Flexibility in Southern Peru Coastal Economies: A Vertebrate Perspective on the Terminal Pleistocene/Holocene Transition

Abstract

ABSTRACTVertebrate collections from Quebradas Tacahuay, Jaguay, de los Burros, and the Ring Site, located on the southern coast of Peru and occupied during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene, indicate that a flexible use of fishes and other marine vertebrates began with the earliest occupations known for the region and continued into the Early Holocene. Terminal Pleistocene collections have lower fish diversity and fishes are from trophic levels at or below 3.5. By comparison, fish diversity in Early Holocene collections is higher and the range of trophic levels broader. Local economic specialization was practiced at these sites, but no single strategy was practiced at any of them, nor did a particular strategy prevail throughout the region. People used many techniques at each site, demonstrating their ability to take advantage of differences within a broadly similar resource base. Despite environmental changes associated with the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, coastal communities continued to use primarily marine vertebrates in the Early Holocene. At no time during either the Terminal Pleistocene or the Early Holocene was use of marine resources purely opportunistic. The flexibility, skill, and knowledge of local habitats and conditions developed by the earliest people in the region sustained coastal economies in both the Terminal Pleistocene and the Early Holocene.