Dreg Deposits and Domestic Beer Production: Assessing the Ubiquity of Chicha Production in the Wari Empire

Abstract

ABSTRACT Chicha (a fermented beverage) was an essential element of the political economy for some prehistoric Andean societies. In this article we outline the archaeological correlates of chicha production for the Wari Empire (ca. 600–1100 CE) using excavated evidence from the provincial center of Cerro Baúl and results from informant guided experimentation, which involved making chicha with maize (Zea mays), with drupes from the Peruvian pepper tree (Schinus molle), and using both ingredients. This information offers a guide to identify production at other sites and assess the ubiquity of small-scale brewing in Wari-affiliated domestic settings in Moquegua, Peru. We conclude that fermentation vessels are an imperfect but unambiguous indicator for brewing, although multiple lines of evidence could be marshaled in their absence, and that chicha brewing was largely exclusive to state-sponsored, specialized production in the Wari province of Moquegua, rather than a broadly practiced, ubiquitous domestic activity.