Lanning’s view, the latter was the result of a coastal desiccation that produced changes in the way of life of the early fisher-farmers of the central coast of Peru. He goes further and suggests that, among the “fishermen and squash farmers we find seeds of the littoral gathering and agriculture that were soon to characterize life in ancient Peru” (1967: 56). Unfortunately, none of these early projects were capable of demonstrating with more convincing evidence the possibility of fishing settlements engaged in cultivation practices. For example, they never distinguished or discussed the presence/absence of nonedible parts of food plants as strong evidence to contest the idea that those plants were cultivated in the surroundings of the sites. On the other hand, at the time, pollen analyses were scarce if not absent in the field and the identification of phytoliths and starch grains was far from being applied to archaeology. Soon after Lanning’s claims, Andeanists abandoned the idea of early fishermen subsisting by a mixed economy of fishing and low-scale farming to favor more systemic and economy-driven models of food specialization. The emergence of ecological functionalism in archaeological studies was applied in other regions of the world to explain the origins of foodproducing economies. Processual archaeology saw as a key factor that one of the causes of cultural change includes changing subsistence patterns. The famous formula “culture = environment x technology” suggested that reconstructing the technology and environment of a prehistoric culture should make it possible to infer the key features of the rest of the culture (Trigger 2007: 391).

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But prior to the emergence of Processualism, the influence of Julian Steward’s ecological approach that viewed archaeological settlement patterns as evidence of relations between human groups and the natural environment had a great impact on Gordon Willey’s later work on the Viru Valley (Willey 1953) as well as on most of Andeanists archaeologists of that period. As a consequence there was a preestablished condition to work under the ecology-driven theories to explain cultural change in Peruvian early societies. Lanning had many followers, among whom was Michael Moseley who also believed that “a hunting and gathering way of life was replaced by fishing and littoral collecting which in turn was displaced by irrigation agriculture” (Moseley 1975: 19). In this book, Moseley proposed the Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization (MFAC), setting a landmark for the way in which some scholars working with Late Preceramic and Initial Period cultures of the Peruvian coast would conceive Andean fishing settlements for the next 30 years (Pozorski and Pozorski 1979; Feldman 1980; Haas et al. 2004; Haas and Creamer 2006; Shady 2003, 2006, 2009). But at the same time there were strong critics to Moseley’s MFAC (Osborn 1977; Wilson 1981, Raymond 1981). In any case, it is undeniable that at least the Late Preceramic and Initial Period sites of the Peruvian central and north coast valleys relied on a mixed economy based on agricultural products and marine resources, in which the latter played a prominent role in providing animal protein to the diet (Quilter and Stocker 1983; Quilter 1991; Dillehay 2011, Dillehay et al. 2017). Moseley’s view is also a neoevolutionary perspective in which maritime resources played a major role in creating the “foundations” for a later authoritarian agricultural model; this was effected through rulers from inland valley ceremonial centers controlling a sophisticated network of irrigation canals (Moseley 1975). In Moseley’s perspective, maritime resources were the crucial factor that prompted an agricultural stage in which statehood was created. He immediately identified an asymmetric relationship in which fishing settlements were constantly providing marine resources (which supplied most of the population’s proteins) and, in return, were obtaining both cotton for their fishing nets and lines, and the carbohydrates from food plants that were missing from their maritime diet. As a result, the idea of fishermen sowing seeds in a field is a possibility that has been theoretically and methodologically neglected over the years, mainly due to two factors: the theoretical framework described before and the overwhelming reliance on sixteenth- to eighteenth-century Colonial accounts

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that referred to fishermen as not doing anything else but working on marine tasks, and not having access to lands (but see Ramírez and VanValkenburgh, this volume). Between the 1970s and the 1980s, Maria Rostworowski published important papers related to the linguistic, social, economic, and political organization of the coastal fishermen under the Spanish rule. In these contributions Rostworowski “delineates” the most salient characteristics of a Prehispanic fishing community: (1) fishermen were full-time specialists; (2) the community salted and/or dried marine products for their own consumption and for later trade with other inland valley communities; (3) fishermen did not possess agricultural fields and did not invest time on agricultural activities; (4) fishermen were prohibited from exercising another subsistence activity beyond the ones related to the ocean; (5) strong endogamy relationships prevailed in the fishing community; and (6) fishing communities had their own lingua franca (Rabinowitz 1983; Rostworowski 1975: 319; Rostworowski 1981: 89–90; Rostworowski 2004: 343). In a similar way, Susan Ramírez, based on Spanish accounts of the sixteenth century, presented the case of the political situation of the Chicama Valley on the north coast of Peru during the last days of the Inca Empire and the first years of the Spanish invasion. As part of these episodes, the Spanish accounts referred to fishermen leaders who did not possess agricultural land but had control over fisherfolks, the sea resources, and herds of camelids (Ramírez 1995: 270; Ramírez this volume). This ethnohistoric model has been evaluated based on excavations carried out in Late Intermediate Period–Late Horizon sites, concluding that the situation witnessed by the Spanish was very different from that in Prehispanic times (Marcus 1987: 394; see VanValkenburgh in this volume). Similarly, although there was a high degree of specialization among fishermen during these late periods of the Prehispanic sequence, the socioeconomic situation of fishing settlements was much more dynamic and flexible than the model stated on the written accounts from the sixteenth century. In a pioneering study, Daniel Sandweiss tested two models derived from the ethnohistoric sources. “Model I” suggests that fishing settlements should be geographically discrete and should contain evidence only for fishing subsistence practices. Additionally, the fisherman family has to be the basic unit of production. Under “Model I,” the families also had their own lords, so the fishing settlement should include both elite and commoner sectors. Under “Model II,” the main difference is that fishing lords had attached specialists for their service (Sandweiss 1992: 16). Sandweiss

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concluded that data from Lo Demás suggest that ethnohistoric Model II applies to the Chincha fishermen elite groups and that Model I applies best to nonelite members of the specialized groups. Interestingly, it seems that the local lords controlled the production of gourd artifacts and cotton, due to the presence of unprocessed cotton fiber and gourd seeds and cut rinds suggesting that cultivation of these plants may have occurred in the vicinity of Lo Demás (Sandweiss 1992: 145; Sandweiss 1996: 43; Sandweiss, personal communication, March 2015). On the other hand, recent studies on human populations of the Gramalote site is challenging the idea of a close endogamy among fishing settlements in the north coast of Peru, at least during the Initial Period (see Sutter and Prieto in this volume). In sum, Late Preceramic and Initial Period maritime settlements are believed to have been narrowly focused on the exploitation of the sea, while later fishing settlements had a more flexible variation of subsistence activities. Interestingly, in both cases they were politically and economically controlled by larger and more sophisticated political entities who were not fishermen. While there is no doubt of the political control over the most recent Prehispanic settlements, the situation seems to have been quite different in fishing settlements during the second millennium BC (Prieto 2015). Food Producers and the Complementary Model for early Andean Societies

For Moseley, the foundations of coastal civilization developed out of a maritime economy (Moseley 1975: 4). In his seminal book the breakdown came during the “ceramic stage” (Initial Period) where he saw a marked increase in the reliance on plant foods. Local fruits and peanuts became a more frequent part of the diet, as did large tubers. Previous experience of coastal societies cultivating “industrial” crops such as gourds and cotton constituted the first and earliest evidence of intensive agriculture for this author (Moseley 1975: 36). During this stage, a new and heavy utilization of arable lands occurred in the Chillón Valley, on the central coast of Peru. Littoral settlements were abandoned, as was the monumental site of El Paraiso, and people took up inland residence to engage in farming as a consequence of canal irrigation and the opening of desert land to cultivation (Moseley 1975: 48). The segregation into different kinds of producers motivated two groups as part of a “complementary model”: coastal fishing and inland farming (Moseley 1975: 50). This model was not exclusively developed by

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Moseley, however. In 1971, Thomas Patterson proposed that “the economy of each community consisted of several different kinds of food-producing activities that were carried out in different parts of its territory: fishing and shell collecting along the coast . . . and irrigation agriculture with emphasis on particular food crops in the middle parts of the river valleys. . . . a food exchange system that made marine protein foods available to the inland population and plant foods available to the inhabitants of the coastal fishing villages” (Patterson 1971: 319). Indeed, more recently, Moseley has reaffirmed his position, arguing that “the positioning of canals draws farmers inland. Agriculturalists tend to reside at valleys mouths and along the desert littoral. This results in “a T-shaped maritime-oasis settlement pattern with littoral communities strung along the coast and agrarian ones along the perpendicular river courses” (Moseley 1999: 172–173). Early Holocene Period societies along the modern coasts of Chile and Peru were involved in specialized maritime activities (Lavallée and Julien 2012; Sandweiss 1996, 2008, 2009; Sandweiss et al. 1989, 1998; deFrance 2005), as well as in gardening and small-scale agricultural practices (Dillehay et al. 2012). More recently, and referring to early Holocene human adaptations on the north coast of Peru, Tom Dillehay argued that the central Andes is one of the few areas in the world where the coalescence of maritime and inland foraging economies set in motion long-term biological and cultural processes that fostered social complexity and food production (Dillehay 2011: 6; Dillehay et al. 2017). Based on a model that prefers an “asymmetric complementary system” with the support of ethnohistoric accounts, which sees maritime communities as specialized in sea activities and also as closed endogamy groups, it has been taken as an axiom in the archaeology of the Late Preceramic and Initial periods of the Andean region that fishing communities did not perform other kinds of subsistence activities besides fishing and gathering shellfish. This view is based on Lanning, Moseley, and Patterson’s work in the 1960s on the Chillón-Ancón sites, plus the utilization of the same theoretical framework for the Norte Chico and the north coast of Peru. In the following pages, I will present data from the Gramalote site that are consistent with the idea that at least this early maritime community was engaged in small-scale farming activities that provided carbohydrate products for their daily diet as well as a source for industrial plants that were used for their maritime economic activities.

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The Gramalote Site

Gramalote is located on the coastline of the northern end of the Moche Valley, 2 km south of the traditional fishing village of Huanchaco. The site lies on top of a 13 m high marine terrace overlooking the beach (Figure 8.1). The site of Gramalote is strategically located in an area where the inhabitants had access to both sandy and rocky beaches. The heavy reliance on a marine economy is confirmed by thousands of fish, marine mammals, seabirds, and shellfish remains recovered, along with fishhooks, stone sinkers, and cotton fishnets. The presence of at least one miniature model of a reed boat suggests that this device was already in use at Gramalote for offshore fishing expeditions (Figure 8.2a). The site was organized into two sectors during its height: a domestic sector in which the houses surrounded a large open space or plaza, and a ceremonial sector located on the northeast end of the site where a large rectangular building for ritual purposes was erected (Prieto 2018 a and b). The inhabitants were also engaged in the production of red paint that was based primarily on hematite and obtained from a nearby local source; a smaller quantity was from cinnabar, which was brought in from distant regions. The red pigment was used for ritual ceremonies, body paint, and decoration for textiles and personal ornaments (Prieto et al. 2016). In addition, there is evidence that Gramalote’s inhabitants produced ceramic beads, and that they carved shells and seabird and marine mammal bones into utilitarian and decorative objects. There are three occupational phases supported by 10 radiocarbon dates taken from secure contexts that are well correlated with the stratigraphic sequence of the site; these dates range between 1500 and 1200 cal. BC (3450–3150 cal BP). The area between the site and the shoreline shows ample evidence that extensive marshlands grew there in the past. This is confirmed by the present-day salad grass or “Gramalote” (Distichlis spicata). This salt grass is a biological indicator of a high water-table level in the area (Maldonado 1943). Indeed, natural springs and marshlands are still preserved 1.2 km south of the archaeological site. In this environment, a number of reeds (Scirpus californicus) and plants such as achira (Canna edulis) grow naturally (Figure 8.3a, 8.3b, and 8.2c). Immediately south of these areas, there is an extended marshland along the beach that has not been affected by the urban growth of the modern city of Trujillo. In that area, the marine terrace is further toward the east, providing a wider area for marshlands and natural springs which have been probably used since the Late Preceramic

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Figure 8.1. Map of the Moche Valley, North Coast of Peru, with the location of the Gramalote site (provided by the author).

Figure 8.2. Fishing gear recovered at Gramalote: (A) miniature of a reed boat, (B) fishhook made of a sea lion fang, (C) stone net sinker, and (D) a bone net gauge (provided by the author).

Figure 8.3. Present-day marshlands around the Gramalote site: (A) concentrations of reeds; (B) a large area with salty grass; (C) achira plants; and (D) sunken gardens with totora reeds grown by fishermen living in the vicinity (provided by the author).

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period. In fact, Padre Aban, one of the few Late Preceramic sites known in the Moche Valley is located in that area (Pozorski 1976). The approximated calculated area of wetlands located around Gramalote is 153 ha (Figure 8.3d). On top of the marine terrace located 1 to 2 km southeast of Gramalote, scattered stands of mesquite trees (Prosopis pallida) and other local fruit trees and shrubs can be found. It has been suggested that this vegetation is the result of the extensive Chimú irrigation technology during the Late Intermediate Period (900–1470 AD) in that area (Moseley and Deeds 1982), but it is also quite possible that these small stands of trees and shrubs grew naturally in this area well before the Chimú—the trees are mainly located in lower areas or natural depressions that have access to the high water table. Plant Procurement, Processing, and Consumption at Gramalote

The heavy reliance on marine proteins in the Gramalote diet was compensated by a consistent number of food plants, which included cucurbits, beans, tubers and roots, fruits, and, in very low quantity, cereals such as maize. This result is supported by 49 microbotanical samples taken from soil, fragments of ceramic vessels, and lithic artifacts in which pollen, phytoliths, and starch grain remains were identified (Huaman 2012; Villanueva 2014). In addition, during the excavations at this site, a total number of 27,486 macrobotanical remains were recovered. From this sample, 18,382 were identified only to class and family levels, corresponding to wood fragments, stems, peduncles, leaves, and carbonized remains (Ubillus 2014). This large sample demands a more sophisticated analysis for species identification since its presence confirms that Gramalote inhabitants had plenty of access to the nonedible parts of plants. Interestingly, 49 percent of these remains are not burnt, suggesting that more than half of these plants were not used as fuel. Therefore, the abundance of these types of macrobotanical remains suggests that plants for food, fuel, medicine, craft, and so on were easily obtained by the people of this ancient maritime community. Remarkably, 9,104 macrobotanical remains were fully identified. These diagnostic remains were mainly seeds, pods, flowers, stems, a few leaves, fibers, floral axes, and epicarps. Tillandsia sp., a wild bromeliad, is the most abundant plant and it was mainly used as fuel (Ubillus 2014). This plant grows naturally on the slopes of the areas locally known as lomas, or fog

Table 8.1. NISP values of macrobotanical remains found at Gramalote Primary source of food Phaseolus vulgaris Cucurbita maxima Cucurbita maschata Phaseolus lunatus Zea mays Capsicum sp. Lycopersicon sp. Ipomoea batatas Pachyrhizus ahipa Pouteria lucuma Persea americana Arachis hypogaea Bunchosia armeniaca Inga Feuillei Psidium guajava Chondracanthus chamissoi Industrial Plants Tillandsia sp Lagenaria siceraria Gynerium sagittatum Gossypium barbadense Phragmites australis Furcraea sp. Schoenoplectus sp. Scirpus californicus Typha sp. Bixa orellana Acacia macracantha Distichlis spicata Possible Plants for Medicinal Use n/i Equisetum sp. Espostoa melanostele Melocactus peruvianus TOTAL Compiled by author. n/i Not identified. NISP Number of identified specimens.

