Middle Archaic: The Beginnings of a Production Economy (8000-5000 BP)

Following the period between 10 000 and 8000 BP, during which a rich diversity of elaborate strategies were implemented by human groups in order to adapt and exploit environments that were also very diverse, the cultural development of the central Andean zone began to follow a new rhythm at 8000 BP. New life-ways were gradually developed, though those based on hunting and gathering did not immediately disappear. The innovations, which nonetheless concerned only a few regions, were of two types: a progressive generalization of horticulture and the appearance of animal husbandry.

In southern Ecuador, the site of Las Vegas was most densely occupied between 8000 and 6500 BP (Late Las Vegas phase). Marine resources played a less important role than before (50%) while the collection of vegetal species intensified. Some, such as Cucurbi-taceae and perhaps a primitive maize, began to be cultivated. The space covered by habitations and domestic waste augmented, indicating an increase in population size. The large dumping areas also served as cemeteries: one of them contained the primary or secondary burials of at least 192 individuals, making it the largest ensemble of skeletons known in the central Andes during this period. The most famous one, a double sepulture of a man and woman buried together and apparently embracing, has become famous as The Lovers of Sumpa.

On the Peruvian coast, the fisher-gatherer camps already occupied for nearly 2000 years show a significant population increase from 7000 BP. This is demonstrated at Ring Site and Quebrada de los Burros by an enlargement of domestic areas and increased in deposit densities. But it is on the coast of Chile that the occupation density is greatest (it is also here that the most research has been conducted). The numerous shellfish collector camps of the Camarones Complex (7800-5600 BP), which extend along the southern littoral of Arica - Quiani, Chinchorro, Camarones 14, Pisagua, and Punta Pichalo, among the most important - were occupied by a population of fishers with sophisticated fishing equipment, notably fishhooks shaped from the valves of the large mussel Choromytilus chorus. This is the origin of the name Shell Fishhook Culture first given to this complex by Junius Bird. A little later, the occupants of Tiliviche and Aragon, though located nearly 40 km from the shore, lived mainly on marine resources and used similar equipment.

The Camarones Complex, and the succeeding Quiani Complex (5600-3200 BP), in which fishhooks made from cactus thorns replaced those made from shell, constitute the successive phases of the Chinch-orro Tradition. This tradition, present from the Antofagasta latitude in Chile to the Ilo in Peru, is defined by its mortuary practices. Following extremely complex processes, the bodies were eviscerated, dried, and then stiffened with wood elements and ligatures. They were then covered with a coating of painted clay, which depending on the period was first black and then red. A ‘black mummy’, recently dated to 7800 BP, confirms that the Chinchorro mummies, more than 2000 years older than the first known Egyptian mummies, are the oldest in the world.

In the highlands, the natural refuges of the Cordillera continue to be occupied during this time by bands of seminomad hunter-gatherers whose lifeways remain astonishingly similar to those of the preceding period. Meanwhile, it is during the same period that horticultural practices were developed and generalized, though they perhaps first appeared as early as the Early Archaic in northern Peru (Guitarrero) and northwest Argentina (Huachichocana). The stratigraphic contexts of these sites are, however, questionable (cf. supra). Also at Guitarrero, more reliable evidence of squash (Cucurbita sp.) and gourd (Lagenaria sp.) cultivation appears at around 7000 to 6000 BP, as well as in the Ayacucho basin (Piki phase, 7700-6300BP).

Meanwhile, the role of these plants was never as significant as that of maize, which, though it was not the first cultivated, rapidly became of singular importance. Later, all of the ‘Andean high civilizations’, which first appeared during the second millennium BC, would be based on the intensive cultivation of this plant. A primitive domestic maize was again observed at Guitarrero between 7600 and 4000 BP (Complex III) and, less certainly, at Ayacucho between 6500 and 5000 BP (Chihua phase). In both of these regions, these elements provide evidence for the manipulation of several vegetal species and already elaborate horticultural practices, if not true agriculture. Meanwhile, in all regions, the majority of alimentary resources continued to be obtained through hunting, trapping, and the collection of wild edible plants, still in a nonsedentary context.

The history of maize is complex and its origin is still far from clear. Though there is near consensus that this plant originated in Mexico, its diffusion and domestication are still poorly understood. For certain researchers, the diffusion of an already-domesticated maize would have occurred very early starting from Mexico. For others, it was a still wild maize that attained the central Andean zone, where it would have been independently domesticated, one or more times, in the central and southern Andean zones. In any case, all of the available data suggest that in the central Andean zone the culture of three essential plants - beans, squash, and maize - known as the ‘American trilogy’, would have begun earlier in the Cordillera than on the coast. The history of the species whose mountainous origin is certain - potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) and other exclusively Andean tubers such as oca (Oxalis tuberosa), olluco (Ullucus tuberosus), and mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum), as well as maca (Lepidium meyenii) and quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) - is still poorly known. The distinction between wild and cultivated species is sometimes difficult and palynological analyses are still lacking. Paradoxically, the only concrete evidence of cultivated potatoes comes from the coast and is no older than 4000 BP (at Huynuma in the Casma Valley of Peru), indicating a more ancient domestication than in the highlands.

