Michael Edward Moseley

Harvard University

Cummings Publishing Company

Menlo Park, California ▼▼

I
 1

FOREWORD ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS x!

1 INTRODUCTION 7

2 THE SETTING 7
3 THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD 19
4 FOOD, LAWS, TOOLS, AND PEOPLE 39

5 ACCOMPLISHMENTS 59
6 CONSTRUCTION 79

7 EPILOGUE 103
8 CONCLUSIONS 115

BIBLIOGRAPHY 121

INDEX 129
Acknowledgments

mission to carry out archaeological explorations in Peru I thank Martha Hilda-

brandt, Jose Correa, and Hugo Ludena of the Institute Nacional de Cultura.
The maps and art work were prepared by Japhet Rosell. I also thank
the patient assistance of the editorial staff at Cummings Publishing Company.

Harvard University MICHAEL E. MOSELEY

September, 1974

This case study will demonstrate that the widely accepted maxim that only an
agricultural economy can support the foundations of civilization is inoperative

]
in the case of coastal Andean cultural development. Here the universality of
this maxim is destroyed and questions are raised about the propositions and
arguments based on its assumed truth.
This case study will also examine the foundations of Prehispanic civiliza
tion in coastal Peru. Since this topic has received little attention previously,
cultural developments in the region have been analyzed in terms of assumed
parallels with Mesoamerican and Mesopotamian civilizations, thus distorting
the Peruvian data and resulting in a completely unrealistic view of Andean pre
history. My intent is to formulate a set of interrelated models that will serve
as heuristic devices for the ordering of early cultural remains from coastal Peru
1
and thereby elucidate the rise of indigenous civilization in its own terms.
 -4

2 Chapter One Introduction 3

These interconnected models are economic, demographic, social, and po

litical in nature and attempt to deal with cultural change rather than with
static conditions. They are based on archaeological materials from an 800-
kilometer stretch of coastal desert beginning with the Chicama Valley in the
north and ending with the lea Valley in the south. The models apply best to
the area between the Santa and Lurin Valleys (Figure 1.1).
Some material items associated with coastal civilization were introduced
from outside areas, while other items originated on the coast and spread to
foreign regions. No attempt is made to trace out web-works of diffusion for
two reasons. First, it was never particularly important if an item was invented
by or introduced to the coastal populace—what counts is what they did with
it. Second, the origin of coastal civilization lay not with the acquisition of
things, but with the growth and organization of the population. The demo
graphic and social variables involved were worked out by the coastal residents
themselves without outside help.
The term “civilization” is used loosely to designate the type of complex
societies coastal people lived in a century or two before Pizarro’s arrival. Life
was based on a subsistence economy with a sufficiently high caloric output to
support a dense, sedentary population which resided in settlements ranging
from a few to several thousand households. The population was not continu
ally occupied with procuring food. Their time and energy were also directed
toward other ends including the production of craft goods often artistically
ornamented, and the execution of large-scale labor projects that were frequent
ly architectural, but also included road and canal building. The coastal resi
dents were socially stratified, and a relatively small group of people comprised
an aristocracy that held a disproportionately large amount of power. This
power was based on a labor tax which required the masses to execute certain
amounts and types of work for the aristocracy. Political organization was to
talitarian but variable in form. The north was governed by the Chimu expan
sionist state headed by a divine or semi-divine king. The southern political
units were smaller and more diversified. At least one urban center, Pachaca-
mac, was governed by priests in the name of a religious oracle.
Civilization is not a thing people invent or a set of items they discover.
It is a complex pattern of social behavior pursued by a large number of indi
viduals who act in different, but interrelated coherent ways. On the Andean
coast this behavior evolved gradually and different types of activities became
institutionalized at different times. In other words, the development of civi
lization was primarily an additive process with new forms of behavior emerg
ing from and being appended to an ongoing social tradition. Where coastal
FIGURE 1.1. Early coastal settlements. The locations of archaeological sites are indi civilizkion “first” appears in this expanding tradition is basically a matter of
cated by small triangles. The names of the settlements, in capital letters, are on the left;
the names of the coastal valleys are on the right. arbitrary definition. For the purposes of this study civilization was not ex
tant at 3000 B.C., but it had emerged and was fully established some two mil
lennia later. This study is concerned with this two-thousand-year period.

\
4 Chapter One
It is particularly iiiteresting that the foundations of coastal civilization
developed out of a maritime economy. The Peruvian data thus run counter
to the archaeological axiom that only agriculture was capable of supporting
the evolution of complex society. Many scholars have had great difficulty in
accepting the nonagricultural origins of Peruvian civilization, and this has
tainted many studies of the evolution of complex societies on the Andean
coast.
Excavations were first opened at a major maritime settlement in 1941,
but the site, Aspero, was simply considered a strange anomaly lacking pottery
or evidence of intensive farming. Half-a-dozen artificial “temple” mounds
were explained as natural hills, and there was no realization that the structures
were built by thousands of people who subsisted on marine resources. Seven
years later, Junius Bird (1948) reported briefly on his excavations at Huaca
Prieta and noted the presence of other prepottery middens. This established
the presence of.a preceramic occupation of the coast by a population living in
sedentary communities. Although seafood remains were abundant, the tenden
cy was to interpret the sites as early farming villages. In the mid-1950s Fred
eric Engel initiated a wide ranging program of survey and excavation of mari
time settlements. Among the program’s many contributions are Engel’s (1967)
excavations at El Paraiso, a masonry complex comparable in size to later An
dean and Near Eastern preliterate cities. Drawing on four years field work in
various parts of Peru, Edward P. banning (1967) was the first scholar to at
tempt a synthesis of the early coastal materials as part of a broader study of
Andean prehistory. My own work on the maritime population is the direct
outgrowth of Lanning’s survey and research on the central coast. Without in
tending to demean the originality of his synthesis, my disagreements with ban
ning are both basic and numerous. They stem primarily from his attempt to
accommo,date the Peruvian materials to Mesoamerican- and Mesopotamian-
type models where the origins of civilization and plant domestication are seen
as evolving jointly. In addition, a great deal of new information has emerged
since banning’s pioneering synthesis.
Perhaps the maritime origins of coastal civilization should have been ap
parent since the 1941 Aspero excavations. Yet, I must stress it took me a
decade to gradually shake traditional archaeological preconceptions and come
to grips with the blatant implications of the data. My endeavors began in
1964 with a seminar paper for Gordon R. Willey that attempted to synthesize
the extant coastal information in terms of the then fashionable concept of a
“village agricultural threshold.” I realized the concept was inoperative and
the earliest coastal villages were based on marine resources. The real value of
the paper was that it generated a set of hypotheses that I quite unexpectedly
went on to assess over the next ten years. Some of these appear in a much
modified form in the models of “subsistence logistics” discussed in Chapter
Four.
I had no intent of pursuing the topic further, but Thomas C. Patterson
Introduction 5
provided an unforeseen opportunity to work on early coastal sites in 1966-67,
ostensibly to study the development of agriculture. At the time my concern
lay with site distributions, stratigraphy, and controlling variation in diet
through time. Some of this material is summarized in Chapter Three. The
importance of the work lay with the formulation of a set of economic mod
els pertinent to the change from hunting to fishing and fishing to farming. I
also came to realize that the maritime economy was highly productive.^^After
developing the materials for a thesis, I later became interested in the popula
tion growth which marine resources had supported. In 1969 1 worked out a
model positing demographic increase as a factor in changing subsistence pat
terns which is reviewed in Chapter Four. Thus, it required five years to fath
om the potential of the maritime subsistence pattern and realize it supported
not only sedentary communities, but also a population explosion of marked
proportions. What I could not recognize was the level of social complexity
that had also evolved. People lacking pottery and not dependent upon farm
ing must be rather “primitive,” even though I knew at the time they were
building artificial mounds and carrying out other large-scale projects.
At this point I dropped the topic and turned my attention to survey,
mapping, and study of the late prehistoric city of Chan Chan and its urban
antecedents. The import of this was learning the value of examining architec
ture for implications about social order, complexity, and principles of labor or
ganization. In 1971 Willey and I became involved in a restudy of Aspero. It
was in surveying and mapping the Aspero platform mounds that I finally shed
the last of my preconceived notions about what the rise of civilization should
look like. I realized that the social organization of the maritime population
was, in fact, very complex, highly evolved, and a majority of the behavioral
characteristics associated with later coastal civilization had emerged indepen
dently of any significant agricultural input. The short-term consequence of
this realization was the model of cultural “preadaptation to irrigation agricul
ture that underlies the model for the evolution of state political organization
as developed in Chapters Six and Seven.
The long-term consequences of my brief work at Aspero were two-fold.
First, there was the need to explore the question of exactly how complex
maritime society actually was, which would have to be based on renewed sur
vey and excavation efforts. Second, there was the need to organize the al
ready extant data in terms of models that would not impose preconceptions,
but would elucidate the rise of indigenous civilization in its own terms. Both
are open-ended problems requiring fresh thoughts and data. This case study
addresses the second need. I had planned to co-author it with Robert Feld
man, but in 1973 he became occupied with the first need-surveying in the
Supe Valley and excavating at Aspero. His field work is not completed as of
this writing, but I can safely say that thus far it shows the maritime societies
to be of even greater complexity than argued here.
THE SETTIN
The juxtaposition of a bountiful sea with a bleak and barren desert had a pro
found impact upon the rise of civilization in coastal Peru. The dry austerity
of the landmass balanced against the fertility of the sea formed blades of a
great double-edged sword that cut a unique trail for the evolution of complex
societies. To fathom man’s attempts to manipulate and wield this sword for
his own ends is to understand the course of early cultural development west
of the Andes.

THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

The near-shore waters of Peru are among the most bountiful in all the world.
Today the small fraction of coastal ocean stretching from northern Chile to
northern Peru produces more than one-fifth of the world’s commercial fish.
This extremely rich productivity is rivaled perhaps only by the Benguela Cur
rent off southwestern Africa.
 Chapter Two The Setting 9

Stretching inland from the Pacific shore to the Andean foothills is one
of the driest deserts on earth. Precipitation in measurable quantities falls very
rarely. Once or twice a decade when rain does come it is in the form of short
lived torrential downpours. These showers are often more detrimental than
beneficial to human desert-adapted life.
The contrasting situation of a bountiful sea and a barren desert is the
product of a complex set of variables which include the Andean mountains,
trade winds of the Pacific southeast, the Coriolis force, and a set of four
ocean currents. The upthrust of the Andes starts less than 60 km from the
shore and follows a steep ascent. Towering to heights averaging more than
3000 m, the walls of the highest mountain range in the Western Hemisphere
stand within sight of the coast. The Pacific trade winds are bent and channel
ed by the Andes. Blowing from the south and southeast, the winds tend to
parallel the coast and graze the mountains before starting to spill over the
rocky barriers at higher altitudes. The cold waters of Peru’s near-shore cur
rents keep the ocean air cool and hold evaporation to a relatively low level.
As the air moves along the coastal plain and up against the mountains it is
warmed by the higher temperatures of the terrain. Heating the air expands
its capacity to retain and carry moisture. On a larger scale this factor com
bines with a low coastal temperature gradient so that clouds moving off the
ocean warm and retain their evaporated waters. Although the shore is often
fog-shrouded, rain does not occur until the clouds reach the higher, cooler el
evations of the Andes above 2500 m (Figure 2.1). FIGURE 2.1. Schematic cross section of the coastal and current systems. Moisture
carrying clouds, moving off the Pacific Ocean, are warmed by the land mass, and a tem
The consequences of this meteorological situation are numerous. The perature inversion inhibits precipitation (a), leaving the coast dry, but cool. Upon reach
constant sea breeze maintains the average air temperature of the coastal plain ing the higher, cooler elevations of the Andes, the clouds yield rain above ca. 2500 m (b).
at a modest 18 to 22 C (ca. 64° to 71° F). Furthermore, the temperature The coastal waters off Peru are swept northward by the Oceanic Current (c) and the nar
row Coastal Current (e), while the normally small Counter Current (d) pushes in the op
range remains highly uniform, with an average annual variation of only about posite direction following the deeper Under Current (g). Upwelling waters (f) from the
6 C (ca. 10 F). The desert has only two seasons: a sunny period roughly oceanic depths carry rich nutrients that support abundant marine life.
between December and March when there is rainfall in the mountains; and a
foggy period between June and October when the Andes are dry. The envi zon Basin, but some reaches the Pacific shore. Stretching more than 2000 km,
ronment of the coast is steadfast and highly stable since it is arid, has mini the Peruvian desert is crossed at right angles by a series of some fifty-seven
mal temperature variation, and has only two seasons with minor contrasts. streams and small rivers. The annual flow of the desert waterways fluctuates
The coastal fogs carry sufficient moisture to support dispersed assem substantially, reflecting the seasonality of highland rainfall. Many streams are
blages of epiphytic plants. The most common perennial is Tillandsia latifolia, dry part of the year, and the larger perennial rivers drop to low points from
a small ground-resting plant with stiff, leathery leaves. Of more restricted oc August to October. Thus, the availability of runoff water is a variable factor
currence are communities of blooming shrubs and succulents. These scattered within the otherwise stable environmental regime of the Pacific desert plain.
communities, called lomas, flourish during the cloudy season at restricted Whereas the Andes and trade winds make Peru’s desert one of the world’s
points along the coast where there is high fog concentration and favorable bleakest, their interaction helps generate the richest maritime environment in
soil and topographic conditions. Because the lomas stands are completely de the New World. The ocean waters are driven northward along the coast by the
pendent upon fog for moisture, the surface vegetation dies during the sunny strong winds. At the same time the Coriolis force, produced by the earth s
season and the landscape assumes a barren appearance until the foggy season east to west rotational spin, pushes the water to the west. The result is a great
returns. northwest sweeping sea that moves in two streams; the Coastal Current flow
Since the coast receives little rain it is dependent upon runoff from the ing next to shore and the Ocean Current situated further from land. The rich
highlands for surface water. Most Andean precipitation drains into the Ama- er but smaller Coastal Current hugs the land for more than 3000 km from
10 Chapter Two
The Setting 11

Valparaiso, Chile, to near Chimbote, in northern Peru. The wider Ocean Cur
weak Counter Current penetrates southward, overriding the opposing streams
rent runs a longer course that extends up to the Gulf of Guayaquil in Ecuador.
The northwest drive of the waters creates something of an aqueous vacuum and covering them with a blanket of tropical waters about 30 m deep.
The impact of d nino is in part dependent upon the degree of its south
that is counterbalanced by two south-moving streams: the Equatorial Counter
ward thrust and its duration. It is rare to have current reversals of sufficient
Current flowing between the two north-running streams and the Under Current
flowing at great depths beneath the three other streams (Figure 2.1). force and magnitude to affect the central Peruvian coast as far south as Lima.
El nino is said to occur in seven-year cycles, but the event is rather more spo
The enormous fertility of Peru’s near-shore sea is a product of the oppo
radic. The most severe disturbance in recent years was in 1925. There have
site-moving Coastal and Under Currents. As the Coastal Current skims off sur
been subsequent upheavals, though of much smaller magnitude, in 1953, 1957,
face waters, pushing them to the northwest, the loss is replaced by cold sub
surface waters that well up from the lower Counter Current. The upwelling 1965, and 1972.
Effects of the 1925 nino were cataclysmic. The north and central coasts
results in a constant vertical flow rising at about one to three meters per day
experienced several weeks of torrential rains which caused great damage 2nd^
depending upon the location and season. The ascending waters are of particu
suffering. The normally cool coastal waters'rose in temperature by about 9 C
lar importance because they carry great quantities of phosphates, nitrates, and
(ca. 15° F) and the surf temperature off Lima was reported to be as high as
other chemical nutrients from the abyssal ocean strata. The nutrients move
28° C (ca. 80° F). The effects upon marine life were catastrophic. The slow
upward into shallower sea levels where there is increasing sunlight which pro
ing of the Coastal Current was accompanied by a decline and eventual halt of
motes photosynthesis, and here marine plants-such as diatoms and other phy
the upwelling. The supply of chemical nutrients diminished as did the phyto-
toplankton-flourish in profusion. In the upwelling waters the amount of car
bon fixed by photosynthesis is some three to twelve times greater than in the planktonic pasturage underlying the food chain. The life in each subsequent
adjacent sea. link of the chain declined drastically. Finding less food and ^jnusually hot wa
ters, the surviving stocks of anchovy and other small fish scattered. Without
The multitudes of marine plants provide lush pasturage that underlies a
the fish Peru’s numerous oceanic birds starved to death by the tens of millions.
prodigious food chain. Billions of cepepods and other minute herbivores form
When nino strikes in force, as in 1925, the decomposition of vast quan
grazing populations fed upon by multitudes of other invertebrates and small
tities of dead organisms littering the sea floor and coastline generates volumes
fishes, including vast schools of anchovies. These animals are, in turn, prey
of foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide. Released into the air and bubbling up
for a profusion of larger organisms. As the energy transfer moves to higher
through the water, the fetid gas blackens ship hulls and house walls in adja
levels in the food chain it sustains pinnepeds and other marine animals, as well
cent ports. A testimony to nature’s loss of life, the gruesome phenomenon
as the largest population of oceanic birds found anywhere in the world. Final
is appropriately known as ei pintor (the painter).
ly, man has tapped this upwelling energy flow, and out of it he first fashioned
If the current reversals are severe and last several weeks, patches of red
the foundations of civilization in coastal Peru.
and yellow water will materialize at certain points along the coast. These are
The fertility of the sea and the stability of the desert are thrown out of
apparently most common in protected bays and locations where the water is
kilter on irregular, but recurrent occasions. This complex set of events, known
unusually slow moving. Resembling the noxious “red tides” of California and
as d nino, generally involves a breakdown-of both the wind and current pat
Florida, the discoloration results from an overabundance of tiny dinoflagellates.
terns. Rather than blowing out of the southeast, warm winds move over the
Toxic in high concentrations, these microscopic plants flourish either because
coast from the west or from other directions. The air is often moisture laden,
the new composition of the sea provides suitable nutrients, or because the di
unloading torrential showers. Falling on a barren terrain that rarely experiences
noflagellates are not moved away and scattered by the sluggish waters.
precipitation, these rains produce devastating floods.
When d nino retreats, the resurgent northbound currents clear the waters,
In the far north of Peru, most years nino effects are felt to a minor de
and winds out of the southeast dry the land, but the restoration of the lost
gree while the southern desert is unaffected. It is near Ecuador that the north-
biomass is a slower process. Nature can take several years to hone the blade
moving Ocean Current is deflected away from land to a more westerly course.
of her great double-edged sword and bring sea and shore life back to sharpened
Here too it comes into forceful contact with the Equatorial Counter Current
which drives warm tropical waters along a southward course. Where the two balance.
opposite-flowing streams meet, the course of the currents is in constant flux,
vacillating up and down the coastline. If d nino bends the trade winds or if
they blow from a direction other than the southeast, the northbound Ocean
and Coastal Currents become sluggish. Meeting less resistance, the normally

12 Chapter Two
FIGURE 2.2 Early settlements in the Ancon-Chillon area. Encanto campsites, repre
sented by black dots, cluster in the north behind Ancon Bay near lomas stands. Later
niaritime settlements, shown as triangles, flank this bay and the now dry Bay of Venta-
nilla. In the south, the great architectural complex of El Paraiso is situated slightly in
from the coast behind the mouth of the Rio Chillon.
%
The Setting 13
ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT OF THE ANCON-CHILLON AREA
The Ancon-Chillon area is a 25-km strip of barren desert which stretches along
the Pacific coast from the mouth of the Rio Chillon north past the now dry
Bay of Ventanilla to the large sheltered bay of Ancon (Figure 2.2). The out
lying Andean foothills are located 10 to 20 km beyond the shoreline and the
desert plain forms a typically narrow corridor. The region is not particularly
distinct from other stretches of the central Peruvian coast, and the range of
environmental features is similar to those found along other sections of the
littoral desert.
Reconstructing man’s economic adjustment to the area is based upon
the understanding of how his technology and labor organization defined and
interacted with natural resources inherent in the environment. A convenient
approach to perceiving the nature of the economic environment is to index
the resources, or resource complexes, that were exploited and to note the tech
nology and labor requisites that made each useful and productive.
There are nine general resource complexes that came under intensive ex
ploitation during the period of accelerated economic change. The complexes
tend to be localized in spatially distinct zones. Zonation is the product of
sharp contrasts in local topographic relief, and the extreme aridity of the des
ert. Each zone or complex of resources can be subdivided; but because each
called for specific exploitational patterns as a whole, it is useful to maintain
their integrity (Figure 2.3).
1. Open-Beach Sublittoral. Fish are the primary resource found in waters of
the neritic life zone that joins sandy beaches. Other items of economic im
portance within this resource complex include invertebrates, algae, birds,
and sea mammals. To exploit the resources man had to pass beyond the
shoreline and turbulent surf and reach the deeper waters. This required
watercraft, and there is no evidence for the local use of watercraft until af
ter the introduction of ceramics.
2. Rocky-Shore Sublittoral. Products available from this resource complex are
similar to those of the open-beach sublittoral, but they tend to be more di
versified and numerous. Effective exploitation was again dependent upon
watercraft. However, access to certain of the resources, fish in particular,
could be gained via the plunging cliffs and stony projections. Standing on
a rocky promontory it is possible to cast a hook and hand line into deep
waters and exploit the neritic fauna. This is basically an individual activity
with simple technological prerequisites.
3. Sandy Littoral. Along stretches of sand beaches there are edible shore birds,
and currents wash up driftwood as well as dead sea mammals and large fish.
In the intertidal zone and just beyond there were once vast beds of clams.
Edible algae as well as small fish exist in near-shore waters, and larger fish
are found in adjacent waters. The technological prerequisites for exploiting
the sandy littoral were.variable. Many items, such as mollusks, could be
14 Chapter Two
plexes exploited by early inhabitants of the coast clustered in different areas. 1. The
Open-Beach Sublittoral zone required watercraft for effective exploitation. 2. The Rocky
Shore Sublittoral zone could be fished by the use of hand lines from locations along the
headlands. 3. The Sandy Littoral zone was associated with net fishing and clam collect
ing. 4. The Rocky Littoral zone was exploited for mussels, birds, and sea mammals. 5.
The Coastal Lagoon provided small fish, edible cattail roots, junco reeds, and other plants.
6. The River Delta was a source of freshwater crustaceans, cattails, and other wild plants.
7. The River Floodplain was inhabited by deer, birds, lizards, supplied wood and wild
plants, and provided land that could be cultivated by floodwater farming. 8. The Desert
was barren except for tillandsia used as fuel, and canal irrigation was needed to make the
land productive. 9. The Lomas when in season provided edible plqjits and pasturage for
cervids and cameloids.
gathered on an individual basis. Birds might be taken with simple weapon
ry. Small float nets, manned by a few individuals, were used for near-shore
fishing. Angling was impractical because the surf breaks far out from the
shore, and it is difficult to cast a hook and line beyond the breakers.
4. Rocky Littoral. For the early populations, one of the richest of all local
economic complexes was the rocky littoral. Sea fowl and sea mammals
have their roosts and rookeries in rocky areas. The invertebrate and mol-
luskan fauna, as well as the aquatic flora, is diverse and abundant in the in
tertidal and subtidal areas. Much of the flora and invertebrate fauna'of the
rocky littoral could be collected by individuals working alone. Birds and
mammals could be taken in their rookeries without an elaborate technology
or complex labor organization. Angling was the basic means of exploiting
the piscine resources, since the rough surf made net fishing dangerous and
impractical.
5. Coastal Lagoon. Lagoons occur sporadically along the coast, most common
ly behind stretches of sand beach. Both the flora and fauna of this resource
complex were exploited to varying degrees. Slat grass, sedges, and reeds,
such as Junco, were of industrial significance and used in the production of
The Setting 15
mats and other artifacts. Cattails were collected for their edible rhizomes.
Small fish and crustaceans could be taken with small-mesh nets. In general,
lagoonal resources could be exploited by individuals working alone or in
small groups with simple technological devices.
6. River Delta. Although not well developed at the mouth of the Rio Chillon,
many coastal rivers aggrade and form marshy conditions upon reaching the
shore. The resources are broadly similar to those of coastal lagoons and
could be exploited in a like manner. In some valleys floodwater farming
was probably carried on near delta areas.
7. River Floodplain. The Rio Chillon is an intermittent stream watered by
runoff from the Andes. It carries a maximum flow during the first months
of each year, peaking in February or March. The waters then recede, and
between July and November the rivermouth is often dry. The Chillon is
degrading, and the erosional regime has entrenched the river in a narrow
course bounded by high banks, resulting in a relatively sharply defined mi
croenvironment.
The flora and fauna of the area were utilized in the past. Indigenous
wild plants supplied fiber, wood, and some edible products. Wildlife was
also important; crustaceans, reptiles, small mammals, and occasional deer
were probably of economic significance. These resources could be exploited
on an individual or small group basis with simple hunting gear, digging sticks,
and cutting devices.
The arable soils of the floodplain, inundated seasonally by the river,
were a significant resource. These lands could be exploited by floodwater
farming either by an individual or by a small group. The technological pre
requisites were of two types: digging sticks or earth-moving devices, and
cultivable plants. Because most cultivated plants and their wild progenitors
were not indigenous to the coast, floodwater farming was impossible until
cultigens had been introduced from outside sources. In other words, farm
ing was impossible until suitable plants were on hand, and the opening of
the river plain as an agricultural area was in part dependent upon foreign in
troductions.
8. Desert. The Peruvian coast is one of the driest places on earth, and had on
ly two major resources of basic importance to the early inhabitants. The
first was Tillandsia, a small xerophytic plant that provided fuel for fire. The
second resource was arable land. Successful utilization of the desert de
manded both the digging implements and the cultivable plants needed for
floodwater farming. It also called for a moderately sophisticated water-
management technology. This depended upon two elements. The first was
a canal distributing system to disperse water across the landscape. The sec
ond element was a lead-off system to raise the water out of the entrenched
rivers and on to the desert where it could enter a distributing system. Ele
vating the water required canals beginning at the river, crossing the flood-
plain, cutting along the banks and cliffs of the entrenched system, and then
16 Chapter Two The Setting 17

