Otolith Metrics and Fishing Strategies on the North Coast of Peru

Summary

In this paper I compare Otolith metrics from two coastal sites in the Moche Valley, Gramalote and Cerro La Virgen. This comparison is aimed at evaluating possible shifts in fishing strategies as reflected in the range and normative values of fish size over time. Gramalote is a small politically autonomous fishing village occupied during the Initial Period. Cerro La Virgen is a large town occupied as part of the expanding political empire of the Chimu during the Late Intermediate Period. The two sites, located six kilometers apart in space and 2500 years apart in time, had access to the same marine habitats. I will review and illustrate both ecological and political interpretations of chronological variation in fish size at the two ends of the Andean chronological sequence.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16041