Wealth on the Hoof: Cajamarca Culture Camelid Pastoralism

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Them and Us: Transmission and Cultural Dynamism in the North of Peru between AD 250 and 950: A Vision since the Recent Northern Investigations" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Located in the Cajamarca Valley, the site of Iscoconga (50 BCE–750 CE) represents one of the few extensively explored domestic contexts of the Cajamarca Archaeological Culture. Excavations at Iscoconga revealed, among many things, that the economic base of the Cajamarca peoples was diverse. While the Cajamarca peoples are known for their striking kaolinitic ceramics, camelid pastoralism was an important contributor to the Cajamarca domestic and, perhaps, commercial economies. Today, animal husbandry in Cajamarca is centered around cattle rearing, but alpacas were recently reintroduced to the region as a means of improving economic stability for smallholders. In this paper, we present the results of the analysis of faunal remains from the Iscoconga site. We propose that the people living at Iscoconga raised animals for both fleece and transport, which aided the Cajamarca peoples in the exchange of local and nonlocal products as well as the maintenance of their economic and ethnic autonomy in this region and beyond.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Them and Us: Transmission and Cultural Dynamism in the North of Peru between AD 250 and 950: A Vision since the Recent Northern Investigations   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33312