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The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization: An Evolving Hypothesis
by Michael E. Moseley
Michael E. Moseley
Department of Anthropology
University of Florida
Gainesville Florida
32611-7305
moseley at anthro.ufl.edu
Submitted August 10, 2004 for Peru y El Mar: 12000 anos del historia del
pescaria.
Pedro Trillo, Editor. Sociedad Nacional de
Pesqueria. Lima, Peru, 2005
Caral Civilization Peru Weblog: The Origins of Civilization in Peru
Proyecto Especial Arqueológico Caral-Supe/INC
The "Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization" or MFAC hypothesis
proposed that thousands of years ago the rich Andean fishery sustained
the growth of early littoral populations, the rise of large sedentary
communities, and the formation of complex societies and the established
the foundations of coastal civilization. The basic tenants of this
scenario were initially formulated in the 1960?s and early 70?s by a
small number of American, Andean and Russian scholars working
independently of one another.^1 <#1> When I popularized the hypothesis
in 1975 there was evidence that platform mounds or huacas had been built
at some early settlements on the coast of Peru. I drew heavily upon
Aspero, a 15 ha settlement with six mounds located on the north side of
the Supe Valley. However, there was little available evidence of elites
or an upper class at Aspero or elsewhere. Therefore, MFAC proposed that
early fishing societies developed the organizational foundations for
coastal civilization, but civilization itself arose after 1800 BC with
the introduction of pottery, the intensive cultivation of staples and
the construction of large-scale irrigation systems.^2 <#2> The
proposition that fishing societies could evolve to the very threshold of
civilization was radical, unwelcome and critiqued as an economic
impossibility.
I am pleased to report that new research demonstrates the original
hypothesis understated the evolutionary achievements of early Andean
coastal societies. Following introductory observations about coastal
fishing, evolutionary biases, and ancient diet, this essay first
summarizes early littoral developments in Chile. It then turns to Peru
and discusses the relationships of early fishing and farming. Next,
investigations in the Supe Valley are discussed and the essay concludes
with the revolutionary research by Dra. Ruth Shady who convincingly
argues for the rise of civilization in preceramic times.^3 <#3>
During the 1990?s net harvesting of small schooling fish made Peru and
Chile the world's third and forth leading fishing nations. Anchoveta and
small fish were similarly the staples of preceramic littoral societies,
although a wide range of other marine fauna were consumed. Whereas most
all of the Andean near-shore waters can be fished, less than 10% of the
adjacent desert was traditionally farmed from short, steep streams and
rivers feeding irrigated valleys.
Farming and fishing are generally separate and distinct professions
because higher returns can be secured by pursuing one or the other
rather than both together. Fishing is governed by lunar and tide cycles
that are not congruous with farm work that is scheduled by solar and
rainfall cycles. Economic organization is also different. Due to
irregular topography, long canal systems maintained by large corporate
work forces farm the majority of reclaimed land. Alternatively, small
craft manned by small crews can efficiently net harvest the entire
coastline throughout most of the year.
At the time of Spanish conquest indigenous fishing and farming were also
separate professions along most of the coast. Self-segregated
populations that lived apart pursued them. People married within their
respective vocations and sometimes the professions spoke different
dialects. Maritime specialists used shoreline gardens to cultivated
tatora reeds for watercraft. However, they did not grow staples nor pay
taxes or tribute with agricultural produce as farmers did. Nonetheless,
there was an essential symbiotic relationship between the two
professions with barter facilitating the exchange of marine protein for
cultivated carbohydrates. Presumably, similar relationships prevailed
earlier in time. But, before the advent of farming, fishing was the
principal way to make a living along the arid coast for many
millenniums. People were extracting seafood at the southern Peruvian
sites of Quebrada Jaguay and Quebrada Tacahuay some 12,000 years ago. ^4
<#4> These ancient beginnings make fishing the oldest enduring
occupation in Peru and a profession of continuing national importance.
When the Spanish reached the Andes prosperous seaboard communities were
symbiotically aligned with agrarian populations. In other regions
fishing thrived where farming was absent. In North America European
explorers encountered maritime mound-building societies along the
Florida Gulf coast and sophisticated littoral chiefdoms in the north
Pacific. Thus, there is long standing ethnohistorical documentation of
high levels of development among indigenous people who exploited
prolific fisheries.
Unfortunately, people who make a living from the sea were viewed as
unruly, if not uncultured by the 19^th century European Intelligentsia.
Victorian savants were particularly upset by reports portraying the
seeming ease with which native people secured seafood. For example,
written about 1573, an anonymous account of the large Chincha maritime
populace says " ?y parecia la poblacion de esta gente una hermosa y
larga calle llena de hombres y mugeres, muchachos y niñas, todos
contentos y gozoso por que no entrando en la mar [a pescar], todo su
cuidado era beber y baylar, y lo demas." ("? and the settlement where
these people lived seemed to consist of a wide and beautiful street full
of men and women, boys and girls, who, when not going to the sea to
fish, were all happy and pleased and whose only concerns were drinking
and dancing and suchlike ? ?) ^5 <#5>
Accounts of people making a reasonable living without great effort was a
affront to the Protestant work ethic of the bourgeoisie. To subsist well
and toil arduously in cultivated fields or in capitalist factories was
an anathema to the intellects that formulated the foundations of
contemporary evolutionary discourse. "To knock a limpet from the rocks
does not require even cunning, that lowest power of the mind" pronounced
Charles Darwin of Tierra del Fieguo's Yahgan fisher folk.^6 <#6>
Equating seafood acquisition with impaired mind power, and by
inference-impaired potentials for cultural development-formed a stigmata
that was then cemented into the foundations of social evolutionary theory.
