Exploring the Underwater Zooarchaeological Record of Lake Titicaca

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Underwater and Coastal Archaeology in Latin America" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Lake Titicaca is one of the centers of early cultural development in the ancient Andes. Because of its sensitivity to climate change, the surface of the lake has fluctuated considerably over time, which in turn has influenced the development of ecological systems and cultural development. This paper focuses on the archaeofaunal remains recovered in the context of recent underwater archaeological explorations in Lake Titicaca. Specifically, we describe and compare the zooarchaeological assemblages of two sites, Ojjelaya and Khoa. Ojjelaya was a residential village inhabited during the Late Formative period (400–500 CE) and likely abandoned due to flooding. Khoa was an offering shrine during Tiwanaku (800–1000 CE) times. The faunal remains from Ojjelaya comprise heavily fragmented and incomplete camelid remains, confirming they were deposited as a result of domestic activities. In contrast, the faunal assemblage of Khoa consists of mostly complete elements of juvenile llamas, likely sacrificed in situ. At both sites, an abundance of fish and frog remains as well as additional indicators suggest a taphonomic background dominated by aquatic taxa and verifies that both ecological processes and human behavior contributed to the formation of the complex zooarchaeological record preserved in Lake Titicaca.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Underwater and Coastal Archaeology in Latin America

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39403.0