NISP Common beans Squash Loche squash Lima beans Maize Chili peppers Tomato Sweet potato Ajipa Lucuma Avocado Peanut Peanut butter fruit Pacae Guayaba Seaweed

37 25 12 10 7 4 2 1 1 368 306 263 242 229 3 332

Bromeliad Gourd Cane Cotton Cane Cabuya Reed Reed Reed Achiote Huarango Salt grass

3,959 2,354 345 303 59 9 101 71 42 2 1 6

Cactus Horse tail Cactus Cactus

5 3 1 1 9,104

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vegetation hills. Besides bromeliads, 16 species have been identified as a main source of food, 12 for industrial purposes, and 4 possibly for medicinal practices, making a total of 32 identified plant species (Ubillus 2014; Paredes 2018) (Table 8.1). The number of macrobotanical remains in this sample (expressed in NISP) must be interpreted with caution, since consumption and preservation issues would affect the relative abundance or scarcity in the collection. A good case is when the remains of seed fruits, tubers, and cucurbits are compared by their NISP numbers to determine their importance in the Gramalote diet. Table 8.1 shows that fruits such as lucuma (Pouteria lucuma); the peanut butter fruit, locally known as cansaboca (Bunchosia armeniaca); the ice-cream bean or pacae (Inga feuillei); the avocado (Persea americana); and the legume peanuts (Arachis hypogaea) are the most important food plants (based on macrobotanical remains) due to their abundance in the archaeological record at Gramalote (Figure 8.4a, 8.4b, 8.4c, and 8.4d). The seeds of these fruits and the shells of the peanuts (which are the most common remains of these species in the archaeological deposits) are very strong and large, surviving better when they are discarded after consumption. On the other hand, there is a poor

Figure 8.4. Macrobotanical remains recovered at Gramalote: (A) avocado seeds; (B) cansaboca fruit seeds; (C) leaves of pacae trees; and (D) peduncles of a variety of squash and gourds (provided by the author).

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representation of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris; Phaseolus lunatus) and squash (Cucurbita sp.) and almost no macrobotanical remains of sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas), chili peppers (Capsicum sp.), or wild tomatoes (Lycopersicum sp.). No macrobotanical remains of manioc (Manihot esculenta) were recovered. However, when residue analysis was done on soil as well as ceramic and lithic artifacts, manioc and sweet potatoes are the most frequent (see Table 8.2). Beans are usually fully consumed and only occasionally are the pods thrown away. Bean pods can be fuel since they are easily inflammable, and they could have disappeared in the hearths of domestic units. Similarly, manioc is fully consumed. Gramalote shows an interesting pattern regarding the processing and consumption of manioc. During Phases 1 and 2, manioc starch grains are mainly present in large, elongated stone pestles, while only a few ceramic fragments show the presence of these grains. It is possible that the maniocs were directly broiled on the circular stone grills found in all the domestic units of Gramalote, then smashed with the pestles, and finally consumed with seafood. For Phase 3 there is a higher representation of manioc starch grains in the ceramic fragments, suggesting that during the last occupation, the inhabitants of Gramalote boiled this species in ceramic containers for later consumption. These examples make it clear that one must be careful when interpreting botanical remains in residential settlements. The Gramalote case suggests that a combination of macro- and microbotanical remains analyses are required to have a more accurate interpretation of the accessibility, processing, and consumption of plants (Piperno and Pearsall 1993). The combination of these analyses led me to conclude that the Gramalote inhabitants relied on cucurbits, beans, sweet potatoes, and manioc as their primary source for carbohydrates. Wild tomatoes and chili peppers could have been used as food condiments as traditional communities do today in the Moche Valley. Maize was found in very low quantities. Only five macrobotanical remains were recovered, and the identification of pollen, phytoliths, and starch grains suggests that maize was present but not a major staple food in this site. In a recent paper, Grobman reported 22 macrobotanical remains of maize associated with the ceramic stage (4000–3000 cal. BP) of the Huaca Prieta and Paredones site, located 29 km north of Gramalote (Grobman et al. 2011: 1755–1756). These authors emphasize that maize only appears intermittently through time and space at Huaca Prieta and Paredones, suggesting that this crop was not a staple food in these sites when compared with other plant and animal sources of food (2011: 1755–1756).

Table 8.2. Microbotanical remains found at Gramalote Pollen Food plants Cucurbitaceae/ Cucurbita sp. Capsicum sp. Ipomoeba batatas Manihot esculenta Solanum tuberosum Lycopersicum sp. Phaseolus sp. Zea mays Cannaceae / Canna edulis? Persea americana Inga feuillei Pouteria lucuma Trees Acacia macracantha Alnus sp. Podocarpaceae Prosopis pallida Sambucus sp. Schinus molle Ulmaceae Shrubs Ambrosia sp. Gossypium sp. Capparis sp. Malvaceae Trixis sp. Mutisia sp. Ulmaceae Herbs Chenopodium/ Amaranthus sp. Erodium sp. Physalis sp. Phyla Polygalaceae Taraxacum sp. Tillandsia sp. Urocarpidium sp.

Phytolith

Starch grain

yes

yes yes yes yes yes

yes yes yes yes

yes yes

yes

yes yes yes

yes yes

Macrobotanical remains yes yes yes no no yes yes yes no yes yes yes

yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

yes no no yes no no no

yes yes yes yes yes yes

no yes no no no no no

yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

no no no no no no yes no

yes

(continued)

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Table 8.2—Continued Pollen Vicia Mimosoideae Euphorbiaceae Subfamily Festucoideae Sedges Cyperaceae Subfamily Bambusoideae Grasses Subfamily Chlorideae Subfamily Pooideae Subfamily Panicoideae Cactaceae Haageocereus?

Phytolith

yes yes yes

yes

yes

Starch grain

Macrobotanical remains

yes

no no no no

yes yes

yes no

yes yes yes

no no yes yes

Compiled by author.

