The role of farming and fishing in the rise of social complexity in the Central Andes : a stable isotope perspective
Pezo-Lanfranco, Luis (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Prehistòria)
Colonese, Andre Carlo (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)

Date:	2024
Abstract:	For many years, the rise of stratified societies along the Central Andean coast, known as the birthplace of Andean civilization, has been closely linked to a marine-oriented economy. This hypothesis has recently been challenged by increasing evidence of plant management and cultivation among Andean populations long before the emergence of complex societies and monumental architecture. The extent to which marine and plant-based economies were integrated and their contributions to early sedentism, population growth, and intra-community stratification, however, remain subjects of ongoing and contentious debate. Using Bayesian Mixing Models we reanalyze the previously published stable isotopes (δ15Ncollagen, δ13Ccollagen, δ13Capatite) values of 572 human individuals from 39 archaeological sites in the Central Andes dated between ca. 7000 BCE and 200 CE to reconstruct dietary regimes in probabilistic terms. Our results reveal that fish, terrestrial fauna, and cultivated plants variably contributed to the diet of prehistoric Andean populations; in coastal and middle valley settlements plant cultivation, not fishing, fueled the development of the earliest complex societies during the Formative Period (from 3000 BCE). Similarly, in the highlands the societies that built ceremonial centers show a plant-based economy. Our findings also show that maize only became a staple food (> 25% dietary contribution) in more recent phases of Andean prehistory, around 500 BCE.
Grants:	European Commission 101062179 European Commission 817911 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2021/SGR-00527
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Andean archaeology ; Archaic period ; Bayesian stable isotope mixing models ; Dietary reconstruction ; Formative period ; Maize ; Stable isotopes ; Andean archaeology; Archaic period; Bayesian stable isotope mixing models; Dietary reconstruction; Formative period; Maize; Stable isotopes ; SDG 14 - Life Below Water
Published in:	Scientific reports, Vol. 14 (February 2024) , art. 4582, ISSN 2045-2322

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-55436-4
PMID: 38403727

11 p, 2.5 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles