Follow the Llamero: the Movement of Plant Foodstuffs in the Andes

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Fryxell Symposium in Honor of Dolores Piperno" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The exchange of goods and movement among different ecozones is a hallmark of Andean society. Key to this system of mobility were camelid caravans, which are possibly best known for the Wari or Tiwanaku cultures but are today dwindling in frequency or have disappeared in the Andes. These caravans were established in the much earlier Formative period (ca. 1800–200 BCE) when they were used to transport goods among different ecozones. Here, we present the results of microbotanical and stable isotope analyses to elucidate the nature of the long-distance movement of perishable foodstuffs. We demonstrate the presence of non-highland plants at highland archaeological sites and suggest that camelid caravans were used to move bulky, perishable foodstuffs. We also demonstrate the utility of multiple lines of evidence in tracing exchange and movement in the Andes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Fryxell Symposium in Honor of Dolores Piperno   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37121.0