swinging out into the desert. For deeply incised stretches of the lower Chil- Lomas stands are situated some distance from the Rio Chillon. One is
lon, lead-off systems must be from two to seven kilometers in length. 11 km to the north and 1 km inland, while another is 8 km inland and 13 km
If it had been possible to simply divert river water on to the desert, above the river. The largest lomas stand is 7 km north of Ancon Bay and sev
small-scale irrigation would have been established without much labor com eral kilometers inland. Thus, the lomas areas are scattered north of the river
mitment. However, the necessity of long lead-off systems demanded a rel and lie behind a coastline that has a predominance of sandy beaches.
atively large labor expenditure if the arable desert soils were to be utilized.
9. Lomas. There are but two coastal seasons: a sunny period between De
cember and March, and a foggy period between J une and October. During
the latter season, fog-dependent lomas vegetation appears in some isolated
zones. The plants grow on certain hills or ridges situated within a few ki
lometers of the sea, where abrupt orographical uplifting of the fog-laden
sea breezes allows for limited precipitation. For a few months these zones
support a diverse flora visually reminiscent of springtime wildflower beds
found in temperate forests.
At one time the lomas vegetation was exploited for grass or sage-like
plants that produced edible seeds and for the cameloids and deer that for
aged on the plants. A basic hunting and gathering technology with an in
dividual or smt'-group level of labor was sufficient for the utilization of
these resources.

Of the nine resource complexes, the littoral zones have by far the rich
est and most diverse biomass and one easily exploited. In comparison, the
lomas and river zones have only a moderately rich flora and fauna, but these
were easily exploited resources. The desert holds an impoverished biomass,
but the zone is one of great economic potential when cultivated. Yet, the
technological prerequisites for farming were considerable. First, it called for
a repertoire of cultivable plants, most of which were not locally available.
Second, farming the desert with Rio Chillon waters demanded a water-manage
ment system predicated on long lead-off canals, necessitating a large labor com
mitment. Thus, in overview, the economic environment ranged from zones
with abundant, easily exploited resources to situations of great potential but
demanding a sophisticated technology and large labor investment.
The early residents of the Ancon-Chillon area were affected by the dis
tribution of the different resource complexes. From the rivermouth north
there is a 5-km strand of sand beach, followed by a 6-km stretch of sand flats
formed by the now dry Bay of Ventanilla. When the bay formerly held water
there were rocky headlands at both the north and south ends. As the bay
dried, lagoonal conditions developed in some areas of the flats, but these are
now almost gone. The shoreline from Ventanilla to Ancon Bay is a rocky lit
toral region broken by small sand beaches. At Ancon the littoral reverts to a
long sand strand that stretches up the coast for many kilometers. Today the
flanks of Ancon Bay are occupied by a very large resort community, and it is
difficult to tell what the configuration of the shoreline was in prehistoric times.
Lagoonal conditions may once have existed, and the prehistoric population
probably obtained water from seeps or shallow wells.
 A

ARCHAEOLOGICAL

The prehistoric populations of coastal Peru underwent a process of fundamen

tal economic and social change between roughly 3600 and 1500 B.C. A hunt
ing and gathering way of life was replaced by fishing and littoral collecting
which in turn was displaced by irrigation agriculture. When I began work in
the Ancon-Chillon area the existence of these changes was known, but the so
cial and economic processes involved were not well understood (banning 1963,
1965). The basic task 1 undertook had a two-fold approach. First, it was nec
essary to secure samples of archaeological remains from different points along
the trajectory of culture change. Second, it was imperative to date the sam
ples in relative terms, placing them in correct chronological order. In this way
the trajectory of change could be charted.
The sample of remains was secured by small excavations opened at six
sites, augmented by information from Lanning’s earlier work, particularly at
the Yacht Club, a small midden by Ancon Bay. On the south bank of the 19

20 Chapter Three
Chillon, Frederic Engel (1967) had excavated at the large architectural com
plex of El Paraiso, or Chuquitanta, and some information was available on
this work.
The prehistoric materials belonged to three classificatory units, or stages,
each of which, in a very general way, typified a distinctive way of life. How
ever, stages are used in the present study to designate different periods of
time, each characterized by the presence or absence of certain types of arti
facts. The earliest stage is the Lithic Stage which is distinguished by projec
tile points and other stone artifacts. This is followed by the Cotton Precer
amic Stage which begins about 2500 B.C. and is defined by the presence of
cotton artifacts. Beginning about 1750 B.C. the Ceramic Stage is marked by
the appearance and first use of pottery in the Ancon-Chillon area. The follow
ing discussion summarizes the relevant sites' and excavated samples from each
stage and reviews the dating of the materials.
LITHIC STAGE
The Lithic Stage begins with man’s entry to the Ancon-Chillon area as a hunt
er-gatherer and lasted many millennia. Canning (1963) has subdivided the
stage into various phases of which the last is the Encanto phase, thought to
start about 3600 B.C. A survey by Canning (1963) has located thirteen En
canto sites in the Ancon region. These are scattered 3 to 7 km inland behind
the bay, and 3 km south of one lomas area and some 7 km north of another.
The area is completely dry, and there is no potable water in the vicinity. The
sites are surface artifact scatters occasionally associated with shallow, low den
sity, refuse deposits which are believed to have been temporary camping and
lithic workshop locations. Outside the Ancon area, one Encanto quarry site
has been found near the Chillon River.
The Encanto Site
The Encanto site, the type site for the phase, is situated 5 km behind Ancon
Bay. Cultural remains are scattered over an area larger than 100 by 200 m,
but the exact size of the settlement cannot be calculated because much of the
surface is covered by active sand dunes. As is typical of other sites of the
phase, surface artifacts consist of sun-bleached seashells, chipping debris, oc
casional projectile points and other flaked tools, as well as manos and metates.
I opened one cut measuring 2.3 by 2.7 m that encountered cultural re
mains to a depth of 60 cm. Artifacts were not common, but all major classes
of surface materials were found in the deposit, as well as the fragments of two
twined mats of sedge. Rock-perching mollusks were the dominant animal con
stituent. Small-fish vertebrae were common, and even though nets or hooks
were not encountered, fish must have formed an important dietary item. Sev
eral cervid bones were recovered, but these weighed only 105 grams in total.
A
The Archaeological Record 21
and by far the greatest bulk of animal foods came from the sea. Plants of
economic importance included fragments of gourd, 23 squash seeds, and mul
titudes of tiny seeds and seed husks of a grass or sedge, presumably from /o-
mas plants. The grinding stones at the site were most likely used to process
the small seeds.
The milling stones, sedge seeds, projectile points, and cervid remains
show that the exploitation of the lomas was a primary economic activity. The
excavated materials imply that the sea was the main source of protein, while
the presence of gourd and squash reflects the use of the river floodplain for
the cultivation of plants which required little care or labor investment.
Dating
A beginning date of 3600 B.C. is suggested py Canning (1967) for the Encanto
phase. One shallow midden of this phase has produced a radiocarbon date of
2770-80 B.C. (UCLA-97), but there is no way of telling if this assay is applica
ble to the excavations at the Encanto type site. I suspect that the type site is
earlier, and the radiocarbon date reflects the close of the phase. One of the
critical problems relating to the end of the Lithic Stage centers on whether or
not some of the latest sites are associated with cotton and thus, in a technical
sense, belong to the succeeding stage. This is of importance because there has
been little success in isolating and dating settlements that fall squarely in the
transition from hunting and gathering to fishing, and it remains unclear if the
change was gradual or occurred rapidly.
COTTON PRECERAMIC STAGE
Articles made of cotton were used at an early date in coastal Peru. Many sites
lacking pottery are typified by the presence of cotton artifacts, particularly in
the form of twined textiles and fishing nets. Recognizing the early widespread
occurrence of cotton, Engel (1957b) postulated that the presence of the plant
could be used as an archaeological horizon marker to designate the beginning
of a time period known as the Cotton Preceramic Stage.
Excavated cotton remains (seeds, fibers, and boll parts) from early mid
dens around Ventanilla and Ancon Bays belong to the species Gossypium bar-
badense. When arranged in chronological order the earliest specimens show
resemblances to wild G. barbadense, while later materials resemble modern cul
tivated forms. Seed dimensions and fiber diameters show a progressive size in
crease through time from the older to the more recent specimens. The se
quence of excavated materials thus reflects a process of plant domestication
and records the transition between wild and cultivated forms of cotton (Steph
ens and Moseley 1973).
The Cotton Preceramic Stage can be subdivided on the basis of various
types of cotton articles made at different times. It is possible to distinguish
22 Chapter Three
between sites where cotton was used but not in the form of textiles and set
tlements where cotton textiles are present. The latter sites can be further sub
divided into three phases on the basis of the textiles they contain.
The Earliest Cotton
It is possible that cotton first came into use during the phasing out of hunting
and gathering activities in the lomas. However, the first securely dated cotton
comes from coastal middens. The extant sample of early sites with cotton but
no cotton textiles is small. One settlement, known as Padre Aban, was recently
found In the Moche Valley, while another, designated AS-8, was discovered in
the Supe Valley and tested in 1973. A third site, Pampa, was found at the
north end of Ventanilla Bay by Lanning (1965, 1967).
Pampa
The Pampa midden occupies the summit of a long narrow hill spur projecting
out into the sand flats of the ancient bay. The cultural deposit extends about
140 m in length and some 20 m in width, but much of the midden has spilled
down the sloping hillsides. There are three cultural components. The latest
has a Ceramic Stage affiliation and is found principally in the south, with thin
superficial extensions to other areas of the site.
Cut 1, a 2.2 by 3.2 m excavation, was opened in the center of the ridge.
This exposed a basal refuse deposit 35 cm thick that contained twined textiles
and net fragments dating to the close of the Preceramic Stage. Mollusks (clam
shells and small mussels) were the most abundant of the food remains. Tuni-
cates (sea-anemone-like invertebrates) were present, but bird and fish bones
were scarce. Charred remains of tillandsia, used as fuel, were common. In
addition to cotton seeds and fiber, gourd, and kelp seaweed, one seed of a
lucuma fruit was found. The shallowness of this late refuse reflects a short
lived, perhaps seasonal, occupation. The associated clam shells belong to the
species occupying the bay after the onset of marine regression when the waters
were shallow.
The main cultural component at Pampa is the earliest and is situated at
the northern end of the site, underlying about 20 cm of Ceramic Stage depos
it. The preceramic midden is about 1.3 m thick, compact, and the density of
organic remains is extremely high. In 1963 Lanning opened a 6 by 3 m ex
cavation that produced materials characteristic of preceramic settlements. How
ever, no twined textiles were found, and the cotton encountered was scant and
considered intrusive. Subsequently, I extended the narrow end of the excava
tion by 1.25 m. This Work, designated Cut 2, isolated five preceramic strati
graphic levels, all of similar composition. Each produced between two and
five specimens of cotton yarn or cordage. In addition the basal deposit yield
ed 8 cotton seeds, and the overlying layer had 12 seeds. 1 believe the cotton
to be legitimately associated with the deposit, although Lanning is skeptical
of this.
The Archaeological Record 23
No projectile points, grinding stones, or lomas flora or fauna were found,
indicating the earlier hunting-gathering subsistence pattern was no longer pur
sued. In addition to bast and sedge cordage, other artifacts included a fire
drill, sharpened sticks, a bone punch, and cut tubes of bone. Artifacts perti
nent to the food quest were represented by 25 shell fishhooks, stone fishline
weights, and possibly one fragment of fishnet.
Shellfish were the dominant midden constituent in terms of weight and
bulk. The preceramic deposit of Cut 2 produced 20,520 individual pelecypods
and gastropods, as well as 6761 chiton (segmented mollusk) plates. Most of
the species are rock-perching forms and could be collected at the headlands of
Ventanilla Bay before the marine regression left the rocky habitat dry and
stranded. Tunicate tests (exoskeletons) were present and bone was unusually
common. Bird remains (predominantly cormorants and gulls) were the great
est by weight (4420 grams) and represented the largest number of individual
animals. Fish were also well represented (745 grams). Sea lion was present
in each stratigraphic level, but the total remains (2215 grams) fell far short of
a single adult animal. Vegetable matter was well preserved and well represent
ed in the midden. Both wild and cultivated plants were present; in addition
to cotton these included tillandsia, yu/7co, sedges, kelp seaweed, gourds, jack
beans (Canavalia), small unidentified legumes, guava (Psidium Guajava), rhi
zomes of an unidentified marsh plant, and frequent squash remains. The
squash is thought to belong to one wild form (Cuc'urbita andreana) and two
cultivated varieties (C. moschata and C. ficifoHa) (Patterson and Moseley 1968).
In general terms, the Pampa Cut 2 midden reflects a permanently occu
pied settlement inhabited by people whose primary focus of economic activity
involved the exploitation of resources found in the adjacent rocky littoral and
sublittoral complexes. Although stretches of sand beach were not far removed
from the site there was minimal use of these zones. The presence of cultivated
plants implies that the residents either farmed in the river plain or had contact
with other individuals who did.
Dating
If the cotton seeds and cordage found in Cut 2 are legitimately associated with
the first Pampa component, they represent the earliest use of this plant yet re
ported for the Ancon-Chillon area and belong to a period, here called the Pam
pa phase, before cotton textiles were produced. Beyond this, Pampa represents
the earliest of the local maritime settlements and a site at which the marine
oriented subsistence pattern was fully developed with no evident holdovers
from the earlier hunting and gathering pattern. Thus, it stands in sharp con
trast with the Encanto type site and its lomas orientation.
The basal stratum of Cut 2 produced a radiocarbon measurement of
2500—110 B.C. (GX-1134). This is uncomfortably close to the Encanto phase
date of which the mean is only 270 years earlier, leaving little time for the
transition from hunting to fishing or for initial experimentation with the use
24 Chapter Three
of cotton. IVly impression is that a short gap exists in the extant archaeologi
cal record and that at least one of the radiocarbon measurements cannot be
taken at its mean value. It would be during this presumed hiatus that .the
transition to fishing and the abandonment of the lomas took place, and the
first experimentation with cotton fibers occurred.
SITES WITH COTTON TEXTILES
Six preceramic settlements in the Ancon-Chillon area have produced assem
blages with twined cotton textiles, and the occupations at these sites can be
dated relative to one another with varying degrees of success. In general terms,
the smaller middens are early and they can be briefly summarized. The three
largest sites occur later in time and require individual discussion.
Small Settlements
)
The Yacht Club site is a small permanently occupied midden on the south
flank of Ancon Bay. It was excavated by Canning (1963, 1965) but has not
been reported in detail. Two preceramic components are present and both
are associated with twined fabrics. The midden contains both sand- and rock
dwelling mollusks, while remains of sea fowl, sea lion, crabs and tunicates are
also present. An index of the vegetable matter includes tillandsia, reeds, un
identified rhizomes, cotton, gourd. Capsicum peppers, guava, and legumes of
an unspecified variety. The subsistence pattern seems somewhat more diversi
fied than that at Pam pa in so far as both the rocky and sandy littoral zones
were exploited.
At the center of the eastern edge of old Ventanilla Bay there is an iso
lated hill that projects into the sand flats and once formed a short peninsula.
The site of Camino is located on the southeast flank of the hill about 10 m
above the sand flats. Surface refuse is scattered over an area of about 10 by
20 m, and much of the midden has slumped downhill and is largely eroded
away. One cut was opened here which measured about 2 m on a side and en
countered refuse to an average depth of 1.35 m. Shellfish were the primary
organic constituent, and the most numerous species were tiny mussels about
1 to 2 cm in length. Less numerous but of far greater economic importance
were large oval clams (Eurhomalea rufa) that constituted about 27% of the in
vertebrate assemblage by count, but more than 75% by weight. This large
clam is a sand dweller and can be associated with the deepwater climax fauna
of the bay. Bone of either fish or sea fowl was not common, however, tuni
cate tests were very abundant. In terms of bulk, kelp ranked second to mol
lusks. Air bladders, plant stems, and holdfasts were found in unusually large
quantities, but kelp leaves, the edible portion of the algae, were relatively rare.
Other plants were not common, but included tillandsia, y«A7co, sedges, cotton,
gourd, pods of a plant related to milkweeds (Asclepia), some unidentified rhi
25
The Archaeological Record
zomes or tubers probably from wild vegetation, and one possible specimen of
achira (Canna). Artifacts included cotton textiles, 10 net fragments, stone net
sinkers, a digging stick, and a few percussion-struck stone flakes.
In general 'terms, the residents of Camino focused upon exploiting re
sources of the sand littoral zones. The lack of shell fishhooks or large rock-
perching mollusks reflects little interest in the use of resources found at the
headlands of the bay.
The site of Banco Verde lies at the north end of the old bay some 500
m east of Pampa. Sun-bleached shells are scattered over an area of 80 by 30
m. One cut (2.25 by 3.5 m) was opened and encountered a sandy deposit
with a low density of cultural remains reaching an average depth of 50 cm.
Artifacts included fragments of textiles, mats,'fish nets, as well as stone fish
ing weights and three shell fishhooks. Mollusks were the main organic con
stituent, and both rock and sand dwelling varieties were common. Tunicates,
bird, fish, and sea mammal bone were present. Vegetable matter comprised
the usual wild forms as well as gourd, cotton, guava, an unidentified rhizome
probably from a marsh plant.
Punta Grande
The biggest preceramic site at Ventanilla, Punta Grande, is situated on the in
land side of the same hill, or former peninsula, as the Camino settlement. The
dominant feature at this large site is a series of four artificial terraces stacked
one behind another along the base of the hill slope. Each terrace averages
about 75 m in length, 7 m in width, and has a frontal drop of 3 m. The struc
tures were formed by mounding up soil and refuse, and they served as level liv
ing surfaces for large numbers of people.
Three excavations were opened in the Punta Grande terraces. Cuts 1 and
3 ranged from 1.5 to 2.3 m on a side and encountered refuse with a high den
sity of cultural remains to depths of 1.5 and 1.3 m. Cut 2 was a 14.6 by 1.6
m trench transecting a terrace with a cultural deposit 2 m deep. Although this
site was occupied for a long time, the subsistence activities of the Punta Grande
population remained relatively constant. Shell hooks were not found, but 29
fishnet fragments were, as well as multiple net weights and fragments of gourd
floats, thus reflecting a sand beach orientation. Textiles, mats, mesh bags,
pointed sticks, a stone pendant, several flakes, and a single projectile point ap
peared in the excavations. The projectile point is of a type used before the
Encanto phase and thus was probably not made by the residents of Punta
Grande.
Shellfish accounted for the bulk of the organic matter in the refuse. A
triangular clam (Mesodesma donacium) was the most important of the mollusks.
This species occupied the bottom of the bay as it was drying, and when the
waters receded, vast beds of clams were left stranded on the sand flats where
they remain to this day. Tunicate tests were a common midden constituent
26 Chapter Three The Archaeological Record 27

but bone was not. Sea fowl and fish accounted for most of the osseous mate
rials while sea lion was rare. The local population consumed kelp and used
tillandsia as fuel for fires. Cotton, gourd, guava, and capsicum peppers were
included within the midden, and small unidentified rhizomes were present in
substantial numbers. Starch grain analysis points to an aquatic or semi-aquatic
habitat for these plants which most likely came from lagoonal areas. Small le
gumes were well represented in the earliest strata. These have not been identi
fied with certainty, but they might belong to the quasi-wild Lupinus genus.
Both the subsistence technology and food remains at Punta Grande point
to heavy reliance on the resources of the sandy littoral zone. Lagoons were al
so exploited, and cultivated plants came from the river floodplain.

