Hunter’s Paradise or Hypoxic Wasteland? Recent Research in the Pucuncho Basin, Peru

Summary

Mountain regions above 4000 m have been considered marginal because of low temperatures and low primary productivity compounded by the physical stress of hypoxia. Yet, the archaeological record of the puna (grasslands above 3800 m) of the Andes demonstrates widespread, persistent occupations by hunter-gatherers. The intensity and seasonality of these occupations offer insights into these regions of Peru and of the entry of people into South America more generally. New excavations at the rockshelter of Cuncaicha (Arequipa) dating to as early as the Terminal Pleistocene are compared with sites in Junín dating to the Early Holocene. Together, these sites attest to the procurement of food (especially animals) and lithic raw materials in an environment strongly conditioned by the availability of water. Where rainfall or topography allowed a combination of natural pasture and wetland patches to develop, the constraints of altitude and temperature seem to have been of minor importance. At Cuncaicha, exchange of materials to distant coastal sites dated to the Terminal Pleistocene; this is a less obvious pattern in the Junín sites. These observations open larger questions about the sustainability of local high altitude forager occupations and the complementarity of activities and resources with regions at immediately lower altitudes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• The Role of High Altitude Landscapes in the Peopling of the New World

Keywords

Spatial Coverage