Findings of Neotropical Parrots in Archaeological Contexts of the Atacama Desert, Northern Chile

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Scaling New Heights: Recent Advances in Andean Zooarchaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Throughout the Andes including its desert coast, the colorful feathers of tropical birds brought from Amazonia were important markers of social prestige and relational wealth for political and religious elites during Precolumbian times. In this paper we present a systematic review of the findings of specimens of tropical parrots and macaws recovered from archaeological sites in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Because the distribution of many of these birds is restricted to the tropical forests east of the Andes, they were likely imported into the area by means of complex long-distance networks of interaction. Archaeometric analyses of these findings allow to suggest that it was during the Late Intermediate Period that most of these birds were transported, that many arrived alive, and that they likely originated from different locations, all of which highlight the fluidity, scope and complexity of Precolumbian transregional interaction networks.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Scaling New Heights: Recent Advances in Andean Zooarchaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50847