Tracking shifts in coca use in the Moche Valley: analysis of oral health indicators and dental calculus microfossils

Abstract

In this article we explore the use of coca in the Moche Valley of north costal Perú during the Early Intermediate Period. To do so we examined the dental remains of 173 residents of Cerro Oreja. These remains date to the Salinar and Gallinazo phases and thus provide us with a picture of coca use before the emergence of the Southern Moche state. We find that patterns of oral health and micro-plant remains recovered from dental calculus suggest shifting use of coca during this period. These data suggest that coca was an important resource in the emergence of social inequality in the Moche Valley.

En este trabajo se explora el uso de la hoja de coca en el valle de Moche de la Costa Norte de Perú costal durante el Periodo Intermedio Temprano. Para ello se analizaron los restos dentales de 173 habitantes de Cerro Oreja. Estos restos datan de las fases Salinar y Gallinazo y nos dan una imagen del uso de la hoja de coca antes de la aparición del Estado Moche Sur. En este estudio encontramos que los patrones de salud oral y micro-restos vegetales recuperados de cálculo dental sugieren cambios en el consumo y uso de la coca durante este período. Nuestros datos sugieren que la coca fue un recurso importante en el surgimiento de la desigualdad social en el valle de Moche.

Acknowledgments

Major support for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation (grant no. 0225011 to Billman and Gagnon). Additional funding was provided by The University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill Graduate College and Institute for Latin American Studies, Sigma Xi (grants to Gagnon), and The Wenner-Gren Foundation (grant no. 6623 to Lambert and Billman). We thank Barker Fariss for his help with rendering Figure 2. We also offer our thanks to Ana Maria Hoyle, César A. Gálvez Mora, and Jesús Briceño Rosario at the Insitutio National de Culture–La Libertad for their support of the Bioarchaeology of Moche Origins Project. Excavations of the cemeteries at Cerro Oreja were conducted by the INC as part of the Chavimochic water project. Permission to conduct research on the human skeletal remains from Cerro Oreja was granted through a convenio agreement between the INC, the UNC-Chapel Hill, and Utah State University.