Hunting for the Gathering: Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene Plant Resource Exploitation at the Quebrada Jaguay (QJ-280) Site, Southern Coastal Peru
Date
2024-06-17
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0009-0008-7181-848X
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
Although plants were essential resources to human populations colonizing the desert Andean coast, paleoethnobotanical evidence associated with these events are scarce. While in some cases this is due to poor preservation, especially when considering the antiquity of the sites in question, the infrequent use of adequate recovery and analysis techniques is a bigger, preventable, concern. Ultimately, the lack of such evidence renders our understanding of the initial forays and subsequent settlement of the region incomplete.
In this thesis I report on novel macrobotanical evidence from the most recent excavations of Quebrada Jaguay (QJ-280), an archaeological site on the hyperarid coast of southern Peru with occupations spanning the Terminal Pleistocene to early Middle Holocene (ca. 14,000–8000 cal yr BP). Macrobotanical remains were recovered in situ during trowel excavation and from bulk sediment samples via a combination of fine meshed dry sieving and water flotation. Taxonomic identifications were carried out through stereoscopic observation and comparison of anatomical features with those of modern reference specimens. Comprised of woods, seeds, spines, leaves, fruit skins, and possible parenchymous tissues, the assemblage acquired includes a large total of 41 distinct macrobotanical types represented by a minimum of 37 taxa, the vast majority of which are sourced to lomas and riverine vegetation communities. These results show that a diverse range of wild plant resources (e.g., foods, medicines, fuels, craft and construction materials, animal fodder, and cultural items) from nearby coastal vegetation communities were available to and likely used by the sites inhabitants. In contrast to prior marine-centric subsistence characterizations, the wide range of plant foodstuffs recovered in particular, several of which were directly dated, suggests that the inhabitants enjoyed a broad spectrum rather than specialized diet. Finally, the presence of a few seasonal plant parts restricted in availability to particular times of the year indicate that edible plant resources, lomas cacti and riparian fruit tree seeds in particular, were likely harvested from winter–spring and spring–summer respectively. Based on this and other proxy evidence I suggest with caveats that Quebrada Jaguay, or the coast and interior lowlands at minimum, may have been occupied on a year-round basis.
Description
Keywords
Paleoethnobotany, Macrobotanical Remains, Pleistocene, Early Holocene, Peru, Coast, Desert, Quebrada Jaguay, Lomas
Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Archaeology and Anthropology
Program
Archeology