Anything less than grueling labor in tilled plots or industrial plants
was an abomination to Lewis Henry Morgan?s 1877 theory of cultural
development espoused in /_Ancient Society_/. ^7 <#7> Subtitled
"Researches in the Lines of Human Progress From Savagery Through
Barbarism to Civilization," the treatise set forth the enduring axiom
that agriculture was the singular evolutionary pathway to cultural
complexity and civilization. Notably, it also characterized North
Pacific littoral populations as the most primitive of all ethnographic
societies surviving on earth. Consequently, these complex seaboard
chiefdoms were ranked as archaic savages developmentally below the
simplest of migratory hunter-gatherer bands and only marginally above
the fossil primate ancestors of humans. Morgan?s formulations influenced
Engel?s socialist evolutionary theory. Therefore, people of different
political persuasions came to believe that an uninformed dietary choice
at the food market for social progress condemned fishing societies to
evolutionary dead ends! Unfortunately, this enduring theoretical myth is
completely divorced form the economic reality that fishing can be a very
prosperous profession.
Civilization requires calories to support activities that are not
directly related to food production. Ancient dietary remains in the form
of garbage and coprolites are generally well preserved at coastal desert
sites. Determining what people ate requires very careful archaeological
recovery with fine-mesh and microscopic analysis because many remains
are tiny, including those of little fish and seeds. Virtually all
preceramic sites where detailed dietary studies have been conducted
indicate that people obtained their protein from the sea with anchoveta
and sardena generally being the maritime staple. Yet, people also
consumed plant foods. Seeds as well as small fish can be completely
consumed. They can also be dried, ground into meal and consumed as flour
or meal. Therefore, it can be difficult to discern if people of the
coastal desert obtained the majority of their calories from marine or
terrestrial resources.
The chemical and stable isotope composition of human bone is a critical
gage of the relative amounts of marine and terrestrial foods that
ancient individuals consume over a lifetime. Analysis of strontium and
stable isotope ratios in human remains from the Peruvian preceramic
settlement of La Paloma document a very high consumption of marine food
indicating that most of their calories came from the sea.^8 <#8> The
site dates between about 6000 and 4000 BC and abundant anchoveta and
small fish remains were the dominant intestinal remains recovered from
90 well preserved Paloma corpses. They were also the dominant
constituents of coprolites as well as food trash.
In northern Chile strontium analysis and stable isotope ratio
determinations have been preformed on 62 preceramic Chinchorro adults,
dated between 4000 and 2000 B.C. Analysis implicated an average
consumption of 89% marine foods, complimented by 6% terrestrials plants,
and 5% land animals. Nearly identical dietary values are reported for an
earlier corpse dated to 7020 +/- 255 B.C.^9 <#9> Unfortunately, without
additional isotopic analysis on other early coastal populations it
cannot be said, with confidence, that all preceramic littoral
populations drew the majority of their calories from the sea.
Nonetheless, it can be said that most drew more than 90% of their
protein from the sea.
_
MARITIME SOCIAL COMPLEXITY IN CHILE
_
A Chilean version of the maritime hypothesis has long been championed by
archaeologist Agustin Llagostera.^10 <#10> Here the earliest artificial
mummification in the world was practiced by so called Chinchorro
populations between about 5,000 and 2,000 BC. These fisher folk resided
along the coast from Antofagasta north through Arica and into the Ilo
region of southern Peru. The vast majority of Chinchorro people were
interred in a natural state without body modification Although
artificial mummification was practiced for three millennia, it was very
rare. The known sample of modified corpses numbers about 200 and all
came from cemeteries with simple inhumations.^11 <#11>
Artificial mummification procedures were highly variable. They ranged
from resinous encasement of fetuses through minimally invasive organ
removal to complete cadaver disassembly. The latter included the
stripping and disposal of organs and muscle, the grinding of long bone
articulation surfaces to facilitate re-joining, and the reassembly of
the skeleton with wooden shafts supporting the cranium, trunk, arms and
legs. Reeds replaced extremity muscles and supported the repositioned
tanned skin. The eyes, nose and mouth were sculpted on a clay facial
overlays, the body surfaces were then painted and a cranial cap of human
hair was added to the head.
The end products were statue-like objects. In certain cases the mummies
were keep accessible and ritually manipulated resulting in damage what
was carefully repaired. Mummies were buried in cemeteries with natural
interments and in some cases conserved juveniles were jointly interred
with an un-mummified adult, presumably a parent. However, joint
interments of mummies, such as children and adults, also occurred. One
assemblage, apparently a family, was multigenerational with children,
two adults of reproductive age, and a very elderly individual. ^12 <#12>
Significantly, most mummified corpses are those of neonates and
juveniles leaving adults in the minority. The preponderance of immature
individuals implies that entitlement to privileged mortuary treatment
was social prerogative inherited at birth. It was certainly not an honor
that babies and children achieved by a lifetime of good works.
Inheritance of privilege is a hallmark of nascent social complexity. It
is an initial step toward civilization. However, even after the later
introduction of irrigation agriculture coastal societies of southern
most Peru and northern Chile did not erect platform mounds or large
architectural monuments. In part, this is because the valleys of the
region are quite small and in comparison to those of central and
northern Peru that offer much greater agrarian potentials. Although
southern developments were simpler they were firmly rooted in early
maritime adaptations. Chinchorro mummies testify to the inheritance of
privileged status and early social differentiation. Thus, Andean
fishermen can take pride in the fact that their profession lead the
world in artificial mummification long before ancient Egyptians began
the practice.
