Coastal but not littoral: marine resources in Nasca diet

Abstract

We examine the contribution of marine resources to the Nasca dietary economy (Early Intermediate Period, circa 100 B.C.–A.D. 600, Peruvian south coast) through ceramic iconography, settlement patterns, maritime subsistence technology, fish and shell remains, and stable isotope analysis. Each data set has limitations but, when combined, a consistent pattern emerges. Although the rich marine biomass of the Peru Current offers potential for huge food surpluses, we conclude that the Nasca use of the littoral zone was minor. This result contrasts with earlier and later subsistence patterns in the same area, and with contemporary dietary systems elsewhere along the Andean coast. This challenge to conventional wisdom on coastal economies highlights the need for new research to understand the full range of Andean adaptations, especially those which appear counterintuitive. This study also questions the notion that percentage frequencies of motifs in the iconography reflect daily realities.

Examinamos la contribución de los recursos marinos a la economía dietética de Nasca (Período Intermedio Temprano, 100 A.C.–600 D.C., costa sur peruana) a través de la iconografía de cerámica, los patrones de asentamiento, restos de subsistencia tecnológica, restos de peces y conchas y análisis de isótopo estable. Una encuesta de tierra sobre el litoral de Ica-Nazca no localizó ocupaciones oceánicas frente a Nasca, aunque los asentamientos desde el Horizonte Temprano y del Período Intermedio Tardío estaban presentes. Aunque resulta evidente por la iconografía que Nasca utilizaba una forma de red de pesca, sin embargo, no se ha encontrado ningún equipo de pesca como anzuelos, sedal, plomos, flotadores, o arpones en el registro arqueológico. Restos de concha son comunes encontrarlos en lugares del interior de Nasca, pero las excavaciones revelan que el componente de concha es menor y disperso, y las espinas de pescado son infrecuentes. Un análisis de isótopo estable se realizó sobre una muestra de restos humanos (n = 75), incluyendo huesos, piel y cabello, desde las tumbas de los Nasca excavadas en siete lugares del interior cerca del río Nazca. Rastros de carbón, nitrógeno y azufre demuestran que los Nasca fueron fundamentalmente agricultores, para quienes la carne terrestre constituía su principal fuente de proteínas, mientras que los recursos marinos desempeñaron un papel menor en la economía dietética. Aunque la iconografía de cerámica tomada de temas marinos ha sido citada como evidencia de un enfoque marítimo, una gran muestra de cerámica excavada (n = 447 vasijas pintadas) muestra temas marinos como motivos principales apareciendo en un 10,6% de las vasijas de la época del Nasca Temprano, pero sólo aparecieron un 0,7% de piezas pertenecientes al Nasca Tardío, aunque los datos de isótopos indican un consumo pequeño pero constante de recursos marítimos a lo largo del Período Intermedio Temprano. Sorprendentemente el maíz, cuyo análisis de isótopo aparece identificado como principal cultivo, rara vez se hace referencia como motivo principal en la cerámica Nasca. Concluimos que la iconografía no refleja las realidades económicas y que las clasificaciones iconográficas que distinguen entre temas sagrados y seculares forzaron interpretaciones sujetas a una determinada cultura. Cada uno de los conjuntos de datos anteriores tiene limitaciones, pero si se combinan emerge un patrón consistente. Aunque la biomasa marina rica del Perú actual ofrece un potencial enorme para excedentes de alimentos, concluimos que el uso de la cultura Nasca de su zona litoral era temporal, transitorio y oportunista. Este resultado contrasta con los patrones de subsistencia anteriores y posteriores realizados en la misma zona y con sistemas dietéticos contemporáneos en otros lugares a lo largo de la costa andina. Este desafío a la sabiduría convencional en las economías costeras subraya la necesidad de nuevas investigaciones para entender toda la gama de adaptaciones andinas, especialmente aquellas que aparecen contra-intuitivas.

Acknowledgments

The authors express their gratitude to the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, for providing grants in support of this research. Carmichael and Kennedy are especially grateful to their co-author, Lauren Cadwallader, for re-invigorating the isotope analysis.

