Hostname: page-component-76d6cb85b7-vdhp9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-07-15T17:00:18.341Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Archaeological Record of Chili Peppers (Capsicum spp.) and the Sequence of Plant Domestication in Peru

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Barbara Pickersgill
Barbara Pickersgill*
Affiliation:
University of Reading, Reading, England
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Study of archaeological material of chili peppers (Capsicum spp.) from the sites of Huaca Prieta and Punta Grande on the coast of Peru has shown that the first species to be cultivated was C. baccatum, which was probably domesticated in Bolivia. This pepper reached the Peruvian coast during the same period as four other crop plants of probably southern Peruvian or Bolivian origin, which suggests that southern contacts were important during the late Preceramic stage. During the Initial period, maize (probably of Mexican origin) and peanuts (possibly domesticated in Bolivia) spread along the coast. Another pepper, Capsicum chinense, which is thought to have been domesticated in the lowlands of the Amazon Basin, apparently also reached the coast at about the same time as pottery. Manioc likewise arrived on the coast during this period, and there may have been an introduction of new varieties of maize from Mexico. These crops suggest a mixture of tropical forest and Middle American contacts during the Initial period and the Early horizon.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , January 1969 , pp. 54 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bird, Junius B. 1948 Preceramic Cultures in Chicama and Virú. In “A Reappraisal of Peruvian Archaeology,” edited by Wendell C. Bennett, pp. 21–8. Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology, No. 4. Menasha.Google Scholar
Burkart, Arturo 1952 Las Leguminosas Argentinas. 2nd edition. Acme Agency, Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Burkart, Arturo and Brücher, H. 1953 Phaseolus aborigineus Burkart, die mutmassliche andine Stammform der Kulturbohne. Züchter, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 65–72. Berlin.Google Scholar
Bushnell, G. H. S. 1963 Peru. Revised edition. Ancient Peoples and Places, edited by Glyn Daniel, Vol. 1. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Cardenas, Martín 1948 Plantas alimenticias nativas de los Andes de Bolivia. Folia Universitaria (Cochabamba), Vol. 2, pp. 36–51. Cochabamba.Google Scholar
Collier, Donald 1962 The Central Andes. In “Courses Toward Urban Life,” edited by Robert J. Braidwood and Gordon R. Willey, pp. 165–76. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology, No. 32. Chicago.Google Scholar
Darlington, C. D. 1963 Chromosome Botany and the Origins of Cultivated Plants. Revised 2nd edition. George Allen and Unwin, London.Google Scholar
Engel, Frederic 1964 El Precerámico sin algodón en la costa del Perú. Proceedings of the XXXV International Congress of Americanists Mexico 1962, Vol. 3, pp. 141–52. Mexico.Google Scholar
Eshbaugh, William Hardy III 1964 A Numerical Taxonomic and Cytogenetic Study of Certain Species of the Genus Capsicum . MS, doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Eshbaugh, William Hardy III 1968 A Nomenclatural Note on the Genus Capsicum . Taxon, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 51–2. Utrecht.10.2307/1216151 Google Scholar
Grobman, Alexander, Salhuana, Wilfredo, and Sevilla, Ricardo, in collaboration with Paul C. Mangelsdorf 1961 Races of Maize in Peru: Their Origins, Evolution and Classification. National Academy of Sciences — National Research Council Publication 915. Washington.Google Scholar
Heiser, Charles B. Jr. 1965 Cultivated Plants and Cultural Diffusion in Nuclear America. American Anthropologist, Vol. 67, No. 4, pp. 930–49. Menasha.10.1525/aa.1965.67.4.02a00040 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchinson, J. B. 1962 The History and Relationships of the World’s Cottons. Endeavour, Vol. 21, No. 81, pp. 5–15. London.10.1016/0160-9327(62)90128-X Google Scholar
Hutchinson, J. B., Silow, R. A., and Stephens, S. G. 1947 The Evolution of Gossypium. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Izumi, Seiichi and Sono, Toshihiko 1963 Andes 2: Excavations at Kotosh, Peru, 1960. Kadokawa Publishing Company, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Kelley, David H. and Duccio, Bonavía B. 1963 New Evidence for Pre-Ceramic Maize on the Coast of Peru. Ñawpa Pacha, Vol. 1, pp. 39–42. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Krapovickas, Antonio and Rigoni, Victor A. 1957 Nuevas especies de Arachis vinculadas al problema del origen del maní. Darwiniana, Vol. 11, pp. 431–55. San Isidro, Argentina.Google Scholar
Lanning, Edward P. 1963 A Pre-Agricultural Occupation on the Central Coast of Peru. American Antiquity, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 360–71. Salt Lake City.10.2307/278278 S0002731600005825 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lanning, Edward P. 1965 Early Man in Peru. Scientific American, Vol. 231, No. 4, pp. 68–76. New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lanning, Edward P. 1967 Peru Before the Incas. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.Google Scholar
Lathrap, Donald W. 1958 The Cultural Sequence at Yarinacocha, Eastern Peru. American Antiquity, Vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 379–88. Salt Lake City.10.2307/276487 S0002731600018205 Google Scholar
León, Jorge 1964 Plantas alimenticias andinas. Instituto Interamericano de Ciencias Agricolas, Zona Andina, Boletin Technico No. 6. Lima.Google Scholar
MacNeish, Richard S. 1964 Ancient Mesoamerican Civilization. Science, Vol. 143, No. 3606, pp. 531–7. Washington.10.1126/science.143.3606.531 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McVaugh, Rogers 1958 Flora of Peru. Myrtaceae. Chicago Natural History Museum, Fieldiana: Botany, Vol. 13, Pt. 4, No. 2. Chicago.Google Scholar
Mangelsdorf, Paul C., Macneish, Richard S., and Galinat, Walton C. 1964 Domestication of Corn. Science, Vol. 143, No. 3606, pp. 538–45. Washington.10.1126/science.143.3606.538 Google Scholar
Mangelsdorf, Paul C. and Reeves, R. G. 1939 The Origin of Indian Corn and its Relatives. Texas Agricultural Experimental Station Bulletin No. 574. College Station.Google Scholar
Pickersgill, Barbara 1966 The Variability and Relationships of Capsicum chinense Jacq. MS, doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo 1965 Colombia. Ancient Peoples and Places, edited by Glyn Daniel, Vol. 44. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Rogers, David J. 1963 Studies of Manihot esculenta Crantz and Related Species. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Vol. 90, No. 1, pp. 43–54. Lancaster.10.2307/2482858 Google Scholar
Sauer, Jonathan 1964 Revision of Canavalia . Brittonia, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 106–81. Baltimore.10.2307/2805094 Google Scholar
Towle, Margaret A. 1961 The Ethnobotany of Pre-Columbian Peru. Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology, No. 30. Chicago.Google Scholar
Vavilov, N. I. 1926 Studies on the Origin of Cultivated Plants. Bulletin of Applied Botany, Genetics and Plant Breeding, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 1–248. Leningrad. (Russian, with English summary)Google Scholar
Weatherwax, Paul 1954 Indian Corn in Old America. Macmillan, New York.Google Scholar
Whitaker, Thomas W. and Bemis, W. P. 1964 Evolution in the Genus Cucurbita . Evolution, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 553–9. Lawrence.10.2307/2406209 Google Scholar
Whitaker, Thomas W. and Cutler, Hugh C. 1965 Cucurbits and Cultures in the Americas. Economic Botany, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 344–9. Baltimore.10.1007/BF02904804 Google Scholar