Archaeological Remains of Pot~ and Sweet Potato in Peru

ir ! J.lJ tJ fJ DA TABAci ,~ RR INTERNATIONALPOTATOCENTER ISSN0256-8632 Vol.16,No.3,September1988 ljentroIntema~al d, la Pili Archaeological Remains of Pot~ 10 La MiltiRli.Lima 'i 1'\ f:"t! tnci'-o and Sweet Potato in Peru , :"r",1);I\- ii)-.'")~ Donald Ugent and Linda W. Peterson 1 RihHoterell-- .. I ~: ~ ~ I Fig. 1. Ruins of La: Centinela, situated on the south-central coast of Peru. This large administrative and ritual center served as the capital of the Chincha nation until it was conquered by an invading army of Inca warriors in t!te year A.D. 1476. Although this site remained populated for another S6 years, it was destroyed eventually by the Spanish conquistadores. Today, an abundance of cultural artifacts, animal bones, and plant remains lie exposed in middens left uncovered by desert sands. he discovery of archaeological tion of these two crops and their use material in the form of cloth tapestries r T. remains of the actual tubers and as primary food sources by Peru's early that occasionallybear woven images of roots of potato and sweet potato in Peru coastal inhabitants. Preserved remains potato or sweet potato and of ceramic has contributed greatly to our present- unearthed from the refuse heaps, or vessels representing these two crop day knowledge of the ancient distribu- middens, located in the vicinity of plants as well as others such as achira, ancient ruins (Fig. 1) as well as samples maize, peanut, and squash (Sauer, 1951). recovered from ancient tombs and burial The artistic representation of food plants sites have yielded archaeological records in the woven materials and pottery Qf 1 D. Ugent, Ethnobotanist, Department \Jf Botany, that point to the early development of the ancient Peruvians; which are artifacts Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois agriculture and civilizationin the New of many types and of different cultural 62901; L. W. Peterson, Senior Editor, Interna- World. Tombs and burial sites have also tional Potato Center, Apartado 5969, Lima, periods, show us that a crop was in the Peru. proved to be an impo.rtant source of process of development long before its L. n II first appearance in the archaeological quity-were discovered in middens of record. the Pleistocene age (8000B.C.) at the From these lines of evidence, we can Guitarrero Cave in the highland areas determine that potato and sweet potato of the Department of Ancash (Kaplan, were grown together more or less co- 1980;Smith, 1980). extensivelyin the oases of Peru's isolated From the above studies, we learn that coastal river valleys. The area of cultiva- man had already domesticated a number tion extended as far north as the Casma of plant species by the end of the last ~ Valley in the Department of Ancash, to Ice Age, including tuber and root crops the more southerly coastal city of Pisco, such as potato and sweet potato. Today, in the Department of lea, with the the preservedremainsof thesetwo food sweet potato having an additional range sources found in the Chilca caves furnish of cultivation southeast to the area of us with clues as to the importance of Nazca (Fig. 2). these crops in the Peruvian coastal area The oldest known samples of potato as early as 10,000years ago, at a time and sweet potato, dating to the Neolithic when climatic and environmental condi- Period (and perhaps to the end of the tions worldwide were very different from last Ice Age, or 8000 B.c. according to what they are today. , Engel), were discovered in caverns at Chilca Canyon, in the south-central area of coastal Peru (Engel, 1970). These Climatic and Geological highland caves, known locally as "Tres Setting Ventanas," are located 65 km southeast of Lima at an altitude of 2800 meters. Just prior to the time when the Chilca Archaeological remains of other Peru- Canyon crops were being grown, vast vian crop plants such as the common ice sheets covered large tracts of North bean, lima bean, pepper, oca, and America and northern Europe. The olluc~also known to be of great anti- central and southern parts of South " 100 200 300 400 miles ~ ~ pJ 200 400 600 km I Casma t i Ancon Lima"'" t Pachacamac Chilca La Centinela Paracas Ocucaje Nazca . Potato [J Sweet potato Fig. 2. Distribution of prehistoric potato (e) and sweet potato (0) remains on the coast of Peru. 2 ~ America, including the Andean high- central coastline of Ecuador (Ugent et a genus to the fertile kitchen middens of lands, were glaciated, with ice extending aI., 1984, 1986). Toward the end of the a campsite, a series of hybrid wild forms down the mountains of Peru to an Pleistocene (ca. 8000 B.c.), much of the may have eventually arose, which were altitude of approximately 3000 meters Peruvian coastal area was covered by a later gathered up by man and taken (Simpson, 1975;Vuilleumier, 1971). vast grassy savanna with intermittent from one campsite to another; or these Most of the areas where potatoes are groups of woody areas. Fossils of extinct forms may have migrated naturally along grown today in the Peruvian highlands mastodons, horses, and camelids have a network of trails connecting the dif- were not available for potato cultiva- been found in this region, indicatingthat ferent sites. When it came time.for tion during the. close of the Pleistocene the savanna once provided abundant for- the deliberate planting of crops, these glacial epoch, or the last Ice Age-the age for herds of large animals. weedy, ubiquitous, "camp follower" end of which corresponds to the era of races were ready for their final stages incipient agriculture in the New World, of domestication. 8000-6000B.c. Theseareaswere either covered with a thick mantle of snow The Pre-AgriculturalAge and ice or were in the process of being By the time of the melting of the great Era of IncipientAgricuLture gradually warmed and exposed. How- ice sheets, man was already widely set- ever, the maritime zone and the middle tled along the western coast of South During the early post-glacial period, and lower western slopes of the Cen- America. According to Lanning (1970), patterns of human subsistence were tral Andes were probably available there are about 18 archaeological Pleis- changing from economies based on hunt- for human occupation since preglacial tocene sites known from the northern ing and fishing to those based on plant times. and western coasts of South America. and animal domestication. A rapid During the Late Pleistocene, the These are distributed from Venezuela growth in human population along the shoreline of Peru was situated further to to southern Chile. In Peru, Pleistocene western coastline of South America, the west than it is today. In this respect, sites occur at Ancon (8500 B.c.; Lan- coupled with the gradually increasing it is interesting to note that the growth ning, 1965), Cerro Chivateros in the aridity of the climate and a decline in of the glacial ice sheets across the north- Chillon Valley (12,000 B.c.; Lanning the availability of natural resources, may ern and southern polar regions of the and Patterson, 1967), Chilca Canyon have all had their effect in persuading earth consumed so much ocean water by (8800 B.c.; Engel, 1970), Flea Cave in a hungry populace to engage in the ,. evaporation that sea levels throughout the Department of Ayacucho (12,200 deliberate planting of food crops. These the world dropped by nearly 100 meters B.c.; MacNeish, 1970), and Guitarrero developments led ultimately to the con- (Richardson, 1973, 1981). In Peru, the Cave in the Department of Ancash struction of large urban centers along lowering of the ocean level had the (10,500 B.c.; Lynch, 1980). the north-central Peruvian coast and effect of exposing portions of the conti- Two sites that predate the last glacial the founding of the formal rudiments nental shelf, thus the southern coastal advance are also known for South of art, religion, and science. Similar beaches extended some 10 km further America. One of these, Monte Verde happenings were also occurring at this to the west and the northern coastal in south-central Chile, dates to 31,000 time in the Old World, most notably beaches more than 100 km west of B.c. (Dillehay and Collins, 1988);while in Mesopotamia, Eygpt, the Indus Val- the present-day shoreline. Therefore, the other, Pedra Furada in northeast- ley, and China. These advancements, archaeological sites found today on the ern Brazil, goes back to 30,000 B.c. however, never occurred among the coast were located much further inland (Guidon and Delibrias, 1986). The primitive, nomadic tribes of the equato- during glacial times than they appear to radiographic evidence obtained.recently rial rainforests of the world, including be in the present. Moreover, sites that for Toca da Esperan<;a,another site with the Amazon region of South America. were situated directly along the coast in several caves in northeastern Brazil In this region, disease, infanticide, and the Late Pleistocene are now submerged (Lumley et aI., 1988), suggests that warfare were the factors most responsi- under more than 100 meters of the man may have populated that part of ble for keeping human populations in Pacific Ocean. ~ South America at some period between check, and since wild plant foods and Another change that affected the 204,000and 295,000years ago (Middle game were normally available, there was coastal area during the Late Pleistocene Pleistocene). no special need for triba~members to was a change in the coastal cliJ:nate, The dwellersof the Pleistocenecoastal- take on the extra work involved in the caused partly by the lowering of the savanna lands in Peru probably made deliberate planting, weeding, harvesting, ocean level and partly by a shift west- use of the several wild relatives of the and storage of vegetable crops.

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