Forager Adaptations to Andean Cloud Forest, Peru

Summary

This is an abstract from the "American Foragers: Human-Environmental Interactions across the Continents" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Cloud forests are montane tropical rainforests typically characterized by persistent fog, diverse microclimates, and rich biodiversity. Although some regions have long histories of development of technological and sociopolitical complexity in cloud forests (e.g., the Mayan highlands), in the central Andes cloud forests have often been considered inhospitable landscapes, only meaningfully colonized by humans following the development of technologies, such as agricultural terracing, which allowed for greater extraction of resources. However, excavation of three sites in the Chachapoyas region of Peru reveal a history of human colonization dating to at least the middle Holocene (ca. 5500 cal BP), and possibly as early as 10,600 cal BP. These groups of foragers drew resources from a variety of microenvironments across the cloud forest ecosystem; site occupation histories and technology suggest continuous use of certain landscapes through the Formative Period (ca. 3200–3400 cal BP). The technologies present at these sites differ from forager tools recovered from coastal and highland contexts, highlighting adaptations to the cloud forest that include maximizing available raw materials and use of locally available plant foods.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• American Foragers: Human-Environmental Interactions across the Continents   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39300.0