South Coast Peru by Patricia K Maita Agurto
Quaternary Science Reviews
Shell middens are conspicuous manifestations of the exploitation of rich, sustainable, easily see... more Shell middens are conspicuous manifestations of the exploitation of rich, sustainable, easily seen and harvested marine resources that, worldwide, enabled hunter-gatherers to reduce mobility and increase population and social complexity. Globally, known sites tend to cluster chronologically around 6 k BP, after slowing eustatic sea-level rise, although the Pacific coast of South America offers some rare earlier exceptions. We report investigations of La Yerba II, a Middle Preceramic shell matrix site on the Río Ica estuary, south coast Peru. These show how, beginning around 7000 Cal BP, over 4.5 m of stratigraphy accumulated in less than 500 years. Consisting of prepared surfaces, indurated floors and the ashy interiors of wind shelters and their associated midden deposits, alternating with phases of abandonment, this was the outcome of an intense rhythm of repeated occupations by logistically mobile marine hunter-gatherers. Final phases, dominated by Mesodesma surf clams, mark change towards more task-specific activities. La Yerba II’s topographic position and well-preserved cultural and environmental markers provide insight into the local history of relative sea level change and changing marine hunter-gatherer lifestyles during a period critical to the transition to sedentism and the formation of new estuarine and beach habitats following the stabilisation of eustatic sea-levels.
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Arqueología y Sociedad, 2013
Una exploración superficial de la piel de un grupo de doce momias Paracas de la Necrópolis de War... more Una exploración superficial de la piel de un grupo de doce momias Paracas de la Necrópolis de WariKayan, utilizando a la técnica de reflectografía infrarroja ha permitido registrar las modificaciones culturales permanentes de la piel a través de los tatuajes. La técnica de reflectografía infrarroja es comúnmente usada en el análisis de obras de arte, especialmente cuando se desea observar trazos y diseños ocultos debajo de capas de pintura. Al utilizar la técnica en momias, ha sido posible registrar tatuajes que no son visibles debido a diferentes condiciones. En muchos casos, el registro de los tatuajes Paracas se ve limitado porque el tratamiento funerario y la mala preservación de los cuerpos encubren los tatuajes, pudiendo ser observados solo como manchas azules o negras en la piel. Los resultandos obtenidos con el uso de la reflectografía infrarroja muestran características de la modificación de la piel que nunca antes han sido registradas, como el patrón de distribución de tat...
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Quaternary Science Reviews, 2015
Lomas – ephemeral seasonal oases sustained by ocean fogs – were critical to ancient human ecology... more Lomas – ephemeral seasonal oases sustained by ocean fogs – were critical to ancient human ecology on the desert Pacific coast of Peru: one of humanity’s few independent hearths of agriculture and “pristine” civilisation. The role of climate change since the Late Pleistocene in determining productivity and extent of past lomas ecosystems has been much debated.
Here we reassess the resource potential of the poorly studied lomas of the south coast of Peru during the long Middle Pre-ceramic period (c. 8,000 – 4,500 BP): a period critical in the transition to agriculture, the onset of modern El Niño Southern Oscillation (‘ENSO’) conditions, and eustatic sea-level rise and stabilisation and beach progradation.
Our method combines vegetation survey and herbarium collection with archaeological survey and excavation to make inferences about both Preceramic hunter-gatherer ecology and the changed palaeoenvironments in which it took place. Our analysis of newly discovered archaeological sites – and their resource context – show how lomas formations defined human ecology until the end of the Middle Preceramic Period, thereby corroborating recent reconstructions of ENSO history based on other data.
Together, these suggest that a five millennia period of significantly colder seas on the south coast induced conditions of abundance and seasonal predictability in lomas and maritime ecosystems, that enabled Middle Preceramic hunter-gatherers to reduce mobility by settling in strategic locations at the confluence of multiple eco-zones at the river estuaries. Here the foundations of agriculture lay in a Broad Spectrum Revolution that unfolded, not through population pressure in deteriorating environments, but rather as an outcome of resource abundance.
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Papers by Patricia K Maita Agurto
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2015
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Boletín del Museo de sitio Ernst W. Middendorf , 2018
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Conchopata, 2011
Presentamos los resultados del análisis arquezoológico de 14,123 especímenes procedentes de las e... more Presentamos los resultados del análisis arquezoológico de 14,123 especímenes procedentes de las estructuras excavadas en varios sectores del área monumental y periferia cercana de la ,la ciudad de Wari, en el marco del proyecto: "Rehabilitación y mejoramiento de la carretera Ayacucho San Francisco Km 0+000-km 0+25" ejecutado en el 2005 mediante el Convenio de Cooperación Interinstucional entre el Instituto Nacional de Cultura y Provias Nacional, cuyo objetivo principal fue realizar acciones de evaluación, conservación, protección y monitoreo de emergencia para salvaguardar el patrimonio arqueológico asociado a las secciones afectadas por el corte de la indicada carretera y al mismo tiempo contribuir con el conocimiento de la historia de la ciudad de Wari.
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Journal of Archaeological Science, Dec 1, 2006
... Isotopic evidence indicates that for over a millennium, the contribution of maize to human ..... more ... Isotopic evidence indicates that for over a millennium, the contribution of maize to human ... Analysis of nitrogen stable isotopes provides additional resolution in the reconstruction of paleodiet by ... The difference between the isotope values of bone carbonate and collagen (Δ 13 C ...
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Forensic Science and Humanitarian Action: Interacting with the Dead and the Living, 2020
Archaeologists working in human rights violations are faced with a set of circumstances of locali... more Archaeologists working in human rights violations are faced with a set of circumstances of localization, recovery and documentation of human remains that require a unique approach. The archaeologist leads the fieldwork, applying procedures orientated to recovery of human remains and associated elements according to standardized processes, mainly as evidence for legal requirements and the justice system. The fieldwork recovery of human remains in mass graves may become complex, especially because many of them had been subsequently disturbed and recovery is restricted to body parts rather than bodies. The recurrence principle is one of the fundamental norms of archaeology, and refers to the identification of patterns in human behavior expressed in the repetition rate of traits. Recovery techniques in humanitarian situations must be framed in guidelines for the recovery of human remains in forensic contexts, but flexibility in procedures according to circumstances must be implemented.
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El tatuaje es un tipo de modificación cultural del cuerpo que consiste en insertar tinta dentro d... more El tatuaje es un tipo de modificación cultural del cuerpo que consiste en insertar tinta dentro de las capas dérmicas a través de una aguja u otro material. La práctica del tatuaje causa un trauma en la piel con el objetivo de ejecutar un diseño conocido, cuyo resultado es una marca indeleble en el cuerpo. Este artículo analiza las consecuencias paleopatológicas del tatuaje en un conjunto de momias tatuadas del periodo Paracas Necrópolis procedentes del Cementerio de Warikayan, localizado en la costa sur del Perú. A partir de los resultados obtenidos de los análisis bioarqueológicos, complementados con los análisis de tatuajes mediante microscopia óptica, fluorescencia de rayos X y reflectografía infrarroja, se localizan los tatuajes y se inspeccionan en busca de lesiones derivadas de la práctica de modificación cultural. Los resultados indican que el 43% de los individuos Paracas analizados tiene tatuajes. Las localizaciones más frecuente para los tatuajes eran el dorso y la palma de la mano (21%), los dedos de la mano (16%) y el antebrazo (14%), Se ha encontrado una prevalencia de tatuajes considerablemente alta en mujeres. El pigmento utilizado es el carbón y debido a la similitud de los diseños tatuados con aquellos registrados en mantos textiles y vasijas cerámicas de la cultura Paracas, es posible pensar que los tatuajes están relacionados con el estatus social.
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Journal Articles by Patricia K Maita Agurto
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2015
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Journal of Archaeological Science, 2006
... Isotopic evidence indicates that for over a millennium, the contribution of maize to human ..... more ... Isotopic evidence indicates that for over a millennium, the contribution of maize to human ... Analysis of nitrogen stable isotopes provides additional resolution in the reconstruction of paleodiet by ... The difference between the isotope values of bone carbonate and collagen (Δ 13 C ...
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Jangwa Pana, 2014
El tatuaje es un tipo de modificación cultural del cuerpo que consiste en insertar tinta dentro d... more El tatuaje es un tipo de modificación cultural del cuerpo que consiste en insertar tinta dentro de las capas dérmicas a través de una aguja u otro material. La práctica del tatuaje causa un trauma en la piel con el objetivo de ejecutar un diseño conocido, cuyo resultado es una marca indeleble en el cuerpo. Este artículo analiza las consecuencias paleopatológicas del tatuaje en un conjunto de momias tatuadas del periodo Paracas Necrópolis procedentes del Cementerio de Warikayan, localizado en la costa sur del Perú. A partir de los resultados obtenidos de los análisis bioarqueológicos, complementados con los análisis de tatuajes mediante microscopia óptica, fluorescencia de rayos X y reflectografía infrarroja, se localizan los tatuajes y se inspeccionan en busca de lesiones derivadas de la práctica de modificación cultural. Los resultados indican que el 43% de los individuos Paracas analizados tiene tatuajes. Las localizaciones más frecuente para los tatuajes eran el dorso y la palma ...
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Quaternary Science Reviews , 2022
Shell middens are conspicuous manifestations of the exploitation of rich, sustainable, easily see... more Shell middens are conspicuous manifestations of the exploitation of rich, sustainable, easily seen and harvested marine resources that, worldwide, enabled hunter-gatherers to reduce mobility and increase population and social complexity. Globally, known sites tend to cluster chronologically around 6 k BP, after slowing eustatic sea-level rise, although the Pacific coast of South America offers some rare earlier exceptions.
We report investigations of La Yerba II, a Middle Preceramic shell matrix site on the Río Ica estuary, south coast Peru. These show how, beginning around 7000 Cal BP, over 4.5 m of stratigraphy accumulated in less than 500 years. Consisting of prepared surfaces, indurated floors and the ashy interiors of wind shelters and their associated midden deposits, alternating with phases of abandonment, this was the outcome of an intense rhythm of repeated occupations by logistically mobile marine hunter-gatherers. Final phases, dominated by Mesodesma surf clams, mark change towards more task-specific activities.
La Yerba II’s topographic position and well-preserved cultural and environmental markers provide insight into the local history of relative sea level change and changing marine hunter-gatherer lifestyles during a period critical to the transition to sedentism and the formation of new estuarine and beach habitats following the stabilisation of eustatic sea-levels.
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Conference Presentations by Patricia K Maita Agurto
Libro de resúmenes Paminsa IV, 2011
4th Paleopathology Association Meeting in South America
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South Coast Peru by Patricia K Maita Agurto
Here we reassess the resource potential of the poorly studied lomas of the south coast of Peru during the long Middle Pre-ceramic period (c. 8,000 – 4,500 BP): a period critical in the transition to agriculture, the onset of modern El Niño Southern Oscillation (‘ENSO’) conditions, and eustatic sea-level rise and stabilisation and beach progradation.
Our method combines vegetation survey and herbarium collection with archaeological survey and excavation to make inferences about both Preceramic hunter-gatherer ecology and the changed palaeoenvironments in which it took place. Our analysis of newly discovered archaeological sites – and their resource context – show how lomas formations defined human ecology until the end of the Middle Preceramic Period, thereby corroborating recent reconstructions of ENSO history based on other data.
Together, these suggest that a five millennia period of significantly colder seas on the south coast induced conditions of abundance and seasonal predictability in lomas and maritime ecosystems, that enabled Middle Preceramic hunter-gatherers to reduce mobility by settling in strategic locations at the confluence of multiple eco-zones at the river estuaries. Here the foundations of agriculture lay in a Broad Spectrum Revolution that unfolded, not through population pressure in deteriorating environments, but rather as an outcome of resource abundance.
Papers by Patricia K Maita Agurto
Journal Articles by Patricia K Maita Agurto
We report investigations of La Yerba II, a Middle Preceramic shell matrix site on the Río Ica estuary, south coast Peru. These show how, beginning around 7000 Cal BP, over 4.5 m of stratigraphy accumulated in less than 500 years. Consisting of prepared surfaces, indurated floors and the ashy interiors of wind shelters and their associated midden deposits, alternating with phases of abandonment, this was the outcome of an intense rhythm of repeated occupations by logistically mobile marine hunter-gatherers. Final phases, dominated by Mesodesma surf clams, mark change towards more task-specific activities.
La Yerba II’s topographic position and well-preserved cultural and environmental markers provide insight into the local history of relative sea level change and changing marine hunter-gatherer lifestyles during a period critical to the transition to sedentism and the formation of new estuarine and beach habitats following the stabilisation of eustatic sea-levels.
Conference Presentations by Patricia K Maita Agurto
Here we reassess the resource potential of the poorly studied lomas of the south coast of Peru during the long Middle Pre-ceramic period (c. 8,000 – 4,500 BP): a period critical in the transition to agriculture, the onset of modern El Niño Southern Oscillation (‘ENSO’) conditions, and eustatic sea-level rise and stabilisation and beach progradation.
Our method combines vegetation survey and herbarium collection with archaeological survey and excavation to make inferences about both Preceramic hunter-gatherer ecology and the changed palaeoenvironments in which it took place. Our analysis of newly discovered archaeological sites – and their resource context – show how lomas formations defined human ecology until the end of the Middle Preceramic Period, thereby corroborating recent reconstructions of ENSO history based on other data.
Together, these suggest that a five millennia period of significantly colder seas on the south coast induced conditions of abundance and seasonal predictability in lomas and maritime ecosystems, that enabled Middle Preceramic hunter-gatherers to reduce mobility by settling in strategic locations at the confluence of multiple eco-zones at the river estuaries. Here the foundations of agriculture lay in a Broad Spectrum Revolution that unfolded, not through population pressure in deteriorating environments, but rather as an outcome of resource abundance.
We report investigations of La Yerba II, a Middle Preceramic shell matrix site on the Río Ica estuary, south coast Peru. These show how, beginning around 7000 Cal BP, over 4.5 m of stratigraphy accumulated in less than 500 years. Consisting of prepared surfaces, indurated floors and the ashy interiors of wind shelters and their associated midden deposits, alternating with phases of abandonment, this was the outcome of an intense rhythm of repeated occupations by logistically mobile marine hunter-gatherers. Final phases, dominated by Mesodesma surf clams, mark change towards more task-specific activities.
La Yerba II’s topographic position and well-preserved cultural and environmental markers provide insight into the local history of relative sea level change and changing marine hunter-gatherer lifestyles during a period critical to the transition to sedentism and the formation of new estuarine and beach habitats following the stabilisation of eustatic sea-levels.