Tiwanaku Pastoralism, Highland Bofedales, and Grasslands in Far Southern Peru: Creating a Strontium Baseline and Isoscape to Understand Cultural Connections

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.

Camelid pastoralism was an economic mainstay of the Tiwanaku Empire (~AD 600-1000). Communities of colonists in Moquegua, Peru were connected to their Tiwanaku capital near Lake Titicaca through an informal trade route traversing the altiplano. One component of Tiwanaku hegemony involved the movement of goods via llama caravans between the capital and the colonies. If Tiwanaku pastoralism was focused in the highlands, then camelid herding was part of an economic system integrating disparate, but interdependent, communities. Alternatively, pastoralism focused at lower elevations would suggest the colonists created economic autonomy. The analysis of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, lead, and strontium isotopic signatures in animal bone is useful for discerning animal origins and movement. Radiogenic strontium isotopes are particularly useful markers of animal provenance. To determine the origin of archaeological animals, the strontium signature of local habitats and the spatial and temporal variability of strontium is needed. To establish a strontium isoscape for the trade route, we surveyed over 27,000 square kilometers and variably sampled water, sediment, plants, animal bone and dung from thirty-one highland bofedales and grasslands. We report the results of the strontium isotopic analyses of these materials and their implications for Tiwanaku pastoralism, culture contact, and use of environmental habitats.

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): 23587