_
PERUVIAN MARITIME ADAPTIONS
_
Historically the anchoveta fishery has produced its highest yields in
waters along central and northern Peru. It is not surprising that this
region witnessed precocious evolutionary developments between about 3000
and 1800 BC. Large architectural works were erected at a number of
preceramic settlements. MFAC originally proposed that these works were
products of hierarchical corporate organization with a minority of
individuals directing activities of the majority. Ruth Shady?s ^13 <#13>
innovative investigations indicates that a class of leaders residing in
elite architecture headed the chain of command in the Rio Supe area.
Here hierarchial organization was associated with the rise of cities and
urbanism, with the integration of adjacent valleys and state formation,
as well as with the crystallization of preceramic civilization.
Transpiring about one millennium earlier than expected, these
developments make the Supe region the oldest cradle of civilization in
the Americas. This achievement had unusual economic foundations
involving both fishing and farming.
Use of domesticated plants has substantial antiquity in South America
and the maritime hypothesis attempts to model the relationships of early
fishing and farming. Although the near-shore Peruvian fishery could feed
multitudes, making a living from the sea depended upon terrestrial
resources including fresh water and wild vegetation that are not
abundant. Plants supplied fiber for fishing line and nets as well as for
clothing. They also provided floats for nets and material for
watercraft, housing and fire fuel. Exploitation of finite desert
resources increased over time as the size of maritime populations grew.
To feed more people early Peruvian societies intensified the harvesting
of anchoveta and small schooling fish. This required amplified
production of line, net and watercraft that eventually overrode the
limited supplies of natural desert vegetation. To sustain seaboard
adaptations and population growth littoral people had to develop
alternative resource supplies. The viable alternative, plant
cultivation, was well established in Ecuador and the tropics well before
4000 BC. Here cultigens were agricultural staples used to feed people.
Significantly, when Peruvian maritime populations began to engage in
plant husbandry they emphasized cultigens, such as cotton and gourd,
that sustained fishing and focused secondarily upon crops that feed
people. This is a unique situation in the annals of the world?s early
civilization. Yet, it is intelligible if coastal farming was initiated
by fishing people for the purpose of producing "industrial cultigens"
yielding fiber, net floats, containers, and wood essential to maritime
adaptations.
Assemblages of botanical remains from coastal preceramic settlements
generally include large quantities of junco and tatora reeds needed for
making mats, esteras, as well as watercraft and it is likely that these
un-domesticated plants were cultivated in brackish water ponds and
lagoons. After about 3,000 BC perennial cotton (which has wild ancestors
in northern Peru) became one of the most ubiquitous cultigen at desert
sites. Well preserved cotton fiber, seeds, bowls parts are typically
very abundant. Tree fruit, such as of guayabana, guava, pacae, lucuma
and avocado, is also surprisingly common but they vary by type from site
to site. The trees were no doubt very important sources of wood as well
as fruit. Gourd is a common industrial cultigen that provided net floats
and containers in pre-pottery times. Squash, several types of beans,
palillo and chili peppers are generally present. They are generally less
common than industrial cultigens and fruit, but more frequent than staples.
Staples are domesticated plants that yield abundant harvests, which can
be stored and consumed until the next harvest. Potential preceramic
staples include: achira, camote, jicama, maize, potatoes and yucca.
Their presence is very erratic. Some sites have none, others may have
three or four types, but each is generally represented by only a few
specimens. There is generally good preservation of plant remains at both
coastal preceramic and early ceramic age sites. Therefore if
agricultural staples were of early dietary significance, then their
remains should be just as prevalent as those of a yucca, potatoes, maize
and other food plants are at early ceramic agricultural sites. However,
this is not the case.
Preceramic fields and agricultural works do not survive, but reeds were
likely grown in lagoons and in brackish water totoral pits excavated
behind beaches such as those used by the fishermen of Chincha.
Domesticated plants require sweet water that was often inconveniently
located inland and away from the littoral focus of maritime activity.
Most agricultural staples require constant care from soil tilling and
sowing through harvesting and processing. Significantly, the most common
and abundant cultigens present at coastal preceramic sites are ones that
did not require constant care. Fruit trees and cotton shrubs were
perennials that grew for years. Annuals such as squash and beans were
hearty and could be sown, left and later harvested. This allowed
fishermen to farm on an intermittent basis.
Early cultivation presumably transpired in lands that were self-watering
or easily watered. The flood plains of coastal rivers are self-watered
by springtime "avenida" floods and simple canals could be used to
irrigate river bottom areas. Terrain easily irrigated from springs and
pukios also occurred where there were high phreatic levels, such as near
valley mouths. Yet, in the absence of large scale canal irrigations,
terrain suitable for simple horticulture was limited.
Andean coastal rivers have generally down-cut their channels and lie
within deeply incised banks. Consequently, easily watered land accounts
for less than two percent of the arable coastal terrain in production today.
Control of scarce commodities contributes to the evolution of
hierarchial organization and civilization. Preceramic marine resources
were not in short supply nor was their explotitation readily regulated.
Alternatively, arable land was a scarce commodity, and access to it
could be controlled. As populations grew and seining of the sea
intensified, rights to horticultural land presumably became ever more
important and settlements that controlled access to fields were
advantaged over ones that did not.
Farming was most easily conjoined with fishing at the mouths of those
valleys that offered wide river flood plains, easily accessible ground
water or both. This was the location of Aspero and other large monuments
known at the time MFAC was initially formulated. However, the importance
of arable land was overlooked. For example, 2 km in from the sea, the
Rio Chillon has an anomalously wide section of river flood plain with
some 130 ha of arable bottomland. This horticultural resource is now
thought to account for the adjacent location, if not size, of El Paraiso
a vast masonry complex sprawling over some 58 ha.^14 <#14> With very
late preceramic dates, this monumental complex is unusual because
habitation refuse is scarce in and around the masonry ruins. Substantial
garbage and midden deposits are typically associated with sites of this
size range. If the situation at El Paraiso is not a product of aberrant
preservation, then many of the people who helped built the complex did
not reside there on a year-around basis. Being somewhat inland, it was
not a particularly convent place for fishermen to live. Yet, they must
have contributed to the construction and maintenance of this very large
monument. Indeed, analysis of dietary remains indicates that most all
protein came from the sea. If people who resided elsewhere along the
littoral provided labor and provisions for El Paraiso, then their
recompense presumably entailed access either to the adjacent farm land
or to its products. It is not clear who did the farming at El Paraiso.
Non-residents may well have contributed labor during times of sowing and
harvesting. Of course, there would have been greater commodity control
if the full time residents did all farming. These uncertainties aside,
the ability to mobilize labor resources from different communities and
focus them on centralized undertakings are trademarks of hierarchial
organization and early civilization.
_
EARLY CIVILIZATION IN THE RIO SUPE
_
The Rio Supe is a small drainage but it has early sites that have long
attracted scientific attention. These settlements and monuments are
products of precocious development that has often exceeded theoretical
expectations. For example Max Uhle discovered coastal Aspero almost a
century ago. He described its 15 ha spread of carbon-rich garbage as
resembling deposits from an "old foundry." Yet, Uhle did not recognize
that it was a large maritime community because he considered fishermen
primitive and barbaric in accordance with evolutionary theory of the
time.^15 <#15> The site was investigated again in 1943, but there was
still no understanding that early fishermen could live in sedentary
communities or build earthworks. Therefore, it?s dating remained
uncertain and half a dozen platform mounds were dismissed as natural
hills. The situation changed as archaeologist began to identify and date
preceramic sites elsewhere along the coast. Theoretical acceptance of
maritime societies had improved when Aspero was again investigated in
the early 1970?s.^16 <#16> Excavations exposed late phase summit
buildings on the top of two platform mounds. One, Huaca de los Idolos,
produced a 3055 BC radiocarbon assay, and the other, Huaca de los
Sacrificios dated about two centuries earlier. ^17 <#17>
At this time of these explorations a contemporary complex, Piedra
Parada, was recognized on the south side of the valley. Early aerial
photographs of the Supe drainage revealed a number of large inland sites
with architectural features, such as circular sunken courts, that seemed
to have considerable antiquity.^18 <#18> In the 1980?s some of the
up-valley sites were auger tested. Certain cores yielded diagnostic
preceramic artifacts .^19 <#19> Yet, the results received little
attention because they did not conform to theoretical views of the time
that large preceramic settlements were restricted to the coast.
Shady and her team subsequently identified and mapped 15 inland
preceramic complexes reaching 40 km up the Supe drainage. The ruins
support her contention that America?s oldest American civilization arose
in Supe. This proposition is based upon new data and well reported
research.^20 <#20> Although the concept of preceramic civilization is
revolutionary, it should come as no surprise. The early sites of Supe
have a long history of exceeding evolutionary expectations.
It is significant that similar early developments have not been detected
in well-studied valleys to the north beginning with the Rio Casma. Nor,
are they evident from the Rio Chancay south. Thus, if all preceramic
populations had equal developmental capabilities, then it must be
suspect that the Rio Supe region offered unusual natural resources for
furthering early social evolutionary potentials. The intensity of modern
fishing activity in the region indicates that it is well graced with
maritime potentials. However, the Supe Valley is small and out produced
by larger adjacent valleys. Nonetheless, shallow river flood plains and
high phreatic conditions favorable to simple canal irrigation seemingly
conferred economic an unusual advantage for early cultural development.
Situated more than 20 km inland, Caral is the second largest preceramic
settlement in the valley, surpassed only by 79 ha sprawl of Era de
Pando. If not a preceramic capitol, then Caral is certainly a
prehistoric city both in size and in differentiation of urban space.
There are lower class barrios where people resided in humble housing of
cane. There are also elite quarters of masonry and mortar construction
with plastered and painted walls. Similar construction also
characterized an artisan workshop where jewelry and stone artifacts were
produced. Elite quarters are located around the civic core where some
are immediately adjacent to particular mounds or physically annexed to
them.
With a basal length of 153 m, and a width of 109 m, the largest
monument, called the major pyramid, is fronted by a circular court and
rises in terraced steps to a height of 28 m. The summit is occupied by
courts and rooms often ornamented with wall niches and geometric
friezes. This big building overlooks a large rectangular plaza that is
framed by more than half a dozen other mounds and monumental works. All
of the pyramidal mounds were built in stages interspersed with epochs of
use. Most rise in steps or terraces and some are associated with
circular fire alters on their summits or at lower levels. Yet, the
configuration of each mound and its summit buildings is unique and
design concepts seem much more variable than those of traditional
Catholic churches.
Shady proposes that pyramidal mounds were temples and that Caral was a
sacred center. She cogently argues that religion was the principal
source of early social cohesion and the main means of managing the
political economy.^ 21 <#21> Most scholars agree that governance
transpired in the name of the gods in preceramic and early ceramic
times. If the multiple pyramidal mounds at Caral, Aspero and other large
complexes were temples then different facilities presumably served
different deities. Differences in mound size suggest hierarchical
differences in the preceramic pantheon. At Caral the major temple most
probably served the major deity, while smaller mounds served subordinate
divinities. It may be that subordinate temple divinities had to be
placated before gaining access to higher ranked gods. It cannot be said
that the major temple deity at Caral was the same god that the largest
temples at other sites served. Nor, can it be said that different
communities or cities had different patron gods without further
exploration at other complexes. At sites such as Caral it is not clear
if a separate local congregation sustained each separate temple or if
the entire community supported all facilities equally. Thus, there are
many issues for further research.