Therefore, the scarce maize remains at Gramalote and its counterpart from Huaca Prieta–Paredores confirms that at least during the early Initial Period (1600–1100 cal. BC/3550–2050 cal. BP), maize was not a staple food in the fishing settlements of the Moche and Chicama valleys of the Peruvian north coast (see also Burger and Van Der Merwe 1990). The massive presence of not only fruit remains, such as lucuma, pacae, avocado, and cansaboca, but also peanut remains suggests that these plants were regularly available to the Gramalote community. They could have been obtained directly from scattered dry-forest concentrations of trees growing a few miles away from Gramalote, as suggested by the presence of their pollen (mainly lucuma, pacae, and avocado) in soil and artifacts samples found in the site (Table 8.2). On the other hand, peanuts grow inland in the valley, as do the other fruit species mentioned here. It is possible that peanuts and certainly the fruit species were obtained through exchange with contemporary inland valley communities. Although it has been suggested that fruit trees were cultivated since the Late Preceramic Period and during the Initial Period (Towle 1961; Moseley 1975; Shady 2003), no hard data yet support this statement. The abundance of lucuma, avocado, and pacae fruits opens the possibility that inland valley communities may have grown these tree species. A chronological study of the seed sizes over time is needed to confirm or reject this hypothesis. Alternatively, it is plausible

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that the trees could have grown naturally in the valley and in the desertic margins where the water table allowed them to develop. Among the traditional farming communities in the Moche Valley, fruit trees grow naturally around the farmers’ houses, the margins of the agricultural lots, or along the hydraulic canals or rivers. But since the deliberate planting of fruit trees in the previous cases is still arboriculture, the idea of cultivating these species is a strong possibility. Therefore, it is very possible that fruits during the Initial Period were an easily accessible resource to all the inhabitants of the littoral and valley. This situation could explain the massive presence of fruits at sites like Gramalote. Obviously, as happens today, fruits from the inland valley are more desirable because they have a better flavor and size when compared with those growing in the lower sections of the valleys. Similarly, products such as sweet potatoes and manioc were definitely cultivated in the inland valley where the soil conditions were suitable for those species. Therefore, their presence at Gramalote should be interpreted as part of an active exchange system with inland-valley contemporary communities, but not as part of an asymmetric economic relationship as was proposed elsewhere (Pozorski and Pozorski 1979). Beans, squash, and chili peppers are also grown in the inland valley and may be evidence of interaction with inland communities, but as I will demonstrate, it is very possible that these species were also cultivated in the surroundings of the Gramalote site. Evidence of Cultivation on Wetlands around the Gramalote Site

Numerous ethnographic accounts in the Moche Valley referred to traditional fishermen cultivating small gardens next to their houses where they grew primarily squash, beans, chili peppers, tomatoes, and even maize (Begler 1970; Sabogal 1975; Soldi 1982). Today, one can verify that a few families of the town of Huanchaquito where the Gramalote site is located are still cultivating squash, chili peppers, and other species in wetlands next to their houses. In addition, one should consider the fact that today traditional fishermen of Huanchaco and Huanchaquito dig large rectangular sunken gardens to cultivate totora reed (Scirpus californicus) for the materials necessary to make both their reed boats (critical for their fishing activities) and their mats for housing and resting purposes. Indeed, at the nearby Late Intermediate/Late Horizon/Early Colonial Period site of La Joyada, north of Huanchaco, archaeologists found evidence of fishermen cultivating reeds

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Figure 8.5. Modern fisherman from Huanchaco cleaning and shoveling the edges of his sunken totora-reed garden (provided by the author).

in sunken gardens (Kautz and Keatinge 1977: 88). This is not restricted to the north coast. At the Late Horizon fishing settlement of Lo Demás in the Chincha valley (south coast of Peru), evidence of sedge cultivation was found in the commoners’ sector of the site (Sandweiss 1992). Modern fishermen of the Moche Valley do cultivate totora reed, since the sedge demands a 12-month growing period to reach the desired height, thickness, and consistency. During this period, the totora reed requires constant care, which includes clearing the sunken garden from intrusive herbs and other species of reeds that could diminish its size and thickness, building appropriate windbreakers to avoid the fog that burns the reeds, and other tasks (Figure 8.5). All these activities are done in order to get good yields of the totora reeds at harvest (Villalobos 1999). But did the Gramalote fishermen grow reeds, cucurbits, and other food plants in the surrounding wetlands during the second millennium BC? Between the 1960s and the 1980s, there was an active debate about the importance of cultivating large portions of wetlands along the Peruvian coast (Parsons 1968; Rowe 1969; Moseley 1969; Parsons and Psuty 1975). Although the conclusions reached at that time favored the idea that only after the Early Intermediate Period was the cultivation of these extensive areas economically significant for coastal societies, it does not exclude the possibility that wetland cultivation was important to satisfy local-domestic

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demands in small-scale fishing settlements. It is worth considering that a geological process of progradation, which refers to the growth of a river delta farther out into the sea over time, may have resulted in the old wetlands (in this case, Late Preceramic and Initial period) filling in and new ones forming closer to the shore; this would have erased valuable evidence from early farming activity in the wetlands during these periods. In the future, a systematic program of coring could help to identify not only these processes, but perhaps also evidence of farming activities in these areas (Daniel Sandweiss, personal communication, March 2015). Indeed, recent excavations carried out by Tom Dillehay in the wetlands located around Huaca Prieta corroborated what Junius Bird proposed in the 1940s—that Late Preceramic and Initial period fishermen of this site had indeed cultivated the surrounding wetlands (Dillehay et al. 2012; Dillehay et al. 2017). The wetlands located around Gramalote have not yet been tested with archaeological excavations, but a consistent set of 49 samples taken from Gramalote at different occupational levels corresponding to soil samples, as well as ceramic fragments and lithic artifacts, yielded an interesting diversity of starch grains, pollen, and phytoliths of plant species that could have been grown naturally or that may have been cultivated in the surroundings (Table 8.1). The presence of pollen suggests that the source of the plant was in the surroundings, although the pollen of some species can be transported several kilometers by the wind, by animals, or by people bringing back plant parts that have the pollen. The presence of phytoliths suggests that different parts of the plant are present in the site, such as stems, leaves, fruit skin, and so on (Piperno and Pearsall 1993). I mention this because a traditional model of specialized fishermen would imply that what are mainly present in fishing settlements are the usable parts of plants, rather than the whole plant. This is also a practical matter. If a fisherman and his family had to walk several kilometers to contact the communities that produced food plants, it would make sense for them to bring back the least weight possible, which would imply carrying only the fruits, grains, or legumes to avoid extra weight, especially if animal transport were lacking, as was the case for fishing communities during the Initial Period. The highest concentration of pollen and phytoliths remains found at Gramalote indicates a great diversity of grasses and herbs growing in the surroundings of the site as well as numerous sedges, confirming that the ecological conditions during the second millennium BC were similar to those observed today. This is supported by the presence of multiple aquatic diatoms from continental waters, which corroborates the presence

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of freshwater sources in the surroundings of the site. But there is also an interesting number of field invaders (herbs, grasses), which means that when an area was cleared of its natural vegetation, it was covered by invasive, noneconomic plant species. Today, when fishermen clear the surface of wetlands covered by salt grass (Distichlis spicata) to dig their sunken gardens, these areas are soon covered by different herbs (Villalobos 1999). The discovery of the pollen of different field invader herbs in the Gramalote samples—such as Erodium sp., Physalis sp., Phyla sp., Polygalaceae sp., Urocarpidium sp., Mimosoideae, Euphorbiaceae, and a species of grass like a member of the subfamily Panicoideae—strongly suggests the argument that very close to the site, the inhabitants practiced small-scale agriculture based on wetlands systems. Specifically, the inhabitants of this settlement could have first cleared areas for cultivation and then grown different species such as reeds, cucurbits, beans, and perhaps chili peppers. This is supported by the presence of cucurbit, bean, and chili pepper pollen in the samples recovered at Gramalote. Possibly, after the small gardens were harvested, these areas were left behind and the invader herbs could have covered these spaces. Reports from the Moche Valley indicate that during the Austral winter season (roughly, April–September) the water table level along the coastline of the Moche Valley is higher, suggesting that if any gardening activity occurred it should have been during this season (ONERN 1973). Interestingly, winter is the same season in which modern fishermen grow their reeds because during the summer season they spend most of the time fishing offshore, while their relatives are gathering shellfish and other products along the shoreline and the adult women of the community are trading the marine products around the valley. Gardening during the Austral winter season fits well with an emerging food-production calendar for the Initial Period since most of the efforts of the Gramalote inhabitants were concentrated on fishing large fish species and marine mammals that approach the coastline during the Austral summer (October–March). Possibly, during the summer season the gardens were left behind and could have been covered by the abundant invader herbs, present in large quantities in the archaeological record today. But food plants were not the only crops cultivated by the Gramalote fishermen. The abundant presence of gourd shell fragments, seeds, and peduncles contrast with the absence of gourd plant pollen or phytoliths in the sample, although the pollen could be mixed with the cucurbit pollen which is widely present in the site. In any case, today Huanchaquito is one