Unlike the vegetal species, the Andean animal species suitable for domestication were very rare: two camelidae, vicufia (Lama vicugna) and guanaco (L. guanicoe), and guinea pig (Cavia sp.). Of these three species, only the first two would later play a significant role in the cultural development of the central Andes.

We have seen that as early as 8000 BP on the punas of central Peru, the hunting of camelidae existed as a result of the behavior of these animals themselves: vicunas and guanacos live in small family groups that, in contrast to cervidae, circulate within a stable, defined territory from 1 year to the next. For the hunters, they were thus a certain and regular source of food. A growing familiarity between the hunters and these animals is almost certainly at the origin of the control that seems to have been exercised over wild herds from 6500 BP. At Telarmachay, where this in situ process of camelidae domestication was first revealed, a first domestic species, the alpaca (Lama pacos), was present between 6000 and 5500 BP, and a second, the lama (Lama glama) between 5500 and 3800 BP. Meanwhile, it is very likely, though the archaeological evidence is still lacking, that similar experiments leading to the same results occurred at different locations in the highlands, notably on the Bolivian altiplano. In the southern Andes, a few elements suggest that an independent, but somewhat later, zone of camelidae domestication could have existed in Chile on the border of the Atacama desert basin (Puripica-1 and Tiilan-52, between 5000 and 4000 BP), while in the northwest Argentinean puna, alpaca is present in the Tomayoc rock shelter at 3500 BP. We must nonetheless ask whether the appearance of domestic camelidae in these two regions could have been the consequence of migratory movements that transferred pastoral practices from the central Andean punas.

According to MacNeish, guinea pigs were first tamed in the Ayacucho basin as early as the Piki phase (7700-6300 BP) and then fully domesticated in Peru during the Cachi phase (5000-3700 BP). It is moreover surprising that this animal, which exists in a wild state throughout the highlands, is not represented in any of the high-altitude Peruvian sites (Lauricocha, Pachamachay, Telarmachay, etc.). It is also absent from the alimentary remains of sites in the Andes of Chile and Argentina, but could later have been independently domesticated in the Colombian Andes.

The first villages

It is finally during the Middle Archaic that the first sure signs of sedentarization appear in a process that seems to have first developed along the Pacific Coast. Though it is a little later than the possible semisedentary occupation of the site of Las Vegas in Ecuador (Early Archaic), the ‘village’ site of the fishers of Paloma 613, studied by Friideric Engel, Robert Benfer, and Jeffrey Quilter, on the central coast of Peru, is better attested. In the beginning of its occupation, from 7800 to 7000 BP, this site was still a seasonal camp like so many others, before becoming fully sedentary at around 7000 BP. The habitat consisted of around 100 hemispherical huts made from reeds and rush, and more than a thousand burials were found in proximity or even within the habitations themselves. Multiple analyses conducted on this site have shown that 90% of the diet was composed of small fish, marine mammals, and mollusks. Vegetal resources were first exploited for nonalimentary purposes (combustibles, hut covers) and it was not until 5500/5000 BP that a primitive horticulture was practiced (squash, gourds, and perhaps beans), which contributed only a minor complement to a diet that remained essentially marine based. Paloma was abandoned a little before 5000 BP, without having developed a true agrarian economy. Between 6000 and 5300 BP, the village of Chilca 1, also discovered by Freideric Engel, was established not far from Paloma. Here also, the beach was not far away and spontaneous vegetation was abundant, particularly in the nearby lomas. The occupation included ensembles of grouped huts like those at Paloma. The mode of life was also analogous and the horticulture of squash and beans is attested.

We thus cannot deny the importance of the ocean in the lifeways of the coastal populations and their role in the early process of sedentarization. But it is also true that the ocean, in spite of its rich resources, could not assure these populations a level of security equal to that provided a little later by agricultural products. No one can challenge the fact that within the coastal societies already sedentarized or in the process of becoming so, it was not until the use of domestic plants became systematic that a qualitative advance occurred, which, within a few centuries, would lead to the appearance of complex societies.

At the end of the period considered in this article, the central Andean zone thus presents a contrasted scenario. On the coast, fixed villages appeared with a territorial attachment that undoubtedly led to new ways of life, a new perception of daily space, and new relationships between the members within a community. At the same time, alongside these societies, hunter-gatherer groups organized in (apparently) egalitarian societies subsisted. As we saw, in the highlands the first sedentary occupations seem to have appeared at a later date, though, paradoxically, certain vegetal species were cultivated earlier.

It is finally during the succeeding Late Archaic period (5000-3800 BP) - also called Final Preceramic - that a new type of occupation will appear. An economy dominated by agriculture, from then on well established, and the beginnings of a social hierarchy will be reflected in the edification of spectacular, ‘public’ architectural complexes, marking a prelude the dawning of the Andean Civilization.

See also: Americas, South: Ear'y Villages; Northern South America; Plant Domestication.