The proposition that early state formation transpired in the Rio Supe is
based on calculations of the size and volume of platform mound and
monumental construction at the 17 preceramic complexes in the
drainage.^20 <#20> The labor requirements to produce the total volume of
preceramic construction are inferred to have exceeded what residents of
the small valley could have provided. Therefore, labor if not other
resources were presumably extracted form adjacent valleys to support the
Supe complexes, particularly the larger ones.
State formation in the Supe region would have been a gradual but complex
process. Integrating local populations of the valley should have
preceded the extraction of resources from adjacent valleys. Local
integration must have required time. There are no grounds to believe
that all 17 preceramic sites in the drainage were founded at the same
time. Radiocarbon assays of 3055 BC from the late phase summit
architecture of Huaca de Los Idelos at Aspero is the oldest of all
preceramic dates from the region. Because the Huaca was built in stages
separated by epochs of temple use, the initial construction of the
facility situated at much greater depths must have substantially greater
antiquity.
If Aspero is the oldest of the Supe sites then it may be hypothesized
that other complexes were founded sequentially later and progressively
further inland as needs for farmland and its produce increased. The
course of inland reclamation and settlement would not have been strictly
linear because valley bottom water and arable land are not homogeneously
distributed in the valley. Nonetheless, it is useful to model the
process of interior valley colonization as a prelude to state formation.
Modeling begins with the presumption that folk-level origination was
based upon kinship and early descent systems may have been generally
similar to those of later ayllu communities. If the populations of older
settlements, such as Aspero, gave rise to younger daughter colonies that
moved inland, settled and later produced own offspring satellites
communities, then acknowledged common ancestry might assist political
and religious integration.
Warfare is a recurrent theme in many theories of state formation. One
holds that arable desert land was a circumscribed resource. Competition
for it grew as early populations grew in size. Upon reaching the limits
of the resource the social order changed. Aggression became common
because land could only be secured by taking it from others. Pervasive
hostility generated new forms of hierarchial leadership to deal with new
problems. These included the resolution of internal rivalries, the
protection of local resources and the capture of external assets.
Conquest and incorporation of external lands then lead to state
formation. ^22 <#22> The central tenant of this scenario is attractive
because arable land was certainly a circumscribed resource. Yet, the
Supe sites are not fortified and there is little evidence of preceramic
armed conflict. This need not be surprising. If religion was the
principal source of early cohesion and political integration, then the
formation of a theocratic state may have relied more upon on evangelical
conversion than upon physical coercion.
Ultimately, the hypothesis that Andean civilization had maritime
foundations is easiest to confirm in Chile for three reasons. First, the
earliest artificial mummies in the world are Chilean and include large
numbers of children who inherited elite standing and privileged mortuary
treatment that are indicative of early class formation. Second, there is
little evidence that these people engaged in farming. And, third
chemical analysis of bone from numerous humans indicates that people
obtained 89% of their diet from the sea.
Fishing contributed to very complex development in Peru. Yet, it is not
entirely clear how the maritime hypothesis articulates with these
developments for two reasons. The first is that people were farming.
And, the second is that there has been no dietary analysis of human bone
chemistry for populations dating after 4000 BC. Lacking such analysis
the relative contributions of fishing and of farming to general
nutrition and to the caloric foundations of coastal civilization are
speculative.
Remains of seafood and cultivated food occur at most preceramic sites
but comparative analysis does not securely illuminate their relative
dietary contributions. Therefore, speculation about nutrition is
influenced by site location. At coastal sites, such as Aspero, people
are presumed to have relied principally upon fishing. At inland sites,
such as Caral, farming is presumed to have fed people. Drawing upon the
Caral research, Haas and Creamer have asserted that rise of early
civilization in the Supe valley was based upon agriculture and therefore
does not differ form the origins of early civilizations elsewhere in the
world.^ 23 <#23> Domesticated staples and domesticated animals were
critical to other civilizations. In coastal Peru the situation is
significantly different because agricultural staples were uncommon and
protein came from the sea.
The differenced is very evident in the food remains reported from Caral.
^24 <#24> Guayaba (3025 specimens) is the dominant cultigen.
Cotton (2141 specimens), pacae (1563 specimens), zapallo (103 specimens)
and frijol (19 specimens) are next in frequency. Potential staples
include two specimens of maiz, one each of camote and achira. If this
botanical assemblage is representative of the relative abundance of the
plants that were farmed, then it is difficult to understand how
horticulture alone could sustain a large population. Expectably seafood
remains are well represented. Marine birds, including guanay and
coromoran, were consumed. For the most the most common mollusks the
minimum number of individuals were 1326 for choros and 879 for machas.
For the most the most common the minimum number of individuals were 449
for anchoveta and 148 for sardina.
To assess food requirements it is useful to divide the residents of
Caral into three possible groups with varying subsistence needs. One
would be transients, such as religious pilgrims or state workers
mobilized from other areas. Another group of inhabitants could be people
who lived at Caral regularly each year but only seasonally. The third
and most important group would be permanent, year-around residents
including priests, functionaries, elites and full-time farmers. This
segment of the population would place the greatest demands upon the
local subsistence economy. Unfortunately, transient, seasonal, and
permanent residency are extremely difficult conditions to distinguish
archaeologically at any site. Nonetheless, they are features of state
level organization that require serious, albeit tentative, consideration
in preceramic contexts.