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of the most important producers of gourds on the north coast of Peru. The cultivation and later trade of gourds is perhaps part of a long-term tradition that was reported at Inca coastal sites of the south-central coast of Peru like Lo Demás in the Chincha Valley (Sandweiss 1992: 144). The modern gourd growers argue that the soil of the surrounding marshlands in Huanchaquito is perfect for gourd plants, which grow with the humidity produced by the high water-table level. Since gourds were used by Gramalote fishermen as net floats, liquid containers, and serving wares, their cultivation must have been a critical activity in the site’s economy. Elsewhere, I have argued that the inhabitants of one of the houses excavated at Gramalote could have been cultivating and processing this plant due to the abundance of gourd remains on the house’s patio (Prieto 2014, 2015). Gourd remains are not only present in the daily life of the Gramalote community, but are also among the few elements included as part of funerary contexts, indicating the importance of this plant in the ideology of this site. A large number of brown cotton fibers (usually shorter than the white cotton fibers), as well as cotton leaves and stems, were found (Gossypium sp.). The results of the pollen found in the Gramalote sample suggest that cotton shrubs grew in the vicinity of Gramalote. Cotton pollen does not move very far from the plant itself due to its weight (Oosterhuis and Jernstedt 1999). Its presence in the soil of the site plus the discovery of cotton leaves, stems, and the abundance of the brown fiber are strong evidence to suggest that at least this brown species was locally obtained. Recent botanical surveys confirmed the presence of local varieties of brown cotton growing today along the arid coastline of the north coast of Peru (Fernandez et al. 2003). In 1974 William Conklin noticed while studying the textile collection from the Gramalote site that almost all the fishing lines and fishnets were made using a brown cotton fiber (Conklin 1974). My analysis of the fishing implements recovered during the field seasons of 2010, 2011, and 2014 corroborates Conklin’s conclusions about the uses of the brown cotton fiber for fishing gear. The explanation is that the brown cotton is thicker and therefore more resistant to the saltwater of the ocean. Indeed, local fishermen showed me a wild cotton shrub that is still growing in the vicinity of the Gramalote site. I was told that, in the past, local families had a brown cotton shrub close to their houses so that they could use the fiber for different types of cordages and fishing lines. It is not unreasonable to think that, during the Gramalote times, inhabitants had brown cotton shrubs in the vicinity to satisfy their demands, primarily to manufacture their fishing devices. On the other hand, it is remarkable that most of the

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woven and twined fabrics recovered at Gramalote were made using white cotton, indicating that the brown cotton fiber could have been exclusively used for fishing devices. Although it is difficult to demonstrate archaeologically that totora reed was cultivated instead of simply being collected in marshlands, it is possible that during the early Initial Period, the necessity of making reed mats or totora reed boats demanded the cultivation of this species. Today, wild totora reed reaches a maximum of 2 m high (Roman 1967). On the other hand, cultivated totora grows from 3.5 to 4 m high, at least 1.5 m longer than in its wild state (Villalobos 1999). The difference in the size could be the result of a genetic modification or simply the better conditions in which totora reeds grow in sunken gardens. This is an open question for the future, and more detailed analysis should be carried out at least with the Gramalote sample to learn more about the totora cultivation in the past. Traditional fishermen said that totora stems must be at least 3 m high in order to make a reed boat. Totora reed was also important for matting. One household at Gramalote seems to have been engaged in weaving baskets and mats out of totora reeds (Prieto 2015). The excavation of the houses in the domestic sector of the site produced a number of fragments of reed mats that could have been used for resting and other domestic activities (Prieto 2018a). It is likely that the roofs of the Gramalote houses were of totora reed mats. Thereby, totora reed was a critical source for the local economy and it is quite possible that annual cultivation of this species was required to guarantee its constant provision for the inhabitants of the site. The frequency of reed fragments in the archaeological deposits and the high presence of pollen and phytoliths indicate that this plant was heavily used in Gramalote. Indeed, I suggest that, without cultivating this species, it would not have been possible to have met the demand of the inhabitants of this settlement. The gardens were plowed, sowed, and harvested using a very simple technology. For food plants such as cucurbits (including gourds), beans, and chili peppers, it was important to find areas in the marshlands where the water table level was far enough below the surface to allow the seeds or plants to develop. For industrial plants, specifically the totora reed, it was necessary to find areas where the water table was high. Therefore, a sense of management and spatial distribution of the cultivated plants should have played a critical role for a successful harvest. The presence of simple tools in the archaeological deposits, such as digging sticks and stone hoes, suggests that the Gramalote inhabitants used these kinds of tools for their gardening activities (Figure 8.6).

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Figure 8.6. Lithic tools (hoes) associated with agricultural activities found at Gramalote (provided by the author).

Discussion

The evidence presented here suggests that plant cultivation in wetlands was a critical activity for the Gramalote maritime community. Perhaps the most important cultigen was the totora reed since it was use for manufacturing reed boats for offshore fishing activities as well as for housing and for making baskets and mats. In addition, the Gramalote fishermen cultivated beans, squash, and chili peppers for local consumption in the vicinity of their settlement. These species complemented a diet rich in marine proteins, which was also supplemented by traded inland-valley products such as manioc, sweet potatoes, avocados, peanuts, and different fruits. This model counters the perspective that all Late Preceramic and Initial Period Prehispanic fishermen were full-time specialists devoted uniquely to maritime activities and not cultivating the land. The model becomes a strong possibility when suitable conditions, like the presence of wetlands/ marshlands in the past, can be demonstrated archaeologically. Although maritime activities were a primary source for subsistence and identity among the Gramalote fishermen, wetland agriculture seems to have been a critical part of their daily activities at least on the north coast of Peru during the early Initial Period and perhaps during the Late

