Exploring Inter-zonal Connections through a Constructed Projectile Point Typology from Cuncaicha Rockshelter

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Cuncaicha rockshelter, Carbun-Ruan, and Pampa Colorada are parts of an early inter-zonal settlement system located in southern Peru. Cuncaicha and Carbun-Ruan are multi-component highland rockshelters, with initial occupations dating respectively to the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene. Early to Late Holocene sites at Pampa Colorada on the Pacific coast contain projectile points made of highland Alca obsidian. Highland and coastal sites share common usage of additional raw-material resources from intermediate elevations. In addition, these sites have similar projectile point styles but have yet to be tested for relatedness. Because Cuncaicha is one of the best dated highland sites in South America and excavations have yielded over 1000 projectile points, I was able to construct a lithic typology to examine the nature of this shared inter-zonal material culture. Types were assigned and tested using morphological characteristics, metric data, and geometric morphometrics. Photogrammetric techniques were then used to create 3D models of over 200 projectile points from the highland and coastal sites. The 3D models were digitally archived to be easily accessible to other researchers. This digital archive and typology, which includes fishtail projectile points, will be useful for other archaeologists working in the Andes and along the coast of Peru.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25544