Foodways and Urban Living: A Macrobotanical Analysis of Huari Homes

Summary

Knowledge of Wari plant use has progressed significantly with analyses from sites such as Conchopata and Cerro Baul, but there has yet to be any investigation into Wari plant foodways at the capital city of Huari. This paper will investigate the botanical remains from flotation samples recovered throughout the 2017 excavations of Patipampa, a domestic sector of the site occupied during the Middle Horizon (AD 500-1000). For years, it has been assumed that the emergence of the Wari state in Ayacucho was fueled in part by maize agriculture. Preliminary results of the macrobotanical analysis will reveal what food crops people living at the site of Huari were actually consuming within their homes, and to what extent people were either using maize as a staple crop or maintaining a diverse diet. The assemblages of weed seeds and crop parts will also give insight into Wari agricultural practices and the organization of labor inside and outside of the house. Furthermore, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the densities and distributions of plant remains will be studied within a variety of architectural spaces to understand how cooking and preparation may have been organized within the urban landscape of Huari.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20807