El Paraiso
The largest preceramic site yet found in coastal Peru is El Paraiso, or Chuqui-
tanta, a vast sprawl of architectural ruins. Situated on the south bank of the
Rio Chillon, the site is about 2 km inland. It lies on the lee side of a small
range of hills near an area where the river floodplain is unusually wide. Here
there are 90 hectares of land suitable for floodwater farming, and another 150
hectares of lowlands that could be cultivated by diverting river waters with one
or more very short canals.
Engel (1967) excavated in one area of El Paraiso, and the ruins have been
discussed by other authors (Patterson and banning 1964). The site comprises
a series of masonry room complexes that form eight or nine distinct structural
units. Standing to heights greater than 5 m, the two largest complexes are len
ticular mounds more than 250 m in length and 50 m in width. They lie per
pendicular to the river, and parallel to one another about 100 m apart (Figures
3.1 and 3.2). The other principal complexes are situated to the southwest and
measure 50 m or more on a side and stand between 3 and 6 m in height. En
gel (1967) posits that the combined complexes cover more than 50 hectares
and the masonry required more than 100,000 tons of rock. He feels the com
plex could have accommodated between 1500 and 3000 inhabitants.
The architecture consists of agglutinated rectangular rooms of various
dimensions interconnected by doors and corridors. The walls are one meter
or more thick and are made of angular stones quarried from the nearby hills.
The different complexes appear to have grown up gradually and in an irregu
lar manner. Old rooms were filled in with stone and rubble contained in
coarse mesh bags, and new rooms were built atop the earlier structures.
For a site of such great size the amount of midden and accumulated ref
use at El Paraiso is surprisingly small, and much of the architecture must have
served nonresidential purposes or was used for activities that did not result in
the accumulation of garbage. Although not described in detail, Engel’s (1967)
FIGURE 3.1 Aerial photo of El Paraiso. (Courtesy of Service Aerofotografico Naciona!
excavations produced textiles that can be dated to the latter portion of the —Peru.) Covering more than 50 hectares, the architectural complex of El Paraiso is the
largest early maritime settlement yet discovered. It is composed of more than half-a-dozen
mounds of collapsed masonry (within outlines). The mound in bottom center has been
partially restored. The two largest sections of the ruins lie parallel to each other on either
side of what is today a vast brick yard.
Chapter Three
FIGURE 3.2 The restored architecture at El Paraiso consists of one of the smaller masonry
complexes at the south end of the site. This is a view of the front or north facade of the
complex, which is about 50 m long and stands several stories high. Note two stepped entries
leading to the interior courts and rooms. (Photo by author.)
Preceramic Stage, as well as woven fabrics, mats, looped bags, nets, artifacts of
wood and bone, grinding stones, stone beads or spindle whorls, several crude
bifaces, a polished stone mirror, and figurine fragments and other objects of
baked clay. Shellfish are the main animal constituent in the refuse. Bone is
not common. Cotton and gourd are present, as are guava, lucuma, legumes,
and several types of tubers and rhizomes that might be Canna and perhaps
Pachyrizus.
In summary, El Paraiso is the largest known preceramic settlement, and
its construction necessitated the labor of many individuals. Fish nets and clam
shells point to the exploitation of sandy beach resources. The settlement is
situated near a large tract of floodwater farmland, and the cultivated plants at
the site were, no doubt, grown locally.
Tank Site
Stretching along the shore for more than 4 km the pre-Columbian occupation
flanking Ancon Bay was of immense proportions and resulted in refuse accu
mulations often 5 m or more in depth. The zone has been arbitrarily divided
into a number of sites of which one of the largest is the Tank Site situated at
the south end of the bay. The preceramic occupation of the Tank Site and
the bay area in general was of very great size. The area of early refuse cannot
be accurately calculated because it underlies thick Ceramic Stage deposits. The
Yacht Club site is an outlier of the preceramic occupation, and a majority of
deep excavations at the south end of the bay have encountered early, basal ref
use.
Where recent bulldozing and construction activity removed a major por
tion of the ceramic-bearing refuse, 1 opened three excavations into preceramic
deposits. The pits were spread over an area of about 160 m. Cuts 2 and 3
ranged from 2.5 to 5.5 m on a side and isolated early refuse 1.6 and 2.0 m
The Archaeological Record 29
deep. Both excavations produced nets and hooks and other remains reflecting
the exploitation of the sandy and rocky littoral zones. Vegetable matter,
while not common, included kelp, cotton, gourd, squash seeds, guava, capsi
cum peppers, milkweed pods, as well as tillandsia,yw/7co, and slat grass.
Cut 1 at the Tank Site was a 6 by 2.1 m trench that isolated seven strati
graphic units in refuse reaching 3.9 m in depth. The five lower strata dated to
the close of the Preceramic Stage, while the overlying levels contained early ce
ramics. Preceramic artifacts pertinent to the food quest were represented by
hooks, nets, and line weights. Mollusks were the main organic constituent in
the midden with both sand- and rock-dwelling species being common. Tuni
cate tests and kelp were found. Sea fowl, fish, and sea lion bones comprised
the vertebrate faunal remains.
Vegetable matter in the basal stratum. Level 7, included cotton, gourd,
squash, guava, possibly capsicum peppers, as well as tillandsia and other wild
forms. All of these plants were present in the higher strata. The earliest use
of lucuma appears in Level 6, and seeds of this fruit become progressively
more abundant higher in the deposit. Ten rhizomes of lagoonal plants were
found in Level 5, where half a dozen large tubers were also found. The tu
bers are of sweet-potato size and appearance, but they are not sweet or white
potatoes. Remains of these unidentified tubers become progressively more
common in the higher strata, and in Level 1 these constitute the most com
mon plant food. Two legume pods were found in Level 4, the uppermost
preceramic deposit, which may be from jack beans, a legume also represented
at Pam pa.
In overview, it can be said that a very large preceramic population lived
along the flanks of Ancon Bay. and exploited both the rocky and sandy littoral
resource complexes. Small lagoons or marsh areas served as a source for some
wild plants, and cultivated plants came from the river floodplain. Cut 1 re
flects the introduction and increasing use of lucuma and large tubers during
the end of the Preceramic Stage. Although there was an increase in the use
of plant foods, the archaeological deposit reflects continued primary reliance
on maritime resources.
Dating
The five preceramic sites at which I excavated and the Yacht Club site can be
dated in relative terms by means of the textile assemblages found in the differ
ent cuts. It is possible to order the fabrics in a chronological sequence that is
based upon presence-absence seriation, frequency seriation, stratigraphic super
positions, and faunal changes at Ventanilla Bay.
In general terms, the textile sequence can be characterized as a gradual
transition from the exclusive use of single-warp twining to the exclusive use of
plural-warp twining (see Table 3.1 for terminology and symbols). Within this
development it is possible to isolate three phases. The Playa Hermosa phase is
 %

30 Chapter Three The Archaeological Record 31

TABLE 3.1 Terms and symbols for describing twined fabrics.

Twining: A fabric technique in which warps are united by wefts handled

in pairs, with a 180° twist between each warp or set of warps
^=4 - jj «-y=4
that the wefts cross.
Singie-Warp Twining: A technique in which weft pairs twist after crossing one warp.
Piurai-Warp Twining: A technique in which weft pairs twist after crossing more than
one warp.
Straight-Paired Twining: A technique in which weft pairs twist after crossing two warps,
with adjacent weft rows crossing the same two warps.
Spiit-Paired Twining: A technique in which weft pairs twist after crossing two warps,
with adjacent weft rows crossing a different combination of
two warps.
Spinning or Twist: A yarn has an “S” twist if, when held vertically, the spirals con
form in direction of slope to the central portion of the letter
"S” and a “Z” twist if the spiral conforms in direction of slope
to the central portion of the letter “Z.”

y a yarn Z-spun
\ a yarn S-spun
/\ a 2-ply thread with yarns Z-spun and S-plied
\/ a 2-ply thread with yarns S-spun and Z-plied

the first and earliest in whiqh only single-warp construction was employed in
twined fabrics (Figure 3.3a). The second, or Conchas phase, begins with the
use of split-paired twining construction (Figure 3.3b). During this phase bqth
single-warp and plural-warp twining were done. The Gaviota phase is the final
unit in the sequence in which only plural-warp twining was employed.

Playa Hermosa Phase

FIGURE 3.3 a. Single-warp twining. This enlarged reconstruction of a twined cotton
This phase is defined on the basis of twined cotton fabrics from Camino, Ban textile shows weft yarns crossing and securing single-warp yarns, b. Split-paired twin
co Verde, and the Yacht Club. The textiles from Camino and Banco Verde ing. This shows weft yarns crossing and securing pairs of warp yarns. Each row of
are identical, and are represented by eight specimens from each site. All are weft elements crosses a different pair of warp elements.

of single-warp construction employing /\ weft and \/ warp elements. From

the lower of the two stratigraphic components at the Yacht Club, 21 twined
cotton textiles were recovered, of which 11 specimens were identical to the
Camino and Banco Verde fabrics. The 10 remaining textiles only differed in
the use of \-spun unplied threads as weft elements. There is a great similarity
of the Camino, Banco Verde, and Yacht Club textile assemblages which is inter
preted as indicating a phase in the development of twined cotton fabrics when
only single-warp construction with\/ warp elements were used.
The relative dating of this phase in the textile sequence is based on two
lines of evidence. First, at the Yacht Club the assemblage of single-warp fab
rics is stratigraphically overlain by an assemblage of plural-warp textiles belong
ing to the Gaviota phase. The second line of evidence pertains to the change
in the invertebrate fauna in the ancient bay of Ventanilla. At Camino the pri
mary source of protein was a large oval clam, Eurhomaka rufa. Less than
200 m away is the site of Punta Grande, which contains textile assemblages
of both the Conchas and Gaviota phases. Associated with these are abundant
remains of a smaller clam, Mesodesma donacium. Since the two sites are close
together it cannot be argued that the inhabitants were exploiting different eco
logical niches. The difference in the frequency''of these pelecypods is a reflec
tion of a faunal succession in the ancient bay of Ventanilla in which M. dona
cium replaced E. rufa. That M. donacium followed rather than preceded E.
rufa is established by the exclusive association of Af. donacium with pottery-
producing sites in the area.
 The Archaeological Record 33
32 Chapter Three

Conchas Phase
Three excavations were opened at Punta Grande and all produced specimens of
both single-warp construction and of split-paired construction. Cut 3 contained
16 single-warp twined fabrics with\/ warp elements. In two of these speci
mens there were /\yarns mixed in with the more standard \/ pattern of warp
yarns. Cut 3 also contained two split-paired twined textiles with \/ warps and
/\weft elements.
Cut 2 at Punta Grande produced 39 single-warp and 29 split-paired twin
ed textiles. From the six stratigraphic units in this excavation it was possible
to document that through time there was an increase in the frequency of split-
paired fabrics and a decrease in the frequency of single-warp textiles. The
stratigraphy also showed an increase in the use of two differently spun and
plied yarns for the warps or for the wefts of the same textile.
Cut 1 at Punta Grande had two stratigraphically distinct components of
which the lower contained four split-paired and one single-warp fabric.
Of the three excavations opened at the Tank Site, two contained assem
blages with both types of twining construction. Here Cut 3 produced 10 single
warp and 4 split-paired specimens. In Cut 2 the lower of two strata contained
16 fabrics; of these, 14 were of split-paired construction while 2 were of single
warp construction. The overlying assemblage had 9 split-paired and 1 single FIGURE 3.4 Plural-warp twining.
This enlarged reconstruction of a twined
warp specimen. The two levels of Cut 2 also indicate an increase in the use of cotton textile shows two types of plural-
two differently spun and plied yarns for the warps or for the wefts of the warp twining. The top four rows exhibit
straight-paired twining where each weft
same textile.
yarn crosses and secures two warp yarns,
The various textile assemblages from Punta Grande and the Tank Site and each row of weft elements crosses
can be arranged sequentially running from those that contain a high proportion the same pair of warp elements. The bot
of single-warp fabrics to those that have a high proportion of split-paired fab tom weft rows exhibit split-paired twin
ing where weft yarns cross different pairs
rics. When this is done, the increased use of two differently constructed yarns of warp elements.
for the warps or wefts of the same textile appears to coincide with the use of
split-paired textiles. There is also a suggestion that whereas /\ yarns were pri All specimens had mixed warp and weft yarns. The presence of straight-paired
marily used for wefts at an early date, there was a later increase in the use of warps is thought to be a relatively late twining technique, and the assemblage is
V yarns for wefts. probably near the end of the Preceramic Period.
There are two additional collections of split-paired twined textiles from
Gaviota Phase the Ancon area. The first, with four specimens, is the upper component at
the Yacht Club. The second collection consists of two twined fabrics found
There are several textile assemblages that contain only fabrics of plural-warp by Fanning in an excavation at the Tank Site. These fabrics are associated-
construction. One of these is a collection of 5 fabrics from the upper strati with woven cloth and ceramics believed to date very early in the Initial Period
graphic unit of Cut 1 at Punta Grande. All the specimens are of split-paired
of the Ceramic Stage.
construction, and all employed mixed yarns for warp and weft elements.
Thus, there are five assemblages producing textiles of only plural-warp
Cut 1 at the Tank Site produced 10 fabrics of plural-warp twining. Nine construction. Although the total number of textiles involved is small (27),
were of split-paired construction, and one was of straight-paired construction
all of the assemblages are from stratigraphic contexts consistent with a terminal
(Figure 3.4). Of the 10 specimens, 7 employed either mixed warp or'weft
position in the sequence.
yarns, or used \/ weft elements.
The fabrics Engel (1967) found at Ei Paraiso have not been reported in
At Pampa, Cut 1 in the late component produced 6 plural-warp fabrics
detail. My impression is that they will date to both the Gaviota and earlier
of which 3 were of split-paired twining and 3 of straight-paired warp twining.
34
A,
Chapter Three The Archaeologital Record 35

Conchas phases. Figure 3.5 graphically summarizes the relative dating of the
different preceramic sites and excavations, and the placement of El Paraiso
should be considered tentative.

CERAMIC STAGE

The first use of pottery marks the beginning of the Ceramic Stage. This stage
is divisible into six major chronological periods (Rowe 1960), the earliest of
which is the Initial Period of ceramic use. Along with the use of pottery, a Stage r r r r r Phase
wide variety of cultural changes went on during the close of the Gaviota phase
and the early phases of the Initial Period. While many changes were interrelat
ed they did not transpire at the same rate, nor did all innovations occur at the
same point in time. Thus, the first appearance of pottery is useful for chrono LITHIC ENCANTO
logical purposes, but it was only broadly coincident with other events taking
place at the time.
h
The Transition Wmpa
Punta Grande and El Paraiso were abandoned just before the use of ceramics
spread within the Ancon-Chillon area. A large population continued to reside 'll h

at the Tank Site, and Cut 1 is particularly important because the deposit spans
the transition from Preceramic to Ceramic Stage. The three uppermost strata
of the cut produced ceramics of the Initial Period. Level 3, which yielded 18
sherds, conformably overlay preceramic Level 4. The two layers were of very
1 1 ■ ,
PLAYA
HERMOSA

similar physical composition and appearance, as was Level 2, and the deposits 1
accumulated under like conditions. If the pottery in Level 3 and 415 sherds
in Level 2 had not been found, there would have been few secure grounds for , 1
COTTON 1
1
separating these strata from the underlying preceramic deposit. 1
Early in the Initial Period the use of woven textiles made on heddle PRECERAMIC
looms became widespread and replaced twined fabrics as the dominant type 1
of cloth. Relatively large fabric assemblages are needed to gauge the frequen
CONCHAS
cy changes involved in the replacement process, and these were not forthcom 2
ing from Cut 1. Level 3 produced one fragment of cloth and Level 2 had
eight specimens. All were woven, and while this small sample of material may 1 .
reflect the ascendancy of weaving, it does not reveal anything about the de
cline of twining.
2 1
Level 1 is divided from underlying Level 2 by an angular unconformity
■and a temporal hiatus. Level 1 produced more than 3000 sherds, as well as 1 ■ '
GAVIOTA
36 fragments of woven textiles. There are two radiocarbon measurements
from this level: 1120-95 B.C. (GX-1233) and 1325^95 B.C. (GX-1234). The
I~ T_
associated pottery belongs to the middle or perhaps later phases of the Initial CERAMIC
Period and it is stylistically distinct from the ceramics found in the two under
lying strata. The pottery from Levels 2 and 3 belongs to a local style also FIGURE 3.5 Relative dating of early sites and excavations in the Ancon-Chiilon area.
found at Huaca La Florida, a very large platform mound in the Rimac Valley Chronological stages are on the left and archaeological phases are on the righ.t. At the top
are the various early sites and under these are the excavations at the site. Punta Grande
that dates between about 1750 and 1650 B.C. (Patterson and Moseley 1968).
and the Tank Site probably had uninterrupted occupations.
 A
36 Chapter Three The Archaeological Record 37

The strata of Cut 1 reflect some important continuities and changes in About the time pottery came into use there was a significant increase in the
local diet. A primary reliance upon marine foods continues through the build consumption of plant foods. Increased employment of cultivated foods and
up of the three pottery producing strata. Mollusks remain the dominant sea the abandonment of a majority of local maritime settlements mirrors the as
food constituent and fishing was done with nets. Shell hooks were not found cendancy of farming and a shift to inland residence near arable lands.
in association with pottery, but I doubt this means angling had fallen out of
use.
TABLE 3.2 The primary resource complexes exploited at different sites.
Although the Tank Site population remained fishermen, Cut 1 shows a
marked increased reliance on plant foods developing about the time ceramics
come into use, since all preceramic vegetable remains were represented in the RESOURCE COMPLEX
SITES
Ceramic Stage strata. Lucuma remains, which first appeared in preceramic
Level 6, became more frequent in the higher strata and were numerically the Lomas, Rocky Littoral, River Floodplain
Encanto
most common plant food in Levels 3 and 2. Likewise there was a marked fre
Pam pa Cut 2 Rocky Littoral, Rocky Shore Sublittoral, River Floodplain,
quency climb in the consumption of large tubers. These had their earliest rep Sandy Littoral
resentation in Level 5, and by the time Level 1 was deposited they made up Sandy Littoral, River Floodplain
Camino
the bulk of the preserved plant food. Peanuts were first found in Level 2 and
Banco Verde Rocky Littoral, Sandy Littoral, Rocky Shore Sublittoral, River
were very common in Level 1. The poctre fruit came into use at, the same Floodplain
time as peanuts and continued as a common midden constituent thereafter. Tank Site Cut 3 Rocky Littoral, Rocky Shore Sublittoral, Sandy Littoral, River
One plant food not found was maize. The excavated sample of preserved veg Floodplain
etable matter is sufficiently large that I am confident maize remains would Punta Grande all cuts Sandy Littoral, Coastal Lagoon, River Floodplain
have been found if the plant was in use in the Ancon-Chillon area during the Tank Site Cut 2 Rocky Littoral, Sandy Littoral, Rocky Shore Sublittoral, River
earlier phases of the Initial Period. Floodplain
In overview. Cut 1 shows new plant foods first appeared individually and Tank Site Cut 1 Rocky Littoral, Sandy Littoral, River Floodplain, Rocky Shore
Sublittoral
not as a complex. The process of introduction is evident in the Gaviota phase
strata and becomes more marked in pottery-producing levels. The stratigraphic Pampa Cut 1 Sandy Littoral, River Floodplain

sequence also indicates that following their initial acceptance, most cultigens
became widely employed within a relatively short period of time.
At a more general level, it can be said Cut 1, specifically the upper strata,
constitute the first and earliest evidence of intensive agriculture. Plant foods
in the deposit reflect a new and heavy utilization of arable lands in the Chillon
Valley. It is likely that the people who abandoned Punta Grande and El Pa-
raiso simply took up inland residence to engage in farming.

SUMMARY

Within a span of two millennia prehistoric societies in the Ancon-Chillon area

underwent fundamental economic and social changes. A hunting and gathering
way of life, as seen at the Encanto site, was replaced by fishing and littoral col
lecting. The earlier maritime settlements were scattered along'the coast. At
some of these the residents pursued specialized patterns of resource exploita
tion which focused largely upon the rocky or the sandy littoral zones. At
other locations equal reliance was placed on both types of marine resources
(Table 3.2). During the latter part of the Preceramic Stage the maritime pop
ulation was concentrated in three coastline settlements of very large size.
 \