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Preceramic Period (3,500–1,200/800 cal. BC [5450–3150/2750 cal BP]). This long period of small-scale agriculture was not transformed into a systematic activity that produced surplus managed by emergent leaders. On the contrary, it was a domestic activity designed to fill subsistence necessities according to the fishermen’s own needs. Indeed, it seems that for early north coast fishermen groups, offshore fishing activities could not have been performed without a well-planned cultivation of totora reed, since this plant was critical for the manufacture of boats. In addition, the processing of a brown cotton species that was grown close to the shoreline was crucial for the manufacture of fishnets and fishing lines. This statement suggests alternative models to the idea that early fishermen depended on cotton growers in the middle valleys in the performance of their maritime subsistence activities. The presence of cotton leaves, stems, and even seeds at Gramalote corroborate this idea. Indeed, if cotton was a valued commodity or a strategic resource to control coastal populations, why are there many cotton seeds in places like Gramalote? One would expect a higher control over cotton seeds by inland authorities, especially if cotton grows better in sandy acid soils like the ones present along the coastline in northern Peru (ONERN 1973). Fishing among early Initial Period fishermen relied on the local cultivation of certain plants to guarantee its success. The Gramalote evidence indicates that fishermen were able to cultivate and manage gourd, reeds, and even a more resistant species of cotton by themselves, rather than depend on inland chiefs to obtain these plants for the success of their maritime enterprises. In terms of subsistence, the carbohydrate input in the diet could have been filled with squash, beans, and chili peppers locally grown and perhaps by collecting fruits from tree relicts located in the surrounding of the site. Since other food plants like manioc, sweet potatoes, fruits, and peanuts seems to be important in the Gramalote diet, their presence could be the result of a trading network established between fishing and farming communities, instead of an asymmetric relationship of farmers controlling the means of production (that is, cotton) and the carbohydrate input into the fishermen’s diet. Therefore, the fishermen’s garden became a critical resource for the maintenance and continuity of their maritime economic activities. As I was told once by an elder from Huanchaco: “A fisherman could be tending his nets in the ocean during the morning and taking care of his sunken gardens in the afternoon; one activity could not be accomplished if the other is abandoned.”

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Haas, J., and W. Creamer 2006 Crucible of Andean Civilization. Current Anthropology 47(5): 645–775. Haas, J., W. Creamer, and A. Ruiz 2004 Power and the Emergence of Complex Polities in the Peruvian Preceramic. In Foundations of Power in Prehispanic Andes, vol. 14, edited by K. Vaughn, K. Ogburn, and C. Conlee, pp. 37–52. Published by the American Anthropological Association, Arlington, VA. Huaman, L. 2012 Analisis de Fitolitos y Granos de Almidon en Sedimentos, Liticos y Ceramicos del Proyecto Arqueológico Pampas Gramalote (Huanchaco, La Libertad). Laboratorio de Palinologia y Paleobotanica. Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima. Kautz, R., and R. W. Keatinge 1977 Determining Site Function: A North Peruvian Coastal Example. American Antiquity 42(1): 87–97. Lanning, E. 1967 Peru before the Incas. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Lavallée, D., and M. Julien 2012 Prehistoria de la Costa Extremo-Sur del Peru. Los Pescadores Arcaicos de la Quebrada de los Burros (10000–7000 a.P.). Travaux de l’Institut Français d’Etudes Andines 297. Instituto Frances de Estudios Andinos and Fondo Editorial PUCP, Lima. Maldonado, A. 1943 Las lagunas de Boza, Chilca y Huacachina y los gramadales de la costa del Peru. Reimpreso de las “Actas y Trabajos del Segundo Congreso Peruano de Quimica,” Ica, Peru. Marcus, J. 1987 Prehistoric Fishermen in the Kingdom of Huarco. American Scientist 75(4): 393– 401. Moseley, M. 1969 Assesing the Archaeological Significance of Mahamaes. American Antiquity 34(4): 485–487. 1975 The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization. Cummings, Menlo Park, CA. 1999 Andean Coastal Adaptations: Uniformitarianism and Multilinear Evolution. In Pacific Latin American in Prehistory, edited by M. Blake, pp. 171–179. Washington State University Press, Pullman, WA. Moseley, M. E., and E. Deeds 1982 The Land in Front of Chan Chan: Agrarian Expansion, Reform, and Collapse in the Moche Valley. In Chan Chan: Andean Desert City, edited by Michael E. Moseley and Kent C. Day, pp. 25–53. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. ONERN (Oficina Nacional de Evaluación de Recursos Naturales) 1973 Inventario, Evaluación y Uso Racional de los Recursos Naturales de la Costa. Cuenca del Rio Moche I. Presidencia de la Republica, Oficina Nacional de Evaluación de Recursos Naturales, Lima.

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Oosterhuis, D., and J. Jernstedt 1999 Morphology and Anatomy of the Cotton Plant. In Cotton. Origin, History, Technology and Production, edited by W. Smith and T. Cothren, pp. 175–206. Wiley, New York. Osborn, A. 1977 Strandloopers, Mermaids and Other Fairy Tales: Ecological Determinants of Marine Resource Utilization—The Peruvian Case. In For Theory Building in Archaeology, edited by L. R. Binford, pp. 157–205. Academic Press, New York. Paredes, R. 2018 Paleoethnobotany of the Early Initial Period of Gramalote in Northern Peru. Economic Botany 72(1): 94–106. Parsons, J. 1968 The Archaeological Significance of Mahamaes Cultivation on the North Coast of Peru. American Antiquity 33(1): 80–85. Parsons, J., and N. Psuty 1975 Sunken Fields and Prehispanic Subsistence on the Peruvian Coast. American Antiquity 40(3): 259–282. Patterson, T. 1971 Central Peru: Its Population and Economy. Archaeology 24(4): 316–321. Piperno, D., and D. Pearsall 1993 Current Research in Phytolith Analysis: Applications in Archaeology and Paleoecology. MASCA Research Papers in Science and Archaeology, Vol. 10. University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Pozorski, S., and T. Pozorski 1979 An Early Subsistence Exchange System in the Moche Valley, Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 6(4): 413–432. Prieto, G. 2014 The Early Initial Period Fishing Settlement of Gramalote, Moche Valley: A Preliminary Report. Peruvian Prehistory 1(1): 1–46. 2015 Gramalote: Domestic Life, Economy and Ritual Practices of a Prehispanic Maritime Community. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT. 2018a The Social Dynamics and Economic Interactions of the Household at Gramalote, a Small-Scale Residential Settlement during the Second Millennium BC on the North Coast of Peru. Latin American Antiquity 29(3): 532–551. 2018b The Temple of the Fishermen: Early Ceremonial Architecture at Gramalote, a Residential Settlement of the Second Millenium B.C., North Coast of Peru. Journal of Field Archaeology 43(3): 200–221. Prieto, G., V. Wright, R. Burger, C. Cooke, E. Zeballos-Velasquez, A. Watanave, M. Suchomel, and L. Suescun 2016 The Source, Processing and Use of Red Pigment Based on Hematite and Cinnabar at Gramalote, an Early Initial Period (1500–1200 cal. B.C.) Maritime Community, North Coast of Peru. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 5: 45–60.

