Weaving with Wichuñas in the Coastal Tiwanaku Diaspora: New Insights into Camelid Bone Tool Production from Los Batanes (Sama, Peru)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Textile production was a major economic sector in the prehispanic Tiwanaku state, for which weavers transformed camelid (llamas, alpacas) fibers and bones into utilitarian and decorative objects. As Tiwanaku pastoral communities dispersed in the wake of state collapse, they relocated to arid coastal regions where their textile industry demonstrates continuity in textile traditions and technological innovations. Excavations of domestic middens at the coastal site of Los Batanes (Sama, Peru), occupied by Tiwanaku descendants in the 12th century CE, revealed finished and unfinished camelid bone artifacts with morphological similarities to present-day weaving tools. These objects and their broader context provide insight into pastoral, bone tool, and textile production strategies of coastal camelid herders. Here, we present the results of macroscopic and microscopic analyses of the camelid bone tool assemblage from Los Batanes. The sitewide age-at-death profile of the camelid assemblage sets a baseline for evaluating culling practices related to fiber production and preferred ages for tool production. Fracture patterns from unfinished tools are indicators of production sequences, and use-wear patterns compared to ethnoarchaeological studies and bone tools recovered at the highland site of Tiwanaku will determine the artifacts’ uses in textile production.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38866.0