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Eating out or dining in: modeling diverse dietary strategies in the Middle Period, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

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Abstract

The Middle Period of the Atacama oases, North Chile, has been characterized as a time of peace, uniform abundance, and widespread access to exotic materials. In the present work, we test this notion through a comparison of Middle Period human isotopic data (δ13Cco, δ15Nco, and δ13Cap) representing two distinct ayllus, Solcor and Tchecar, in the San Pedro de Atacama oases. We employ Bayesian mixture modeling of individual-level isotopic data to quantify and compare dietary composition within and between the cemetery populations of these two contemporary locales. Ultimately, our research shows that dietary diversity, which we take as a proxy for differential levels of participation in long-distance exchange or the access to the products thereof, was unequally distributed, and that the supposedly uniform richness of the Middle Period was similarly discontinuous. While average isotopic values for the two ayllus were similar, variance within each differed significantly, as did variance in dietary composition arrived at through modeling. By all measures, the individuals interred in Solcor 3 had more varied diets, particularly in terms of carbohydrate-rich plants, than their contemporaries interred at Tchecar Túmulo Sur, suggesting that more individuals from Solcor 3 had greater participation in/access to long-distance exchange networks. Besides providing novel insights into the lived experience of the Middle Period residents of far northern Chile, this work also demonstrates the power of Bayesian mixture modeling for the reconstruction of individual paleodiet.

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Acknowledgments

This work would not have been possible without the continued support of the Instituto de Arqueología y Antropología and the Museo Arqueológico Le Paige of the Universidad Católica del Norte, and in particular, M. Arturo Torres. Furthermore, we would like to thank Dr. Peter Swart and his staff at the Marine Geology and Geophysics’ Stable Isotope Laboratory at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science for their tireless efforts in the lab. Portions of this research were supported by the National Science Foundation, Grants BCS-1358753 and BCS-1359644.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Merrick Hall 102E, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, 33124-2005, USA

    William J. Pestle

  2. Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, USA

    Christina Torres-Rouff

  3. Instituto de Arqueología y Antropología, Universidad Católica del Norte, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

    Christina Torres-Rouff & Mark Hubbe

  4. Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Mark Hubbe

  5. Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Erin K. Smith

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  1. William J. Pestle
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Correspondence to William J. Pestle.

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Pestle, W.J., Torres-Rouff, C., Hubbe, M. et al. Eating out or dining in: modeling diverse dietary strategies in the Middle Period, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 9, 1363–1377 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-016-0398-9

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