AND PEOPLE
The early cultural remains of the Ancon-Chillon area briefly reviewed in the
previous chapter can be organized in a variety of ways and interpreted by
means of a series of different models. To appreciate the rise of complex soci
eties and civilization in coastal Peru it is necessary to understand the nature
of the economic developments that supported the formation of complex soci- ■
eties. I will approach the archaeological record from an economic perspective.
This entails an attempt to understand one aspect of a highly complex process
in which inland hunting and gathering was replaced by fishing and littoral col--
Jecting, which in turn was displaced by farming. Given this complexity, four
interpretive perspectives will be employed: subsistence logistics, or how re
sources and consumers are brought together; jural rights governing access to re
sources; subsistence technology; and demographic expansion in a model of au
togenous economic change.
40 Chapter Four
SUBSISTENCE LOGISTICS
Subsistence logistics is concerned with a problem faced by every society—the
bringing together of food resources and consumers. Subsistence resources have
inherent characteristics that cause their products to be irregularly distributed
through time and space and therefore they are not uniforrrily available to any
group of people. These characteristics and the different patterns of availability
that they foster call for specific adaptations on the part of the exploiting and
consuming populations. Where the exploiting and the consuming populations
are the same, as with the earliest Ancon-Chillon residents, problems of subsis
tence logistics are most easily solved by juxtaposing the population with its
food resources. Though simple, this solution is also one in which resource
characteristics have marked social ramifications. Where the exploiting and the
consuming populations are not the same, problems of subsistence logistics are
dealt with in a more complicated manner, and such features as resource allo
cation and exchange systems become important.
Spatial distribution, temporal availability, preservability, and rejuvenation
capacity were some of the more important resource characteristics that had an
impact Sn the early inhabitants of the coast. These characteristics are most
easily assessed in comparative terms. Thus, arable desert lands may be said to
have a much greater spatial distribution than river floodplain soils, and the tem
poral availability of certain marine products is more constant than lomas re
sources. In discussing the temporal availability of resources in the Ancon-Chil
lon area it is useful to distinguish between microcycles or seasonal variation,
and macrocycles or long-term, nonseasonal but repetitive fluctuations. A sig
nificant resource characteristic is preservability, which refers to the relative
ease and length of time that a food product can be stored. It was of little
consequence, of course, if there was a superabundance of a food product when
the product could not be stored and thus used to mitigate the impact of mi
cro- or macrocyclic variation. Ultimately, however, population size was deter
mined not by the amount of food available in times of plenty but by the sub
sistence products present in times of need. Rejuvenation capacity designates
the ability of a resource to maintain continued economic importance. Food
commodities are generally organic and thus regenerative. Rejuvenation capac
ity can be affected positively or negatively by numerous factors that may in
crease or decrease the availability of the resource.
Considering economic change in the Ancon-Chillon area from the perspec
tive of subsistence logistics provides a convenient means for following some of
the ramifications of this change.
The Lithic Stage
Lomas resources supplied the Ancon area inhabitants with a majority of their
foods until the end of the Encanto phase. Stands of fog plants and their as
sociated fauna were scattered intermittently over the region. The lomas thus
Food, Laws, Tools, and People 41
constituted a spatially diffused resource complex, and problems of subsistence
logistics were handled by the juxtaposition of the population with the food
source areas. The impact of this resource characteristic is evidenced by the
number of small scattered inland sites.
The temporal availability lomas products was irregular. The intensity
of fog banks along the coast varies from year to year, and the nature of the
plant communities also varies. Some seasons the vegetation may be minor or
nonexistent in certain areas. On the other hand, when the climatic regime ex
periences nino reversals and there is coastal rain, the lomas stands may be ex
ceptionally large and rich. This macrocyclic variation was presumably opera
tive in the past and may have kept the level of the local population down by
causing irregularity in the long-term availability of lomas products. The micro-
cyclic or seasonal bloom of the lomas stands extends from about July to No
vember, with various products becoming accessible at different times. Proba
bly the last months of bloom would have been most significant, for many
plants come to maturity at this time and the fauna reach a high density. How
ever, by December the lomas completely disappear and the stands revert to
desert. Consequently, the exploiting populace had to rely on and move to the
location of other resources. The options included the coast, the Cnillon'Valley,
or the highlands where lomas game had its summer foraging grounds. The lack
of coastal Encanto sites indicates that the first option was not pursued. There
are Encanto contemporaneous sites in several valley bottom locations well south
of the Chillon drainage, such as the Chilca Quebrada (Donnan 1964), and these
point to the second option. However, tanning (1963) has suggested a pattern
of transhumance or seasonal movement between the lowlands and highlands.
Preservability of lomas products was probably mixed or limited. If col
lected in abundance, seeds could have been stored over long periods; however,
the subsistence technology shows no signs of dealing with seasonal surpluses.
Sun drying of meat or fleshy plants would have been difficult or perhaps im
possible because of the constant fog and cloud cover. Thus, there are no
grounds to believe lomas resources could be preserved to mitigate against flue
tuations in either the macro- or microcyclic availability of local foods.
Lanning (1963, 1967) feels the long-term rejuvenation capacity lomas
resources was of economic significance because the fog-plant communities were
once much more extensive. Along the rocky headlands of Ventanilla Bay,
above Pampa, there are naturally occurring beds of old land snails which ex
tend down to an elevation of about 75 m. Lanning sees this distribution of
snails as coterminous with the distribution of old lomas stands. Thus, he pro
jects that the lomas were about ten times larger during the early Lithic Stage
and blanketed the entire Ancon-Chillon area down to the 75 m contour line.
He argues that climatic change brought about slow, progressive desiccation of
the vegetation, and the diminishing rejuvenation capacity of the resources con
tributed to abandonment of hunting and gathering at the end of the Encanto
phase. This is an interesting conjecture about the factors precipitating cultural
42 Chapter Four
change at the end of the Lithic Stage. However, on the basis of geomorpho-
logical studies carried out around the Paracas Peninsula to the south, Craig and
Psuty (1968; 1971) have challenged the supposed evidence for climatic change.
I also remain in doubt for two primary reasons. First, the distribution of mod
ern coastal land snails (Scutulus) extends well beyond and below extant hmas
communities. Second, old snail beds do not cover the entire Ancon-Chillon
area down to 75 m, rather, their distribution is sporadic, extending to lower
elevations in relatively few areas. Thus, while Canning’s hypothesis remains
plausible, the evidence for Holocene climatic change affecting lomas vegetation
and its long-term rejuvenation capacity is tenuous and awaits further study.
Marine products constituted the main source of protein during the En-
canto phase and were exploited primarily from the rocky coast. In compari
son to hmas resources, marine resources were localized and perennial, and eco
nomic reliance upon them may have affected the Encanto settlement pattern.
Sites are situated at relatively low elevations at points roughly equidistant from
the sea and from lomas stands. If site location was controlled only by lomas
exploitation, settlements would have been at higher elevations closer to the
modern stands of fog vegetation. However, this was not the case. Therefore,
the positioning of sites in areas between the lomas stands and the ocean may
reflect a “compromise settlement pattern” where residence was governed by
the need to have equal access to two important, but spatially separated resource
complexes.
Gourd and squash were used in minor quantities during the Encanto
phase. These plants were products of the river floodplain, dependent upon
annual floods, and had limited spatial and temporal availability. The presence
of these early cultivated species is of theoretical importance to the issue of
transhumance and to the identification of the area where the Encanto peoples
went each season after the drying of the lomas. Lynch (1971) has argued that
seasonal migration may have played a significant role in the development of in
cipient coastal agriculture by providing for the transfer of potential cultigens
out of their native habitat to the lower, drier desert valleys. Lynch’s model is
inherently attractive; yet when viewed from the perspective of subsistence lo
gistics, it can be argued that transhumance would have fostered a situation of
“resource conflict” that worked to curtail early agriculture rather than to de
velop it. Exploiting the lomas and then following game into the highlands
could have precluded the cultivation of plants whose sowing and harvesting
did not coincide with the annual occupation of the coast. In other words, it
would have been necessary to tend the plants between July and November
when the lomas bloom, and these plants would have been cultivated in the riv
er floodplain. Potential conflict is evident here; if floodwater farming was
pursued, then the planting of crops would necessarily have taken place in
March or April after the river had crested and saturated the floodplain soils,
but lomas resources would not be available until after early July, and the game
that fed on the fog plants would probably not arrive until August or later
Food, Laws, Tools, and People 43
when the vegetation was sufficiently rich to support.the herds. From this
point of view, transhumance would place people in the highlands when it was
the optimal time for sowing crops on the coast. Therefore, the pursuit of
game, rather than the promotion of plant cultivation, could well have inhibited
the development of agriculture in the Ancon-Chillon area.
Although this is an interesting scenario, I do not think the evidence for
seasonal movement into the highlands during Encanto times is as strong as the
evidence in support of seasonal movement into the river valleys. The early set
tlement in the Chilca Quebrada denotes a relatively sedentary valley-bottom
residence pattern. 1 doubt, however, if it is wise to posit that the entirety of
the Encanto population moved either to the highlands or to the valleys after
the yearly drying of the lomas. Some people may well have moved to one
area while others traveled to another region. The question is, then, what pro
portion of the population went where and with what regularity. Although 1
would see the majority of people staying on the coast, there are no data ne
gating the probability that some individuals or groups also migrated to the
highlands. The pursuit of such multiple options would eliminate the potential
resource conflicts inherent in Lynch’s useful model (1971, 1973).
To summarize, in terms of subsistence logistics the Encanto population
oriented itself toward diffuse seasonal lomas resources of mixed or limited pre-
servability and perhaps of diminishing rejuvenation capacities. These factors
suggest that a limited food supply was influential in maintaining a relatively
low population density, with resources working to keep people migrant and
distributed among small scattered settlements. A secondary commitment to
marine resources as the major source of dietary protein drew settlements into
locations where they could serve as bases for exploitation of both the fog-
plant communities and marine products. Although marine resources could
have sustained the Encanto population on a yearlong basis, the Ancon area
was abandoned after desiccation of the lomas in a pattern of seasonal move
ment to the river valleys or perhaps to the highlands.
The Cotton Preceramic Stage
At or just prior to the beginning of the Cotton Preceramic Stage, exploitation
of the lomas ceased and marine resources assumed primacy in the subsistence
pattern. Invertebrates, mollusks in particular, came from the littoral zones
and formed the dietary mainstay. Fish, sea fowl, and algae were other princi
pal foods, and pinnipeds were sometimes eaten. Lacking watercraft, the pre
ceramic population could not effectively exploit the deep-water neritic habitat,
and access to marine products was restricted to the immediate area of the shore
line. Thus, in terms of spatial availability, marine resources were localized in a
narrow belt stretching along the littoral zone.
Within this belt the distribution of resources was not homogeneous.
Some products available along the rocky littoral differed from those accessible
44 Chapter Four
along the sand beaches. While life abounds along the entire coast, some areas
support an above average biomass (Schweigger 1947), and these represented
optimum fishing and collecting stations. Finally, the drive of the fertile Coast
al Current diminishes and eventually dies north of the Chimbote fishing port
and the accompanying loss of upwelling leaves the northern seas with less ma
rine life. The present-day distribution of anchovy schools sharply reflects this
change. There is no commercial anchovy fishing in the far north, whereas the
abundant schools from Chimbote south support the world’s largest fishing in
dustry (Idyll 1973). Thus, it is no coincidence that preceramic settlements
are both more numerous and larger south of Chimbote than they are to the
north.
Because the coastal biomass is the richest in the Western Hemisphere, if
not the world, and constitutes a localized, easily exploited zone of resources,
there are few a prior! grounds for supposing it could not support substantial
numbers of people living in complex societies. Variation in the temporal avail
ability of marine foods is perhaps the most significant resource characteristic
that could have impinged upon the maritime foundations of civilization. Par
sons (1970) has raised this issue on the microcyclic level. She cites pinnepeds
and sea urchins as items that were either more easily hunted or more comesti
ble and nutritious during certain months of the year. Unfortunately, these
animals were not particularly significant dietary elements at most settlements.
Hunting sea mammals seems only to have been a minor activity. The collect
ing of sea urchins may have been important at Huaca Prieta and some other
northern sites, but remains of these invertebrates are not overly common at
most early settlements (Wendt 1964; Engel 1963; Moseley 1968). Some
schooling fish in Peruvian waters are migratory and thus seasonal, but these
were not important resources since the people lacked watercraft. Because of
their mobility, nektonic mollusks, such as Pecten, could have been difficult to
obtain at certain times; however, pecten and similar species of shellfish are rare
or absent in the early Ancon-Chillon middens. It would be necessary for sea
sonality of the type Parsons envisages to affect primary preceramic food sourc
es—not secondary commodities—before being of consequence. The main re
sources, rock-perching and sessile mollusks, most near-shore fish, sea fowl, and
algae are available throughout the year, and not subject to significant fluctua
tions in microcyclic availability.
Parsons (1970) speculates that the littoral resources may once have been
annually affected by planktonic toxins analogous to the California “red tides”
that temporarily render certain marine products unfit for human consumption.
However, such tides are not a modern seasonal phenomenon of the Peruvian
coast and invoking them as an annual event operative in the past would be in
voking an unsubstantiated degree of climatological and oceanographic change
(cf. Craig and Psuty 1968). During oceanic current reversals there are record
ed instances in which marked rises in sea temperatures of some bays or other
protected areas with little circulation are accompanied by discolored waters
Food, Laws, Tools, and People
resulting from exceptionally high accumulations of toxic dinoflagellates. Where
the process is prolonged, there will be ramifications on the food chain. These,
however, are localized sporadic events, and are associated only with marked
macrocyclic nino reversals.
The sporadic environmental upheavals associated with nIno current rever
sals may have introduced macrocyclic fluctuations in the availability of staples
important to the preceramic populations. Because e! nino occurs irregularly
and with varying degrees of force, its possible impact on early subsistence pat
terns is difficult to calculate. Peru’s great flocks of ocean birds are a particu
larly sensitive barometer of nino activities. When the Counter Current over
rides the cold-water habitat of the anchovy and other small fish, a blanket of
tropical water separates the birds from their traditional food source. The birds
are prone to starve and die even when e! nino is relatively mild and the schools
of fish are not greatly diminished. By studying annual variations in the varve-
like guano deposits at roosts and rookeries, Hutchinson (1950) charted popu
lation fluctuations in the avifauna through time. Population declines correlat
ed with current reversals, and variations in the guano varves suggested that/?/-
nos occur in roughly seven-year cycles. However, deviation from this loose
pattern is typical. £/ nino may make an appearance for several consecutive
years and then not reassert itself for over a decade (Idyll 1973; Craig and
Psuty 1968).
For early coastal residents, the variable intensity of ei nino was undoubt
edly more significant than its macrocyclic nature. The ramifications current re
versals have on most forms of marine life other than avifauna and anchovy
schools are not well documented. Therefore, it is difficult to estimate how in
tense and prolonged a nino would have had to be to disrupt the preceramic
subsistence pattern. The early population was primarily dependent upon re
sources of the littoral zone and apparently, most such resources are adversely
affected only by major cataclysms of at least the magnitude of 1925, and
these are rare events. As mollusks were among the most important resources,
this mainstay would become inoperative only with ninos of sufficient intensity
to blanket most of the coastline with toxic concentrations of dinoflagellates.
The 1925 reversal did lead to buildups of discolored toxic waters in some bays
and protected areas. These were, however, relatively localized occurrences and
most of the shoreline apparently went unaffected. In theory at least, larger,
more widely spread toxic tides could adversely affect the invertebrates and
molluskan fauna along much of the coast. If such occasional events did in
fact occur in preceramic times the human population would only have been
affected if surrogate or other subsistence products could not replace the tem
porary loss.
While ei nino may have made certain marine foods unavailable for short
periods, it made some foods more accessible, particularly certain oceanic birds.
Cormorants are both numerous and edible. Lacking food during current rever
sals these birds often alight along the shore in accessible areas, and in a weak-
46 Chapter Four
ened condition they are easily caught by hand. During the 1972 nino fisher
men of the north coast caught and consumed great numbers of cormorants.
The greater availability of the birds helped mitigate the short-term decline in
the productivity of subsistence fishing.
In summary, there is little to suggest that microcylic variation was par
ticularly significant in the temporal availability of littoral resources. Most ma
jor marine foods were available throughout the year and were extremely abun
dant and relatively localized. The evident corollary of these resource charac
teristics is the large size and permanent nature of many preceramic settlements.
In theory, macrocyclic variation could have been an important factor, but the
possible economic impact of e/ nino is difficult to assess. It seems early sub
sistence patterns could have been significantly affected only by current disrup
tions of exceptional magnitude, and these are very rare events. The archaeo
logical record, as it now stands, reveals no obvious impact from ninos, and in
fact, the record reflects progressive population growth during the Cotton Pre
ceramic Stage. This suggests macrocyclic variation in the temporal availability
of marine resources was not consequential as a demographic leveling device.
The preservability of marine products under preceramic exploitation was
highly limited. Yet this was not a critical factor since it was balanced by the
availability and abundance of the resource throughout the year. The lack of
preservable commodities does, however, underscore the possible consequences
of macrocyclic variation because it would be impossible to stockpile against a
sudden, though temporary, drop in the availability of marine resources.
The rejuvenation capacity of most marine resources was not a significant
economic factor. Even with intensive exploitation, the impact on the verte
brate fauna was negligible because of its abundance and because without water
craft, the exploiters were restricted to the shoreline and could not extend their
activities to deep water or off-shore rookeries. While many of the important
littoral invertebrates are slow growing, they were, apparently, plentiful enough
not to have'their numbers significantly decreased by the preceramic population.
The archaeological record is rather explicit on this point. During more than
two millennia of intensive mollusk collecting, the Ventanilla Bay was slowly
drying as a result of marine regression brought on by off-shore sandbar forma
tion or local tectonic uplift. The gradually receding waters left behind vast
beds of stranded Mesodesma clams which had been an economic mainstay
since the occupation of Punta Grande. The blanket of shells littering the old
bay are fossil evidence of man’s negligible impact upon the density of these
littoral resources.
In addition to sea products, wild and cultivated plants were utilized dur
ing the Cotton Preceramic Stage. Most plants came from the river, although
a few species were collected in several marsh areas and small lagoons situated
behind one section of the sandy littoral zone. These resources were available
throughout the year, whereas plants growing along the river were more season
al. The river plain, because of its entrenched nature, constituted a spatially
Food, Laws, Tools, and People 47
restricted economic zone. Within this region, land suitable for floodwater
farming had an even more localized distribution because much of the plain
is composed of cobble rather than silt deposits. Although the climate would
allow plants to be cultivated throughout the year, floodwater farming was pred
icated upon and scheduled by the annual rise and drop in the flow of the Chil-
lon, thus imparting a seasonal nature to the crops grown by the preceramic
populace. Periodic droughts undoubtedly introduced macrocyclic fluctuations
in the availability of plants from the river floodplain. The preservability of
food crops was mixed. Fruits and fleshy plants could not be preserved for
long periods, but this was not true of legumes and some of the other commod
ities that were cultivated late in the Preceramic Stage. Rejuvenation capacity
of the river plain was not a significant factor because the annual floods replen
ished soil nutrients and the soils themselves.
In summary, the cotton preceramic population was juxtaposed with its
primary subsistence resources which were abundant, localized, perennial marine
products, easily exploited with a simple collecting and fishing technology. The
maritime resources underwrote the most significant cultural changes that tran
spired during the Preceramic Stage. They fostered a sedentary way of life and
supported a marked growth in the size of the coastal population. These phe
nomena also resulted in the development of permanently occupied settlements
housing large numbers of people, and it was in this context that complex so
cial forms and the beginnings of civilization first arose. —
The economic impact of cultivated plants varied widely. Large commu
nities, such as Punta Grande and that at Ancon Bay, were situated in desert
regions well removed from areas suitable for cultivation. Marine resources
formed the dietary mainstay at those settlements and plant foods were of mi
nor consequence. Cultivated plants were of far greater significance at settle
ments where the residents could conveniently engage in both fishing and farm
ing. Locations that served as a base for the exploitation of two sets of re
sources from both river farmlands and the littoral zones could sustain larger
residential populations than either resource complex could maintain individu
ally. The littoral and riparian resource complexes were both highly localized,
and they had diverging distributions since the Chillon lies more or less perpen
dicular to the coast.
The one point where the littoral and riparian resources are adjacent to
one another, and the locale where both could be exploited from a single resi
dential base, was at the river mouth. These appear to be the factors of subsis
tence logistics that supported the vast river-mouth settlement of El Paraiso.
The site was in an optimal position for the utilization of two resource com
plexes. The setting was further enhanced by the fact that near its mouth, the
Rio Chillon, unlike many coastal rivers, has a very large tract of land suitable
for floodwater farming. The great size of El Paraiso was undoubtedly a prod
uct of complex political and social factors that allowed the builders to draw
support from a very wide sustaining area. Yet, some segment of the resident
48 Chapter Four
population must have depended upon the adjacent floodplain, and it seems
that farming—even without food staples—could contribute to the maintenence
of exceptionally large populations at locations where cultivation could be com
patibly combined with littoral exploitation. To varying degrees the ability to
combine fishing with farming (particularly gourd and cotton) contributed to
the maintenance of other large valley-mouth settlements, such as Aspero, Pi-
edra Parada, and Culebras farther north.
The use of cultivated plants increased sharply at the beginning of the
Cotton Preceramic Stage and then gradually expanded through time. The ini
tial increase was marked by a jump from two cultivated species in the Encanto
phase to six species in the succeeding phase. The speed of this rapid augmen
tation may well be more apparent than real, reflecting a short hiatus in the
archaeological record of the Ancon-Chillon area. Yet, it might be argued that
the increase was due to the abandonment of a pattern of transhumance and
following game into the highlands that^had resulted in a situation of resource
conflict where people were away from the coast during the cultivation season.
Alternatively, if the Encanto population was simply moving in and out.of the
coastal valleys to exploit lomas resources and not traveling to the mountains,
then it can be argued that the subsequent addition of new plants reflects a
situation in which some segments of the coastal population took up perma
nent residence at valley-mouth locations and this allowed farming to be pur
sued more intensively than it had been before. In either case, it is evident
that the increase in types of plants correlates in time with the abandonment
of a mobile way of life and the shift to permanently occupied settlements,
with the greatest increase taking place in the latter context.
The Initial Period of Pottery Use
At Ancon Bay the maritime economic tradition was carried on with few modi
fications. However, Punta Grande, El Paraiso, and other early fishing settle
ments were abandoned by the beginning of the Initial Period, and a majority
of the local population shifted to inland residences. The change is believed to
have taken place in response to the development of canal irrigation and the
opening of desert lands to cultivation. Presumably, this development did not
take place near the coastline. Canal irrigation is postulated to have had its ini
tial use, rather, in the upper inland sections of the Chillon. Here, land slopes
and river gradients are greater than along the coast, making water management
easier and requiring relatively short lead-off canal systems to channel water up
and out of the entrenched river.
The argument for the use of canals during the Initial Period is not based
on direct physical evidence, but it is an inference based upon the increased use
of agricultural products at the Tank Site, the shift to inland residence by the
local population, and the abartdonment of El Paraiso, the great preceramic river-
mouth site best suited to engage in floodwater farming. This argument also im
plies that the population of the Ancon-Chillon area had divided its activity be
Food, Laws, Tools, and People
tween fishing and intensive farming. While fishing continued in a traditional
manner, canal irrigation brought with it trends in subsistence logistics that
were new and different from the characteristics associated with floodwater
farming. These trends did not culminate until well after the Initial Period,
but they did set in motion far-reaching changes in the characteristics of culti
vated foods.
The earlier practice of floodwater farming restricted domesticated plants
to the confines of the river course, thus localizing the area of cultivation. The
upper limit of agricultural productivity was set by the amount of seasonally
inundated land available for cultivation. Canal irrigation introduced a signifi
cant change, allowing for a much wider dispersal of food plants across the
landscape, thus broadening the area of agricultural resources. By opening the
desert to intensive economic exploitation, irrigation also brought about a shift
in the factors which governed the limits of agricultural productivity. In many
coastal valleys, including the Chillon, the average seasonal run-off of water is
well in excess of the amount needed to inundate lands suitable for floodwater
farming. But in valleys such as the Chillon there is an excess of potentially
arable desert over and above the amount of run-off needed to irrigate these
lands. Thus, with the establishment of irrigation, water replaced land as the
primary factor which governed the expansion and output of farming.
The greater areal dispersal of food plants afforded by irrigation allowed
for an increase in agricultural productivity. Of course, through time the
amount of produce was further increased by the introduction of new domesti
cated plants. In terms of subsistence logistics the appearance of new crops,
such as peanuts or maize, meant that the preservability of plant food rose from
what it had been during the Cotton Preceramic Stage.
In coastal Peru climatic conditions permit crops to be grown throughout
the year, but microcyclic, or seasonal fluctuations in the availability of culti
vated plants are introduced by the periodicity of highland rainfall and its sub
sequent run-off to the Pacific. With floodwater farming all planting had to be
carried out at more or less the same time, and only one crop could be grown
annually. This created fluctuations in the yearly availability of agricultural
products—a situation in part abated by the development of canal irrigation.
Once canal systems were expanded, water management permitted different
fields and different areas within a valley to be planted at different times. This
had the effect of spacing harvests through time, particularly when distinct cul-
tigens with different growth cycles were farmed. The degree of spacing facili
tated by irrigation varied with the availability of water. In valleys with limited
seasonal run-off, water was present for only short periods of time and planting
could not be greatly prolonged. However, in the coastal locations where water
was abundant, sowing was possible throughout the year, and more than one
crop could be grown annually. The Chillon Valley fell between these two ex
tremes.
Occasional droughts have always created macrocyclic fluctuations in the
Chapter Four
availability of cultivated foods, and irrigation tended to accent such oscillations.
Once the canal systems were expanded and water reached a premium, even mi
nor variations in run-off would create fluctuations in the amount of food that
could be grown. Not all fluctuations were of equal significance, but with wa
ter a scarce commodity most deviations from the seasoYial norm would have
an effect on the economy. This was not the case with floodwater farming in
valleys such as the Chillon. Here arable river-bottom land, not water, was at
a premium, and substantial variations in run-off could occur before affecting
the output of farming. Yet, if canal irrigation was just beginning during the
Initial Period, water must have remained relatively abundant, and macrocyclic
fluctuations in agricultural produce would appear with only more marked
droughts.
The rejuvenation capacity of floodwater farmlands was not a significant
factor, but it was an important element in irrigated desert areas. The critical
factor in cultivating desert lands was salinization rather than replenishment of
soil nutrients. This problem would not arise as long as there was sufficient
water and good drainage to carry off carbonates being leached out of cultivat
ed soils. However, once irrigation expanded to the point where water was
scarce, salinization could have become more acute. If the up-stream areas re
ceived water first and areas in the valley mouth received water last, then the
latter areas might receive insufficient water to flush excess carbonates from the
soil. In time, salinity could reach the point where cultivation was not practi
cable. There is, however, no evidence that the Chillon Valley was ever affect
ed by this problem.
In summary, the Ancon-Chillon population was split between two distinct
resource complexes during the Initial Period. The complexes had different char
acteristics and prompted different adaptations. Because of the distribution of
the resource complexes, the populace developed two distinctive residence pat
terns—one coastal and one inland. The coastal inhabitants continued to reside
in large sedentary communities. The inland population cultivated the desert
with canal irrigation. Here subsistence was dependent upon plant foods, which
were more easily preserved, less seasonal, and more widely dispersed than they
had been in the past. These factors, in theory, resulted in a dispersal of the
inland residents among scattered farmsteads and small villages. In other words,
whereas marine resources favored consolidation of the exploiting population,
early cultivation favored spacing and fragmentation of the exploiting popula
tion. Although the Initial Period population raised vast monuments, such as
Huaca Florida, there remain to be discovered major inland residential centers
comparable in size to the great coastal settlements of the Preceramic Stage. It
is quite possible such interior sites existed. However, their apparent absence
suggests that the formation of large population centers within the irrigated val
leys may have awaited the development of exchange and distributive systems
capable of moving widely dispersed subsistence goods across the landscape to
centralized locations.
Food, Laws, Tools, and People 51
JURAL RIGHTS
Subsistence logistics provides a convenient means of examining the availability
of food products from the point of view of the consuming population. How
ever, availability is affected by factors other than resource characteristics, tech
nology, and labor. Ownership or use rights are generally imposed upon resourc
es, thereby making them more accessible to some people and less accessible to
others. Items of little or no economic importance are often in the public do
main. However, when technological innovation opens a new resource to use,
and as this item assumes increasing importance, the jural rights governing its
exploitation and production become significant in affecting the availability of
the item.
Rights to resources very likely became important when the Ancon-Chil
lon population shifted to a littoral-based economy. The earliest possible sug- .
gestions of differential resource accessibility comes from the Pampa and Cami- |
no settlements situated about two kilometers apart at the north end of Venta-
nilla Bay. The early component at Pampa was oriented toward the exploita- j
tion of the rocky littoral, while Camino residents specialized in products of ^
the sandy littoral. Radiocarbon dates, if taken at face value, suggest overlap- f
ping occupations. There are sufficient differences in the artifacts and other re
mains at each site to indicate that they were the products of separate small
populations. Both sites are within easy walking distance of areas of sand beach
and rocky littoral. Because of this proximity, food remains from both types
of littoral could be expected in large quantities in each of the middens. This,
however, was not the case: the midden remains point to highly restricted pat
terns of exploitation, one focused on products of the sand beach and the oth
er on products of the rocky headlands. In these sites, then, a highly artificial
selection was made from the foods available in the general vicinity of each set
tlement, with the residents relying only on the resources found within the im
mediate area of each site. This situation may be the result of the imposition
of jural rights through which the residents of each settlement controlled access
to resources in their immediate vicinity. Alternatively, the occupational over
lap between Pamp^ and Camino implied by the radiocarbon dates is probably
more apparent than real, in which case differences in subsistence patterns prob
ably reflect factors other than jural rights.
As the Ancon-Chillon population increased in size in the later portion of
the Preceramic Stage, the control of fishing and mollusk collecting areas would
presumably have increased in importance. By the end of this stage the local
population was distributed in three large sedentary communities, El Paraiso,
Punta Grande, and the Tank Site. These were regularly spaced along the coast
about 10 km apart. The composition of the marine midden remains at each
site closely correlates with the configuration of the coastline in the general re
gion of the site; for example, sites situated near a particularly long expanse of
sand beach contain products of the open beach and not the rocky littoral. For
 A
Food, Laws, Tools, and People 53

52 Chapter Four

brought on by climatic change, was a prime mover in the shift to a maritime

fr^r- the oeriod between the major
the most part, there are no f.shmg camp specialization in economy. This is not well substantiated. Nonetheless, it remains the interpre
sites. Thus, the regular spacing ° J* • ^^at might be drawing on the tation accepted by many specialists (e.g. Willey 1971).
Other investigators would regard the transformation of subsistence pat
terns as the outgrowth of some sort of inherent drive by the coastal popula
tion to obtain more food for less labor. This view imposes the Protestant
ethic and spirit of capitalism upon the early coastal population, and elevates
subsistence economy on ^iso have been accompanied by the these Western European values to a level of cultural consciousness not compat
The development of agncultore must a so ha ible with the archaeological data. The record shows a long and gradual build
development of tesoutce tights »»;; * rioted to certain seg- up to fishing and then to farming before either activity assumed economic pri
farming was scarce, and « i„ ,h. tvpe and quant,ty of macy. In neither case is there evidence of attempts to either promote or speed
„,ents of the iocal populanon. The gr sites indicates a differential up economic change through refinements in -the area of subsistence technology.
In the Ancon-Chillon area ^ lomas-onented subsistence pattern is in evi
dence by about 7000 B.C. (Canning 1965, 1967). From this point on the ter
Slri'/r-ItreSe'com: o.er this land and its products hy restrial hunting and gathering technology remained both simple and conserva
tive. Projectile points and certain other artifacts changed in form through time.
residents of the site. archaeological record gives support to the idea However, these changes were on the order of stylistic variation and not func
Thus, in a general way the arc ^gjo^rces in the Ancon-Chillon tional improvements. There seems to have been little or no development of
new types of tools that can be demonstrated to have made lomas exploitation
more “efficient.” In other words, there was no demonstrable drive to get more
food out of the lomas with less labor by means of technological innovation.
Innovations in the Lithic Stage did, however, take place in the sphere of ma- s
ential availability on the ^ ^ positive correlation between the rine-related technology. Fishhooks are present at the Chiica site. Fragments
The archaeological record a ^ of'intercommunity eco- of looped netting—either from fish nets or net-bags—are present at Encanto,
development of resource rights the d are not entirely Chiica, and early sites around the Paracas Peninsula. These simple fishing de
nomic specialization. The ^^ey fostered must have placed vices were of secondary importance for centuries and did not assume econom
clear. Resource rights and the spe ^ limited segment of the ic ascendancy until the Preceramic Stage. Thus, the Lithic Stage presents a
the early development of agriculture ^dement controlled the available picture of a conservative hunting-gathering technology and a gradual buildup
'popuiatL. if residents of >he ,s dre PunPr Gran- of a very simple maritime technology.
This gradual buildup is repeated during the Cotton Preceramic Stage.
floodwater farmland, other g precluded from engaging m cu
de and Tank Site residents, f^.^^'^^.^oued concentration on fishing The basic maritime technology was formulated by the beginning of the Playa
vation and would have b®"" this monopoly of farming via the Hermosa phase. The primary food procuring devices, hooks and nets, were
and marine collecting In theory a 'east,_t^^ , , those handed down from earlier centuries. There seems to have been but one
control of the liihited j ^^e desert to cultivation and allowed change of possible functional significance—the earlier Chiica fishhooks were
rreSlcTC"; ttT„r?ac.or in agricultural product,v,ty. fashioned from thorns, while those at Pampa and subsequent sites were made
from mussel shells, perhaps making angling more productive. However, the
hook sequence from preceramic and early coastal middens in northern Chile
reveals an antithetical evolution which begins with shell and ends with thorn
SUBSISTENCE TECHNOLOGY hooks (Bird 1943). This suggests the change in materials may not be particu
„y concern to this point has rA^"a rd larly significant. My analysis of shell hooks from the Ancon-Chillon area re
vealed no major changes in form through time. They remaine,d simple curved
chinge in subsistence patterns tda 'rjnspir^d^m t
shapes. The barbed point, composite hook, or more developed angling gear
in other sections of the “>ast ’ i„„i„g considerable-debate. The imp were not in evidence. Gourds served as floats, and line weights were unmodi-

„ ccmerning 0™,^
cations of Lannmgs l,iyt)3, i:^
 V

54 Chapter Four Food, Laws, Tools, and People 55

\

fied beach pebbles bound by cord. Notched or perforated weights were not gards a settlement pattern in which large populations resided well away from
used on the central coast. Study of 75 net fragments again revealed no major arable land, neglects midden studies revealing low frequencies of farmed pro
changes or innovations. Mesh size was small and typical of nets used to catch duce, and completely ignores the nature of the cultivated plants and the roles
little fish and crustaceans, and the knots used were basically of a “cow hitch” they played. In the Ancon-Chillon area, plant tending began in the Lithic
type. Stage. A millennium later with the closing of the Preceramic Stage, plants suit
If the maritime technology was conservative it was also remarkably sim able to serve as agricultural staples were still not in local use (Pickersgill 1969).
ple. In Table 4.1 the maritime technology is compared with the subsistence The most ubiquitous of all early cultigens was cotton, an industrial plant.
technologies of the Chilean preceramic populations (Bird 1943), the Yaghan Gourd was also widespread, but again it was industrial in nature. Squash and j
fisherfolk inhabiting Tierra del Fuego at the turn of the century (Gusinda 1937), legumes were the common cultivated foods. Capsicum peppers, guava, and oth-(
and the more complex Chumash fishing societies residing along coastal Califor er fruits were dietary supplements of minor importance. Nowhere is there evi- /
nia at the time of Spanish contact (Landbergh 1965). In all cases the cotton dence suggesting crops were more important to the coastline residents than ma
preceramic technology is less elaborate and diversified. The archaeological rec rine products. Even at El Paraiso, where farfning assumed secondary impor- ;
ord does not reveal any sort of drive by the preceramic population to get more tance, the variety and frequency of plant foods remained low (Engel 1967). /
return from the sea by means of technological refinement or adoption of new Although agriculture assumed rapid ascendancy early in the Initial Period,
innovations. the archaeological record demonstrates a long and gradual buildup in the inven
TABLE 4.1 Subsistence technology comparisons. tory of cultivated plants. So far there is little evidence of conscious attempts
by the early populations to intensify or speed up the growth of farming during
its early stages. As with other aspects of the subsistence technology, agriculture
Devices Precerair ic Preceramic cannot be cited as the prime mover behind the changes and developments tak
Peru Chile Yaghan Chumash ing place during the Lithic and Preceramic Stages.
The technology of the Lithic and Preceramic Stages is related to an un
Watercraft X X
Barbed toggle harpoon
elaborate subsistence labor organization. Collecting in the lomas and along the
X X X
Fish toggle harpoon X X littoral zone was basically an individual undertaking. Some hunting activities
Barbed fish spear X no doubt required group activity, and fishing with float nets along the sand
Leister X X
Limpet spear
beach also necessitated small groups of people working together. Yet, in over
X
Dip nets X X view, the early subsistence technology seems neither to have called for nor to
Vertical nets X X have benefited from large-scale coordinated activity. This suggests that the ef
Shell fishhooks X X X ficient use of labor was a relatively passive factor in the process of economic
Composite fishhooks X X
Gorge fishhooks X change at least until the advent of canal irrigation.
Hookless fishing lines X
Fish weirs X X
Fish poison X DEMOGRAPHIC DEVIATION
Thrusting spear X X
Atlatl and spear X X X
Bow and arrow X X As we have seen, climatic change, subsistence technology, and its related labor
Sling X X X X organization do not provide particularly satisfying explanations of why the
Bolas X coastal populations shifted from hunting to fishing and then to farming. The
Clubs X X X X
Digging sticks X X X X
processes of economic change were extremely complex, and multiple factors,
Stone grinding implements X X X including technology and labor, were certainly involved. Population growth
Bird snares X X was one significant variable, and I feel a demographic model is a useful heuris
tic device for discussing early development on the Peruvian coast.
To understand why change took place it is useful to view the early sub
Because the maritime technology was unelaborate, some archaeologists
sistence economies as having two interrelated sets of components. The first
cite agriculture as the primary cause of economic change and of all major devel
comprised the factors of production, including resources, technology, and labor.
opments taking place during the Cotton Preceramic Stage. This erroneous view
The second set consisted of the factors of consumption, including the demand
demeans the productivity of the richest littoral zone in the New World, disre
56 Chapter Four
for and use of production. Under varying circumstances the relationships be
tween these components could set forces in motion to counteract or to ampli
fy economic change.
From the archaeological data it is clear that factors of production, spe
cifically technology and labor, played passive roles up to the introduction of
canal irrigation. The role of resource complexes was variable. The productive
potential of the lomas and river plain was limited, while that of the littoral
zones and the desert was greater. High output from the littoral zones demand
ed few technological requisites, but this was not true of the desert. Turning
to factors of consumption, economic output did not manifest itself in the elab
oration of chattel, other than in the production of textiles. The expenditure
of energy on domestic and corporate-labor architecture was but one aspect of
the most dramatic use of economic output, namely, the cumulative growth
through time of site volume and, by inference, population. Patterson (1971)
has postulated a 2900% demographic increase from the Lithic Stage to the in
troduction of pottery for the Ancon-Chillon area. This development carries
two implications relating to the factors of consumption. First, production was
used primarily for population maintenance. Second, the demand for produc
tion was not stable; rather, it was expanding as a consequence of demographic
growth.
It is my contention that there was positive feedback between the produc
tion and demand components of the early subsistence economies that perpetu
ated and amplified the processes of change for more than one and a half mil
lennia. This rests on two assumptions. First, a population will grow to the
limits of its food supply.^ If the supply exceeds the demand, natural demo
graphic increase will raise demand to a parity with supply. This situation work'
for quantitative change because an expanding population requires continually
more economic output until demographic leveling takes place. The second as
sumption is that a new-resource must be integrated into the economy if it re
sults in population growth beyond the carrying capacity of the traditional sub
sistence economy. That is, once a new commodity begins to support more
people than would otherwise be possible, there is a built-in demand for the re
source, and it must be integrated within the subsistence pattern if the new de
mographic level is to be maintained. Once this demographic Rubicon is cross
ed, qualitative economic change must follow. In summary, the two assump
tions combine to imply that a new resource will lead to quantitative and then
qualitative change if its exploitation is accompanied by a growth in population
that cannot be absorbed by the traditional subsistence economy.
The food supply open to a population is not synonymous with the carrying capacity
ot the population’s economic environment. The former refers to those food resources
that the factors of production actually make available for consumption; the latter refers
to resources that, in theory, could be made available under ideal conditions.
Food, Laws, Tools, and People 57
I Returning to the archaeological record, it is evident that by Encanto times
.hunter-gatherers were exploiting marine resources intensively and were primarily
dependent upon these for protein. Therefore, it is highly likely that a seg
ment of the population had crossed the demographic limit and extended its
subsistence base beyond the carrying capacity of the lomas. This population
excess did not initially bud off and turn to full-time fishing; rather, it attempt
ed to accommodate itself within the extant subsistence pattern. This may
have had two effects: the first would be to retard the marine-supported pop
ulation growth; the second would be to tax the lomas and traditional resourc
es with a population overload. If the population had become excessive and
traditional resources were overexploited, this pressure might have been a factor
in the complete abandonment of the lomas once full-time fishing developed.
However, the abandonment of the lomas was effected at a more basic level by
the fact that marine resources could not only support a population increase
among the local hunter-gatherers but could also easily absorb the entire lomas-
dependent population.
A similar process of autogenous change can be argued for the rise of
coastal farming. In this pursuit, however, foreign technological innovations,
in the form of domesticated plants, were of basic importance. It is also sig
nificant that there was an overlap with the development of fishing. Reliance
on marine resources was still expanding at the time cultivated plants were com
ing into initial use, and this may have prolonged the time needed to build up
a demand for, and an economic-demographic commitment to, farming. As
long as the carrying capacity of marine resources had not been reached, any
population growth afforded by agriculture could be absorbed by fishing and
littoral collecting. The effect would be to channel off demographic pressure
for dependency on plant foods. In terms of population support, farming could
remain “nonobligatory” as long as marine products would accommodate demo
graphic expansion and as long as all members of the society had access to these
products.
In a general way, this model may be applicable to much of the coast.
The Initial Period is marked by a pronounced population redistribution and
by a sharp increase in the use of plants. These events could reflect two devel
opments. First, marine resources might, in theory, have reached the upper
limits of their productivity or availability, and second, the introduction of ca
nal irrigation would have allowed agriculture to move into the desert and to
accommodate population growth.
This model is, however, not specifically applicable to all coastal sites.
At a few favorable valley-mouth locations, such as El Paraiso, it was possible
to practice both fishing and farming. Occasionally these settlements grew to
a size beyond the carrying capacity of the local marine resources, and a por
tion of the population was dependent upon and therefore committed to farm
ing. These settlements then became the fountainheads of coastal agriculture.
58 Chapter Four
■'i:-
i
SUMMARY

The Ancon-Chillon data has been discussed from four related perspectives. Sub
sistence logistics as one perspective is a useful approach to the investigation of
changing subsistence patterns. However, some caution is in order because this
approach may frame correlations so that causal relationships can be read into
the archaeological record where none existed. Resource rights must have been
particularly influential in the process of economic development, yet, they are
difficult to demonstrate when dealing with cultural remains some four thou
sand years old, and the examples 1 have discussed are tentative ones. Subsis
tence technology and labor are particularly important factors in any considera
tion of economic change, and their roles and ramifications demand careful as
sessment. The role of demographic deviation within a model of autogenous
change in subsistence patterns is an interesting concept. Though the model is
speculative, it can be tested and evaluated, and it is certainly more applicable
to the extant body of data than the alternatives of climatic determinism or
the Weberian spirit of capitalism. Viewing economic transformations in terms
of self-amplifying change and demographic deviation does not really answer
the question of why the changes transpired in the first place, or what initially
stimulates people to experiment with the use of a commodity. Perhaps it was
simply a desire for dietary variation that opened the door to reliance on ma
rine resources and ushered in population growth. With farming it could have
been the rather mundane need for gourds as water containers that triggered
the rise of agricultural civilization in the desert coast of Peru. From the view
point adopted in this study, however, the ultimate cause for reliance on a new
subsistence item is relatively insignificant in comparison to the spiraling pro
cesses of cultural change that can follow.
a c c o m pl is h m e n t ;
What significant developments did the maritime subsistence pattern underwrite?
Answering this question requires an open mind. Archaeologists are often biased
toward the belief that only agriculture is capable of sustaining highly evolved
'f societies. However, this can lead to a prejudiced view of what nonfarming peo-
’■* pies can accomplish. For example, the northwest coast was one of only three
j North American regions outside Mexico where native societies achieved an ad-
p vanced level of development conceded to be analogous with the “Formative”
I,
f;
stage of cultural development that underlies the beginnings of civilization in
other areas. Yet, the accomplishments of the fishing societies are generally re-
garded as anomalous and a cultural deadend because they were not based on
^ farming. To call these accomplishments idiosyncratic or unrepresentative is to
I sweep them under the archaeological rug. It is more profitable to see the
northwest coast as a model of what nonagricultural societies can achieve and
to search for parallel developments elsewhere. 59

60 Chapter Five
Similar biases tend to obscure the picture of early Andean prehistory.
Scholars conceding complex developments to the Preceramic Stage frequently
attribute these to farming. Alternatively, individuals more cognizant of the
minor role played by early agriculture often underrate the maritime achieve
ments. In studying the growth of Peru’s indigenous cultures two factors must
be realized. First, agriculture is not necessarily the sole elixir vitae of complex
society, nor civilization’s only possible dietetic. Second there are no a priori
grounds for supposing that the “Formative” achievements of the Pacific north
west maritime cultures could not be surpassed by peoples living along a far
richer shoreline.
In assessing the accomplishments made during the Cotton Preceramic
Stage in the Ancon-Chillon area, and the Peruvian coast, as a whole, it is con
venient to look at population growth and then to discuss arts, crafts, textiles,
in particular, and mortuary practices. These provide background for a later
consideration of architecture and large settlements.
POPULATION
People are the building blocks of complex society and Andean civilization was
a density-dependent phenomenon. Thus, the large growth of population dur
ing the Cotton Preceramic Stage constitutes the single most important byprod
uct of the early maritime economy. It was only after people turned to sea re
sources that demographic growth reached a level of critical mass conducive to
the generation of complex cultural forms.
Should Patterson’s (1971) calculations for the Ancon-Chillon area prove
correct, the implication is that for every Encanto hunter there were thirty Ga-
viota fishermen. Encanto peoples were scattered among more than thirteen
sites, as opposed to the Gaviota multitudes concentrated in three permanent
settlements. It is particularly significant that the preceramic population was
not only substantially greater, but many more people were living together per
manently in day-to-day contact than in earlier times. This situation—large
numbers of individuals in daily contact—calls for intricate rules, roles, and in
stitutions if the populace is to function as an integrated social body. There
can be little doubt that social complexity increased both quantitatively with
population growth and qualitatively with the packing of population in large,
permanently occupied residential centers.
The growth of population is reflected by the preceramic settlements
which are both numerous and often of substantial size. More than forty early
sites were found in the first pioneering survey that covered large sections of
the coast (Engel 1957b). Subsequent exploration has at least doubled this
figure, and more preceramic sites will certainly appear with new research.
Translating preceramic settlements into population estimates remains a
difficult and subjective matter. Different scholars frequently arrive at quite
distinct calculations for the same site. Las Flaldas, a very large midden and
architectural complex situated south of the Casma Valley, has one low apprais
1
Accomplishments 61
al of 500 to 1000 individuals and one high computation that reaches 10,000
preceramic inhabitants. This variance reflects a number of distinct problems.
Some large residential centers are partially or entirely buried by Ceramic Stage
refuse, masking the earliest occupation. If bulldozing and modern construction
around Ancon Bay did not continually expose basal deposits of preceramic age,
the scope of the early maritime settlement would have gone undetected. Es
tablishing the length of time a preceramic site was occupied is another problem
in population assessments. Over an extended period, relatively few people can
produce a midden of comparable size to that resulting from a short-term occu
pation by a larger population. Because most early sites have received little ex
cavation, their span of use remains open to question, affecting population esti
mations. Even where occupation length can be gauged, as at Punta Grande, it
is difficult to calculate how settlement space was used, or what volume of ref
use may reflect what number of people. If the Punta Grande terraces were
used exclusively for housing and residential activities, a large population is im
plied. If the terraces served other purposes such as work areas, storage, or fish
and food drying platforms, a smaller population is suggested. Similarly, it is
not clear what volume of food was consumed away from the settlement while
the populace engaged in fishing and littoral collecting. Nor is there reason to
believe that all food remains discarded at Punta Grande have been preserved.
The site is ringed by a light scatter of shell; plant materials may have been
equally far flung, but without burial they failed to survive. Thus, preceramic
population computations are beset by three critical problems: (1) the archaeo
logical sample is underrepresentative due to site burial and destruction; (2) the
length of occupation has not been established for most sites; and (3) the use
of settlement space is not well defined, nor is it clear what volume of refuse
may reflect what number of people.
With these three problems in mind. Table 5.1 gives my personal popula
tion estimates for a series of preceramic settlements, all of which I have visited
and some of which I have worked on. These figures are generally conservative
in comparison with the populations imputed to maritime midden sites of simi
lar extent and volume found along the Pacific coast of North America. The
Peruvian sites with monumental architecture, such as El Paraiso, Rio Seco, and
Aspero, undoubtedly had populations well in excess of their North American
counterparts, or, as in the case of Piedra Parada, they served as regional centers
drawing upon wide-ranging labor resources.
It is noteworthy that the largest preceramic settlements, and by inference,
the greatest population centers, lie south of modern Chimbote. This is where
the coastal current is active and marine resources are optimal. Presumably
there is a correlation between these two phenomena. Sites of outstanding size
have not been found south of Lima. Additional exploration might alter the
picture, but at present there is little to suggest the south witnessed develop
ments comparable with the north. There is certainly no dearth of marine re
sources south of Lima, and the factors behind this cultural lag remain open to
question.
 \

62 Chapter Five Accomplishments 63

TABLE 5.1 Subjective population gourd containers decorated with anthropomorphic, avimorphic, and geometric
estimates for maritime sites. motifs. These two specimens, in particular, are believed to reflect a well-estab
lished traditional art style (Bird 1963).
Population Of all the arts and crafts that assumed later importance, metal working
Sites Estimates is the only one lacking preceramic adumbration. Although pottery was not in
use, Gaviota sites and other contemporary settlements have produced a variety
Huaca Prieta 150-350 of baked clay objects. These include beads, spindle whorls, anthropomorphic
Huaca Negra 200-400 figurines, and a plaque or small tray with incised birds, inlaid shell, and an inset
Los Chinos 200-500 jet mirror. The preceramic use of fired earth for producing adornments and
Las Haldas 1000-2250 other goods may be interpreted in two ways. First, it may be seen as an inde
Culebras 600-1500 pendent experiment with clay and pyrotechnology leading to the autonomous
Aspero 1500-3000 development of pottery and the ceramic arts: Or, second, it may be viewed as
Rio Seco 1000-2500
reflecting contact with and the diffusion of ideas from the distant north where
Tank Site 750-2000
contemporary societies in Ecuador and Colombia were using true pottery by
Punta Grande 150-450
75-200
2500 B.C. or earlier. In either case it is fully evident that the Initial Period
Asia
adoption of pottery and the evolution of the ceramic arts did not take place
in a vacuum. If the preceramic experience with clay and pyrotechnology did
CRAFTS not generate an independent evolution of ceramics it certainly facilitated the
manufacture, use, and rapid spread of pottery.
A subsistence economy capable of sustaining population growth must also sus
tain the growth of cultural institutions that adjust man to himself, to his fellow Textiles
man, and to his environment. In other words, there must be support for cul
When Spanish conquistadores first contacted the Inca Empire they found a
tural as well as demographic expansion. One area where this often finds ex
civilization rather alien to European expectations. Among other things, Ande
pression is in the development of arts and crafts. The arts and crafts of the
an society thrived without a cash or market economy. Many of the functions
preceramic population are best assessed in terms of the standards set by later
carried out by currency in the Old World were fulfilled by different means
Andean cultures. Making comparative judgments outside this context can
and other media in the New World. High quality textiles were particularly sig
prove meaningless. For example, the intricate art styles of the Pacific north
nificant as a circulating medium with both symbolic and real value. The manu
west coast found their most dramatic expression in woodworking. To say the
facture and exchange of ornate fabrics played fundamental roles in the econom
early Peruvians fell short of this accomplishment is to ignore the fact that one
ic, political, and religious life of the Inca. An intrinsic concern with textiles
maritime culture lived beside a rain forest and the other beside a treeless desert.*
permeated the indigenous way of life. As Anna Gayton (1961) notes, of all
major occupations—either domestic or institutionalized—food production, tex
General Crafts tile fabrication, and pottery making were the three activities that consumed
Textiles, pottery, and metallurgy became highly evolved during the Ceramic most of the time and energy of the general populace. Undoubtedly, the pro
Stage. Bone, stone, wood, shell, and gourd working were secondary crafts duction and use of fabrics affected more people and a broader spectrum of so
among Peru’s coastal civilizations and developed out of preceramic precedents. ciety than did ceramics.
Early sites have produced objects crafted of bone (punches, pins, awls, spatu The fabric industry of the early maritime population did not simply fore
las, snuff tubes, and whale vertebra trays), ground stone (beads, pendants, and shadow the later importance of such materials, but it created the Andean tex
jet mirrors), wood (containers, trays, punches, fire drills, and weaponry), and tile tradition by setting up long lasting foundations. The substance of these
shell (beads and ornaments). Worked gourd, in the form of containers and foundations was the interweaving of fabrics with preceramic life and social
fishing floats, is particularly common at preceramic settlements. Among the structure. Once fabrics became enmeshed with the broader aspects of the cul
minor crafts, gourd was one of the few media used for iconographic expression. ture that created them, the way was opened for a continuing series of dynamic
Of the more than 10,000 specimens of gourd found at Huaca Prieta, 13 bore relationships. The structural and decorative potential of cloth was such that
incised or pyroengraved designs. One burial was accompanied by two small it could serve not only domestic needs and aesthetic aims, but economic, po
litical, and religious ends as well. The ability of a medium to function at mul-

64 Chapter Five
tiple levels and fulfill diverse roles encourages its production, contributes to its
cultural entrenchment, and increases its power to hold rival media in abeyance.
This is the substance that builds a lasting cultural tradition. Alternatively, the
medium may itself engender positive social feedback. Addressing this situation
Gayton (1961) has argued that textiles not only buttressed the institutions
they served, but at an early date may have initiated certain activities and fos
tered particular social practices.
The foundations of coastal civilization were laid at a time when fabric
production was the single most ubiquitous craft in use, as well as the dominant
medium of aesthetic expression. It is not surprising, therefore, that cloth should
have become enmeshed in the broader aspects of preceramic life, and entwined
with the development of complex society. For the early maritime population
fabrics served more than simple domestic purposes. As the primary form of
chattel, textiles were used to reinforce and symbolize differences in wealth and
personal status. Fabrics were the most common accompaniments the dead took
with them to the afterlife. Cloth was frequently used in votive offerings, as at
Culebras where bird bodies were fabric-wrapped and placed beneath house walls.
At Rio Seco, Asia, and other sites, dedicatory caches included cloth bundles
containing various types of plants and animals. Textiles were the major medi
um of iconographic expression and were decorated with a variety of motifs.
Some of these were purely ornamental, but others appear more symbolic in
nature.
Too little is presently known about the specific roles played by early fab
rics to isolate the particular social practices they might have initiated. The fact
that cloth functioned in multiple ways no doubt encouraged its production,
and fabrics in turn must have reinforced certain social developments. It is evi
dent that the preeeramic textile industry fostered the growth of one particu
larly important activity—farming.
Early fabrics were made from a variety of materials, including sedge and
bast fibers. However, the use of wild plants was largely restricted to produc
tion of mats, bags, and nets. Cotton was the preferred fiber for textile produc
tion and was used almost exclusively for manufacturing apparel and wraps.
This created a demand that made cotton the most extensively cultivated plant
in preceramic use. It is difficult to calculate exactly what percentage of the
time and energy given to farming went into growing cotton. I suspect that in
general no less than 30% of the effort devoted to early agriculture went to
wards satisfying the demand for textiles. Whatever the exact figure, it was cer
tainly substantial, and early coastal agriculture would have developed more
slowly and along different lines if it had not been promoted and subsidized
by the textile industry of the maritime population.
One can get a rough idea of the great quantity of cotton needed from
some simple calculations. A single twined textile from the Ancon-Chillon area
of average size and construction would measure about 50 cm in length by 15
cm in width. The mean number of warp elements crossing a 2.5-cm expanse
1
Accomplishments
would be 22 and paired wefts would lie .75 cm apart. A minimum of 85 m
of cotton yarn would be needed to produce the fabric. If six such pieces of
cloth were sewn together to form a simple wrap 1 m long by 45 cm wide, no
less than 510 m of yarn would be required. For various purposes a preceramic
family would probably have at least five textiles of such dimensions, represent
ing some 2550 m of cotton yarn. A coastal village such as Punta Grande with
50 hearths would have on the order of 127,500 m of spun and plied cotton in
vested in textiles. The cotton that went into nets, fishing line, cordage, etc.,
further augments this figure. The community would, therefore, have needed
perhaps 150 km or more of yarn. This village’s requirements could then be
multiplied many times over to bring it up to parity with the larger maritime
settlements. The demand for yarn by the total coastal population was very
large indeed.
One important point to remember is that marine resources could satisfy
the subsistence wants of the early coastal societies, but the sea could not sup
ply all their industrial wants. These requirements had to be met by other
means, one of which was farming. The cultivation of gourds fulfilled the de
mand for containers and net floats, and cotton tending became the primary
means of satisfying the increasing industrial needs for fabric.
Of course, the planting, tending, and harvesting of cotton were only the
first steps in the process of textile manufacture. The raw material required
preliminary processing after reaping. Cotton bolls had to be freed of twigs,
leaf bits, sand, and other refuse before deseeding could begin. Without the
cotton gin, the hand-done process of separating seeds and fibers was laborious
and time consuming. The fibers next required further cleaning and then they
were straightened and paralleled by pulling small flocks apart over and over
again. This eventually resulted in a pad of filaments from which prepared fi
bers could be drawn for spinning. The earliest spinning was presumably done
by rotating the cotton between the hands, or if seated, rolling the fiber be
tween the hand and thigh. Later the drop-spindle with weighted spindle whorl
increased the rate of production. Once spun, the elements used in preceramic
textiles were generally combined with a second element and respun or twisted
to form a two-ply yarn. Thus, transforming raw cotton into the hundreds of
kilometers of yarn needed by a single maritime community was a tedious and
labor-consuming task. When colored thread was required, the process was fur
ther extended by adding the procedure of dying or pigment impregnation.
In the later stages of coastal civilization the various steps involved in tex
tile manufacture were frequently carried out by specialists: the cotton grower,
the spinner, the dyer, and finally, the weaver. It is not entirely clear to what
degree a similar division of labor existed in preceramic times. As noted in the
previous discussion of jural rights, the residents of El Paraiso very likely had a
monopoly on arable land in the lower Chillon Valley. This fostered inter-site
specialization and El Paraiso was probably the cotton supplier for communities
without farmland. Valley-mouth sites such as Aspero were no doubt other

66 Chapter Five
cotton supply centers. Colored cloth was not so widely used in preceramic
times as to suggest that dying constituted a distinct^occupation. The great
amount of cotton yarn needed by the maritime population made spinning a
very common activity. In today’s indigenous Peruvian communities, where
life follows a traditional pattern, almost every woman spins and the process
goes on almost every day. An analogous situation very likely existed during
the Cotton Preceramic Stage. Whether or not there was a stratum of special
ists within the general pool of maritime spinners is open to question. The
yarns in some textiles exhibit such tight and uniform structure that they may
be interpreted as products of either professional spinners or unusually gifted
amateurs. As with spinning, weaving was a domestic activity characteristic
of most preceramic households. Again, it is difficult to tell if the finest fab
rics reflect the existence of professional clothmakers, or if these textiles were
simply products of highly skilled amateurs.
In preceramic times weaving as we know it was not in use. The mari
time population made fabrics in two general ways. The first technique, known
as “single-element construction’’ entailed the use of one continuous yarn that
was repeatedly interworked with itself. Such fabrics were based upon the for
mation of horizontal rows of “stitches” or knots of varying form into which
successive, dependent rows of stitches would be worked. Single-element con
struction was employed in the manufacture of fish nets, mesh bags, and some
articles of attire.
The second preceramic technique, "multiple-element construction,” in
volved the use of two sets of yarns. Here a set of longitudinal parallel warp
elements were crossed at right angles and interlocked by a series of transverse
weft elements. The coastal peoples made such fabrics without the use of the
heddle loom. The heddle—a device that mechanically raises and lowers warp
elements so wefts can be rapidly interworked-was not employed until after
the introduction of pottery. Thus, all multiple-element fabrics were hand
crafted.
Most early multiple-element textiles were of two general types. The first
had a woven structure that looked the same as simple weaves produced later
by heddle looms. These fabrics are not particularly common, and they never
constituted more than about 15% of the textile assemblage at any coastal set
tlement.
The second type of early multiple-element textiles was known as weft
twining. This was employed in the majority of preceramic textiles. Here weft
elements are used in pairs. The members of each pair spiral or turn about one
another, at the same time enclosing between them one or more warp yarns
(Figure 3.3a). In preceramic twining the pairs of wefts were spaced somewhat
apart from adjacent weft rows, thereby leaving the warps exposed. Structural
decoration was achieved by warp manipulation—the warp yarns being shifted
or transposed laterally and from one face of the fabric to the other. Some
patterned textiles made no use of color and the decoration consisted of struc
\
Accomplishments 67
turally contrasting areas in geometric arrangements. In other specimens, warp
manipulation was used to control the placement and distribution of colored
yarns.
One of the basic distinctions between weft twining and heddle-loom
weaving is that the former cannot be done with special implements, such as
heddles or shuttles to twine wefts around each other so that they enclose
warp elements. Although twining does not make use of a true loom, the tech
nique does require a support structure to keep the warp yarns suspended and
properly spaced and ordered. The structure may simply be a single rod to
which one end of the warps is secured. Alternatively, twining may be done
on a frame which secures the warps at both ends. No matter the nature of
the support structure, the cloth was produced by finger manipulation, making
textile manufacture a time- and energy-consuming activity.
It is not surprising that twining was the dominant means of textile manu
facture during the Cotton Preceramic Stage. The technique was employed by
hunter-gatherers at Encanto, Chiica, and other Lithic Stage sites to produce
junco mats. Thus, the coastal peoples were already familiar with twining and
they simply applied it to the production of cotton fabrics when cotton came
into general use. Experiments in making cloth with a woven structure began
only after twining was enmeshed with the cotton textile industry. Initially,
weaving was not very efficient, since it was done by finger manipulation. It
did, however, have one latent advantage of great importance which twining
lacked; with the right devices weaving could be done mechanically, while
twining could not. Twining had a circumscribed level of production which
could not be surpassed, whereas weaving, specifically heddle-loom weaving,
had much greater potential productivity.
True weaving became the dominant method of producing cloth about
the time that pottery came into widespread use along the coast. It is a specu
lative matter, but I imagine the replacement of twining was precipitated by an
ever-increasing demand for fabrics that outstripped the level of production
maintained by twining. As the preceramic population underwent great growth,
as society became more complex, and as fabrics assumed more and more non
domestic roles, the demand for cloth must have increased exponentially. Pre
sumably, heddle weaving began primarily as a means of supplementing the level
of twined textile output. The initial virtues of loom-made cloth were that it
could be made quickly and economically. I doubt if either the structural qual
ities, or aesthetic potentials of the cloth were particularly significant factors in
the early spread of woven goods.
Something of the process involved in the change of fabric-making tech
niques is reflected at the site of Pampa Gramalote, near the mouth of the Mo-
che Valley. This settlement dates to the beginning of the Initial Period, and
was inhabited by fishermen. As is typical of the earliest pottery producing
middens, the cotton textile assemblage comprised mainly woven cloth. Twin
ing was used for about 22% of the specimens, but, and most importantly, these

68 Chapter Five
included the finest, best-made textiles at the site. Thus, at Gramalote weaving
was serving the general needs of the population, while twining was used for
cloth of superior quality. The situation is reminiscent of today’s values in
which handcrafted items enjoy greater esteem than mass-produced, mechani
cally made objects. However, twining did not retain this status for very long.
By the middle and later phases of the Initial Period it had been relegated to a
very minor position within the textile industry, and not only most cloth but
the best fabrics were woven.
I have discussed preceramic fabrics at some length for six principal rea
sons. First, this was the dominant craft of the maritime people and their pri
mary avenue of artistic expression. Their accomplishments in the realm of
arts and crafts must be gauged in terms of this medium. Second, this medium
and its potential implications are not well known by most students of early
civilization and thus are frequently dismissed as inconsequential, resulting in a
misinterpretation of the archaeological record in the case of coastal Peru. Third,
the sea could provide for the subsistence wants of the littoral population and
this no doubt dampened the impetus to engage in intensive produce farming.
However, the need for certain industrial products could only be supplied through
cultivation, and the textile industry with its ever-increasing cotton requirements
helped promote the development of early agriculture and integrate farming with
in the broader marine-based economy. Fourth, the production of textiles—
from the planting of seeds to the final twining of yarns—was a laborious pro
cess consuming the time and energy of great numbers of individuals. The far
flung preceramic textile industry reflects, in part, one of the key factors involv
ed in the rise of a civilization: that people could be freed from thejood g^st
to engage in other activities. Fifth, because cloth production involved numer
ous steps that were all time consuming and often quite different, it fostered an
other attribute of complex societies—specialization. Cotton farming was an ac
tivity which involved only one segment of the coastal population, and some
other groups may have been separately identified as spinners and weavers, or
these professional classes may have developed shortly after the introduction of
pottery. Sixth, and finally, during the Cotton Preceramic Stage, fabrics moved
beyond a purely domestic context and assumed wider roles that integrated fab
rics with the general structure of society, thereby establishing a distinctively
Andean textile tradition that stretched across time to the point of Pizarro’s
conquest.
ARTS
Aesthetic expression takes many forms, not all of which survive in the archaeo
logical record. What we know about the creative energies of the maritime peo
ples comes from their visual art. Unlike oral aesthetics, visual art endures be
cause it is an expression with material form. No matter what the purpose of
A
Accomplishments 69
this art, or the meaning of the component motifs, its execution is through
physical media having qualities that can be both advantageous and limiting. A
wide variety of potential media were available to the preceramic artisans. These
included stone, shell, wood, bark cloth, basketry, bone, baked clay, gourd, and
cotton fabrics. Although each of these items figured in craft production, only
the last four were employed for artistic ends, and of these only textiles were
widely used.
One bone shaft ornamented with anthropomorphic creatures has been
reported by Engel (1963:82). This however, is an isolated specimen and com
parable bone work has not been found by other investigators. Prior to the use
of pottery, coastal peoples fashioned a variety of baked clay objects and this
material served as a limited avenue of artistiq expression. The medium was
used to produce modeled anthropomorphic figurines with incised anatomical
details. The execution of these images was rather crude and their purpose is
not known. They may have been dolls, or perhaps their significance was less
mundane. A better example of baked clay serving artistic ends comes from
the settlement of Asia. Here, Engel (1963:82) recovered a plaque or small
tray with incised interlocking birds (Figure 5.1a). Gourd was a more widely
used decorative material and designs were applied by incision and pyroengrav-
ing. The most ornate specimens yet reported are two small containers with
fitted tops found by Bird (1963) at Huaca Prieta. Both are decorated with
forward-facing anthropomorphic figures, and the lid of one container carries
a double-headed bird with a serpentine body (Figure 5.1b,c,d). Although gourd,
baked clay, and bone were not pervasive media, their preceramic use establish
I ed the precedence followed throughout the rise and fall of Andean civilization.
Cotton fabrics formed the primary vehicle of early aesthetic expression,
and twined, woven, and looped textiles were decorated with colored yarns and
structural patterning. Both the amount and range of textile art is underrepre
sented in the archaeological record because many pigments used to color yarns
have faded over the millennia, making design recovery a highly laborious and
time-consuming process. Where color no longer survives, special photographic
techniques may occasionally be helpful. Yet, in most cases reconstruction of
the artwork must be done by microscope. This involves determining the posi
tion of each warp and how it retains or shifts location from one weft row to
another. Every movement of each yarn is then plotted, in order, on graph pa
per, and in this manner the original placement and shifts in color distribution,
as controlled by warp manipulation, can be established. If enough of the fab
ric survives, the design can be recreated. A single twined textile may have as
much as 100 m of yarn. To microscopically follow each millimeter of every
weft and record all movements and positional changes is an exacting task. On
ly the fabric assemblage from Huaca Prieta has received this type of detailed
analysis. The decorated textiles reported from other sites are either specimens
with preserved color, or fabrics whose structural patterning is particularly ap
parent.
70 Chapter Five
FIGURE 5.1 Reconstructions of various motifs, a. Avian motif incised on the back
of a baked clay plaque or tray found at Asia by Engel (1963). b. Bicephalic motif or a
two-headed avian figure with a serpentine body engraved on the top of a cap to a gourd
contained found at Huaca Prieta by Bird (1963). c. Anthropomorphic motif on four de
sign panels engraved on the sides of a gourd contained found at Huaca Prieta by Bird
(1963). One recognizable motif is an anthropomorphic figure, shown by itself to the
right of the panels, d. Anthropomorphic motif on four design panels engraved on the
sides of a gourd container found at Huaca Prieta by Bird (1963).
The roster of early fabric motifs falls into two classes, abstract and rep
resentational. The abstract motifs contain basically geometric elements includ
ing stripes, diamonds, squares, and chevrons which occur individually as repeti
tive motifs, or in combinations making up more complex patterns. Represen
tational designs depict people, birds, serpents, crabs, fish, and other animals
which were used individually and in compositions showing several creatures.
Often the attributes of two animals are combined to form composite beings
(Figure 5.2).
The preceramic textile art is typically angular, which gives it a conven
tionalized aura. The angularity is basically a product of the medium and its
technical characteristics. Twining, and the earliest weaving, could not produce
smooth curved lines. In the lattice-like structure of these fabrics, arcs and
loops were built up as a series of steps or overlapping short lines giving a grid-
ded quality to the representations.
Accomplishments 71
\
\
Because textiles constituted the most ubiquitous medium of aesthetic ex
pression, many basic canons of preceramic art first arose in this angular milieu.
This imparted geometric undertones to the general style even when applied to
media suitable for smooth curvilinear representations. Bird (1963:65) has co
gently argued that this situation shows that an angular, conventionalized style
can be the outgrowth of a medium and its structural qualities, and the style
does not have to fit into any theoretical sequence of artistic evolution starting
with natural and ending with geometric treatment.
In addition to its angular qualities the earliest coastal art is also charac
teristically symmetrical. Symmetry was achieved in multiple ways, the simplest
being repetition of the same motif. Often several design elements were employ
ed in balanced opposition. Interlocking motifs, overlapping, reciprocating de
sign elements, were also frequently used. In representational art the interlock
ing motifs often consisted of creatures with a schematic serpentine body ter-
Chapter Five
minating in a head at each end (Figure 5.3). The geometric and symmetrical
nature of maritime art, as well as employment of interlocking motifs, became
stylistic characteristics of certain later coastal societies.
FIGURE 5.3 Two avian motifs
that interlock with matching sets
to form a design band on a cotton
fabric found at Huaca Prieta by
Bird (1963).
Interpreting the original meaning of the early artistic motifs is a specula
tive matter. There is little to indicate whether particular combinations of non-
representational elements, such as diamonds and chevrons, were purely decora
tive, or if they held symbolic significance. Likewise the spirit and tenor of
the different men and animals shown remains obscure. Virtually all the types
of creatures appearing in preceramic art continued into later use. To some de
gree this continuity must reflect the fact that coastal artisans were simply de
picting aspects of familiar indigenous fauna. On the other hand, many crea
tures portrayed by the maritime artists were not natural life forms, but fanciful
beings combining unusual attributes. The original significance of these compo
sitions remains elusive. Some figures have rather heraldic overtones. The avian
creature shown in Figure 5.4 has a sharply curved beak surmounted by a pro
tuberance that may correspond to the carbuncle of a male condor, or perhaps
the nasal cere of a hawk or raptorial bird. The spotted serpentine-like being
on the bird’s breast may imply a symbolic association of the two animals. Al
ternatively, it might represent some creature the fowl has eaten. Nonetheless,
the total composition retains an ostentatious and armorial bearing. Other com
positions show recognizable animals made unnatural by some added appendage.
The double-headed snake is a typical example of such bizarre beings (Figure
5.5). Some creatures are composite beings such as double-headed birds with
a serpent’s body, or two-headed snakes, with crab appendages. Although the
component parts of these composite beings derive from the indigenous coastal
fauna, the beings themselves are not natural.
The unnatural creatures in preceramic art may be interpreted in two ways.
Some scholars consider the figures simply as products of unbounded artistic li
cense in the hands of imaginative artists. This view sees preceramic art as basi
cally decorative without broader purpose or meaning. Alternatively, the fre
quent deviation from naturalistic life forms may be seen as reflecting an art
style charged with symbolism and esoteric meaning. This view sees the mari
time style as a vehicle for and reflection of a body of shared ideas. Both ex-
Accomplishments 73
FIGURE 5.4 Composite motif depicting an avian figure with a central motif represent
ing a serpent or some other creature on a cotton fabric found at Huaca Prieta by Bird
(1963).
tremes of interpretation have their problems. The former may slight the role
of preceramic art, and the latter may read too much into it.
I doubt if maritime art can be legitimately dismissed as simply mundane
ornamentation. Nor do I think that because a crab is depicted with too many
or too few legs it automatically figured in the preceramic pantheon. Yet, dou
ble-headed serpents, bicephalic birds, and composite beings with reptilian, avian,
and crustacean features may well belong in a class with such preternatural crea
tures as griffins and unicorns. These are not creations artisans conjure up sim
ply for want of decorative novelty. Rather, such preternatural beings are sur
rounded by a body of lore that makes their representation intelligible to the
general public. If double-headed birds and serpents that were also crabs did
not fit into the broader cognitive universe of the preceramic population, I imag
ine the early artisans who depicted such fanciful creatures would have been
judged more than slightly demented and the public would not have underwrit
ten their further creative efforts. These strange beings did not exist in a cul
tural vacuum outside the preceramic social system. We may never know what
such figures meant, but to dismiss them as decorative doodles may be tanta
mount to discounting shadowy reflections of a rich and diversified pantheon.
My argument here is that at least some aspects of preceramic art carried
broad meaning and served as visible manifestations of cosmic concepts. While