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Quilter, J. 1991 Late Preceramic Peru. Journal of World Prehistory 5(4): 387–438. Quilter, J., and T. Stocker 1983 Subsistence Economies and the Origins of Andean Complex Societies. American Anthropologist 85(3): 545–562. Rabinowitz, J. 1983 Lengua Pescadora. The Lost Dialect of Chimu Fishermen. In Investigations of the Andean Past. Papers from the First Annual Northeast Conference on Andean Archaeology and Ethnohistory, edited by D. H. Sandweiss, pp. 243–267. Ithaca, NY. Ramírez, S. 1995 De Pescadores y Agricultores: Una Historia Local de la Gente del Valle de Chicama antes de 1565. Boletín del Instituto Frances de Estudios Andinos 24(2): 245– 279. Raymond, J. 1981 The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization: A Reconsideration of the Evidence. American Antiquity 46(4): 806–821. Roman, M. 1967 Estudio de la Vegetaci ón Ribereña del Rio Moche. Facultad de Ciencias Biol ógicas, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Trujillo, Peru. Rostworowski, M. 1975 Pescadores, Artesanos y Mercaderes costeños en el Peru Prehispanico. Revista del Museo Nacional XLI: 311–349. 1981 Recursos naturales renovables y pesca. Siglos XVI y XVII. IEP, Lima. 2004 Costa peruana prehispánica. Instituto Peruano de Estudios Andinos (IEP), Lima. Rowe, J. 1969 The Sunken Gardens of the Peruvian Coast. American Antiquity 34(3): 320–325. Sabogal, J. 1975 La persistencia de una cultura: los Chimos contemporaneos. In CHIMOR. Una antología sobre el valle de Chicama, pp. 3–30. Instituto Indigenista Americano, Ciudad de Mexico. Sandweiss, D. 1992 The Archaeology of Chincha Fishermen: Specialization and Status in Inka Peru. Bulletin of Carnegie Museum of Natural History 29. Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA. 1996 The Development of Fishing Specialization on the Andean Coast. In Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Fishing Strategies, edited by M. G. Plew, pp. 41–63. Boise State University, Boise, ID. 2008 Early Fishing Societies in Western South America. In Handbook of South American Archaeology, edited by H. Silverman and W. Isbell, pp. 145–156. Springer, New York. 2009 Early Fishing and Inland Monuments. Challenging the Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization? In Andean Civilization. A Tribute to Michael E. Moseley, edited by Joyce Marcus and Patrick Ryan Williams, pp. 39–54. Monograph 63,

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9 The Ethnogenesis of Pescador Identity The Implications of Biodistance Analyses of Initial Period (1500–1200 BC) Human Remains from Gramalote, Peru, for our Understanding of the Social and Economic Dynamics of Ancient Andean Maritime Communities

Richard C. Sutter and Gabriel Prieto

It is clear that boundaries persist despite a flow of personnel across them. In other words, categorical ethnic distinctions do not depend on an absence of mobility, contact, and information, but do entail social processes of exclusion and incorporation whereby discrete categories are maintained despite changing participation and membership in the course of individual life histories. Secondly, one finds that stable, persisting, and often vitally important social relations are maintained across such boundaries, and are frequently based precisely on the dichotomized ethnic statuses. That is, ethnic distinctions do not depend on an absence of social interaction and acceptance, but are, quite to the contrary, often the very foundations on which embracing social systems are built (Barth 1969: 9–10). Ethnogensis is the process by which ethnic groups are formed and continuously change (Roosens 1989). While nearly all scholars agree that ethnic identity often involves assigning importance to perceived affinities among individuals as well as some sense of differences among groups (Barth 1969; Bentley 1987; Drummond 1980; Southall 1976; Yinger 1994), ethnicity remains a difficult concept to define and is influenced by a multitude of factors (Barth 1969; Carr and Neitzel 1995; Yinger 1994). Further, defining and identifying ethnic groups presents unique challenges for those trying to apply the concept to the archaeological record (Aldenderfer and Stanish 1993; Bawden 1993; Bermann 1994; Stovel 2013). Although ethnically based group affinities and differences are often expressed culturally through both material objects and

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shared, group-specific behavior (Bentley 1987; Bourdieu 1977), there is no a priori reason to assume that any given culturally based behavior (that is, artifact manufacture and use, archaeological features, cranial deformation, and so on) will be an indicator of group affiliation (Sutter 2005). This is because group formation and affiliation have been shown to often be situational (Geary 1983). Indeed, there may be different social contexts that evoke different group affiliations (Bentley 1987; Cohen 1981) and instances when individuals will hold multiple ethnic identities that are not necessarily mutually exclusive (Keyes 1976). The importance and distinctiveness of Peruvian fisherfolk, or pescadores, and their complementary role in coastal valley economies feature prominently in a number of early ethnohistoric accounts, and archaeological evidence indicates that large permanent fishing communities existed for centuries before. What is unclear is the degree to which, if any, these communities remained genetically distinct from other contemporaneous inland communities. In her seminal work, Rostworowski (1976, 1977, 1981) contends that coastal polities and communities developed from independent pescador coastal traditions with considerable time depth. These coastal populations relied heavily upon marine resources as a source of food and trade, and were characterized by their own languages and belief systems, and—according to Rostworowski—pertained to politically autonomous, indigenously evolved, coastal señoríos (local kingdoms) that traded extensively in dried fish, Spondylus shells, guano, and other marine resources with their adjacent agropastoral coastal valley neighbors. This view evokes a fairly essentialist perspective on pescadores and pescador ethnic identity. In contrast, Ramírez’s (1995) work, while largely supporting much of Rostworowski’s assertions regarding the economic importance and persistence of pescador traditions on the north coast of Peru, provides a more subtle understanding of the fluidity of pescador and agricultor identities during the early Colonial Period by documenting how such identities were not neat dichotomies. Rather, individuals often supplemented their subsistence by participating in differing economic activities, and would sometimes shift their economic focus during times of environmental disturbance. Here we report preliminary biodistance analyses for 42 individuals from the north coast, early Initial Period (1500–1200 BC) fishing community of Gramalote of the Moche Valley (see Prieto, this volume) by first placing them into a broader evolutionary context, and then discussing their

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relative similarity or distinctiveness from other roughly contemporaneous and subsequent populations from the region. In doing so, we hope to also shed light on the emergence of pescador ethnic identity. We begin by briefly describing previous research on the population dynamics for the central Andes and the archaeological background for Gramalote. Prehistoric Population Dynamics of the Andes

The late Christy Turner’s (1983, 1985, 1990) research on nonmetric tooth and cusp trait variation provided some of the first systematic models for the peopling of the Americas. He based his tripartite model, or three-wave model, for the peopling of the Americas on his identification of two broad suites of tooth-trait complexes that he referred to as Sundadonty—which he suggested was more ancient—and Sinodonty. In brief, the Sundadont tooth-trait complex is typified by lower frequencies of genetically influenced tooth cusp and root traits and tends to characterize South East Asian and Pacific Island peoples. Sinodont populations, on the other hand, are typified by higher frequencies of complex cusps and roots. According to Turner’s seminal work, all Northeast Asian and Native American populations—including South Americans—are characterized by Sinodonty. As important as his research was, he lumped all South Americans of all regions and time periods into a single sample, thereby glossing over any subtleties in tooth-trait variation and prehistoric population dynamics for the continent. Further, most dental anthropologists—including one of the authors of this chapter—have questioned Turner’s typological Sundadonty/ Sinodonty dichotomy and instead use the terms to describe polar extremes along what represents a range of tooth-trait variation. As part of a broader research program on the prehistoric peopling of the Andes and South America, Sutter has previously reported (Sutter 2009b) on tooth-trait variation for more than 3,500 prehistoric Andeans representing 52 well-provenienced samples. Counter to Turner’s assertion that South America and the Andes were peopled by a single sinodont migratory wave, Sutter has documented that a geotemporal variation existed that suggests Andean Paleoindians and their Preceramic descendants were largely replaced by a demographically driven wave of gene flow associated with the expansion of food-producing populations who interbred with neighboring foragers. This demographically driven wave began earliest in the northern Andes and proceeded south toward the Southern Cone where its impact was dramatically reduced due to a smaller population size and