External provisions, particularly seafood, may have been supplied to
Caral by three possible means that were not mutually exclusive. The
first would be tribute brought in by transients. The second would be
part-time annual residents who brought in their own provisions if not
also tribute. In theory, these would be working class people who
maintained a permanent urban household. They lived at Caral during the
agricultural season or when religious occasions required, but then
dispersed to the coast to reside where they could fish. The scarce
remains of staples raise the serious possibility that not everyone at
Caral could live there year around. Staple domesticates are important
because they can be harvested in abundance and then stored to feed
people until the next harvest. This is not possible with guayaba, pacae,
zapallo, and frijol. Fishing tackle has not been found at Caral. Yet, if
people maintained coastal as well as interior households then hauling
nets and gear 20 kilometers inland would not be practical.
Finally, seafood was most certainly obtained by means of exchanging
cotton and cultivated produce for marine products as Shady
emphasizes.^13 <#13> If preceramic fishing and farming were separate
full-time professions then they must have been symbiotically linked
through economic exchange as in later times. Yet, I would speculate that
farming which emphasized industrial cultigens rather than staples was
highly dependent upon maritime adaptations and that fishermen
essentially fed coastal farmers. This can be framed as a hypothesis: the
residents of Caral obtained more than 50% of their nutrition from the
sea. The proposition is readily testable by dietary analysis of human
bone chemistry.
In overview, human exploitation of the sea was underway 12000 years ago
in Peru and fishing is the oldest ongoing occupation pursued by Andean
people. The profession is exceptionally productive because the
near-shore waters are unusually rich. The bounty of the sea sustained
precocious cultural developments. About 7000 BC Chilean fishing
societies began artificially mummifying important people and their
children. Predating Egypt by millennia these are the oldest mummies in
the world.
By 5000 years ago sedentary maritime communities were building temple
mounds in Peru. Within one millennium civilization had crystallized in
Rio Supe region, as revealed by new research. Although people also
farmed, the focus was upon industrial cultigens that could support
fishing, such as cotton for nets and gourds for floats. If chemical
analysis of human bone demonstrates that people received most of their
calories form the sea, as is expected, then Peruvian fishermen can be
credited for creating the earliest civilization in the Americas. This is
a truly unique achievement in the annals of human evolution!
NOTAS
^
^1 The origins and development of the maritime hypothesis are summarized
in: Moseley, Michael E. /Maritime Foundations and Multilinear Evolution:
Retrospect and Prospect./ Andean Past #3. Ithica, New York. 1992, pp. 8-11.
Examples of early contributions include:
Engel, Frederic. A Preceramic Settlement on the Central Coast of Peru:
Asia, Unit I. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 51 (3),
Philadelphia, 1963.
Fung P. Rosa. El temprano surgimiento en el Peru de los systemas
socio-politicos complejos: planteamiento de una hypothesis de desarrollo
original. Apuntes Arqueologicos 2. Lima, 1972, pp. 10-32.
^
^2 Moseley, Michael E. /The Maritime Foundations of Andean
Civilization./ Cummings Publishing Company. Menlo Park, California, 1975.
^
^3 Shady, Ruth. La Ciudad Sagrada de Caral-Supe en los albores de la
civizacion en el Peru. UNMSM, Lima, 1997.
^
^4 Sandweiss. Daniel H., McInnin, Heather, Burger, Richard L., Cano,
Asuncion, Ojeda, Bernardino, Paredes, Rolando, Sanddweiss, Maria del
Carmen, y Glascock, Michael D. /Quebrada Jaguay: Early South American
Maritime/ /Adaptations/. Science 281. Washington D.C., 1998, pp. 1830-1832.
deFrance, Susan D., Keefer, David K., Richardson, James B. y Umire
Alvarez, Adan/. Late Paleo-Indian Coastal Foragers: Specialized
Extractive Behavior at Quebrada Tacahuay, Peru. /Latin American
Antiquity 12 (4). Washington D.C., 2001, pp. 413-426.
^
^
^5 Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, Maria. /Mercaderes del valle de Chincha
en la epoca prehispanica: us documento y usos comentarios./ Revista
Española de Antropoologia Americana 5. 1970, pp. 170-171.
^
^6 Darwin, Charles. Journal of Researches into the Natural History and
Geology of the Countries Visited during the Voyage of HMS ?Beagle? round
the World. J.M. Dent, London. E. P. Dutton. 1906 [1845], p. 206.
^
^7 Morgan, Lewis Henry. /Ancient Society, or Researches in the Lines of
Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization/. Henry
Holt. New York, 1877.
^
^8 Benfer, Robert A. /The Preceramic Period Site of La Paloma, Peru:
Bioindications of Improving Adaptation to Sedentism. /Latin American
Antiquity 1. Washington D.C., 1990, pp.284-318.
^
^9 Arriaza, Bernardo. /Beyond Death: the Chinchorro mummies of ancient
Chile./ Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D. C., 1995.
^
^10 Llagostera, Agustin. /Tres dimensiones en la conquista prehistorica
del mar: un aporte para el estudio de las Formaciones Pescadoras de la
costa sur andian./ Actas del VIII Congreso Nacional de Arqueologia
Chilena. Ediciones Kulturan. Santiago, 1979, pp. 217-245.
Llagostera, Agustin. Early Occupations and the Emergence of Fishermen on
the Pacific Coast of South America. Andean Past #3. Ithica, New York.
