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The Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization: A Reconsideration of the Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

J. Scott Raymond
J. Scott Raymond*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4 Canada
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Abstract

Moseley's contention that coastal Peruvian civilization was founded on a maritime subsistence economy is challenged, and the evidence that he used to substantiate his claim is re-examined. It is argued that: (1) the number of calories represented by the faunal remains in the late preceramic sites of the central coast is too few to have supported more than a simple hunter-gatherer society; (2) the potential productivity of the agricultural food plants present in the preceramic sites has been grossly underestimated; (3) biases in the preservation of sites and of food remains in the sites have not been considered sufficiently in drawing conclusions from the data; and (4) when considered in relation to the hydrology of the Peruvian coast, the distribution of the late preceramic sites indicates a dependence on flood-plain agriculture.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , October 1981 , pp. 806 - 821
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1981

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References

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