Diet, Mobility, Technology, and Lithics: Neolithization on the Andean Altiplano, 7.0–3.5 ka

Nathaniel Kitchel,Mark S Aldenderfer,Randall Haas

doi:10.1007/s10816-021-09525-7

Abstract

Neolithization was a complex, protracted process of domestication, sedentarization, and technology change that occurred in various combinations in various times and places around the world. Understanding the causal relationships among those and other important human behaviors remains an analytical challenge. This study examines Neolithization through the lens of lithic artifact variation in the Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru. Drawing on previous lithics research, we outline a synthetic model linking changing diet, mobility, and projectile technology to predicted trends in lithic assemblages. The expectations are then compared to two large, well-dated lithic assemblages from the Titicaca Basin—one from the Middle/Late Archaic forager site of Soro Mik’aya Patjxa (8.0–6.5 cal. ka) and the other from the Terminal Archaic horticultural site of Jiskairumoko (5.2–3.4 cal. ka). We find that the strongest signal in lithic technology change is related to the introduction of archery technology. Signals for subsistence change and declining mobility are relatively weak. The results suggest an early but unconfirmed adoption of archery technology in the Terminal Archaic Period with major transitions in mobility and diet likely to have occurred subsequently in the Terminal Archaic or Formative periods. The findings are consistent with a behavioral model in which changes in projectile technology played a prominent role in the evolution of resource intensification and residential sedentism as well as resource privatization and sexual division of labor in the high Andes.

Highlights

A number of forager societies around the world independently experienced a protracted, meta-stable period of economic transformation from foraging to food production and residential mobility to sedentism often accompanied by emergent archery and ceramic technologies (Kelly, 2013; Smith, 2001; Stiner, 2001)
Following from previous archaeological observations on the Andean Altiplano, our working model posits that hunting declined, plant foraging or cultivation increased, residential mobility declined, and projectile technology transitioned from atlatl to archery sometime after the Late Archaic Period during the Terminal Archaic Period
Previous archaeological evidence suggests that sometime in the Lake Titicaca Basin Terminal Archaic Period, 5.0–3.5 cal. ka, subsistence shifted from hunting and gathering to herding and farming, residential mobility declined giving rise incipient sedentism and weapon systems transitioned from atlatl to archery technology

Summary

Introduction

A number of forager societies around the world independently experienced a protracted, meta-stable period of economic transformation from foraging to food production and residential mobility to sedentism often accompanied by emergent archery and ceramic technologies (Kelly, 2013; Smith, 2001; Stiner, 2001). Understanding the causal relationships among these and other behaviors presents a major analytical challenge for archaeologists. It would seem reasonable to suppose any combination of linear or non-linear causal chains among these behaviors. It seems reasonable to suggest that sedentism, perhaps due to population packing and territoriality, drove resource domestication and technology change (Rosenberg, 1998). It would seem reasonable to reverse the causal arrow to suggest that domestication or technology change drove emergent sedentism (Bettinger, 2015; Richerson et al, 2001). By characterizing the tempo and order in which these behaviors emerged, it may be possible to understand causal relationships among them and other important human behaviors such as resource privatization, territoriality, sexual division of labor, and hierarchy

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion