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Chronology, mound-building and environment at Huaca Prieta, coastal Peru, from 13 700 to 4000 years ago

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2012

Tom D. Dillehay
Affiliation:
1Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Science, Vanderbilt University, 124 Garland Hall, Nashville, TN 37235, USA 2Escuela de Antropología, Faculdad de Ciensias Sociales, Universidad Católica de Temuco, Manuel Montt 056, Temuco, Chile
Duccio Bonavia
Affiliation:
3Academia Nacional de la Historia, Casa de Osambela, Jr. Conde de Superunda 298, Lima 1, Perú
Steven Goodbred
Affiliation:
4Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, College of Arts and Science, Vanderbilt University, 5726 Stevenson Center, 7th floor, Nashville, TN 37240, USA
Mario Pino
Affiliation:
5Instituto de Ciencias Geológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Austral de Chile, Casilla 567, Valdivia, Chile
Victor Vasquez
Affiliation:
6Laboratorio de Bioarqueología, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Avda. Universitaria s/n, Trujillo, Perú
Teresa Rosales Tham
Affiliation:
6Laboratorio de Bioarqueología, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Avda. Universitaria s/n, Trujillo, Perú
William Conklin
Affiliation:
7Department of Anthropology, Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605-2496, USA
Jeff Splitstoser
Affiliation:
8Boundary End Archaeology Research Center, One Walker Creek Road, Barnardsville, NC 28709-0592, USA
Dolores Piperno
Affiliation:
9Archaeobiology Program, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 20013-7012, USA & Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama
José Iriarte
Affiliation:
10Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Laver Building, North Park Road, Exeter EX4 4QE, UK
Alexander Grobman
Affiliation:
11Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Av. La Universidad s/n, Facultad de Ciencias, Lima 12, Perú
Gerson Levi-Lazzaris
Affiliation:
1Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Science, Vanderbilt University, 124 Garland Hall, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
Daniel Moreira
Affiliation:
12Departamento de Arqueologia, Universidade Federal de Rondônia, Avenida Presidente Dutra 2965, Porto Velho 78900-500, Brasil
Marilaura Lopéz
Affiliation:
13Escuela de Arqueología, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Avenida Juan Pablo II s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, Trujillo, La Libertad, Perú
Tiffiny Tung
Affiliation:
1Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Science, Vanderbilt University, 124 Garland Hall, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
Anne Titelbaum
Affiliation:
14Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, 101 Dinwiddie Hall, 6823 St Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
John Verano
Affiliation:
14Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, 101 Dinwiddie Hall, 6823 St Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
James Adovasio
Affiliation:
15Department of Anthropology, Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute, Mercyhurst College, 501 East 58th Street, Erie, PA 16546-0001, USA
Linda Scott Cummings
Affiliation:
16Paleo Research Institute, 2675 Youngfield St, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Phillipe Bearéz
Affiliation:
17Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 75005, France
Elise Dufour
Affiliation:
17Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 75005, France
Olivier Tombret
Affiliation:
17Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 75005, France 18Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Chemin de Thil, 80-025 Amiens, France
Michael Ramirez
Affiliation:
19Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, 6 East Mall EPS RM 1.130, Austin, TX 78705, USA
Rachel Beavins
Affiliation:
4Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, College of Arts and Science, Vanderbilt University, 5726 Stevenson Center, 7th floor, Nashville, TN 37240, USA
Larisa DeSantis
Affiliation:
4Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, College of Arts and Science, Vanderbilt University, 5726 Stevenson Center, 7th floor, Nashville, TN 37240, USA
Isabel Rey
Affiliation:
20Tissue and DNA Collections, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), Jose Gutierrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Philip Mink
Affiliation:
21Kentucky Archaeological Survey, Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-9854, USA
Greg Maggard
Affiliation:
21Kentucky Archaeological Survey, Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-9854, USA
Teresa Franco
Affiliation:
1Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Science, Vanderbilt University, 124 Garland Hall, Nashville, TN 37235, USA

Extract

Renewed in-depth multi-disciplinary investigation of a large coastal mound settlement in Peru has extended the occupation back more than 7000 years to a first human exploitation ~13720 BP. Research by the authors has chronicled the prehistoric sequence from the activities of the first maritime foragers to the construction of the black mound and the introduction of horticulture and monumentality. The community of Huaca Prieta emerges as innovative, complex and ritualised, as yet with no antecedents.

Type
Research article
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2012

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