74 Chapter Five
FIGURE 5.5 Bicephalic motif depict
ing a two-headed serpent or some other
creature on a cotton fabric found at Asia
by Engel (1963).
the specific content of these concepts eludes us today, the symbolic qualities
of maritime art point to established communications between artists and the
purveyors of esoteric knowledge, be they priests, sages, or social elders. The
dogma and doctrines of the latter were publicized and given material expres
sion by the artisans’ handicrafts.
MORTUARY PRACTICES
Cultural values are imposed upon the dead as well as upon the living, thus as
pects of past life are often reflected in mortuary practices. If preceramic buri
al patterns mirror their social milieu, then they point not to homogeneity but
to social differentiation and heterogeneity. This social variance is evinced both
in the location of graves and in who and what they contain.
Inhumations of the maritime folk are quite common and have been found
in excavations at nearly all larger settlements. Unfortunately, they are poorly
reported in the archaeological literature. Tombs are most frequently encounter
ed in midden deposits, but they also occur in separate cemeteries outside areas
of occupation. These cemeteries are very difficult to locate, and less than half
a dozen are known. Because the sample is so small, the overall frequency and
general implications of out-settlement burials are difficult to assess. Apparent
ly, midden graves and separate interment areas were not mutually exclusive.
1
Accomplishments 75
banning (1960, 1967) implies that Culebras has both. At El Paraiso, Aspero,
and other large population centers where midden inhumations are present, but
apparently not very common, the existence of outside cemeteries is not un
likely. On the other hand, Wendt’s (1964) systematic testing at Rio Seco in
dicates the presence of 2500 to 3000 interments in refuse. Yet, there is no
certainty that this represents the totality of the Rio Seco dead since some
could lie outside the area of settlement.
Little is known about who was buried in separate graveyards, but appar- ^
ently, they were not for children. The Culebras example is reputed to house
individuals of adult stature who are associated with mats, textiles, and other
funerary goods. The same may be said, in general, of the small Alto de Sala-
verry cemetery in the Moche Valley. However, the graves here were looted
and their contents, other than mats and fabrics, have not been established.
Why the maritime population chose to entomb some adults in middens and
others in outside graveyards is not clear. I suspect the differential treatment
of the dead correlates with social distinctions held during life. Yet, the sam
ple of nonmidden burials is small and alternative factors may be involved. For
example, it might be posited that separate cemeteries were simply an early in
terment pattern subsequently replaced by burial in refuse.
A substantial number of midden graves has been excavated, and they fall ;
into two loosely defined patterns; scattered, isolated inhumations; and clus- '
ters of tombs forming in-settlement graveyards. The latter tend to be com
prised of adults and adolescents associated with funerary goods, while the ma
jority of isolated burials are infants generally lacking mortuary offerings. Al
though some children received offerings and were interred along with adults,
most were simply disposed of in scattered garbage pits with little care. 1 imag
ine the cavalier treatment of the newborn and very young reflects an age-line
division in preceramic society involving social recognition and incorporation
only after an infant reached a certain stage of maturation. Whatever the under- j
lying reason, once the practice arose in preceramic times, it persisted into most )
later epochs of coastal civilization.
Differential treatment of mature deceased is apparent at maritime sites,
but the factors behind the variance are not well understood, tanning (1967:
65) notes that adults found as isolated midden interments are—like infants-
usually lacking funerary offerings and thus differ from adults occupying in-set
tlement cemeteries. He suggests the latter represent “full members” of prece
ramic society, whereas the scattered inhumations are of disenfranchised individ
uals.
It can be argued that preceramic mortuary practices reflect social divi
sions based dn sex. Burials from an in-settlement cemetery at Asia and 11 in
terments from Culebras are the only early collections of human remains to
have received osteological study (Hartweg 1958). The adolescent and adult
burials from both sites were composed of three times as many males as females.
If the interments were drawn from normal healthy populations—and there are
76 Chapter Five
Accomplishments 77

no grounds suggesting otherwise-then women of child-bearing and older age

are markedly underrepresented. Presumably, the biased skeletal sample reflects
some sort of social discrimination that led to a predominance of men being
buried in some areas and women in other areas. 1 imagine that more and bet
ter archaeological data would show different types and amounts of funerary
goods were given to the different sexes.
The largest series of graves reported in detail comes from Asia where
Engel (1963) excavated remains of 49 individuals. All complete skeletons
were wrapped in one to three sedge mats, and all graves contained some sort
of accompaniments. Cloth was the most ubiquitous offering and occurred in
48 cases. Due to preservation variation the exact number of fabrics in each
grave could not always be determined, but a reliable count was obtained for
more than half the sample. The distribution of 133 cloth accompaniments
among 28 interments is graphed in Figure 5.6. If the fabrics are an accurate
indication of past social conditions, then it is evident that not everyone had
equal access to similar quantities of material. A few individuals obtained two FIGURE 5.6 This graph of the frequency of textile offerings in graves at the Asia cem
etery shows that some burials received substantially more material than others.
to three times the goods acquired by the majority of others. The person re
ceiving the most fabrics also had gourd containers, bone tools, wood tubes, a that a few individuals had far greater access to chattel wealth than the majority
sling, a slate tablet, a comb, and other objects. This well-furnished grave was of the population. Exactly why this should be remains to be established, but
that of a young male. Why he was bestowed with such a disproportional quan in so far as all people did not have equal access to all things, the division of
tity of goods is not clear, but this fact does indicate that maritime society was preceramic society into ranked statuses and roles seems evident.
neither homogeneous nor egalitarian in terms of the distribution of mortuary
wealth.
SUMMARY
In addition to implications about mortuary practices, the Asia excavations
establish a preceramic precedence for “trophy heads,” the taking and display of
The cultural accomplishments of the Cotton Preceramic Stage were many, and
which later became a widespread Andean practice. Eight severed skulls were
we have touched upon but a few. The single most important development was
encountered, all mat wrapped and accompanied by textiles and other items.
the population explosion underwritten by the maritime economy. Natural de
There was one example each of an isolated child and an isolated adult cranium,
mographic increase accompanied by the packing of ever-increasing numbers of
one example of an adult skull accompanied by that of a child, and one exam
people into large, permanently occupied communities was a critical phenome
ple of a single adult cranium associated with heads of three children. If prece
non. This, more than anything else, precipitated conditions advantageous to
ramic severed heads were analogous to their counterparts in later coastal civili
the rise of complex society and the laying of foundations for coastal Andean
zations, then they very likely served in religious ceremonies and figured in the
indigenous pantheon (cf. Proulx 1971; Moser 1974). civilizations. Arts, crafts, mortuary practices and the like are outgrowths and
Engel (1963:69) reports two of the Asia crania show signs of trepanation reflections of the intricate nature of the evolving maritime societies.
and the surgical cutting and removal of bone disks from the skull. Given that Development of arts and crafts was one avenue into which coastal people
all other documented cases of trepanning in South America are associated with channeled their time and energies. Almost all preceramic crafts became tradi
the use of metal implements, the Asia specimens are surprising. If the osteo- tions which lasted through the rise and fall of Peru’s indigenous civilizations.
logical evidence has, in fact, been correctly identified and dated, this is the The only exception was baked clay, which adumbrated and then was replaced
earliest evidence of cranial surgery in the New World. It is also the first exam by the use of ceramics. The textile industry constituted the dominant craft,
ple of trepanation in coastal Peru, where the practice subsequently became rel and cotton fabrics were of far-reaching importance. They exerted a positive
atively common. influence on the local development of agriculture, affected the configuration
of early art, and constituted the primary type of chattel wealth.
To summarize, while information on the mortuary practices of the mari
The art embellishing preceramic crafts was rich and elaborate. Yet, the
time folk remains circumscribed, extant data indicate recognizable social dis
style is little appreciated because of the analysis needed to reconstruct faded
tinctions based on both age and sex. Beyond this, there is the implication
patterning. The repertoire of motifs and compositions was diverse but remains
78 Chapter Five

obscure in meaning. No doubt some elements were purely decorative in intent,

and some were simply renditions of local fauna. Yet, a great many creatures
have no natural precedents, and here it can be argued that the style served as
a vehicle for the expression of recondite beliefs and ideas held by the early
coastal population.
It is in mortuary practices that the social complexity of the maritime
population first manifests itself in more than material media. Burial locations
and grave goods point to differential treatment of the dead, and this presum
ably reflects different statuses and roles the deceased held while alive. If
wealth and chattel accrue from status and power, then the early mortuary
practices may be said to indicate that a very few individuals held more of
these qualities than the vast majority of the population.

CONSTRUCTION
Some of the most impressive preceramic achievements are reflected in architec
ture. The maritime population engaged in a wide variety of building activities
that ranged from individual undertakings to collective projects involving large
groups of people. Many group ventures went on sporadically over long periods
and involved little planning or organization. The occupational terracing at Pun-
ta Grande is an example of this type of construction. Here, new terraces were
built and old ones expanded over many decades as the local population grew
and new families required additional living space.
The different types of preceramic building projects form something of a
continuum that is difficult to subdivide. Yet, within the greater pool of collec
tive building activities, it is useful to segregate projects produced by corporate
labor. Corporate labor is group labor that draws its work force from a number
of separate households and sometimes from separate communities. In a corpo
rate project, laborers work together in a collective, integrated manner for a spe
cific purpose. This purpose is defined and sanctioned by an authoritative body 79

80 Chapter Six
which coordinates the work and to which the will of individual laborers is sub
servient while participating in the undertaking. As used here, corporate labor
is an organizational concept that signifies an authoritative body which has the
rights and ability to direct the actions of workmen. The authority may be
vested in one or more individuals and the source of power may be economic,
political, religious, or otherwise in nature, and it may be lasting or ephemeral.
Identifying the nature and characteristics of corporate authority in an archaeo
logical context is generally difficult and frequently speculative. On the other
hand, the products of a corporate work force are often recognizable by their
size, construction materials, planning, layout, and original function. It is im
portant to distinguish corporate-labor projects because they reflect certain or
ganizational principles of the societies that carried out the work. At other
times, however, corporate construction cannot be readily identified, and the
project in question is best regarded as a product of group labor operating un
der undetermined arrangements.
El Paraiso and Aspero are two of the largest Peruvian maritime settle
ments, and both provide examples of corporate-labor construction. Aspero
will be described first because it contains a variety of large and small architec
tural features. This will be followed by a comparative interpretation of the
site economy and corporate-labor architecture. El Paraiso will be described
second because of its unusual size and nature.
ASPERO
Aspero is located near the coast on the north side of the Supe Valley. It is
the second largest preceramic site yet reported and has the following major
constituents: an extensive midden deposit, artificial terracing, masonry struc
tures, and corporate-labor platform mounds. The settlement has been known
for a very long time, and its rueful history of exploration illustrates the diffi
culties archaeologists have had in recognizing and coming to grips with the ma
ritime foundations of coastal Peruvian civilization.
Aspero was first explored and recorded in 1905 by Max Uhle (1925),
the founder of modern Andean archaeology. He, however, neither realized the
antiquity of the site nor detected the presence of temple-type mounds. Yet,
Uhle’s investigation subsequently lead to Aspero being the first cotton prece
ramic site to receive systematic excavation. In 1941, Gordon R. Willey and
johnJVTJZorbett (1954) opened three strata cuts, cleared'a'masonry structure
in the midden, and recovered early Ceramic-Stage graves at the north end of
the site. Maize was found in a sealed cache of 49 cobs beneath the masonry
construction, but no pottery was encountered in the midden, and textile frag
ments were not saved by the excavators. Although the site quite obviously
lacked pottery, the excavations failed to establish the early age of Aspero sim
ply because at that time there was no concept of a coastal preceramic period
or stage into which the settlement might fit. Several of the artificial platforms
V
Construction
were recognized, but these were dismissed as natural knolls or hillocks. As
Willey wrote in his later reinterpretation of the site, if the idea of a preceramic
stage with large sedentary communities and masonry architecture seemed alien,
even more peculiar to 1941 thinking would have been the presence of sizeable
artificial mounds (Moseley and Willey 1973:455). It would take more than
three decades before the early maritime societies would be credited with more
than the most rudimentary levels of cultural development. The 1941 excava
tions left Aspero in an archaeological limbo. It was considered an anomalous
settlement and largely forgotten. By the 1960s banning (1967) had come to
suspect the site was, in fact, preceramic. In 1971-two-thirds of a century after
its discovery—Willey and 1 revisited the site, confirmed its dating and established
the presence of platform mounds. More recently a new excavation program was
completed by Robert Feldman.
The Midden
Aspero is situated 1 km from the sea, near a shoreline of mixed sand beaches
and rocky headlands. The site lies along a series of low hills near the edge of
modern cultivation, some 3 km above the mouth of the Supe River. The resi
dents had access to floodwater farmland in the river channel, and to rocky
and sandy littoral resources along the coast. In a general way the setting re
sembles that of El Paraiso, but the details of the environmental components
differ somewhat.
The Aspero midden covers more than 13 hectares, averages 2 or more
meters in depth, and at points there are more than 5 m of compact refuse.
There may be other larger preceramic sites undiscovered or unreported, but to
my knowledge Aspero is surpassed at present only by El Paraiso. The Aspero
rnidden is bigger and deeper than the prominent maritime settlement of Rio
Seco del Leon which is located by an isolated stretch of coastal desert north
of the Chancay Valley. The Rio Seco midden covers about 11.8 hectares and
has 1 to 1.5 m of accumulated refuse (Wendt 1964). The large preceramic set
tlement of Culebras 1 at the mouth of the Rio Culebras is not well reported
and its size not well defined (Engel 1957a, 1957b; banning 1960, 1967); how
ever, it is smaller than Aspero and Rio Seco. The preceramic component at
the Hal das complex north of the Huarmey Valley has been argued to be of
very great size (banning 1960; Fung 1969), and a population of many thou
sands has been suggested (Rowe 1963). Yet, the early deposit is discontinu
ous and is often thin (Engel 1970); thus, it is probably the product of a pop
ulation somewhat smaller than that residing at Aspero. On the south side of
the Supe Valley, Robert Feldman’s newly discovered settlement of Piedra Pa-
rada ranks as one of the largest and most impressive preceramic settlements
yet encountered. The dominant architecture is monumental in scope, compris
ing three sets of vast symmetrically arranged terraces. The terrace complexes
are spaced over an area about half a kilometer in length. Preliminary survey
indicates the midden associated with the site, though of fair size, is not of the
80 ch’-*- Construction

32 Chapter Six
1
well as more massive structures. Residential terracing is evident at the northern
d t Aspero. Thus, while the ‘^°^5id not live at edge of the site along the lower slopes of a hill spur projecting into the area of
occupation. The individual terraces, now heavily eroded, have simple earth
foresets without evident masonry which stand 0.3 to 1.0 m high. The tops of
Piedra Parada, and th local the terraces are 2.5 to 3.5 m wide and 4.0 to 10.0 m long, and the construc
the Supe Valley. Aspero midden refle ^ |.ocky lit- tion spreads over an area roughly 30 m north-south by 60 m east-west. The
maximum number of superimposed terraces forming a single sequence was
three. The structures appear to have been designed to provide level living sur
faces. Residential terracing was commonly practiced during the Cotton Prece
ramic Stage and assumed several forms. Simple terracing like that at Aspero
was used at Punta Grande, Los Chinos, and other sites. More elaborate struc
tures with masonry foresets were built at Culebras 1 and at Huaca Prieta in
the river floodplain P minor quantities in |^g of 49 the Chicama Valley.

% far.
these plants const
maize cobs was found
excavations, n' > - "’'^-
accumulate is un
At Aspero there is massive terracing that is not residential. In general
these structures are poorly preserved and their original characteristics are un
clear. Large-scale terracing is most evident along the eastern base of Mounds
den constituent. ^,pero '‘o^oral-warp twined textiles. 1 and 2, where the site surface was stepped to form two or more planes some
Exactly how long “ ^^th single- and ^ ^^ney, then 50 m in length. Along the tops and fronts of the structures there is a scatter
established. g"t|,e sequence is Phase, if not earlier. of very large stone blocks, some estimated to weigh close to a ton. How the
r^«r:;t:e:eenoc»P>ea^ur,ns..eCo„e.a boulders were used is not apparent from surface indications, but the rock is
not native to the immediate vicinity of the site. Simply transporting the blocks
to Aspero represents a very sizeable labor investment of a corporate nature. Ad
Masonry Structures jacent to the northwest foot of Mound 2 is a massive rectilinear terrace more
than 2 m high, U-shaped in plan, and which opens to the northwest. This seems
to be a sunken plaza measuring about 20 m on a side.
The largest corporate-labor terracing yet found in a preceramic context is

:: ^1'• rr
at Piedra Parada, where there are three separate complexes of monumental ar
chitecture banked against low hills. The largest consists of two artificial planes,
-""-rns.ruc.fon -s'- one behind the other. Centrally situated in front of the lower terrace is a cir
cular sunken court perhaps 20 m in diameter. This lies inside a second surface-
eter and from 1 -0 the floors are jj^bs or other | level court that is roughly square, measuring about 40 m on a side. The foot
b\ack mortar of mi ^^uld have been to ]
of the first terrace is some 25 m behind and uphill from the court with which
of roofing^;^.^^,,^, tor. HoW th-e ^tructure^^^^.^ ,,g, it is aligned. This terrace is about 100 m long, 50 m wide at the top, and
:Sn. some may h.e r:^;e.s or roastin^Pj- about 4 m high. The entire front is masonry faced with small boulders. The
summit is reached via a centrally positioned flight of stairs. The terrace top
is divided into three courts of equal size. The central court is further subdivid
ed so that a straight corridor leads from the stair top to the base of the second
which resembles the 2 to 3 m on a side and or semi-sub-
terrace and a flight of ascending steps. The second terrace is about as high as
----rS—rm H^uaca Prieta, Culebras f. an , the first, but otherwise the overall dimensions are perhaps 20% smaller. The
summit is partitioned into three major areas that are further divided into small
terranean residential suu er symmetrically arranged courts and rooms. The two other terrace complexes
other maritime settlements.
at Piedra Parada lack forecourts, but otherwise they resemble the largest com
plex in terms of general layout, symmetry, central access, and boulder masonry.

Ss=r-r.s:i=='==' The smaller complex is perhaps half the size of the one described.
00
00
 Chapter Six Construction 87

^j—MASONRY STRUCTURE.
TABLE 6.1 Characteristics of the Aspero platforms.

