Middle Preceramic Public and Residential Sites on the Forested Slope of the Western Andes, Northern Peru

1989 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 733-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom. D. Dillehay ◽  
Patricia J. Netherly ◽  
Jack Rossen
Keyword(s):  
Western Slope ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Alluvial Fans ◽  
Extractive Agent ◽  
Plant Resources ◽  
Mineral Supplement ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
Small Streams ◽  
Local Manifestation ◽  
Northern Peru

A decade of intermittent archaeological research in the upper Zaña Valley in northern Peru has documented an intensive Middle Preceramic period (ca. 6000—4200 B.C.) occupation in the tropical-forest and thorn-forest ecotone on the western Andean slopes. This research has revealed one stratified nonresidential site (the Cementerio de Nanchoc), characterized by dual earth mounds, and a complex of small, preceramic residential sites in the Nanchoc branch of the valley. The nonresidential site is associated with the production of lime, probably used as a mineral supplement to the diet or as an extractive agent with coca leaves. Evidence recovered from residential sites shows that incipient horticulturists, documented by the presence of several species of cultigens, and unspecialized hunters and gathers lived in scattered households located along small streams in alluvial fans above the valley floor. A unifacial lithic technology and a diversified ground-stone technology attest to an economy primarily adapted to plant resources. The preceramic culture of the upper Zaña Valley is interpreted as a local manifestation of an early western-slope-forest cultural tradition associated with the development of a specialized public precinct and the adoption and intensification of agriculture.

scholarly journals Climate-Driven Dietary Change on the Colorado Plateau, USA, and Implications for Gender-Specific Foraging Patterns

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Lisbeth A. Louderback
Keyword(s):  
Colorado Plateau ◽  
Diet Breadth ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Drop Out ◽  
Foraging Strategies ◽  
Plant Resources ◽  
The North ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
Dietary Choices ◽  
Early And Middle Holocene

Complementary archaeological and paleoenvironmental datasets from North Creek Shelter (Colorado Plateau, Utah, USA) are analyzed using the diet breadth model, revealing human dietary patterns during the early and middle Holocene. Abundance indices are derived from botanical and faunal datasets and, along with stone tools, are used to test the prediction that increasing aridity caused the decline of high-return resources. This prediction appears valid with respect to botanical resources, given that high-ranked plants drop out of the diet after 9800 cal BP and are replaced with low-ranked, small seeds. The prediction is not met, however, with respect to faunal resources: high-ranked artiodactyls are consistently abundant in the diet. The effects of climate change on dietary choices are also examined. Findings show that increased aridity coincides with greater use of small seeds and ground stone tools but not with increases in low-ranked fauna, such as leporids. The patterns observed from the North Creek Shelter botanical and faunal datasets may reflect different foraging strategies between men and women. This would explain why low-ranked plant resources became increasingly abundant in the diet without a corresponding decrease in abundance of high-ranked artiodactyls. If so, then archaeological records with similar datasets should be reexamined with this perspective.

scholarly journals The development of plant food processing in the Levant: insights from use-wear analysis of Early Epipalaeolithic ground stone tools

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1682) ◽  
pp. 20140357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laure Dubreuil ◽  
Dani Nadel
Keyword(s):  
Plant Food ◽  
Plant Resources ◽  
Tool Manufacture ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
Wear Analysis ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Plant Exploitation ◽  
Crucial Information ◽  
Plant Processing ◽  
Flour Production

In recent years, the study of percussive, pounding and grinding tools has provided new insights into human evolution, more particularly regarding the development of technology enabling the processing and exploitation of plant resources. Some of these studies focus on early evidence for flour production, an activity frequently perceived as an important step in the evolution of plant exploitation. The present paper investigates plant food preparation in mobile hunter-gatherer societies from the Southern Levant. The analysis consists of a use-wear study of 18 tools recovered from Ohalo II, a 23 000-year-old site in Israel showing an exceptional level of preservation. Our sample includes a slab previously interpreted as a lower implement used for producing flour, based on the presence of cereal starch residues. The use-wear data we have obtained provide crucial information about the function of this and other percussive tools at Ohalo II, as well as on investment in tool manufacture, discard strategies and evidence for plant processing in the Late Pleistocene. The use-wear analysis indicates that the production of flour was a sporadic activity at Ohalo II, predating by thousands of years the onset of routine processing of plant foods.