Notes

1. Carmichael and Kennedy were members of the Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, when this study was originally undertaken (1990). They presented the results at the Institute for Andean Studies Annual Conference, Berkeley (Kennedy and Carmichael 1991). The paper was later prepared for a monograph, which remains unpublished (Carmichael 1998). The current, updated version has benefited from a much expanded literature in the intervening years, and from the input of our co-author, Lauren Cadwallader, who brought the isotope section up to date. However, in spite of numerous independent studies and enhanced methods of analysis, our basic conclusions remain unchanged.

2. There are obvious limitations to the contextual approach, but by making the effort we are taken a step closer to the indigenous Andean perspective, as opposed to a literal, culture-bound, Eurocentric view. The contextual approach frames the question only within broad parameters of space and time, but they are Andean parameters. Ultimately, we are not answering specific questions (let alone claiming proof), rather, we are developing perspectives—useful perspectives that take us further than reasoned, culture-bound assumptions (Carmichael 1992: 187, 193, 196; Carmichael 1994: 81, 85).

3. “Near the mouth of Ica river, five minutes’ walk from the sea, there are two splendid sambaquis or shellmounds, each about 180 m long from east to west, 100 m wide, 50 m high. These appear to be the first discovered on the Peruvian coast, and to resemble those of the southern Brazilian coast. Their bases may be low natural elevations, but probably 40 m or more of their depth is almost pure shell kitchen-midden, only slightly mixed with sand. About a dozen varieties of marine mollusks are distinguishable. On these mounds I found erect house posts, insignificant adobe wall remains, fragments of textiles and wooden [sic] slings, a stone ax fragment, chips of stones, llama bones, whale vertebrae, and seaweeds, all well preserved on the surface. Also there were strewn about broken human leg bones, suggesting that they had been cracked for marrow. Potsherds indicated the civilization of the surface as the last pre-Inca one. On account of the expense of digging mounds as large as these, dynamiting to their interior was considered but given up as unfeasible” (Uhle 1924: 123). Proulx (1970: 31) dates Uhle's observations to February 1901, citing a letter written at Ocucaje in the same month of that year in which Uhle also relates he only abandoned the dynamite idea because some acquaintances convinced him the soil was too soft for good results. Uhle made a small collection of artifacts at the mouth of the Ica River, which is now maintained at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. In a footnote to Uhle's report above, Kroeber and Strong (1924: 123) describe a sherd sample from the shell mounds and a nearby cemetery, stating: “There are about a dozen sherds in the Museum (4-4671, 4673). Some of these are Late Ica; some almost certainly Middle Ica; and one or two suggest Proto-Nazca influence. One is incised.” Carmichael's examination of Uhle's handwritten Field Catalogue III, p. 48 [28] (Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, Microfilm 65-11043), adds the following from the shell mounds at the river mouth:

•	4673a: broken leg bones
•	4673b: kinds of shell and crayfish represented there
•	4673c: sea-weed etc.
•	4673e, f, g, h, i: five woolen slings, probably used for catching sea-birds
•	4673k: ball of woolen yarn [letter j not used in catalogue]
•	4673l: fragments of pottery, proving that the remains found on the surface of the Sambaquis belonged to the later Chincha Period
•	4673 [m]: fragment of stone axe.

4 There is a large Preceramic site called Morro La Gringa on the north side of the Ica River mouth, across from La Yerba. It was excavated by Engel (1981: 19–20) who defined three separate areas and a series of occupations. At the south end, Engel encountered dwellings encircled by posts held in place by split rocks and cobbles, with walls formed of mats. This is the same area where he discovered part of a log raft yielding a radiocarbon date corrected to circa A.D. 1000, and Carmichael (1998: 86–87) found LIP sherds on the surface. Morro La Gringa appears to have been a village seasonally reoccupied over a long period (Preceramic remains are definitely present), with some reuse roughly contemporary with La Yerba on the south bank.

5 These data are no longer available and therefore age and sex comparisons of the results are not possible.

6 This assumes the data to be parametric; however, the original data are not available, so this assumption cannot be tested nor can non-parametric statistical tests be applied.