Procurement of camelid fiber in the hyperarid Atacama Desert coast: Insights from stable isotopes

Abstract

Pastoralism and camelid management are traditionally attributed to the sociopolitical, economic and cosmovision of Andean populations, rather than to lowland hunter gatherer societies, living on the Pacific coast where camelid hunting is considered a marginal activity, and husbandry is a difficult enterprise given the hyper-arid conditions of lowland terrestrial ecosystems. Contrary to this interpretative historical view, our stable isotope analyses applied to 48 camelid fiber samples, suggests this highly valued camelid byproduct was obtained from camelids sustained on lomas vegetation formations during the Archaic (ca. 6500-4000 cal yr BP), Formative (ca. 4000-1500 cal yr BP) and Late periods (ca. 660-480 cal yr BP).