Economy, Monumentalism, and Paleoecology at Huaca Prieta, Peru

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

Interdisciplinary research, headed by the field of archeology and directed by Dr. Tom D. Dillehay of Vanderbilt University and a team of Peruvian archeologists and paleo-ecologists, will study the long-term interaction of humans and environments on the desert north coast of Peru. The research team is comprised of archeologists, geologists, geneticists, botanists, zoologists, and other scientists who will study the long-term dynamics of the socio-economic and environmental systems of mixed maritime/inland hunters and gatherers and horticulturalists at the middle Holocene (ca. 7,000-4,000 years ago) site of Huaca Prieta. This site not only contains a well-preserved archeological and paleo-ecological record that offers insights into varied early social and ecological interactions of ancient hunters/gatherers/farmers but also into the beginnings of early Andean civilization. How people at this early coastal site adapted to drastic environmental changes (i.e., droughts, El Nino floods, earthquakes, tsunamis), and what factors led to increased social and economic complexity and to a complementary maritime/inland foraging and horticultural economy are the specific subjects of study. A better understanding of these issues will afford comparison with similar and dissimilar human and environmental interactions in other areas of the world during other time periods. The proposed study will document hunter-gatherer and early farmer subsistence, social organization, mound-building, and technology of a human population during the middle Holocene period. It is during this period that gradual adaptation to varied environmental resource zones (Pacific littoral, desert plains, foothills of the Andes) are believed to have set in motion events that gave rise to early social and economic features, which laid some foundations for later Andean civilizations. Among the key research questions are the following: How are intensive landscapes shaped by such key factors as temporal and spatial climate variation? What kinds of cumulative impacts to natural resources arise from the intensified use of the maritime/terrestrial ecosystems? How do maritime and terrestrial intensification and human demography interact and influence each other in this context? How does long-term maritime and terrestrial food production relate to social systems of behavior, especially mortuary practices and the construction of a monumental landscape? Finally, how can we assess the potential sustainability of this particular socio-ecosystem over time? These questions are not only of widespread anthropological interest; they also lie at the center of long-standing debates in economic, human ecological, and agricultural histories and in our understanding of human and environmental interactions today. The proposed research has broader impacts as well. Publications will be prepared and submitted to academic journals in English and Spanish, but additional information will be presented in electronic form. A bilingual database for the site will be linked to Vanderbilt University's web site. The training of Peruvian (Universidad Nacional de Trujillo and Pontificia Universidad Católica Perú) and other students and a community outreach program with the nearby town of Magdalena de Cao is planned to help develop ecotourism and archeological tourism.