PACHAMAMA · Paleodietary analyses of the first Andean cities: high-resolution assessment to macronutrients using a multiproxy approach.

Paleodietary analyses of the first Andean cities: high-resolution assessment to macronutrients using a multiproxy approach.

The PACHAMAMA project was proposed to explore the socioeconomic factors that supported the rise of the earliest urban centers in the Americas—an intriguing and complex topic in New World archaeology. Focusing on Peruvian North-Central Coast (PNCC), a key region in understanding the emergence of the first Andean cities around 5,000 years ago, and one of the most important archaeological regions of the world, PACHAMAMA investigates the dietary regimes at the onset of Andean civilization and the main dietary shifts over the Formative Period (3000-1 BCE). Using cutting-edge palaeodietary reconstruction methods, PACHAMAMA examined two major theories on early urban development, 1) the Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization (Moseley 1975), a seminal hypothesis which suggests that Andean Civilization, particularly in the PNCC, was based on fishing economy, and 2) recent archaeological evidence that suggests that agriculture preceded the rise of early urban centres and plant cultivation was critical to support the development of complex societies in the region. PACHAMAMA’s primary research objectives were to 1) analyze the overall diet of people from early Formative urban centers (3000–1 BCE) at various Supe Valley locations, 2) assess the role of plants and marine protein at each site and period, and 3) examine if dietary changes occurred over time due to agricultural expansion or trade. To achieve these goals, PACHAMAMA used innovative isotopic techniques from (bio)archaeology and biomolecular archaeology —including stable isotopes from bulk collagen from bones and teeth, analysis of carbon from single amino acids or Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis (CSIA), and Bayesian Models— at the Institute of Science and Environmental Research of the Universitat Atutònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) with the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union