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density—relative to the Central Andes—and the reduced agricultural productivity in the Atacama Desert region. In a pending manuscript, Sutter (in press) reports on the comparison of his biodistance results to hypothetical genetic models for the peopling of the Andes that include a single migratory wave, the complete replacement of Paleoindian and Preceramic populations by food producers, and the more subtle demic expansion model. When expected geographic variation is removed, both the complete replacement and demic expansion models are highly correlated with the biodistance results. However, further testing that removes the impact of each competing model indicates that the demic expansion model significantly outperforms the complete replacement model. Given the tooth-trait variation and biodistance results for prehistoric Andeans, one of us hypothesized (Sutter 2009a, in press) that the timing of this demic expansion corresponds with the shift to food production in the northern Andes that began some time during the Late Preceramic and then subsequently expanded southward. Accordingly, Initial Period and Early Horizon populations of the central Andes would already be characterized by relatively higher frequencies of Sinodont tooth traits. However, until now, what has been lacking are well-provenienced skeletal populations from the Initial Period. The 42 individuals excavated by Gabriel Prieto at the Initial Period site Gramalote, therefore, provide a unique opportunity to further examine both the timing of the demographically driven expansion of food producers and their relative similarity or distinctiveness from other roughly contemporaneous and subsequent populations from the region. Further, by examining Gramalote’s relations to the region’s subsequent populations, we might also shed light on the nature of the origins of pescador identity. The Gramalote Site

As described elsewhere in this volume (see Prieto in this volume), the site of Gramalote was an Initial Period fishing community located in the Moche Valley, near the modern city of Trujillo and 2 km south of the fishing village of Huanchaco (Prieto 2018a and b). The site is located along a plateau that runs parallel to the coast, 13 m above sea level and 250 m from the shoreline covering approximately 3.5 ha and was strategically located nearby to both marine and other important resources (Prieto 2018a). Faunal remains clearly indicate that marine resources were both consumed and processed

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at Gramalote, with an abundance of clams, mussels, sharks, stingrays, sea mammals, and sea birds having been consumed and processed at the site (Prieto 2015). However, agricultural products were also recovered from the site, clearly indicating that inhabitants of Gramalote engaged in complementary exchange relations with inland agriculturalists. As described elsewhere, both the grave offerings and ritual caches of marine animals at Gramalote speak to the emergence of maritime rituals and ceremonial traditions that may represent the long-enduring antecedents of subsequent north coast pescador ceremonial traditions (Prieto 2018b). Over the course of two field seasons, a total of 42 individuals were excavated from domestic and ceremonial structures. The examination of the genetically influenced tooth cusp and root traits of those individuals represents the basis of this chapter. Materials and Methods

Data for 31 nonmetric tooth traits were recorded for the human remains from Gramalote using standardized casts and descriptions (Turner et al. 1991), and were then used to derive estimates of genetic distance and variation among a select number of skeletal samples from the region. In addition to the skeletal remains from Gramalote, dental trait data for 18 samples were selected based either upon their temporal relevance or their geographic proximity (Table 9.1). Detailed discussions of sample composition can be found in previous publications (Sutter 2009 a and b; Sutter and Cortez 2005). In order to make dental trait scores reported here comparable to those reported in other studies, teeth were scored according to the “individual count” method described by Turner and Scott (1977); in cases where an individual exhibited asymmetry in the expression of a given trait the greatest level of expression is used. Prior to conducting biodistance analyses, traits with fewer than 10 observations per skeletal sample were eliminated. This resulted in the retention of 16 tooth cusp and root traits. Additionally, those individuals who were missing observations for more than 25 percent of the remaining traits were eliminated from analyses. This study estimates levels of genetic diversity (FST) (Relethford 1996, 2003; Relethford and Blangero 1990; Relethford et al. 1997; WilliamsBlangero 1989 a and b; Williams-Blangero and Blangero 1989) and genetic distances between the samples being studied using the R- (relational) matrix method (Relethford 2003; Relethford and Blangero 1990; Relethford

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Table 9.1. Information regarding the 19 prehistoric Andean skeletal samples examined by this study Sample Size

Time Period

Throughout Andes

34

Pre-8000 BC

Moche III–IV

31

AD 300–500

Cotton Preceramic

40

3100–1800 BC

52 65 128 93 76 37

1550–1250 BC ~300–200 BC ~200–100 BC ~100 BC–AD 1 AD 1–200 AD 300–600

63 42

AD 200–600 AD 600–650

Cotton Preceramic

28

2850–1950 BC

Late Preceramic Middle Preceramic Late Preceramic Late Preceramic

28 92 23 31

1900–1733 BC 5700–2800 BC 1800–1733 BC 3000–1262 BC

Early Horizon–Paracas Early Horizon–Paracas Early Horizon–Paracas

46 50 31

~400–200 BC ~400–200 BC ~400–200 BC

Skeletal Sample/Location

Affiliation

1) Paleoindian Jequetepeque Valley 2) Pacatnamú Chicama Valley 3) Huaca Prieta Moche Valley 4) Gramalote 5) Cerro Oreja 6) Cerro Oreja 7) Cerro Oreja 8) Cerro Oreja 9) Huaca de la Luna 10) Huaca de la Luna 11) Huaca de la Luna Tablachanca Valley 12) La Galgada Central Peruvian Coast 13) Rio Seco 14) Paloma 15) Chilca I 16) Asia Paracas Penninsula 17) Paracas I 18) Cabezas Largas 19) Faldas

Initial Period Salinar (Sal) Early Gallinazo (G1) Middle Gallinazo (G2) Late Gallinazo (G3) Moche IV–Urban Sector (US) Moche III–IV–Platforms Moche IV–Plaza 3A

Compiled by authors.

et al. 1997) using a code written by Lyle Konigsberg for the open-source statistical program R. The R-matrix provides an estimate of sample variability and the degree of similarity to other samples being compared. The R-matrix analysis provides phenetic distances (the Mahalanobis distance), which reveal the patterns of genetic relatedness primarily due to gene flow and ancestral-descent relationships among the samples, as well as estimates of the effects of genetic drift and gene flow, or FST. Theoretically, those populations that frequently shared mates will be characterized by smaller distances between them than those populations that rarely shared mates,

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while populations that frequently shared mates should have small FST values (populations exhibiting no differences between them will have an FST = 0), and comparisons between those that rarely shared mates will have large FST values. The Mahalanobis generalized distance (d2) for binary epigenetic traits (Konigsberg 1990) is calculated as a biodistance measure between two skeletal samples, which represents the minimum genetic distance between two groups being compared (Williams-Blangero 1989b). For this chapter, we subject the resulting biodistance matrix to multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis using 2 dimensions for the purposes of interpretability (Kruskal and Wish 1984). Results of Biodistance Analyses

For the purposes of biodistance comparisons, trait reduction or winnowing was first necessary because some of the comparative samples exhibited excessive missing values. This resulted in the retention of only nine tooth cusp and root traits. However, examination of the full battery of traits present for the Gramalote skeletal sample (not presented here for the sake of brevity) indicates relatively intermediate to high frequencies of shoveling, double shoveling, and other traits that represent increased molar cusp and root size, number, and complexity. R-matrix Results

The FST for the 19 prehistoric skeletal samples is 0.019 (se = 0.006), and differs significantly from 0.0 (p < 0.05). These levels of genetic variability are similar to values reported for other prehistoric skeletal populations (see Nystrom 2006; Stojanowski 2005) and indicate that there was relatively little genetic isolation among any of the subset of samples used in this more limited comparison. The biodistances resulting from the R-matrix analysis are presented in Tables 9.2a and 9.2b. If the relationships between Gramalote and the other regionally and temporally relevant samples are examined, it is apparent that the Gramalote sample is most similar (values