1992, pp. 87-109.
^
^11 Allison, Marvin J., Focacci, Guillermo, Arriaza, Bernardo, Standen,
Vivian, Rivera, Mario y Lowenstein, Jerold. /Chinchorro, momias de
preparacion complicada: Metodos de momificacion./ Chungara 13. Arica,
1984, 155-173.
Arriaza, Bernardo. /Beyond Death: the Chinchorro mummies of ancient
Chile./ Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D. C., 1995.
Rivera, Mario A. /The Preceramic Chinchorro Mummy Complex of Northern
Chile: Context, Style, and Purpose/. En Tombs for the Living: Andean
Mortuary Practices, Tom D. Dillehay editor. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington
D. C.,1995, pp. 43-78.
^
^12 Standen, Vivien G. /Temprana Complejidad Funeraria de la Cultural
Chinchorro (Norte de Chile)/. Latin American Antiquity 8(2). Washington
D.C., 1997, pp. 134-156.
^
^13 Shady, Ruth. /Caral Supe La Civilizacion mas Antigua de America./
Proyecto Especial Arqueologico Caral-Supe/INC. Lima, 2003.
^
^14 Quilter, Jeffrey. /Architecture and Chronology at El Paraisso,
Peru./ Journal of Field Archaeology 12. Boston, 1985, pp.279-297.
Quilter, Jeffrey, Ojeda E., Bernardion, Pearsall, Deborah, Sandweiss,
Daniel H., Jones, John G. y Wing, Elizabeth S. /Subsistence Economy of
El Paraiso, an Archaic Site in Peru/. Science 251. Washington D.C.,
1991, pp. 277-283.
^
^15 Rowe, John. Max Uhle, 1856-1944 A Memoir of the Father of Peruvian
Archaeology. University of California Publications in American
Archaeology and Ethnology 46 (1). Berkeley, 1954.
^
^16 Moseley, Michael E. y Willey, Gordon R. /Aspero, Peru: a
Reexamination of the Site and its Implications/. American Antiquity 38.
Washington D.C., pp. 452-468.
^
^17 Feldman, Robert. /Aspero, Peru: Architecture, Subsistence Economy
and other Artifacts of a Preceramic Maritime Chiefdom./ Tesis Doctorada.
Harvard University, Cambridge, 1980.
^
^18 Kosok, Paul. /Life, Land and Water in Ancient Peru/. Long Island
University Press, Long Island, 1965.
^
^19 Zechenter, Elzbieta. Subsistence strategies in the Supe Valley of
the Peruvian Central Coast during the Complex Preceramic and Initial
Periods. Tesis Doctorada. University of California, Los Angeles, 1988.
^
^20 Shady, Ruth y Leyva C. editors. /La Ciudad Sagrada de Caral-Supe:
Los origenes de la civilizacion andina y la formacion del Estado
pristine en el antiguo Peru./ Proyecto Especial Arqueologico
Caral-Supe/INC. Lima, 2003.
^
^21 Shady, Ruth. /La religion como forma de cohesion social y manejo
politico en los albores de la civilizacion en el Peru/. Boletin del
Museo de Arqueologia y Antropologia, UNMSM, ano 2, (9), Lima, 1999, pp.
13-15.
^
^22 Carnerio, Robert L. /A Theory of the Origin of the State./ _Science_
169. Washington D.C. 1970, pp. 733-738.
^
^23 Haas, Jonathan y Creamer, Winifred. /Response/ [to Amplifying
Importance of New Research in Peru] Science 294 (5547). Washington D.C.,
2001, pp. 1652-1653.
^
^24 Shady, Ruth. Sustento socioeconomico del Estado pristine de
Supe-Peru: las evidencias de Caral-Supe. Arqueologia y Sociedad 13,
Museo de Arqueologia y Antropologia, UNMSM, Lima 2000, pp. 49-66.
Referencias
Allison, Marvin J., Focacci, Guillermo, Arriaza, Bernardo, Standen,
Vivian, Rivera, Mario y Lowenstein, Jerold. /Chinchorro, momias de
preparacion complicada: Metodos de momificacion./ Chungara 13. Arica,
1984, 155-173.
Alva, Walter. Las Salinas de Chao: un asentamiento temprano,
observaciones y problematica. Yunga 1 (1)
Trujillo, 1987, pp. 33-70
Arriaza, Bernardo. /Beyond Death: the Chinchorro mummies of ancient
Chile./ Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D. C., 1995.
Benfer, Robert A. /The Preceramic Period Site of La Paloma, Peru:
Bioindications of Improving Adaptation to Sedentism. /Latin American
Antiquity 1. Washington D.C., 1990, pp.284-318.
Bonavia, Duccio. Los Gavilanes. Mar, desierto y oasis en la historia del
hombre. COFIDE-IAA. Lima, 1982.
Carnerio, Robert L. /A Theory of the Origin of the State./ _Science_
169. Washington D.C. 1970, pp. 733-738.
Darwin, Charles. Journal of Researches into the Natural History and
Geology of the Countries Visited during the Voyage of HMS ?Beagle? round
the World. J.M. Dent, London. E. P. Dutton. 1906 [1845].
deFrance, Susan D., Keefer, David K., Richardson, James B. y Umire
Alvarez, Adan/. Late Paleo-Indian Coastal Foragers: Specialized
Extractive Behavior at Quebrada Tacahuay, Peru. /Latin American
Antiquity 12 (4). Washington D.C., 2001, pp. 413-426.
Engel, Frederic. A Preceramic Settlement on the Central Coast of Peru:
Asia, Unit I. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 51 (3),
Philadelphia, 1963.
