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. 2017 May 24;3(5):e1602778.
doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1602778. eCollection 2017 May.

Simple technologies and diverse food strategies of the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene at Huaca Prieta, Coastal Peru

Tom D Dillehay  1 , Steve Goodbred  2 , Mario Pino  3 , Víctor F Vásquez Sánchez  4 , Teresa Rosales Tham  5 , James Adovasio  6 , Michael B Collins  7   8 , Patricia J Netherly  1 , Christine A Hastorf  9 , Katherine L Chiou  9 , Dolores Piperno  10   11 , Isabel Rey  12 , Nancy Velchoff  7
Affiliations

Simple technologies and diverse food strategies of the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene at Huaca Prieta, Coastal Peru

Tom D Dillehay et al. Sci Adv. .

Abstract

Simple pebble tools, ephemeral cultural features, and the remains of maritime and terrestrial foods are present in undisturbed Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene deposits underneath a large human-made mound at Huaca Prieta and nearby sites on the Pacific coast of northern Peru. Radiocarbon ages indicate an intermittent human presence dated between ~15,000 and 8000 calendar years ago before the mound was built. The absence of fishhooks, harpoons, and bifacial stone tools suggests that technologies of gathering, trapping, clubbing, and exchange were used primarily to procure food resources along the shoreline and in estuarine wetlands and distant mountains. The stone artifacts are minimally worked unifacial stone tools characteristic of several areas of South America. Remains of avocado, bean, and possibly cultivated squash and chile pepper are also present, suggesting human transport and consumption. Our new findings emphasize an early coastal lifeway of diverse food procurement strategies that suggest detailed observation of resource availability in multiple environments and a knowledgeable economic organization, although technologies were simple and campsites were seemingly ephemeral and discontinuous. These findings raise questions about the pace of early human movement along some areas of the Pacific coast and the level of knowledge and technology required to exploit maritime and inland resources.

Keywords: Peru; chile pepper; early Holocene Huaca Prieta; early peopling; late Pleistocene; simple stone tools.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Location map of the study area and paleoshorelines at 15,000 and 10,000 cal yr B.P.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Huaca Prieta mound situated on the Sangamon Terrace (buried terrace surface with Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene cultural deposits is indicated by dotted line below the mound).
Arrows show location of individual units excavated from the top of the mound down through and to the buried cultural deposits in the terrace. Scale shown by humans standing on the mounds. (Photo Credit: Tom D. Dillehay, Vanderbilt University)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Stratigraphic profile of Unit 12 showing early basal cultural deposits and radiocarbon dates.
(Photo Credit: Tom D. Dillehay, Vanderbilt University)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. Burned and other cultural features and unifacial basalt flakes in Layer 20, Unit 12.
(Photo Credit: Tom D. Dillehay, Vanderbilt University)
Fig. 5
Fig. 5. Unifacial basalt flakes most representative of 15,000 to 13,500 cal yr B.P. deposits showing marked platforms and bulbs of percussion (arrows).
Photo Credit: Tom D. Dillehay, Vanderbilt University)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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