Shellfish Resources and Maritime Economy at Caylán, Coastal Ancash, Peru

ABSTRACT

This article explores the relationships between mollusk exploitation and maritime economies in ancient coastal Peru. Data are drawn from the analysis of shell remains from the Early Horizon center of Caylán (800–1 cal BC), a large urban settlement interpreted as the primary center of a multi-tiered polity located in the Nepeña Valley, coastal Ancash. Excavations in 2009 and 2010 yielded a large amount of faunal remains including 220 kg of shell remains for more than 100,000 MNI. Taxonomic and quantitative analyses of the shell remains bring insights into patterns of exploitation, consumption, discard, and ritual use. Results indicate an emphasis on locally available mollusk species linked to the exploitation of different near-shore and coastal settings. The sample is dominated by small clams and mussels pertaining to the Donax spp., Perumytilus purpuratus, and Semimytilus algosus taxa. Intrasite distributions argue for social differences associated with the access to certain species used in maritime industries. Broader comparative perspectives from the Andean coast indicate variations in maritime subsistence strategies linked to the development of different forms of socioeconomic interactions and redistributive systems through time.

Keywords:

• Andean coast
• archaeomalacology
• interactions
• marine shell
• subsistence economy

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Research at Caylán was generously funded by the Louisiana Board of Regents, as well as by Louisiana State University's Office of Research and Economic Development and the Department of Geography and Anthropology. Warm thanks are extended to the Ministerio de Cultura (former Instituto Nacional de Cultura) for the permission to excavate (permits 804/INC-050609 and 1230/INC-280510). We wish to acknowledge the commitment of all crew members, in particular Hugo Ikehara who co-directed the field project. Rojas carried out the identification and primary quantification of the shell remains. Chicoine directed the fieldwork, elaborated the distributional analyses, and wrote the initial draft of the article. Comments from Kristine DeLong and Kyle Stich, as well as three anonymous reviewers, improved the content of the article.