A Geoarchaeological Approach to Site Formation and Structures of Inter-zonal Paleoindian Sites in Southern Peru

Summary

A key question in the settlement of the Americas is how early forager groups adapted to different ecological settings while maintaining social connections. Quebrada Jaguay (QJ-280) on the Pacific Coast and Cuncaicha Rockshelter in the Andean highlands of southern Peru, exhibit very different subsistence adaptations, yet these sites were linked within a common settlement system in the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene. Here, we present the results of multidisciplinary geoarchaeological investigations at both sites. During the excavations various structures and features, as well as complex site formation processes were encountered, raising questions about, amongst others, behavioral factors in the sites’ formation. This was addressed by combining micromorphology with pedological and FTIR analyses. These techniques provided insights, invisible to the naked eye, about the sedimentary components, and depositional and post-depositional processes of both sites at a microscale that we could link to the overall site structures. The geoarchaeological approach to the site allowed us get a better understanding of single features and structures in the sites, as well as to investigate the influence of natural and human factors in a site’s formation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21382