Feldman, Robert. /Aspero, Peru: Architecture, Subsistence Economy and
other Artifacts of a Preceramic Maritime Chiefdom./ Tesis Doctorada.
Harvard University, Cambridge, 1980.
Fung P. Rosa. El temprano surgimiento en el Peru de los systemas
socio-politicos complejos: planteamiento de una hypothesis de desarrollo
original. Apuntes Arqueologicos 2. Lima, 1972, pp. 10-32.
Haas, Jonathan y Creamer, Winifred. /Response/ [to Amplifying Importance
of New Research in Peru] Science 294 (5547). Washington D.C., 2001, pp.
1652-1653.
Kosok, Paul. /Life, Land and Water in Ancient Peru/. Long Island
University Press, Long Island, 1965.
Llagostera, Agustin. /Tres dimensiones en la conquista prehistorica del
mar: un aporte para el estudio de las Formaciones Pescadoras de la costa
sur andian./ Actas del VIII Congreso Nacional de Arqueologia Chilena.
Ediciones Kulturan. Santiago, 1979, pp. 217-245.
Llagostera, Agustin. Early Occupations and the Emergence of Fishermen on
the Pacific Coast of South America. Andean Past #3. Ithica, New York.
1992, pp. 87-109.
Morgan, Lewis Henry. /Ancient Society, or Researches in the Lines of
Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization/. Henry
Holt. New York, 1877.
Moseley, Michael E. /The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization./
Cummings Publishing Company. Menlo Park, California, 1975.
Moseley, Michael E. /Maritime Foundations and Multilinear Evolution:
Retrospect and Prospect./ Andean Past #3. Ithica, New York. 1992, pp. 5-42.
Moseley, Michael E. y Willey, Gordon R. /Aspero, Peru: a Reexamination
of the Site and its Implications/. American Antiquity 38. Washington
D.C., pp. 452-468.
Quilter, Jeffrey. /Architecture and Chronology at El Paraisso, Peru./
Journal of Field Archaeology 12. Boston, 1985, pp.279-297.
Quilter, Jeffrey, Ojeda E., Bernardion, Pearsall, Deborah, Sandweiss,
Daniel H., Jones, John G. y Wing, Elizabeth S. /Subsistence Economy of
El Paraiso, an Archaic Site in Peru/. Science 251. Washington D.C.,
1991, pp. 277-283.
Rivera, Mario A. /The Preceramic Chinchorro Mummy Complex of Northern
Chile: Context, Style, and Purpose/. En Tombs for the Living: Andean
Mortuary Practices, Tom D. Dillehay editor. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington
D. C.,1995, pp. 43-78.
Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, Maria. /Mercaderes del valle de Chincha en
la epoca prehispanica: us documento y usos comentarios./ Revista
Española de Antropoologia Americana 5. 1970, pp. 135-178.
Rowe, John. Max Uhle, 1856-1944 A Memoir of the Father of Peruvian
Archaeology. University of California Publications in American
Archaeology and Ethnology 46 (1). Berkeley, 1954.
Sandweiss. Daniel H., McInnin, Heather, Burger, Richard L., Cano,
Asuncion, Ojeda, Bernardino, Paredes, Rolando, Sanddweiss, Maria del
Carmen, y Glascock, Michael D. /Quebrada Jaguay: Early South American
Maritime/ /Adaptations/. Science 281. Washington D.C., 1998, pp. 1830-1832.
Shady, Ruth. La Ciudad Sagrada de Caral-Supe en los albores de la
civizacion en el Peru. UNMSM, Lima, 1997.
Shady, Ruth. /La religion como forma de cohesion social y manejo
politico en los albores de la civilizacion en el Peru/. Boletin del
Museo de Arqueologia y Antropologia, UNMSM, ano 2, (9), Lima, 1999, pp.
13-15.
Shady, Ruth. Sustento socioeconomico del Estado pristine de Supe-Peru:
las evidencias de Caral-Supe. Arqueologia y Sociedad 13, Museo de
Arqueologia y Antropologia, UNMSM, Lima 2000, pp. 49-66.
Shady, Ruth. /Caral Supe La Civilizacion mas Antigua de America./
Proyecto Especial Arqueologico Caral-Supe/INC. Lima, 2003.
Shady, Ruth, Dolorier, C., Montesionos, F., y Casas L. Los origenes de
la civilizacion en el Peru: el area norcentral y el valle de Supe
durante el Arcaico Tardio. Arqueologia y Sociedad 13, Museo de
Arqueologia y Antropologia, UNMSM, Lima 2000, pp. 13-48.
Shady, Ruth y Leyva C. editors. /La Ciudad Sagrada de Caral-Supe: Los
origenes de la civilizacion andina y la formacion del Estado pristine en
el antiguo Peru./ Proyecto Especial Arqueologico Caral-Supe/INC. Lima, 2003.
Standen, Vivien G. /Temprana Complejidad Funeraria de la Cultural
Chinchorro (Norte de Chile)/. Latin American Antiquity 8(2). Washington
D.C., 1997, pp. 134-156
Zechenter, Elzbieta. Subsistence strategies in the Supe Valley of the
Peruvian Central Coast during the Complex Preceramic and Initial
Periods. Tesis Doctorada. University of California, Los Angeles, 1988.
Dr Moseley's "Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization" (MFAC) has
been one of the most influential hypotheses explaining the rise of
Andean civilization. For the past ten years Dr. Ruth Shady has been
researching Caral, which has highlighted a need to expand the MFAC to
amplify the role that industrial agriculture played in the development
of Andean civilization.
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