Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Research History, Methods, and Site Types
- 3 Pleistocene and Holocene Environments from the Zaña to the Chicama Valleys 25,000 to 6,000 Years Ago
- 4 El Palto Phase (13800–9800 BP)
- 5 Las Pircas Phase (9800–7800 BP)
- 6 Tierra Blanca Phase (7800–5000 BP)
- 7 Preceramic Mounds and Hillside Villages
- 8 Human Remains
- 9 Preceramic Plant Gathering, Gardening, and Farming
- 10 Faunal Remains
- 11 Technologies and Material Culture
- 12 Settlement and Landscape Patterns
- 13 Foraging to Farming and Community Development
- 14 Northern Peruvian Early and Middle Preceramic Agriculture in Central and South American Contexts
- 15 Conclusions
- Appendix 1 Radiocarbon Dates for All Preceramic Phases and Subphases
- Appendix 2 Dry Forest Biomes of the Coastal Valleys and Lower Western Slopes in Northwestern Peru
- Appendix 3 Stable Carbon Isotopes
- Appendix 4 Faunal Species Present in Preceramic Assemblages by Phase in the Jequetepeque and Zaña Valleys
- References
- Index
- Plate section
3 - Pleistocene and Holocene Environments from the Zaña to the Chicama Valleys 25,000 to 6,000 Years Ago
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Research History, Methods, and Site Types
- 3 Pleistocene and Holocene Environments from the Zaña to the Chicama Valleys 25,000 to 6,000 Years Ago
- 4 El Palto Phase (13800–9800 BP)
- 5 Las Pircas Phase (9800–7800 BP)
- 6 Tierra Blanca Phase (7800–5000 BP)
- 7 Preceramic Mounds and Hillside Villages
- 8 Human Remains
- 9 Preceramic Plant Gathering, Gardening, and Farming
- 10 Faunal Remains
- 11 Technologies and Material Culture
- 12 Settlement and Landscape Patterns
- 13 Foraging to Farming and Community Development
- 14 Northern Peruvian Early and Middle Preceramic Agriculture in Central and South American Contexts
- 15 Conclusions
- Appendix 1 Radiocarbon Dates for All Preceramic Phases and Subphases
- Appendix 2 Dry Forest Biomes of the Coastal Valleys and Lower Western Slopes in Northwestern Peru
- Appendix 3 Stable Carbon Isotopes
- Appendix 4 Faunal Species Present in Preceramic Assemblages by Phase in the Jequetepeque and Zaña Valleys
- References
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
The record of human history in the region from the Zaña Valley to the northern edge of the Chicama Valley from 13,000 to 5000 bp is unique in South American prehistory. It spans eight millennia and is documented by more than 1,200 sites (Dillehay et al. 2009; Chauchat et al. 1998). From valley to valley, the majority of these sites are strikingly arrayed in a north to south pattern on the lower slopes of the western cordillera. During this long period, human groups lived in and utilized the resources of dry forest environments located today between the lower valley floor and 1,200 m. above sea level. Other, apparently more scattered, populations concentrated on the resources of the littoral, the river estuaries, and other coastal wetlands. At the Last Glacial Maximum at the beginning of this long period, the shoreline was ~20 km to the west of its present location because sea level was 100 m lower than at present (Rein et al. 2005; Fig. 3.1). Sea level gradually rose some 100 m (330 feet) to near its present level by the end of this period in the mid-Holocene.
Other than the botanical and faunal clues found in the archaeological deposits themselves – bones, shell, macro-botanical remains, pollen, phytoliths, and starch grains – there is little direct evidence besides the settlement pattern from which the favorableness of the environment can be inferred.
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- Chapter
- Information
- From Foraging to Farming in the AndesNew Perspectives on Food Production and Social Organization, pp. 43 - 76Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011