Platforms
FRONT SLOPE BACK SLOPE
1 2 3 4 5 6
FIGURE 6.2 Schematic cross section of a platform mound illustrating the terminology
used to describe the principal platform mounds at Aspero.
Perceived height 6.95 m 10.7 m 2.0 m 8.9 m 3.65 m 5.85 m
Artificial elevation 3.0 m 3.5 m ? 2.0 m 4.0 m .3.65 m 3.75 m
7
tionable platforms were noted. The summit mounds were of the same width
Natural fill X X X X X
Mesh bags X X 7 X X X as their supporting structures, and the backs of both were aligned. This ar
Summit platform X 7 X X X X rangement had the effect of stepping or terracing the fronts of the platforms
Basal platforms 1 7 2 1 2 1. and giving them moderate slopes (8° to 12°) while the backs of the buildings
Questionable basal
platforms
Adobe melt
Masonry tracery
X
X
_

-
X
2 ?
X
X
1 ?
X
X
X
X
1f '
were unbroken and sharply inclined (22° to 3D°). In three cases it was evident
that the summits were reached by centrally positioned access structures which
may have been ramps or stairs. The access structure leading to the top of Plat

1
Masonry terrace form 3 may have been flanked on each side by a low lateral mound extending
facing X 7 7
— —
to the edge of the basal structure. If lateral mounds are in fact present they
Masonry structure 7 7 X
- _
gave the basal platform a “U”-shaped configuration characteristic of some Ini
Central access 7
- X X X -
U-shaped configuration — X 7 tial Period platforms.
- - -
Front slope 8° 7 9° 12° 10° 8° Evidence of cobble and basalt block masonry and adobe construction
24° 24° ? 25° 23° 30° 22° ?
Back slope existed on all the major platform mounds. This consisted of rectilinear rock
Orientation N45°W N 60° E ? N 45° E E N 42° W N 80° E ?
alignments, loose cobbles, and adobe melt. The looters’ pit in Platform 1 re
vealed a masonry facing on the front of the summit mound. This overlay was
Of the six structures two are freestanding, two are built on ridges, and superimposed upon an earlier masonry face, indicating multiple stages of re-
two are on sharply inclined slopes. By using ridges and raised slopes as con
struction sites, the platforms were imbued with an imposing but deceptive ele-
' vation above their lower adjacent surroundings. Thus, from iower vantage
points the perceived height of several of the structures is 9 to 10 m, but the
artificial elevation achieved by construction fill is substantially less.
The actual height of the platforms ranges from 2 to at least 4 m, with
a majority of the mounds falling over 3 m. The use of artificial fill to form
the construction core is fully evident in all cases except in Platform 3. The
fill here consists of angular unworn igneous rocks mixed with clean, light-
brown sandy soil. This material comes from the hills surrounding Aspero, and
the angularity of the fill rocks suggests they were deliberately quarried rather
than simply gathered. The fill was stabilized by placing it in wide-mesh net
bags made of heavy sedge. The bags may have had a capacity of about one-
fourth of a bushel. They were stacked one atop another to hold the fill on
sharp slopes. This bagged-fill construction technique was used at El Paraiso FIGURE 6.3 Mound 4, or ‘‘Huaca de Sacrificios,” at Aspero is seen from the back look
and in an Initial Period context at Las Haldas. ing out over the flats of the Supe Valley which the platform faced. After this photograph
All of the main mounds are rectangular in plan. Details of the external was taken, excavations revealed stone-faced terracing along the sides of the mound, and a
rectangular room on the summit of the platform with a centrally located fire basin with a
form of Platform 2 could not be discerned, but in all other cases it was possi carved wooden bowl behind it. The name, "Temple of the Sacrifices," comes from two
ble to distinguish well-defined, flat-topped summit mounds resting on and to dedicatory burials, a child and an adult, found on the edge of the summit. Draped with a
the rear of one or more flat-topped basal platforms (Figure 6.2). Several struc large collar of beads, the child’s body was fabric wrapped and covered over by a large
carved stone basin with four legs. (Photo by author.)
tures had two well-defined basal platforms, and in three cases additional ques-

88 Chapter Six
be'rf Sis"'v1ewtows tL°sidro7theToIe?s-cuter! a'^nd b!h!n'd7t the
?■ ! r u heiow the suuult and the f
t^^o-’rt" ue^efs -d been inhabited tor sente
time before the construction of Huaca Alta. (Photo by author.)
modeling (Figure 6.4). The summit of Platform 5 appears to have been com
pletely occupied by a masonry structure. The masonry at the other platforms
could represent facings or summit rooms, or both. ___
It is interesting that the platform mounds do not share a common
ward alignment. In four cases the facing direction is obvious; in two cases it
is unclean Platform 2 may have fronted Platform 1, or it may have opened
to the northeast. The different orientations of the platforms might b
product of differences in the time of construction. It is also ^ north which include Huarmey North 1 (Kelley and Bonavia 1963), Culebras 1,
rectional alignment of multiple structures was not an important architectural
canon for the preceramic population.
Artificial mounds are currently known from only one other preceramic
site. This is the large settlement of Rio Seco del Leon
freestanding structures, each approximately 3 m in height ’ mestication in the Andes (Grobman, Salbuana, Sevilla, and Mangelsdorf 1961).
started out as large masonry rooms-of a corporate-labor nature-that were
\
Construction 89
sequently filled in to create an artificial eminence, banning (1967) reports one
platform had two superimposed sets of filled rooms, and that in its final phase
the summit of the mound was occupied by a masonry structure. The presence
of a summit structure and evidence of multiple construction stages are the most
evident similarities with the Aspero platforms. The Rio Seco mounds were ap
parently not terraced, the means of summit access is not known, and ground
plans and orientations have not been reported.
COMPARISONS
The developments that transpired at Aspero were neither anomalous nor unique.
Every major phenomenon at the site has counterparts at other maritime settle
ments. Therefore, it is useful to assess the archaeological implications of Aspero
in a comparative context.
Subsistence Economy
Aspero fits well with what we know about the capabilities of maritime resourc
es to support extensive, permanently occupied settlements. The settlement,
and by inference the resident population, is very large, but its magnitude is
not so extreme as to set Aspero completely apart from other big preceramic
sites. It occupied a valley-mouth setting allowing the population access to
both marine and riparian resource complexes. As I have noted earlier this was
a propitious location, and other large settlements such as Piedra Parada, Cule-
bras 1, and El Paraiso arose in similar contexts.
New World archaeologists attach great theoretical significance to maize
cultivation, and look upon this plant much as if it were the economic midwife
that attended the birth of early civilization. Thus, there is a tendency to read
the developments at Aspero and at several other maritime settlements in terms
of maize farming. Yet, if this cultigen was of particular importance then it
might be expected that it would have become widespread on the coast and in
tensively used within a relatively short period of time. Therefore, the econom
ic role played by maize should be reflected in its frequency of occurrence and
its distribution in space and time.
Maize is present in the Aspero midden, but it is not common and the
largest sample came from the single cache found in 1941. In a preceramic con
text the plant is presently known from several other sites somewhat further
and Las Haldas (banning 1967; Fung 1969; Engel 1970). These sites are re
stricted to an areal distribution of 150-km section of the coast. There has been
considerable speculation about the ultimate origin of coastal maize. Some in
vestigators postulate a Mesoamerican source, others a center of independent do
No matter the botanical questions involved, the plant is not common at mari
time sites and nowhere is it a significant midden constituent.
 ■X

90 Chapter Six
Construction 91

Maize spread gradually from its restricted center of distribution. By the

other food products. This would have conferred an added stability to the sub
early part of the Initial Period it was cultivated on the north coast, but not in
sistence pattern and would have allowed for a somewhat larger sedentary popu
quantity. Large-scale excavations at the Moche Valley site of Pampa Grama-
lation. Yet, maize probably was not particularly significant in this capacity be
lote produced only two cobs. Maize did not reach the Ancon-Chillon area un
cause the main marine resources were not seasonal but perennial and subject
til well after the introduction of pottery, and its appearance in the lea Valley
to few fluctuations in availability. Second, stored maize could have provided
on the south coast seems to date to the middle or later part of the Initial Pe
for the maintenance of work projects that temporarily called for large-scale ex
riod (Rowe 1966). Admittedly, our knowledge of early coastal maize is incom
penditures of labor. In other words, maize might have allowed the Aspero pop
plete. Yet, it is quite evident that both the frequency of occurrence and the
ulation to move somewhat further than the Rio Seco inhabitants in the devel
space-time distribution of the cultigen do not suggest a role of economic im
opment of monumental architecture. Flowever, this is only a hypothetical pos
portance. The plant first appears in a small section of the coast and stays in
sibility.
these confines until the close of the Cotton Preceramic Stage, serving as a mi
Actually, when Aspero and Rio Seco are compared, the general divergenc
nor food source. It then spreads farther north but does not come into com
es are small. Differences in settlement size and monumental architecture are
mon usage for some time. The southward diffusion of maize was still more
primarily of degree rather than of kind. If Aspero can be viewed as providing
languid, reaching the Ancon-Chillon area in the middle or later phases of the
a “test population” for maize, and Rio Seco as providing a “control popula
Initial Period and the south coast even after this. Indeed, the pattern of occur
tion,” then the early cultivation of the plant was not particularly consequen
rence and distribution of maize do not even approximate the rapid spread and
tial. At best, maize seems to have merely accented cultural developments al
ubiquity of such industrial plants as gourd and cotton. In no way does early
ready formulated under the aegis of the marine-based subsistence economy.
coastal maize live up to the expectations of the archaeological lore.
If the foregoing interpretation of the Aspero subsistence pattern is cor
To postulate that the cultigen was somehow responsible for either the
rect, then the economic implications are clear. Neither agriculture nor a par
great size of Aspero or its monumental architecture runs contrary to fact for
ticular crop such as maize is prerequisite for attaining certain levels of cultural
several reasons. First, Aspero’s substantially larger sister site of El Paraiso,
development. The achievements of the Aspero populace were based on fishing,
while in part dependent upon cultivation, lacked crops suitable to serve as ag
not on maize farming.
ricultural staples (Pickersgill 1969:57). Maize is absent here, and agricultural-
productivity does not account for the size and nature of this site. Second,
platform mounds were constructed at Rio Seco. Cultivation was impossible
Large-Scale Construction
at this desert site and agriculture has no evident bearing on the Rio Seco mon A milieu favorable for undertaking group-labor construction projects arose with
umental architecture. Third, and finally, the cultivation of maize at Aspero the formation of large nucleated coastal settlements which found architectural
presumably went on in the context of floodwater farming, and there is only expression at many of the bigger maritime communities. The ventures in large-
a limited amount of river land suitable for this cultivation technique. In theo scale building differ from one site to another. They were pursued in two broad
ry, land limitations set restrictions on the level of agricultural output. These contexts; one was residential in nature, and the other was nonresidential.
strictures were not broken until canal irrigation later opened the desert to cul
Residential Building The domestic terracing at Aspero was the product of a
tivation and thereby increased the availability of arable land.
number of individuals working together, but the construction is not particular
If both larger settlements and the building of platform mounds could be
ly impressive. There is large-scale terracing and associated masonry at Culebras
supported by the maritime subsistence pattern in the absence of maize cultiva
that extends along a sharply inclined hillside covering several hectares (Engel
tion, what then was the role of this crop at Aspero? The plant is simply not
1957b; Fanning 1960, 1967). The individual terraces are not particularly long,
common at the site and I doubt that it had particular significance. Nonethe
ranging from perhaps 5 to 25 m. Nor was there an emphasis on keeping adja
less, in theory it could have been something of a catalyst tipping the economic
cent structures aligned. Terrace foresets are two to three meters in height and
balance at Aspero toward larger settlement and corporate-labor architecture.
often faced with rectangular blocks of basalt and large cobbles set in mortar.
The plant had one important attribute that most preceramic foods lacked. Un
Walls were plastered and sometimes ornamented with rectangular niches. The
like many seafoods, such as mollusks, which have to be harvested and consum
extensive earth moving involved and the substantial masonry imply production
ed on more or less a daily basis, maize could be preserved and stored over long
by group labor, but the haphazard layout and scattering of the individual ter
periods of time. If grown in sufficient quantity to amass in excess (for which
races do not point to an organizing corporate authority.
there is no evidence), the plant may have had two consequences. First, stored
At Fluaca Prieta a series of large masonry walls was built along the sum
maize could have mitigated against occasional fluctuations in the availability of
mit of this early mound. Small boulders were the primary construction mate-
114 Chapter Seven

CONCLUSION

In overview, it was the development of a productive littoral-based subsistence

pattern that placed agricultural origins in coastal Peru in a unique context. For
a period the maritime economy kept farming to the level of a minor activity
important primarily for production of industrial crops. The littoral subsistence
pattern supported both demographic expansion and the evolution of complex
. societies to a degree that incipient agriculture could not be capable of. This ^
effectively preadapted the coastal populations for large-scale canal irrigation, *
which is predicated upon large labor forces and coordinated managerial direc- ,
tion, and ultimately allowed for the rapid development of an agricultural econ- *
omy. The new economy in turn may be postulated to have fostered the growth:
of totalitarian authority to a greater degree than would have been possible with^
in the maritime economy.

Prehistoric cultural development on the Andean coast holds straightforward

theoretical implications. First, the archaeological axiom that only agriculture
could support the rise of complex societies is not a universal truth, and sec
ond, the corollary belief that agricultural origins evolve hand-in-hand in place
or time with the origins of civilization can be misleading. v.£ivilization has the
potential of arising out of any type of subsistence economy capable of sup
porting a sedentary and dense population with many people living in daily
contact with one another and with a certain amount of time free from food
procurement.
The development of civilization in coastal Peru was greatly influenced
by the natural environment. The richest marine biomass in the Western Hemi
sphere, if not the world, was juxtaposed with one of the most barren deserts
found anywhere. A living could be made from both the land and sea, but dif
ferent resources had different technological and organizational requisites for
their exploitation. 115
Chapter Eight
Man first lived off the land as a hunter and gatherer relying on game
and wild plant foods that were seasonal and widely scattered. These factors
kept people migrant and distributed among small scattered settlements. Lim
its on the food supply contributed to a low population density. Man gradually
became familiar with the utilization of littoral resources, and by late in the
Lithic Stage, sea animals, mollusks in particular, supplied most dietary protein.
The year-round availability of these resources allowed some groups to become
relatively sedentary operating out of one primary settlement near a coastal
river. Other groups of hunters may, in theory, have followed game which sum
mered in the highlands.
A developing reliance on marine products by hunting societies contribut
ed to their population growth. At a certain point, this growth reached the
stage where the entire population could not be maintained by traditional ter
restrial resources, and some segment of the populace became dependent upon
sea foods. The result was a commitment to the exploitation of marine prod
ucts, and these products in turn contributed to greater demographic increase.
This feedback led to the eventual abandonment of game hunting and the shift
to a maritime way of life. The archaeological record gives the impression of a
rapid change in subsistence patterns. This is consistent with the ability of
such abundant marine resources to not only support population growth, but
also to absorb the entire hunting-dependent population. Yet, the actual rate
of economic change is not well calibrated because of poor dating and a dearth
of transitional sites.
The beginning of the Cotton Preceramic Stage coincides with the first
use of this industrial plant. Cotton fibers were of great importance and this
led to its early use and domestication. For many centuries cotton tending—
which was fundamental to the rapidly expanding fabric industry—constituted
the main agricultural endeavor of the maritime population. Gourd was the
other cultivated plant of importance and served as containers and net floats.
Some food plants were tended as dietary supplements, but there was no inter
est in or attempt to develop agricultural staples. The sea provided more food
with less work. Maize appears infrequently at a few midden deposits. It dif
fused very slowly at best and did not lead to cultural developments not found
at settlements lacking corn. In archaeological lore maize is the postulated
elixir of New World civilizations. The Peruvian desert provides the preserva
tion of remains necessary to demonstrate this was certainly not the case.
The preceramic people lived adjacent to their main food resources which
were extremely abundant, perennially available marine products localized along
the rocky and sandy littoral zones. Sea foods were procured by a simple sub
sistence technology reliant on shell fishhooks and float nets. Economic labor
organization remained unelaborate, based on individual and small-group under
takings and neither required nor benefited from centralized managerial author
ity. Although the subsistence pattern was not complex, the accessibility and
extreme richness of the coastal biomass made the economy highly productive.
Conclusions
Caloric output found its fundamental and most dramatic expression in
demographic growth, and the maritime population experienced exponential in
crease. The expanding populace was sedentary, and localized on the coastline,
resulting in a very high population density. People were not uniformly dis
tributed along the littoral zone, but clustered in nodes of varying size. In
these dense settlements individuals came into daily contact with one another
and here complex social activities developed. Some maritime settlements
reached immense proportions, and great population centers grew both in the
desert and near the coastal rivers. Thus, people living off the sea met the
demographic prerequisites for civilization during the Cotton Preceramic Stage.
The expanding population channeled energy into developing the arts and
crafts. All crafts of later coastal civilizations, except metallurgy, were either
started or adumbrated by the maritime fold. Bone, lapidary, woodworking,
and gourd pyroengraving were done. Spindle whorls, trays, and figurines were
made of baked clay. If this did not produce the independent invention of ce
ramics, it clearly anticipated the introduction of pottery. Textile production
was the most ubiquitous and important of maritime crafts and became a long
standing Andean tradition. Constituting the main form of chattel, twined fab
rics are the hallmark of the Preceramic Stage. Textiles, which were manufac
tured in great quantity, underwrote cotton domestication and an interest in
plant cultivation. Fabrics served as the principal media for aesthetic expression
and imparted a lasting aspect of angularity to Andean art. The rich and elab
orate geometric and representational compositions of maritime style are little
appreciated because of the difficulty in analyzing the faded decoration. Rep
resentational work included renditions of local fauna, as well as preternatural
creatures such as double-headed serpents that held symbolic connotations.
Mortuary practices, though little studied, reflect significantly upon the
structure of maritime society. They establish early foundations for the Ande
an “trophy head cult.” But, of greater importance is the ranking of individ
uals evident in the treatment of the dead. People of different ages and sex
were buried in various ways. The distribution of grave goods reflects further
distinctions. For example, dead males did not have equal access to textiles
and other chattel, and some individuals had far greater access to funerary
goods than did the majority of the population. If wealth in death reflects up
on power and position in life, then mortuary practices show a few people held
far greater authority than most.
Monumental architecture dramatizes the social complexity of maritime
life and reflects upon its economic foundations. The littoral subsistence pat
tern provided both the people and “free” time—that is, the labor—ior large-
scale construction projects. Yet, the great preceramic ventures in corporate
construction required not just labor, but an organized, controlled work force.
Control was predicated upon the individual subduing his will to directions from
higher, collective authority, and toiling on projects producing'no immediate
material benefits for himself.

118 Chapter Eight
Controlled, organized labor is the stuff of which all civilizatioris are
built, and each is based upon institutions allowing many to be directed by a
few. In coastal Peru the demographic and economic origins of the laboy pool
can be traced out in detail. Yet, we can see neither when nor the rea^6r| why
individuals first surrendered labor to the collective and to the dictates of--lilgh-
er authority. The maritime subsistence pattern was predisposed to indi^dual-
ism, rather than to centralized work and management. Presumably the initial
abdication to corporate authority was voluntary and took* place at an early
date. The great corporate-construction projects of the later phases of the Pre
ceramic Stage took place after thd fact of in^lividual abdication and the rise of
corporate authority.
The nature of maritime corporate authority remains to be clarified.
Since there were two different architectural manifestations, the existence of
several forms of authority can be argued. Platform mounds and terraces were
the most prevalent type of construction and were designed to separate and
display seats of important activities. The activities may have been broadly re
ligious in nature, implying a theocratic form of authority. The other form of
corporate construction waS the compartmentalized architectural complex, of
which El Paraiso—the largest known preceramic building in the Andean area—
is the main example. The structure’s compartmentalized design segregated ac
tivities and kept them private. The complex was built by a regional labor
pool, and it may have housed bureaucratic operations associated with admin
istering a secular polity.
The maritime population probably did not distinguish between church
and state. Thus, the principal significance of the two forms of corporate ar
chitecture is the implication that theocracy did not evolve before more mun
dane forms of government.
Monumental architecture is the primary source of knowledge about early
corporate authority and labor organization, but it wpuld be wrong to assume
either the maritime population or the power structure had more than secon
dary concern with corporate construction. Their interests lay not so much
with erecting a platform mound, but with what went on around andtStop the
structure. Here were the truly spectacular and impressive corporate activities,
and we know nothing of them. Likewise, the building of El Paraiso was out
a shallow reflection of the import and commanding powers of activities which
were to go on inside the complex. Thus, the archaeological record provides
but a secondary and demeaning reflection of the maritime foundations of civ
ilization.
Coastal societies underwent a major change in subsistence patterns about
the time pottery was coming into use. Within a few centuries farming replaced
fishing as the mainstay of a majority of the population. For agriculture to sup
port large numbers of people the desert had to be opened to cultivation. In
tensive agriculture required plants and knowledge of their use, as well as the
ability to construct canal systems to channel waters out of a river course and
1
Conclusions 119
on tf> arable lands. The pace of economic change was rapid because the coast
al population was preadapted to large-scale irrigation agriculture. First, there
hifi b?en centuries of prior experience with growing industrial cultigens, and
legprpps, peanuts, tubers, and maize all began to spread along the coast once
cujUvkted foods ceased being treated as dietary condiments. Second, the ma-
rin^^cdnomy underwrote population growth and the emergence of large work
forces. Third, corporate authority was preexistent, and these bodies were ca
pable of mobilizing labor, directing canal construction, assuring continued
maintenance, and adjudicating the distribution of water.
Coincident with the development of farming, there was a shift in resi
dence patterns. Though many people remained on the coast a majority grad
ually left for inland residence among scattered farmsteads. There was also a
pronounced and important change in both the location and size of corporate
architecture. Most monuments, including all the largest, were no>v built in
land. The scale of construction also increased and structures of immense size
were erected. There is, however, no evidence suggesting the new economy
supported marked population growth resulting in larger labor pools, nor that
it produced more “free” time.
Events involved in the development of coastal farming are most easily
.understood in terms of a model positing that when preexistent bodies of cor
porate authority began directing canal construction, they also assumed control
over the water the systems would carry, and thereby control over the land.
This effectively placed the means of making a living by farming in the hands
of corporate authority. The result was a state-controlled economy giving the
corporate authority totjilitarian rule over the population. The new scale in
corporate construction vvas a monument to the centralization of state power, .
not a commemoration of economic betterment of the population.
, Why the maritime folk ever made the shift to farming is not clear, and
several models can be put forward. If the population level reached the carry
ing capacity of marine resources then a demographic commitment to a reliance
on plant foods could have arisen. Thus, population jpVes^6'mighth[^v^ pushed
people into a new subsistence pattern. Yet, refining oflne simple rharjjjj^e
subsistence technology could easily have channeled off SemtJgrapbic,pressures
for economic change. Likewise, when the Bay of Ventanilla finally,dried out
after millennia of exploitation, vast beds of mollusks remained in the sand
flats as mute testimony to man’s negligible impact on the littoral biomass.
Alternatively, the change to farming as a way of life may lie in cultural
institutions that cannot be explained in terms of subsistence or demography.
Perhaps a political model is applicable. In Peru the first “sUtes” grew out of
a maritime economy not susceptible to control by corporate authority. Like
civilization in general, continued development of corporate authority rested on
the furthering of institutions which allowed a few to organize and many to la
bor. Fishing was a deadend for the emerging state, but farming and irrigation
agriculture were the avenues to totalitarian control.
lird, Junius B. Mr.rthpm Chile ” Anthropological Papers of the
1943 “Excavations in Northern Chi . vvvviii Part lV-179-318.
American Museum of Natural History XXXVIll, Part 1V.179 3l«

the Society for American Archaeology, No. 4.21-28.

wa
“Before Heddles were Invented.” Handv^eaver and Craftsman 3(3)
IC// ----------------------------

1952
5-8.
■P,«er.mic Art from Huac, Prieta, Chicama Valley." N.'.p. P-
1963
cha 1:29-34.
;ird, Junius B., and Louisa Bellinger
 1

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128 Bibliography

Willey, Gordon R. and John M. Corbett

1954 “Early Ancon and Early Supe Culture.” Columbia Studies in Ar-
chaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 3.

Administrative activities 100; centers Ceramic Stage 34-36, 110

100 Cerro Sechin 107
Aito de Salaverry 75 Chan Chan 5
architecture 79-102 Chavin 103, 104
arts 68-74, 77-78' Chicama Valley 3
Asia 64, 69, 76, Table 5.1 Chiica 53, 67
Aspero 4, 5, 48, 61, 65, 75, 80-89, 90, Chiica Quebrada 41, 43
91, 92, 93, 94, 96, 97, 99, 101, 107, Chimbote 10, 44, 61
109, 112, Table 5.1; masonry 82; Chimu 3
midden 81-82; platforms 85-89; ter Chumash 54, Table 4.1
racing 82-83 Chuquitanta (see El Paraiso)
climatic change 41, 42, 53, 55
Banco Verde 25, 30 coastal lagoon 14-15, 82
Bird, Junius 4, 53, 54, 63, 69, 71, 92 Collier, D. 109
Bonavia, D. 89 Conchas 30, 32, 34, 82, 96
Corbett, John M. 80, 85
Caballo Muerto 160 corporate-labor architecture 56, 79-80,
Camino 24, 25, 30, 51, 107 85, 88, 90, 93, 94, 100, 101-102, 104,
canals (irrigation] 15-16, 48-49, 50, 55, 105, 107, 112
•56, 57, 90, 104, 106, 111, 112, 114 cotton 22, 64-65, 66, 116 129