The Zooarchaeology of Households at Las Peñas, a Late Intermediate Period site in the upper Torata Valley, Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Exploring Culture Contact and Diversity in Southern Peru" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Late Intermediate Period (LIP; ca. 1000CE-1450CE) site of Las Peñas is located in the sierra of the upper Torata valley in southern Peru. Laboratory analyses of faunal remains recovered during the 2016 excavation of households at Las Peñas provide insight into domestic life during the LIP, as well as environmental and subsistence strategies that may have mitigated risk during a turbulent period of Andean prehistory. Differences in skeletal element frequencies and taxonomic breadth suggest intra-site status differences between individual households, as well as household clusters. Taphonomic data provide information about domestic site formation processes and the depositional patterns of daily life at Las Peñas during the LIP. The presence of both oceanic marine and highland taxa attest to spatially extensive relationships of vertical exchange. Life history analysis of camelid remains suggest the possibility of local camelid herding, and may provide evidence for the seasonality of feasting and dietary practices at Las Peñas. Collectively, the results from these initial analyses challenge certain long-held assumptions about subsistence and domestic life during the Late Intermediate Period in the southern Andes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Exploring Culture Contact and Diversity in Southern Peru

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25573