The Preceramic Las Vegas Culture of Coastal Ecuador

1985 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 613-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen E. Stothert
Keyword(s):  
Littoral Zone ◽  
Zea Mays L ◽  
Las Vegas ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Semiarid Environment ◽  
Plant Cultivation ◽  
Local Manifestation ◽  
Type Site ◽  
Santa Elena

This article begins with a description of excavations in the Las Vegas type site on the Santa Elena Peninsula, Ecuador. A pre-Las Vegas phase (11,000 to 10,000 B.P.) is defined provisionally, and the Early Las Vegas (10,000 to 8000 B.P.) and Late Las Vegas (8000 to 6600 B.P.) phases are described from artifacts, burials, settlement data, faunal remains, pollen, and phytoliths. The Las Vegas people were unspecialized hunters, fishermen, and gatherers living in a littoral zone who added plant cultivation to their subsistence system before 8,000 years ago. Evidence for bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) and primitive maize (Zea mays L.) was found in the Las Vegas type site. The differences between the modern, semiarid environment and the environment of the preceramic period are accounted for without hypothesizing climatic change. Las Vegas is interpreted as a local manifestation of an early tropical forest cultural tradition out of which developed the ceramic-stage cultures of the Ecuadorian coast.

Efficacy and Safety of Regular Vitamin and Mineral Supplement Use in France: Results from the ECCA Study

2005 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Touvier ◽  
Boutron-Ruault ◽  
Volatier ◽  
Martin
Keyword(s):  
Pantothenic Acid ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Mineral Supplement ◽  
Mineral Supplements ◽  
Supplement Use ◽  
Micronutrient Intake ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
Retail Outlets ◽  
Annual Frequency ◽  
Excessive Intake

This study investigated the prevalence of inadequate micronutrient intake and the proportion of subjects who exceed Tolerable Upper Intake Levels a) with food only, and b) with food+supplements, in a population of French regular supplement users (n = 259). Assessment tools were seven-day records for supplements, three-day records for food intake, and a questionnaire about supplement use. Most subjects were recruited in retail outlets that sold supplements. They were recent users of vitamin/mineral supplements, aged over 15 years, and normo-energy reporters. The prevalence (%) of inadequate intake decreased with the inclusion of mean annual supplements, from 68.0 to 54.8 for magnesium, 55.9 to 40.7 for vitamin C, 53.4 to 43.9 for folic acid, 37.5 to 27.5 for iron, and 40.1 to 29.7 for pantothenic acid. Few subjects exceeded upper intake levels when mean annual intake of supplements was considered. When supplement consumption was considered during the studied week only, the proportion of subjects who were in excess of the upper intake levels was higher (maximum: 9.6% for magnesium). Supplement use brought a nutritional benefit for some targeted nutrients. It was not associated with excessive intake in this study, but could become hazardous if the annual frequency of use were to increase.

High-resolution geological model of the gravitational deformation affecting the western slope of Mt. Epomeo (Ischia)

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 104-108
Author(s):  
Marta Della Seta ◽  
Carlo Esposito ◽  
Gian Marco Marmoni ◽  
Salvatore Martino ◽  
Antonella Paciello ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Western Slope ◽  
Geological Model ◽  
Gravitational Deformation

The first data on possible Mezozoic magmatism within the Western slope of the Southern Urals

2018 ◽  
pp. 24-34
Author(s):  
A. O. Khotylev ◽  
N. B. Devisheva ◽  
Al. V. Tevelev ◽  
V. M. Moseichuk
Keyword(s):  
Southern Urals ◽  
Western Slope ◽  
Isotopic Age ◽  
The Southern Urals ◽  
Early Proterozoic ◽  
Carbonate Formations ◽  
Two Bodies

Within the Western slope of the Southern Urals, there are plenty of basite dyke complexes of Riphean to Vendian among Precambrian terrigenous-carbonate formations. In metamorphic formations of the Taratash complex (Archean to Early Proterozoic, the northern closure of the Bashkirian meganticlinorium) there was observed the andesitic dyke with isotopic age of 71±1 Ma (U-Pb SHRIMP II on zircons) and near Bakal two bodies of gabbroids with zircons of similar ages were found. These are the first evidence of possible Mezozoic magmatism in this region.

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