From Hunting to Herding in the Lake Titicaca Basin: A Preliminary Investigation of Faunal Assemblages, 9.0–3.5 ka

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Approaches in Zooarchaeology: Addressing Big Questions with Ancient Animals" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

As the sole large-bodied animal domesticate in South America, camelids constituted a central component in Andean socio-economies and were pivotal for the expansion of early complex societies. The timing and nature of domestication, as well as the subsequent spread of husbandry practices, remains a fundamental question in Andean archaeology. This paper examines faunal remains from the Lake Titicaca Basin, which is a suspected domestication center. The faunal assemblages from three well-dated sites, including Wilamaya Patjxa (9.0–6.5 ka), Soro Mik’aya Patjxa (8.0–6.5 ka), and Jiskairumoko (5.0–3.5 ka), show that the highland hunting practices consistently targeted wild camelids and Andean deer and a virtual absence of small mammals, birds, and fish. We further observe that the prevalence of camelids relative to deer increased over the period of investigation, consistent with a hypothesis of intensified exploitation and incipient management of camelid herds by at least 6.5 ka in the Titicaca Basin.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Interdisciplinary Approaches in Zooarchaeology: Addressing Big Questions with Ancient Animals   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39485.0