Maritime Adaptations at Cerro Azul, Peru

Chapter 13 discusses Late Intermediate Period (~1000–1400 cal AD) and 20th-century fishing at Cerro Azul, a large site in the Cañete Valley on the Peruvian coast south of Lima. The authors provide data on the effects of the 1982–83 El Niño event on the local fisheries and use these data to examine the Cerro Azul zooarchaeological assemblage for evidence of El Niño events; they did not find signs of El Niño although events occurred while the site was inhabited.

The Fisherman’s Garden

Chapter 8 draws lessons about Peruvian maritime adaptations from the early Initial Period site of Pampa Gramalote (1500–1200 cal B.C./3450–1350 cal BP) in the Moche valley in northern Peru. Fishermen at Gramalote also cultivated plants important for their fishing, such as cotton, reeds, and gourds, and some of the plants they consumed. Other plant foods were acquired through exchange with valley farmers. Thus, the inhabitants of Gramalote practiced a mixed economy that allowed them to practice symmetrical exchange with the farmers.

The Use and Construction History of Huaca Prieta, North Coast of Peru

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 (ca. 12,500 14C BP) through abandonment at 3,800 14C BP. Marine resources were important throughout the sequence, which saw an early advent of agriculture and increasing population, complexity, and monumentality.

The Ethnogenesis of Pescador Identity

Chapter 9 discusses ethnogenesis on the north coast of Peru from the perspective of bioarchaeology at the Initial Period site of Pampa Gramalote (1500–1200 cal B.C./3450–1350 cal BP) in the Moche valley in northern Peru. The authors examine the genetic relationship between fishing and contemporary, nearby populations using dental traits. They conclude that Gramalote contrasts sharply with preceding maritime populations of the Peruvian Preceramic Period and exchanged mates with farming populations in the adjacent valley. Ethnic identity here is not coterminous with genetics but rather a result of shared economic activities.

Marine Communities in the Atacama Desert

Chapter 2 reviews ancient maritime communities for the hyperarid coast of northern Chile and southernmost Peru throughout the Holocene, with focus on the mid-Holocene Archaic Period. Two regions represent the exorheic and arheic coasts: Caleta Vitor (9,500 cal BP through the Inca occupation) and Copaco (mostly 7100 to 5200 cal BP), respectively. Despite some signs of increasing complexity, the authors conclude that maritime societies of this region remained relatively egalitarian up to the Spanish Conquest. In this hyperarid region, marine resources were always extremely important.

Fish[i]stories

Chapter 15 discusses the Early Colonial Period, 16th-century documentary record of fisherfolk of the Peruvian North Coast. These documents “identify semi-autonomous 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 chapter includes a section on the complicated history of leadership of the fishing lineage from Malabrigo, and in particular the story of a leader who rebelled against the local chief lord and against the Spaniards. This account highlights the quasi-independence of fishing groups.

The Supply and Consumption of Marine Resources at the Inland Center of Caylán, Coastal Ancash

Chapter 7 reviews results of zooarchaeological research at Caylán, a large Early Horizon center located 15 km inland in the Nepeña valley on the Peruvian north coast. This dense, urban site was occupied in the Nepeña Phase (800–450 cal BC) the Samanco Phase (450–150 cal BC). Much of the plant and animal food was supplied by external producers or foragers. Marine resources were always important at the site but over time the inhabitants increasingly relied on domestic animals. The authors see little evidence for top-down control of the subsistence economy; animal products moved through multiple networks structured by kinship and other exchange mechanisms.

Economic Organization and Social Dynamics of Middle-Holocene Hunter-Gatherer-Fisher Communities on the Coast of the Atacama Desert (Taltal, Northern Chile)

Chapter 3 summarizes research on maritime adaptations at Middle Holocene (~7,500 to 4,500 cal BP) occupations of the southern extreme of the Atacama Desert, centered around Taltal on the north Chilean coast. Through this period, the authors see increasing population, complexity, and sedentism, but the social system comes to an abrupt end at 4,500 cal BP. In this hyperarid region, marine resources were always extremely important.

Subsistence Economies in Marginal Areas with Natural Constraints

Chapter 11 reviews research at Bayovar-01, a site in the Sechura Desert of far northern Peru that dates to the transition between the Early Intermediate Period and the Middle Horizon (roughly between 550 and 770 cal AD). Situated in front of a paleolagoon that was only wet occasionally, the authors suggest that Bayovar-01 was a specialized fishing and fish preparation site exporting to other areas by llama caravans.

Maritime Communities and Coastal Andean Urbanization

Chapter 6 discusses the Early Horizon, first millennium BC site of Samanco (450 to 150 cal BC), near the shore in the Nepeña valley on the north coast of Peru. Fishing and shellfishing were important, as was agriculture, with maize as the most important crop. Samanco was a food production center supplying inland polities with subsistence goods from the sea and from fields in the Nepeña delta. Trade in local, utilitarian goods was a defining feature of Samanco identity.