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Paleoethnobotany of the Early Initial Period of Gramalote in Northern Peru

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Abstract

The Gramalote site is an early Initial Period (1500–1200 B.C.E.) fishing village located in the Moche valley in northern Peru. Previous research assessed the social dynamics and economic interactions within that fishing settlement. The well-preserved animal and plant record facilitates the archeological study of diet and subsistence strategies through time. The examinations of faunal remains of seabirds, sea mammals, and mollusk shells support the expected marine-oriented subsistence strategy. However, the site also contains a long record of botanical remains suggesting that people had access to plant resources. For this reason, a paleoethnobotanical study was conducted with the focus on reconstructing the pollen record of Gramalote. Previously identified botanical remains were also considered. The analysis of diverse botanical proxies helped to study the relationships between humans and plants in this region of northern Peru during the second millennium B.C.E. Grasses; reeds; food, woody, and wild plants were identified suggesting an environment that allowed small-scale agriculture and a trading network during the Initial Period of Gramalote.

El sitio Gramalote representa una comunidad de pescadores del Periodo Inicial temprano (1500–1200 cal A.E.C.) que se localizó en el valle Moche del norte peruano. Investigaciones previas se enfocaron en las interacciones económicas y sociales entre dicha comunidad. La buena preservación del record botánico y animal facilitó el estudio arqueológico de dieta y estrategias de subsistencia de los pescadores a través del tiempo. El análisis de restos de aves marinas, mamíferos marinos, y moluscos sugiere una estrategia de subsistencia marina. Sin embargo, el sitio también contiene un amplio record de restos botánicos sugiriendo que la comunidad de pescadores tuvo acceso a recursos de origen vegetal. Por esta razón, un análisis paleoetnobotánico se llevó a cabo con el objetivo de reconstruir el record palinológico de Gramalote. Restos botánicos previamente identificados también fueron considerados. El análisis de diversos restos botánicos ayudó a estudiar las relaciones entre humanos y plantas en esta región del Perú durante el segundo milenio A.E.C. Grases; cañas; plantas comestibles, maderables y silvestres fueron identificados sugiriendo un ambiente que permitió una agricultura a menor escala y una red de intercambios durante el Periodo Inicial de Gramalote.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to express my acknowledgments to Dr. Vaughn Bryant who guided me during the laboratory and identification processes and read preliminary versions of this manuscript. I thank Dr. Allison Hopkins for her comments and suggestions during the preparation of this manuscript. In addition, I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Luis Huamán for letting me use his Peruvian pollen collection and helping me in identifying unknown pollen grains. I thank Dr. Gabriel Prieto for facilitating the access to the Gramalote site, Jose Soto for field assistance, and Victor Vargas for his graphic design work.

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Anthropology Department at Texas A&M University.

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  1. Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA

    Rossana Paredes

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Correspondence to Rossana Paredes.

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Table 2 Botanical taxa identified in the fossil pollen record.
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Paredes, R. Paleoethnobotany of the Early Initial Period of Gramalote in Northern Peru. Econ Bot 72, 94–106 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-018-9402-x

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